A push in sports betting occurs when the point spread or point total hits the exact number in which you bet. For example, you can bet the Dallas Cowboys as a -7 point favorite to beat the Green Bay Packers or the Packers as a +7 point underdog. If the Cowboys win by seven points, both bets are a push and money is refunded (you get your money back). Similarly, if you also bet the total (over/under) in that game which was 47 points and it finished 27-20, that bet would also be pushed.
#3 Correlated betting parlay. Imagine there is a football match and the bookmaker offers a point spread of +21.5/-21.5 over and under. A wise thing to do in this situation is to place a parlay bet on the under and the underdog, or the over and the favourite. It is better than a straight bet. We hope you are no longer wondering what a parlay bet is.
Parlay odds vary from one online sportsbook to the other; but sportsbooks usually pay around 2.5 - 1 for two-team parlays and around 6 – 1 for a three-team parlays. Bovada's Parlay Rules: In case of a push or a tie on a 3-team parlay, players will get the next lowest payout; The payout for a winning two-team parlay. A two-team parlay with one push reduces to a straight bet. If a parlay reduces to zero teams, the bet will be graded 'Push' and your risk amount will be refunded. If any leg of your parlay has been graded ‘ NO ACTION ’, the parlay will reduce to the next number of teams in the wager.
While it's more common in football and basketball, pushes are possible in almost every sport. The over/under for a baseball game could be set at seven runs and it's a similar case for soccer and hockey.
If you're betting on a parlay or teaser, it's a little more complicated and often depends on the rules of the sportsbook. If you have a four-team parlay and one of your bets was the Cowboys -7 which pushed, your parlay would drop down to three teams. However, each sportsbook has their own rules and there are places that will count a push in a parlay or teaser, as a loss. While that isn't common, it's sometimes worth looking into the rules prior to betting at a certain sportsbook.
Before we go any further, we need to explain what a parlay is fully.
By definition, a parlay is a group of multiple individual bets (two or more) that are connected together and treated as one big wager.
In order to win the entire bet, you have to win each of the individual bets on your parlay. If you lose one individual bet, then you lose the entire parlay bet.
Why would you ever want to group bets together and force them to be dependent on each other?
The reason is that the sportsbook will pay you out much more money for correctly picking multiple individual bets together.There is more risk in this type of bet so it should be expected that we are offered a higher reward for making this wager.
Let’s compare betting three games individually versus betting them as a parlay.
Let’s assume that each game is -110 moneyline odds.
Let’s also assume that our bankroll for these three games is $300. We’re going to look at the scenarios if we picked all three games correctly and if we only picked two of the games correctly.
If we bet the games individually, we would bet $100 per game.
Game | Bet Amount | Odds | Outcome | Profit/Loss |
Game 1 | $100 | -110 | Win | $90.91 |
Game 2 | $100 | -110 | Win | $90.91 |
Game 3 | $100 | -110 | Win | $90.91 |
Our total profit would be $272.73 if we bet all three of these games individually.
Now, what would happen if we picked all three games as a parlay bet? This time, we would place a single bet of $300. We will go over how to calculate parlay payouts in the section below here, but for now, we have done the calculations for you.
The profit on this bet as a parlay would be $1787.40! Even if we only bet $100 total, we would see a profit of $595.80. As you can see, you can bet 1/3 of the amount you bet total in the individual games and still make more than double what you would betting the games individually.
At this point, a lot of people are wondering why you would ever bet anything but parlays. You can bet less and make so much more! Well, as you are probably guessing, there is more to the story.
Push On A Parlay Bet Odds
Let’s look at what happens in our same example, except this time we only pick two out of the three games correctly. We bet the same games again for $100 each individually, and we are correct on two out of the three games.
Push On A Parlay Bet Parlay
Game | Bet Amount | Odds | Outcome | Profit/Loss |
Game 1 | $100 | -110 | Win | $90.91 |
Game 2 | $100 | -110 | Win | $90.91 |
Game 3 | $100 | -110 | Loss | ($100.00) |
If we bet all three of the games as a parlay for $300 (or $100), our profit is negative $300 or negative $100. If you get even one game wrong in a parlay, you lose the entire bet. You’ve now seen the downside to parlays.
You have to be perfect to cash in, or you lose.
How To Parlay Sports Bets
Even if you only get one game correct betting them individually, you’re only going to lose $109. If you bet the same $300 on a parlay, though, you lose the entire $300. The risk is higher for parlays, but the associated reward is also higher.