What is a Progressive Parlay?

To understand what a progressive parlay is, it’s important to first understand what a basic two-outcome parlay is. And luckily, our complete breakdown of parlays is available here. Once you’ve got the parlay under your belt, read on for everything you need to know about progressive parlays, which offer the same upside as a basic parlay, without the same level of risk.

How Progressive Parlays Work

What is a Progressive Parlay

A progressive parlay is, like a parlay, a bet placed on multiple non-correlated outcomes. The differences between a progressive parlay and a traditional parlay are that:

A few of futures odds for Lord Stanley’s mug in a given year might look like this:

If one or more outcome(s) included a progressive parlay is/are not successful, and other parts are, the bettor may still win some of their initial wager or even turn a profit; and

Because there is less risk involved in a progressive parlay, the possible payout is reduced relative to traditional parlays.

Progressive parlays allow bettors to bet a parlay without risking it busting when a single game doesn’t go as planned.

For example, say you like the Thunder, Lakers, Warriors and Mavericks to win their NBA games on a particular night, and want to bet their respective moneylines in a parlay. And yet, you know because all of the games are slotted to be hard fought that one of them might, despite your feeling, not go your way.

The progressive parlay is perfect for this moment. By using the progressive parlay you can bet with impunity knowing that if one game doesn’t work out, all is not lost.

Imagine the situation that all five games mentioned above come down to the final shots. Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, and Seth Curry all end up with the ball in their hands and jack up a possible game-winning three. In this moment, if you’ve bet a progressive parlay on their four teams, the following payout situations are possible:

1. All four stars swish their game winners, and your progressive payout pays the rate for a four-team progressive parlay: +400, or $80 on a $20 bet.
   Nice work.
2. Three Mr. Clutches, say Nowitzki, Curry, and Durant, all hit their game winners, but the fourth, the forever-flashy Kobe Bryant, leans back impossibly far beyond the three-point line and rattles the shot off the front of the rim. Your progressive parlay bet isn’t busted (like it would be if it was a regular parlay), but the payout is down to the rate for a three-win parlay, and pays the associated rate: EVEN, or $20 on a $20 bet. Not bad! You doubled up even with the Lakers busting their part of the bet.
3. Two or more teams don’t make their shots (or otherwise lose their games), and ruin it for everyone. With two teams busted out of a four-team progressive parlay, the bet loses, and you do not recover any of your original stake. Thanks a lot, Kobe!

Simplified Value

Progressive parlays, unlike regular parlays, do not account for the value of the bets included in them. Instead, at TopBet, a simpler system exists. For starters, progressive parlays can be placed in eight-outcome and four-outcome sets only. Meaning you must select either four or eight outcomes in your parlay.

Secondly, the value of each type of bet’s payout is set – no matter how heavily favored or how much of an underdog the team/player you’re selecting, progressive parlays pay out according to these set values.

Four-outcome progressive parlays pay +400 if all four outcomes are correctly guessed. If one is incorrect and three are correct, the payout is +100, or even, and if two or more are incorrect, the bet is a loss.

In an eight-outcome progressive parlay, if all eight events/outcomes are correctly picked, the payout is +7,500 (win $750 on a $10 bet). If one outcome is incorrect, the bet pays +500 (win $500 on a $10 bet), and if two are incorrect the six-win progressive parlay pays out +300 (win $300 on a $10 bet). If three or more outcomes are incorrect, the bet loses.

No Correlations Allowed

As with traditional parlays, the outcomes included in progressive parlays cannot be connected. For example, you could not include the total from a Mavericks game in a parlay that involves a Mavericks point spread bet, because a Mavericks win might include (for example) them scoring well and pushing the total over while also covering the spread.