A small danger seldom leads to a huge reward, nevertheless it’s definitely not not possible. Last week, a sports betting buyer gained greater than $142,000 from a three-leg parlay, wagering three NFL tight ends would rating the first touchdowns of their respective video games, DraftKings posted on X. The preliminary wager was simply $15.
The exponentially bigger hit from a meager wager is the temptation of a parlay. It’s a kind of betting that, as an alternative of requiring a singular win to money out on a bet, depends on a string of profitable eventualities that—whereas unlikely to all occur—permits winnings to snowball from a two-digit wager to a six-figure payout. The seemingly low-risk, high-reward type of playing has taken the sports betting world by storm.
“The real appeal of them is the kind of insane payout rate,” Joshua Grubbs, an affiliate professor at the University of New Mexico who research playing habit, advised Fortune. “You see small number, big payoff, which is appealing to people because it sounds like an amazing possibility.”
Though the profitable bettors could look like the huge winners, it’s the sportsbooks which have cashed in on the rising fever surrounding sports betting. In 2024, the pastime generated $13.71 billion, a 25.4% enhance from 2023, in accordance to state regulatory data compiled by the American Gaming Association.
Parlays are sometimes the rainmakers for sportsbooks, with more than 70% of NFL and NBA bets on FanDuel coming from parlays in 2023, in accordance to FanDuel mother or father firm Flutter Entertainment.Parlays made up 56% of sports betting income in Illinois, New Jersey, and Colorado in 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this yr. According to Rutgers University’s Center for Gambling Studies, New Jersey bettors misplaced $1.41 per greenback gained in parlays in 2020. That’s in contrast to a $1.05 to $1 loss ratio for entire moneyline bets.
Moreover, parlay bets are getting extra difficult as time goes on, lowering the possibilities of profitable. In 2020, the hottest parlays had 5 legs, Rutgers reported. The yr earlier than, two-leg parlays had been the hottest.
“The notion of a parlay in general is so statistically unlikely to happen that it is one of the surest fire ways for the sportsbooks to just make the money off that,” Grubbs mentioned.
The rise of parlays
The sports betting trade rocketed to success after a 2018 Supreme Court decision successfully struck down a ban on sports playing, paving the method for 38 states to legalize the apply. Its recognition has even permeated the sports trade itself: This week the NCAA took a step forward in permitting athletes and division employees members to wager on skilled sports following a Division I Administrative Committee approval of the shift.
With a swath of apps taking betting from the on line casino to one’s pocket, the trade has captured the curiosity of Gen Z, who noticed a 7% year-over-year enhance in on-line sports betting exercise as of 2025’s second quarter, TransUnion present in a report launched final month. The accessibility of on-line sportsbooks has capitalized on Gen Z’s love of playing, with fans defending the apply as a form of investment.
For parlay betting particularly, there’s a dearth of analysis on why precisely it makes sportsbook clients tick, Shane Kraus, an affiliate professor of psychology at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, advised Fortune. He mentioned the betting kind’s personalizable options (customers can choose the totally different legs of their parlays) in addition to the potential to create bets after a sport has began, make them particularly interesting. Beyond providing incentives to refer platforms to others, rising apps have additionally created methods to bet alongside associates, organising leaderboards and groups of different customers.
Then, in fact, there’s the research suggesting alcohol consumption, typically related to sports spectating, is related to bigger wagers and extra speedy lack of cash.
“You’re excited, you’re upset, you’re drinking, and you’re watching a football game, and then you start doing parlays or live bets—I don’t think you’re probably going to make the best decisions,” Kraus mentioned.
But Kraus, who research playing problems, attributes the rising recognition of parlays much less to the customers, and extra to the sportsbooks. Though sportsbooks’ promoting spending has remained flat at around $666 million in 2024, in accordance to Neilson Ad Intel, Kraus mentioned messaging from sportsbooks is in every single place, together with throughout video games and matches, when commentators stroll viewers via over-under odds and parlays.
“It is creating a culture where it’s just all about money,” he mentioned
Cracking down on sports betting platforms
Kraus mentioned he fears there’s not sufficient being executed of the apps to assuage customers from inserting extra bets, or a minimum of slowing them down. Gambling habit, which impacts a little over 1% of the inhabitants, has led some to gamble away unemployment checks and even lose their houses.
Sports betting platforms, for his or her half, have made strikes to put safeguards in place. FanDuel has arrange a assessment system on its platform to have a look at a consumer’s hours on the website or language used with customer support groups that might set off a assessment, the consequence of which might exclude a participant from the platform via a “time-out” or imposing a deposit restrict, a spokesperson advised Fortune. About 90% of same-game parlays on the platform have a wager of $30 or much less and 60% are for $5 or much less.
“Our customers understand that these are fun, entertaining bets with a lower likelihood of winning,” the spokesperson mentioned in a assertion.
But University of New Mexico professor Grubbs famous that so long as making a wager is as simple as urgent a few buttons on a cellphone, “there is going to be a lot of potential for things to go sideways.”
“I don’t think these sportsbooks are out there saying, ‘Oh, we need to get people addicted to gambling.’ I don’t think that that’s what they’re trying to do,” Grubbs mentioned. “I feel they’re making an attempt to make their product as accessible and interesting as attainable, to get as many individuals concerned as attainable.
“And what’s the net effect of that? Well, the net effect of that is sports betting has exponentially increased since 2018,” he concluded.