How the Popularity of Parlay Betting is Helping the Major Players
The business of gambling keeps growing as more types of wagers become popular and a friendlier legal environment encourages major players like DraftKings (DKNG) and FanDuel (PDYPF), as well as smaller online sites. A new online betting trend has been particularly profitable for companies who include it in their product line-up. Although specific financials remain undisclosed, parlay betting has dramatically added to the bottom line of some sportsbooks.
While not public, an analysis published in Barron’s of state gambling regulatory data shows the average amount the house keeps from the wagers is around 20% for parlay bets. This compares quite favorably to the 5% kept by conventional individual outcome wagers.
What is a Parlay Bet?
A parlay bet is a type of sports bet where you combine two or more individual bets into one single all-or-nothing bet. The payout for a parlay bet is much higher than for a single bet, but the probability of winning is much lower.
For example, let’s say you want to bet on the following three NFL games:
The Dallas Cowboys to beat the New York Giants
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers to beat the Philadelphia Eagles
The Miami Dolphins to beat the New York Jets
You could place three separate bets on these games, but you would only win a small amount of money if all three bets won. Instead, you could place a parlay bet on all three games. If you win the parlay bet, you will win a much larger amount.
The payout for a parlay bet is calculated by multiplying the odds of each individual bet together. So, if the odds of the Cowboys winning are 1.50, the odds of the Buccaneers winning are 2.00, and the odds of the Dolphins winning are 1.75, the odds of the parlay bet winning would be 1.50 x 2.00 x 1.75 = 5.25.
This means that if you bet $100 on the parlay bet, you would win $525 if all three bets won.
Gambling companies emphasize that parlays are no gimmick. The odds aren’t skewed in the company’s favor or anything shifty; rather, parlays introduce higher odds against bettors due to the cumulative impact of various outcomes. Betting on multiple events, even up to 10, compounds the odds of each event’s success. This is how the casinos’ 4% to 5% edge evolves into a substantial 20%.
Margins are Better for Companies
The increase in earnings from these bets has helped lift stock values much higher than the overall market.
The growing popularity of parlay bets has also served to increase the appetite in the U.S. for sports betting. In 2018 a Supreme Court’s ruling opened the doors for sports gambling, leaving the decision to legalize it to individual states. Since then, 38 states and Washington, D.C. have legalized sports betting, with online betting approved in 24 of them. The operators amassed a gross revenue of $7.5 billion in 2022, as per the American Gaming Association, and numerous analysts speculate that further state legalization and innovative trends such as parlays could propel the market up to $30 billion or more.
The big two, DraftKings and Flutter/FanDuel dominate the market after spending heavily for years on advertising. Their state-of-the-art technology and popular parlays have helped increase market share. The companies are now veering away from over-the-top marketing, as evidenced by the 49% dip in TV ad spending by online sports betting firms in Q2, and DraftKings’ 10% reduction in marketing expenditures in established markets during the latest quarter.
Regardless of market dominance, parlays are poised to proliferate due to their popularity and profitability. While Las Vegas has long capitalized on the attractiveness of quick riches, the advent of online companies’ represents a distinct shift in the dynamics. Unlike casinos that can’t dramatically boost their own profitability in games like blackjack, the digital platforms can reach the masses electronically and digitally.
As mentioned, this surge in parlays resonates with the penchant for sudden riches, and can be witnessed  far beyond Las Vegas. The recent Mega-Millions $1.55 billion prize had players lined up in the summer heat to pay for an almost impossible chance of winning. Platforms like Robinhood appealed to the high-risk high-return nature of many and amassed more brokerage customers in a year than any other company in history.
Parlays effectively tap into and profit handsomely off the mentality of all-or-nothing large gains. A mere $10 parlay could translate into thousands in winnings, mirroring the “got to be in it to win it” feeling of the lottery. But here, the bettor can feel more in control.
Take Away
The overall stock market performance is reported each trading day in popular indexes, but there are individual sectors that rise, or fall separately and at a different pace than each index. Index funds and ETF buyers are beginning to realize that a portion of their portfolio invested in industries and companies that are showing more strength than the S&P, Dow, or Nasdaq indexes may allow for enhanced performance. Many keep the largest allocation in an indexed fund or ETF to still maintain the diversification that prompted the indexed fund investment to begin with.
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Managing Editor, Channelchek
Sources
https://www.barrons.com/articles/sports-betting-parlay-online-gaming-apps-25914b0f?mod=hp_columnists
