Parlay Insurance Guide - What Is It and How To Use It Effectively

What is a Parlay Insurance Bonus?

Parlays or accumulator bets are one of the riskier wagers one can make. While the payout can be irresistible due to the numerous legs or picks, a single “unfortunate” leg can send the whole bet slip to the dustbin. That’s why sportsbooks offer parlay insurance to encourage bettors to make parlay bets. It’s more or less like a small refund for the lost stake.

With that said, parlay bonuses come in two main types – bonus bets and cashback. With bonus bet insurance, bettors risk an amount at once and get bet credits similar to the initial stake on a losing bet.

If that doesn’t sound good to you, consider the cashback insurance instead. Here, you get a refund of the original bet if only a single leg loses.

This means you can do whatever you want with the parlay insurance. Let’s expand on the types of parlay insurance in the next section.

Insurance Bets Offers Explained

To begin with parlay cashback, a sportsbook can offer a percentage of your parlay losses. In most cases, the maximum parlay insurance cashback is $25 to $50. Although this might sound great on paper, the percentage is usually less than 10%.

This means you’ll need to stake a sizable sum and lose in order to walk away with the total amount.

If the cashback isn’t your thing, many sportsbooks offer an alternative in bonus bets. With this bonus, the sportsbook will give you bonus bet credits without strings attached. Just meet the parlay insurance conditions, and the prize is yours to keep.

However, bonus bet parlay insurance is not ideal for four or five-leg parlays.

You’ll also find some sportsbooks offering odds boosts on parlay bets. As impressive as they sound, it might actually be a trick to lure you into unrealistic parlay odds. So, be careful with these promotions.

Parlay Bets Explained

As said before, a parlay bet is an accumulator wager that combines at least two wagers into one bet. Each bet or market in a parlay bet is called a leg. All legs must win for the parlay bet to payout. In short, a win from an initial leg is carried forward to the next leg. You can’t afford to lose even one leg of the parlay or everything falls down.

Below is an example:

• Leg 1: Bet $10 on +200 and win $20
• Leg 2: Bet $20 on -200 and win $10
• Leg 3: Bet $10 on +300 and win $30

You can see that you win $60 if all the bets win. And by the way, you can have as many legs as you want, with some sportsbooks setting a limit of four or five legs per parlay to get the parlay insurance.

Placing multiple bets instead of a single individual bet can potentially earn you far more money and are also more fun. For example, rather than just betting on the Dallas Cowboys to win the Super Bowl, why not add a prop bet or numerous prop bets for the big game and use a same game parlay to add some excitement. Same game parlay insurance is available, and using this means you aren’t looking at every leg of a parlay to win.

Naturally, with parlay betting, it will be more difficult to win, but just think of the potential earnings  if every leg hits.

Additionally, most online sportsbook sites will allow bettors to cash out their parlay bets early if they feel it isn’t going well. Features such as cash out have become a crucial factor in online sports betting.

But always remember that making a parlay bet can be risky because of the uncertainty involved.

Like any other bet, parlay bets also have their set of rules. For starters, the bet still wins if any of the legs ends in a draw. However, the payout consideration will reduce because the tie bet won’t count.

In addition, the whole bet crumbles down in a single leg loss, and that’s where parlay insurance comes in.

Meantime, be sure to read the parlay insurance terms and conditions to find out if the requirements are tenable. It’s common to find a sportsbook setting the minimum odds for each leg at +400.

Also, some sportsbooks can run multiple parlay refunds daily, with some offering the bonus only once daily. So, read and understand the parlay insurance fine print.

How Does Parlay Insurance Work in Practice?

Evidently, any bet with a payout qualifies as part of an accumulator bet. This is with the exception of bets such as teasers and round robins. But to help you understand parlay insurance better, we’ll use point spreads.

That’s because these bets have a 50/50 chance of winning. Often, spread bets have -110 odds, whether betting on the underdog or the favorite to cover the spreads.

To that end, let’s calculate the edge for the sportsbook in parlay bets. If you choose a single-game point spread bet, the sportsbook will have a lowly house edge of 4.55%.

This means the expected loss from a $100 bet is $4.55 based on our parlay bets calculator.

However, increasing the parlay bet to multiple legs would increase the house edge and the possible payout.

So, suppose you make a two-leg point spread parlay bet; it means you have a 50% chance of winning on each leg. This reduces your chances of winning the parlay wager to 25%.

Now you know why many sportsbooks encourage multiple-leg parlays, if possible, four or five legs to qualify for the insurance. They know the bet will likely lose.

Tips to Use Parlay Insurance Promotions

Up to this point, you should be in a position to choose a parlay insurance wager that fits your betting style. With that done and dusted, let’s talk about tips on getting the most out of your parlay insurance.

• Look at the size: With sportsbook bonuses, the bigger is always, the better. Although most sportsbooks will cap their bonuses at $25, platforms like BetMGM can reach $50. Always choose bigger parlay insurance rewards because they allow you to bet with higher limits. And in return, you can risk less and get more value. So, all in all, don’t wager with more than the maximum insurance amount.
• Choose lower minimum legs: The number of legs that can qualify for the parlay insurance promotion is another critical consideration. If you choose a sportsbook with lower parlay leg requirements, the house edge reduces drastically. For example, a three-leg parlay has better chances of winning than a four or five-leg parlay bet.
• Multi-sport parlay insurance is better: As discussed earlier, FanDuel is one of the few sportsbooks with Multi-Sport Parlay Insurance. You can add parlay legs from different sports or games in a Multi-Sport Parlay bet. This way, you can add the juiciest parlay markets with higher chances of winning.
• Line shopping: This is where most sportsbooks with parlay insurance fall short. As an intelligent bettor, always fill your parlay ticket with heavy favorites. For this reason, compare the parlay odds offered in different sportsbooks. There’s nothing wrong with having multiple sportsbook accounts.
• Stick to the favorites: Another parlay insurance trick is creating a slip consisting of moneyline favorites or spread bets. As we discussed earlier, spread bets have higher chances of winning than other wagers. Favorite moneyline legs can also bring in a win or a draw, which is what you’re looking for. Note that parlay insurance with minimum odds requirements of -200 is always better than one with a +200 limit.

Parlay Insurance Vs. Bonus Bets

Most legal online sportsbooks offer no sweat bets and parlay insurance.

So, what’s the difference here?

First and foremost, a no sweat bet is part of the sign-up package, whereas parlay insurance is part of loyalty programs. With a bonus, the sportsbook will offer a refund up to a specific amount on your first bet.

But like parlay insurance, the bet must be lost for you to get the bonus.

Let’s take FanDuel Sportsbook, for example. This sportsbook offers new customers an impressive $1,000 in no sweat bets.

Here, a bettor only needs to create a FanDuel account, place a real-money wager, including parlays, and win the reward if the bet loses.

As you can see, these bonuses are similar in the sense that you get a refund if the bet loses. Also, the amount you win can depend on the initial stake. However, no sweat bets are more beneficial because the amount is more considerable.

But again, you’ll need to risk more to get the maximum amount. If the bet wins, you walk away with the winnings only.

Is it Worth Opting for Parlay Insurance?

Now let’s wrap up this parlay insurance guide by answering this all-important question. The thing is that parlay bets are some of the most unpredictable wagers in the sportsbook.

That doesn’t change even if you stack your bet slip with hot moneyline favorites. In the end, a loss is almost a guarantee, primarily if the bet consists of five or more legs.

So, without parlay insurance to back you up, placing a parlay bet with many legs is usually a bad idea.

Remember, the house edge keeps increasing as you add more parlay legs into the slip. If you have a 25% chance of winning a two-leg parlay in point spread betting, this reduces to 17.5% if you add two extra legs.

All said and done; a parlay bet slip should always feature the hot favorites to win the wager or at least the insurance bonus. And if possible, take advantage of multi-game parlay insurance and parlay insurance odds boosts to maximize the situation. We certainly recommend you should get parlay insurance where possible.