Hockey Parlay Bets

Hockey parlay bets are a kind of multiple bets. The payouts on these bets are calculated based on the moneylines of its constituent individual bets. Hockey parlay bets are an exciting and fast paced way to bet on hockey. Hockey parlay bets are especially popular during peak NHL season when several games are played during the week. Using a parlay bet, gamblers can bet on upto 6 games at a time. All teams have to win for the parlay bet to be deemed successful. Thus, this is an extremely risky form of betting. However, intelligently placed hockey parlay bets can often lead to some massive returns for the gambler.

Higher Risk – Higher Reward

Hockey parlay bets more frequently than not sport better payouts than ordinary moneyline wagers. This is to compensate for the heightened level of risk undertaken by the gambler. Ordinarily a regular straight wager which pays out $91 for every $100 wagered could double its payout and offer $192 on a $200 bet for a 2 team parlay. The payouts improve when more teams are added to the parlay. A three team parlay could be offered for a 13/5 odds or a payout of $260 for every $100 wagered. The flip side is that in case even one team in the parlay loses, the entire bet could lapse. The losses in a straight bet would be restricted to only $9 but the loss in a parlay could extend upto $100.

Hockey Parlay Variations

Several online bookmakers offer varying kinds of hockey parlay bets. Mostly bookmakers online offer anything between 2 team parlays to whopping 12 team parlays. However, the level of risk that a gambler has to undertake in a 12 team parlay is often unjustified and bordering on recklessness. Even if one team of the 12 were to lose their game, the whole bet would go awry and the gambler could stand to lose a significant portion of his bankroll. Plus, the payouts offered on 12 team hockey parlay bets often do not justify the magnum of the risk undertaken. Typically the payout odds for a 12 team hockey parlay bet (on a -110 odds game) could be 2000 to 1. Thus, most betting experts would recommend that gamblers restrict themselves to hockey parlay bets involving 5-6 teams rather than anything over and above that.

How Payouts are Calculated for Parlays

Calculating payouts for hockey parlay bets can seem daunting to the novice gambler. What is done by most hockey betting sites is that they convert the moneylines offered on individual straight bets into decimal numbers. Thus, -110 odds will be translated to a 0.91 in decimal terms and -180 odds become 0.55. Positive moneylines can be converted to its decimal equivalent by dividing it by 100. All these decimal points are then aggregated and multiplied by the bet amount to get the expected payoff from the constructed hockey parlay bet. For example, in a Colorado v/s Giants match if the decimal odds for Colorado Avalanches are 0.45 and the decimal odds for the SF Giants is 1.20 then the first step would be to account for the initial bet amount. The punter needs to add $1 on both sides to represent his initial bet value. So the total for Colorado becomes 1.45 and that of Giants become 2.20. If the bet amount is $30 then the expected payoff would be a product of 30*$1.45*$2.20 or $95.70. In a three team parlay if the gambler is to add the Toronto team’s adjusted 1.50 odds to the equation, the payoff will become $143.55. In order to simplify this arithmetic process several online bookmakers offer free parlay odds calculators. Gamblers need to simply add their bets to the calculator to display their expected payoff.

Another aspect of parlay betting is that gamblers need not restrict themselves to hockey alone. Hockey parlay bets can be combined with bets cutting across sporting lines. So gamblers who have varying sporting interests can put together a concoction of bets to suit their risk appetites.

Other Tips for Hockey Parlay Bets

While putting together hockey parlay bets gamblers need to keep in mind that these cannot be ‘connected’ in any manner. So gamblers cannot have a hockey parlay bet wherein one bet is on the half time score and the other is on the full time score because the former has an obvious bearing on the latter. In another scenario, if one of the teams picked ends in a ‘push’ or a tied game then a majority of bookmakers would treat the parlay as a reduced one. For example, in a 3 team hockey parlay bet if one team ties their game, then the parlay bet would be treated as a 2 team parlay. A two team hockey parlay bet with one game going to a ‘push’, would result in the parlay bet being reduced to a regular straight bet. Some other bookmakers however could treat the parlay as an unsuccessful one, interpreting the tie as a ‘non-win’ and the gambler could end up losing his wager. As such, he needs to clearly understand the terms of the hockey parlay bet being offered.