In the realm of sports betting and online sportsbooks, there’s points spreads, parlays, and then point spread parlays. Then there’s our how-to explaining what all three are and how to do it just below.

Understanding The Point Spread:

The point spread looks complicated, but really it’s very simple. The point spread is a way to even the playing field when you have two teams of different calibers playing. For example, if you have an awesome team versus a mediocre team, everyone would bet the awesome team. But if you set a margin of victory for that awesome team (a point spread), then all of the sudden the betting evens out on both sides.

For example: if the New England Patriots are playing the Detroit Lions, the spread might be New England -6.5. That means that if you bet on New England, they have to win by more than 6.5 points for you to win. If you bet on Detroit, they can lose by less than 6.5 points, or they can win the game outright, and you win the game. The point spread is just a margin of victory that makes the betting line more even.

Understanding a Parlay:

A parlay, also known in some places as an accumulator, is when you tie in two or more picks together. What that means is all of your outcomes must be correctly predicted for you to earn your pay out. The bad news is that if one of your outcomes is not incorrectly predicted, you lose your bet. The good news is that if all of your outcomes are correctly predicted, you get an exorbitant payout in comparison to straight betting.

It’s worth it to double-check what happens when one of your games ties. For example, if you have a seven-point favorite and they win exactly by seven, on a straight bet you would push. Different online sportsbooks have different rules for pushes in a parlay, although usually they will just drop the parlay down by the one game that pushed.

Point Spread Parlays:

The good news about point spread parlays is that the payouts are ridiculous great. For example, at BetOnline.com they let you parlay up to 25 games, whereas most online sportsbooks have some pee trickle down the side of their legs once you pass the 12-game barrier. (By the way, a 25-game parlay pays out $9600 for every $1 you lay down.)

A parlay (otherwise known as an accumulator) is the selection of 2 or more teams (up to 12 for mainstream US sports) in no particular order in a single wager.  All selections must win for the parlay to win; if there is a tie or no action the parlay reverts to the next lowest number for pay-off, for example: if you select 4 teams and one of those ties, it becomes a 3 team parlay.  A tie and win on 2 team parlay becomes a straight bet (paying at 90% of the wager).