Your chances of hitting eight of 10 are worse than 11/1, but the payout is just 3/1. Your chances of hitting nine of 10 are about 102/1, but the payout is 25/1 - another horrible bet. With a progressive parlay the probability of hitting all 10 games is still 1,023/1, but the payout falls all the way to 250/1 - a horrible bet. The true odds paint an even worse story for progressive parlays. Betting when the odds are so dramatically less than the potential reward is a fast way to go broke. The bet only pays 700/1 - or potentially less depending on the book. At 50 percent, the true odds for hitting a 10-team parlay are 1,023/1. The average square bettor doesn’t have better than a 50 percent chance of being on the right side of a given bet - not over the long term. The problem with pointspread parlays of any kind is that they are not mathematically sound for most bettors. It would be 3/1 for eight of 10, and even money for seven of 10. With nine out of 10 games correct the payout is slashed to 25/1. With a progressive parlay the payout for all of the picks being correct is just 250/1. Betting just a straight parlay, the potential payout would typically be 700/1. Let’s look at a 10-team parlay, for example.

You pay for the extra security of this bet in the lower payouts. It sound too good to be true, doesn’t it? There has to be a catch.

Get free sports picks for every league and nearly every matchup on Doc’s free picks page. Typically, in 4-, 5- or 6-team progressive parlays you get paid with one wrong, while you can make two mistakes in 7-,8- or 9-team parlays and three with 10, 11 or 12 teams. Where these bets differ is that bettors also get a payout - albeit a much smaller one - if only most of their picks are correct. Like a standard parlay, bettors win and get a sizable return if they select all of the games correctly. In a progressive parlay bettors choose between four and 12 teams. A progressive parlay operates much like a standard pointspread parlay, but with a twist - they are harder to lose.

Online progressive parlay