What does Parlay mean in sports betting?

A parlay is the North American term for an accumulator: a single wager that links two or more selections, every one of which must win for the bet to pay. The appeal is leverage. Because the odds of each leg multiply together, a small stake can return a large sum, which is why parlays are among the most popular bets despite their long odds. The equivalent British term is the Accumulator, and a two-leg version is a double. The maths is straightforward in decimal odds. Three selections priced at 1.91 (the decimal form of -110) combine to 1.91 x 1.91 x 1.91 = 6.97, so a 10 stake returns about 69.70. A five-leg parlay at 1.91 per leg multiplies out to roughly 25.4 times the stake. The longer the chain, the bigger the prize, but also the steeper the climb. The catch is compounding margin. Each leg already carries the bookmaker's vig, and stacking legs compounds that edge against you. A bet priced at 1.91 implies the book treats each leg as a little worse than a coin flip; combine several and the true probability of sweeping them all is meaningfully lower than the headline odds suggest. This is why parlays carry a negative expected value at standard prices even though the occasional win feels spectacular. A common mistake is adding legs to chase a bigger payout without recognising how quickly the probability of winning collapses. Five 50% events struck together succeed only about 3% of the time. Parlays are best understood as low-probability, high-variance entertainment rather than a route to reliable profit, and stakes should be sized accordingly.