Same-Game Parlay Betting Guide

Sports betting has taken on a new world of interest and excitement thanks to the addition of the same-game parlay bet type at the top-rated online betting sites.

In the past, you could build a parlay bet with the spread on some eligible games and the closing totals on some other games. But rarely would a sportsbook allow you to bet on the spread and total from the same game, let alone bet on the moneyline winner and a player prop together.

But in 2019, sportsbooks changed everything when they allowed users to combine multiple betting markets from the same game into one parlay. Now you could bet on an NBA team to win, the over or under, and how many assists the star player will have. The game parlay options have only increased in the years since, and now you can parlay together multiple same-game parlays to really maximize potential winnings. Some sportsbooks call them one-game parlays (or single-game parlays), but the idea is the same.

We will explain everything about same-game parlays (SGP) below, including tips on how to build them and what to beware of. This can be a very beneficial betting market full of plenty of excitement to get action on if you get good at it. Continue reading to get all the relevant information before starting your same-game parlay journey.

Best Sportsbooks for Same-Game Parlay Betting in 2023

Parlay Payouts

The odds and payout for an SGP differ from a regular parlay and can lead to a huge payday. For example, let’s say you parlay together three bets from three different games with -110 odds on each bet. The parlay odds on that should be roughly +595, meaning you would win $595 for every $100 bet on that parlay.

But in an SGP, things could look a great deal different because of correlated plays. For example, let’s say you bet on a 7-point favorite in the NBA to cover and two players on that team to hit their over in points. That 3-leg SGP would have betting odds of roughly +520. But if you switched the spread bet to the 7-point underdog covering while the two players on the favored team still hit their overs in scoring, then the SGP would have odds of +666.

How is that possible when the two over lines for the players are the same, and the odds on the spread are -110 no matter which team you pick to cover? Well, the odds increased because you created a parlay that is not heavily correlated, as it should be harder for the underdog to cover if the opponent’s top two scorers are doing well in hitting their over.

Here is a more crude but very real example. If you bet on Boston’s Jayson Tatum to come out of the All-Star break and score 40-plus points and for Boston to win as an 8-point favorite, the SGP odds are +612. But if you bet on Tatum to score 40 points in a losing effort as an 8-point favorite, the SGP odds are +3806, meaning a $100 bet would win $3,806.

We will get into narrative building later, but correlated plays are something to keep in mind when building an SGP and the effect that will have on your final SGP odds.

Pointers for Betting Same-Game Parlays on Betting Sites

Sports bettors, you can ditch the online parlay calculators for SGPs, because the sportsbooks have their own unique way of coming up with the final odds to be in their favor. But that does not mean you cannot have success betting SGPs and taking advantage of market inefficiencies.

We already talked about correlated plays, but in the following sections, we are going to look at the dos and don’ts of creating SGPs. This will include taking advantage of injury situations, laying out your narrative and the distribution of stats in each game, looking for value in hidden places like the weather, seeking out one-sided affairs and not fading players because they lost your last SGP for you.

Try and Find Usage Changes Before They Happen

A big part of sports betting is understanding the injury report, but when a good player is ruled out, that can often shift every betting market for that game. It will certainly change the player props, but this can open a great opportunity for a backup to shine.

If someone like Ja Morant gets injured for the Memphis Grizzlies, they may not have one player who can step right in and average 27 points and 7.0 assists per game like Morant. But that production can be split among the other starters and his replacement in the starting lineup. We saw the Grizzlies thrive without Morant last season as players like Desmond Bane, Tyus Jones and De’Anthony Melton stepped up.

Betting on that backup point guard to have 18 points and 8 assists may really pay off if you do it before he proves he is capable of it. That is what injuries can do in team sports. Unknown players can take the opportunity and run with it. This has gone on for a century when Lou Gehrig shined after an injury to starter Wally Pipp.

Craft a Narrative

You know all the recent jokes and memes about the NFL having scriptwriters to determine outcomes before the season? Well, sports bettors can be their own scriptwriters each week by crafting a narrative that will play out on the field and win your SGP for you.

A common one in the NFL would be to predict a great quarterback gets no help from his running game and defense in a loss to a better team. In this narrative you could build an SGP like this:

• Great quarterback goes over in passing attempts and passing yards
• His top receiver goes over in receiving yards and maybe scores a touchdown
• The opponent wins the game
• The great quarterback’s running back goes under in rushing yards
• The opponent’s top running back goes over in rushing yards

Just like that, you can have an SGP with 6 or 7 legs. You can even build a 10-leg parlay. Betting on a game to feature a second-half comeback is another popular narrative that will hit at least a quarter of the time. Super Bowl LVII was a great choice for that as the Eagles were a dominant team in the first half all season, but the Chiefs had that ability to come back. Just betting on the Eagles first-half moneyline or Chiefs end-of-regulation winner had +700 odds. If you added two sure-thing touchdown scorers in Jalen Hurts and Travis Kelce, you could have had a great 3-leg SGP just on that alone.

Another narrative you can build is the low-scoring game where maybe only the best players on both teams score a touchdown as the under hits. Again, that is going to produce great odds because of the negative correlation. In a game that will have maybe four touchdowns total, if you could accurately pick two of the players to score them, then you are in great shape for a big SGP win.

At the end of the day, remember that there is no scriptwriter, and as good as your SGP sounds, it probably is too logical. Do not be afraid to throw in something out of whack. Like who imagined the Chiefs would come back to win the Super Bowl in a 38-35 game where Patrick Mahomes did not pass for 200 yards? Who saw the Chiefs’ mediocre defense scoring a touchdown on the only turnover in the game instead of the Eagles with their vaunted pass rush and secondary?

Being creative with your narratives makes for a more fun option. Sports are often illogical, so your game scripts should be too, allowing you to add more to this form of entertainment.

Search Out Games That Can Be One-Sided Outcomes

In neutral sports watching, we want to see games that are close and competitive from start to finish. In sports betting, we sometimes like to see a one-sided blowout as long as we were on the right side with the parlay.

If you go into a game thinking one team is in real danger of laying an egg, then you can build an SGP to exploit that.

Start with the team getting blown out by a bigger margin, such as 11-plus in an NBA game, then start taking unders on star player props for the losing team with the assumption that both teams will call off the dogs early in the fourth quarter. Do not put much in there for the winning team. Just focus on the losing team playing poorly.

With 82 games in an NBA season, there are going to be some nights where a team lays an egg. Taking advantage of that in a parlay can be very profitable for professional and recreational bettors.

Keep the Distribution of Stats in a Single Game in Mind When Betting

No matter which teams are playing, most games are only going to have a certain number of points or yards between the two teams. You have to think about the level of correlation when choosing how many players will have a big game. LeBron James and Anthony Davis are both capable of scoring 35 points, but it is unlikely they will do that on the same night. One usually has to shine at the other’s expense, or the matchup dictates which star has the big game.

If you bet on one receiver to have a 100-yard football game, you may want to bet on his teammate to go under his line too.

But the NBA might be one of the best for this, which is why the 25/20/15 method is popular for points scorers. For just about any game, you can build an SGP by betting on a top scorer to have 25-plus points, a No. 2 scorer to have 20-plus points, and a secondary scorer to have 15-plus points. You could even add players from both teams, ending up with a 5-leg or 6-leg SGP with decent odds.

Ultimately, you are trying to slot each player into a tier for hitting an over on a certain prop market. Very few games will see every main player go over or under in any one betting market.

Always Chase Opportunities, Not Results

One of the common mistakes people make in SGPs is they lose their parlay because of one player prop. Human nature takes over and they get mad at that player and refuse to use them in the next game. Then, like clockwork, that player decides to go off when you did not have them in your SGP.

If an NFL player burns you on scoring a touchdown one week, or if a great NBA shooter has gone four straight games without multiple made threes, this should not chase you away from betting on them the next game. Slumps are always happening in sports as they are part of a normal distribution of outcomes in a season.

In fact, you should double down and that regression will catch up, and that athlete will hit their target stat because they are a great player who is going to keep getting opportunities to shine. Do not dwell so much on previous outcomes and remember that good players do bounce back after bad games all the time. Always keep in mind the range of outcomes that are possible for your sports picks.

Look for Inefficiencies

It is hard to find edges in sports betting that the operators will not already be accounting for to some degree in the closing lines they put out. But two areas of inefficiency that you may be able to target are bad-weather games (for NFL) and injuries (for any league).

When the Patriots played the Bills in extreme wind conditions in 2021, going all out on the passing unders for New England would have really paid off, as Mac Jones threw just three passes all night. Hammering an alternate under and the New England rushing overs also would have been great in a game that ended 14-10.

While the sportsbooks wisely set the unders low for the worse passing team from New England, not even they could foresee just how bad that wind was going to be, leading to three passes, so that is an opportunity to take advantage of when it (rarely) comes up.

There is also the aforementioned case of injuries, where maybe a star player tweaks something in the last practice before a game, and you can go big on the next player up to have a big game in their place.

Keep in Mind That All SGP Bets are Designed for Overs and “Yes” Props

Ever notice how all the top online sportsbooks have props for NFL touchdown scorers, but none of them allow you to bet “no” that a player will not score a touchdown? If Travis Kelce was -110 to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl, why couldn’t you have bet on him to not score at -110?

It is to help keep the sportsbooks on the winning side of these bets. For every brilliant SGP you see hit on social media, there are thousands out there that failed miserably. If people could just start perfectly hedging their SGPs with “no” bets on things you normally cannot hedge, then there would be a lot more winners out there.

But by leaving the bets as they are, it pushes people to lean towards betting overs – betting on unders is boring and unsatisfying if we are being honest – and expecting offensive games with plenty of players contributing points. But as we know, things do not always play out this way. The house still wins most of the time.

How to Place a Same-Game Parlay Bet

Online sportsbooks make it rather easy to place an SGP. You usually just have to go into the game and start adding stuff you want to put in your same-game parlay. Be cautious that some sportsbooks may ask that you enable SGP mode before you start building one, and others still have some restrictions on what can be included in an SGP. If it is an eligible market, you will see “same-game parlay” listed on the far right of the bar for that bet.

But once you have your bet slip filled for your SGP, simply add your stake and place the bet. Make sure you are placing the stake in the SGP box for the whole parlay and not just on one leg of the parlay.

Where You Can Place Same-Game Parlay Bets

Most major sportsbooks have an SGP feature now. If you are frequently doing sports betting, chances are you have come across these offered in their own section of a game’s betting markets. We just wanted to share a list of some of the top online sportsbooks available for making an SGP:

• BetOnline
• Bovada
• Heritage Sports
• BetAnySports
• Bookmaker

FAQs – Same-Game Parlay Betting