How to Calculate a Parlay Payout (With Worked Examples)

To calculate a parlay payout, turn each leg's odds into decimal odds, multiply them all together, and multiply that by your stake. The result is your total payout; take away the stake and you have the profit. Two -110 legs, for example, are 1.909 × 1.909 = 3.645, so a $100 parlay returns $364.46.

That one formula works for any number of legs and any mix of favorites and underdogs. Here's how to do each step by hand, with worked examples, plus what changes when a leg pushes or gets voided.

The parlay formula

Total payout = stake × (decimal odds of leg 1 × leg 2 × leg 3 …)

Profit = total payout − stake

Why multiply? Because a parlay rolls your winnings forward. If leg one wins, everything it paid rides on leg two, and so on. Multiplying the decimal odds does all of that in one go. It's also why the payout grows so fast, and why every leg must win for the parlay to pay anything.

Step 1: convert American odds to decimal

US sportsbooks show American odds, so this is usually the first job. For a plus price, divide by 100 and add 1: +120 becomes 2.20. For a minus price, divide 100 by the number (without the minus sign) and add 1: -150 becomes 1.667, and -110 becomes 1.909.

If a leg is quoted in fractional odds, add 1 to the fraction: 3/2 is 1.5, so it becomes 2.50. Mixed odds formats are fine as long as every leg ends up in decimal before you multiply.

Keep three decimal places or more. Rounding -110 to 1.91 is fine for one bet, but across four or five legs the small errors add up. If you need a refresher on the conversion in both directions, see decimal odds to American odds.

Step 2: multiply the decimal odds

Here's a worked example with a four-leg parlay of mixed odds:

Multiply them: 1.667 × 2.20 × 1.909 × 3.00 = 21.0. Those are your combined odds. (With the exact fractions it comes to 21.0 on the nose, which is a nice coincidence.)

Step 3: multiply by your stake

On a $20 wager, 21.0 × $20 = $420 total payout. That's $400 profit plus your $20 back. To quote it in American odds, subtract 1 from the combined decimal odds and multiply by 100: (21.0 − 1) × 100 = +2000.

Profit and total payout get mixed up constantly. A bet slip's "to win" is the profit; "payout" or "to return" usually includes your stake. On this parlay that's $400 and $420.

Parlay payouts at -110 by number of legs

Most parlays are built from spreads and totals at -110, so these parlay odds are worth knowing by heart. The amounts are for a $10 bet. For comparison, a $10 single bet at -110 returns $19.09.

The three-leg row is the one people ask about most, and we break it down further in how much a 3 team parlay pays, including the fixed 6-to-1 tables some books use.

Your chance of winning the parlay

You can run the same multiplication on the probabilities. Each leg's implied probability is 1 ÷ its decimal odds, and the chance of hitting the parlay is all of them multiplied together. For the four-leg example, that's 1 ÷ 21.0, or about 4.8%. Roughly one time in 21.

That number includes the book's margin on every leg, which compounds the same way the payout does. At -110 the sportsbook's edge is about 4.5% on a single bet, about 8.9% on a two-leg parlay and about 13% on three legs. That's the trade you're making for the larger payout. We'd rather people know it than find out the slow way.

When a leg pushes or is voided

If a leg pushes (lands exactly on the spread or total) or is voided (a postponed game, a player who doesn't play a prop), most sportsbooks drop it and recalculate with the rest. Just take that leg out of the multiplication.

Say the college football total in our example pushes. The parlay becomes 1.667 × 2.20 × 3.00 = 11.0, and the $20 bet now returns $220 instead of $420. If any leg loses, though, there's nothing to recalculate. The parlay loses.

Why a calculator and a sportsbook can disagree

A parlay calculator does exactly the three steps above: enter the odds for each leg and the stake, and it multiplies them for you. It's quicker, but it's worth doing one by hand so you know what the number means. If your own math, a free parlay calculator and the bet slip show slightly different numbers, it's usually one of these: rounding the decimal odds too early; a book that pays off a fixed parlay table instead of the true odds; a maximum payout cap on big parlays; or a same-game parlay, where the book prices the legs together because they're related (a team covering and its quarterback's passing yards going over tend to happen together). Our guide to same game parlays explains that last one.

Check your math on a real slip

The easiest way to check your math is on a real slip. On Paid2Bet you can build a parlay with a free balance, no deposit needed: switch the NFL board to Parlay, add your picks, and the slip works out the payout for you. If you're new to the bet itself, our main guide on what a parlay is covers the basics.

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