When someone finally hits on a 12-team parlay and earns a huge payday, it usually makes some type of news online. After all, everyone likes a story where someone bet a little bit of money, only to come through with a huge win.
However, winning a 12-team parlay is virtually impossible. There are some lottery odds with better odds. Most view it as a little bit of fun to place a small wager, but not a way to win consistently.
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What are the Odds on a 12-Team Parlay?
A 12-team parlay usually has a massive payout, even if every team is the favorite. That’s because correctly picking 12 teams to win and getting them all right is a huge risk. With 50/50 odds for each contest, going 12-0 equates to a 1-in-4096 chance of happening.
Breaking Down the 12-Team Parlay
First things first, it’s important to point out that 12-team parlay bets are not exactly common. Most will opt to max out with 8-team parlays, and that’s even pretty high. The most common type of parlay bets are 2-team or 3-team parlay bets.
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With a 12 team parlay, their first needs to be 12 contests picked out. During the NFL season, there are opportunities to pick out 12 contests every single week. The same goes for soccer and baseball. The NBA and NHL don’t always have 12 games on one night.
Parlay bets with these amounts of teams don’t necessarily have to start and finish in one day. It could be a full weekend, or an entire week. As long as a person is patient enough to see the results through, they’ll be fine.
What are the Types of Parlay Bets?
Parlay bets can work with any type of gambling for the most part. That means looking through all the different odds and seeing what stands out. Placing slightly different bets on the same game can be one way to go all-in on a parlay bet.
Over/Unders
Placing a wager on the over/under is attempting to predict the total amount of points the two teams will score in a game. Sportsbooks will set a line, and then players have the opportunity to pick the over or under.
One of the great things about using over/unders as part of a parlay bet is that it allows people to go all-in on a particular game. If a person thinks that an offensive-minded team is going to win, they can start a parlay bet by taking them to win, and then double-down with an “over” bet.
The downside to over/unders is that sportsbooks seem to always find a way to make the spread very accurate. There’s lots of data out there that they can crunch to see how the two teams play, predicting what will happen. There is more variation with pointspreads and money lines. Also, over/unders tend to almost always have even payouts. As discussed below, that leads to some crazy odds when doing a 12-team parlay.
Pointspread Parlay Bets
Pointspread parlay bets work a lot of the same ways as over/under bets as far as payouts are concerned. Since the pointspread essentially makes the two sides even, every bet will have a -110 as the money line or something very close to it.
A 12-team parlay with every team getting -110 would equate to a $234,379.33 payout on a $100 bet. The odds of this are next to impossible with the pointspread, and there is sometimes a limit on the amount of money someone can put on a pointspread parlay bet.
A lot of seasoned gamblers don’t recommend doing pointspread parlay bets because of the overall value. As big of a payday as that seems, the odds of it occurring should equate to a bigger payday.
Money Line Parlay Bets
This is the most common type of parlay bet one can take part in. With a 12-team parlay bet, people are almost exclusively looking at favorites only. Adding just one underdog will make the odds pretty astronomical.
Even if every team is a -200 favorite, a person is still earning a payout of $12,974.63 by wagering $100. If every team was hypothetically a -400 favorite, which would mean that team is heavily favored, the payout would be $1455.19 on a $100 wager.
One of the most rewarding things about parlay bets is that people can take a bit more risk on heavy favorites. Going all the way up to 12 teams comes with plenty of risk, but it’s recommended to stick to favorites only.
How Teasers Make Parlay Bets More Reasonable
A lot of people like the idea of parlay bets, but they might not like the astronomical odds of pulling off the victory. That’s why teaser parlay bets are fairly popular in the betting community.
The way a teaser works is that the gambler gets extra points to work with on a pointspread. The level of the teaser can vary depending on what type of payout someone is looking for.
A perfect example would be in the NFL. By taking a 7-point teaser, the team gets an additional seven points to work with. For example, if the Green Bay Packers were -7.5 in a particular week, they were dropped down to -0.5 with a 7-point teaser. If the Green Bay Packers were +7.5 that week, they would go all the way to +14.5.
Essentially, teasers are changing the money lines. There’s still a great opportunity to win money, but it just makes it a little more realistic. Other options out there include pleaser parlay bets (the opposite of teasers where the line goes the other direction), and round robin parlay bets.
Is it Smart to Place Parlay Bets?
Parlay bets, especially when they climb up to a 12-team option, aren’t exactly the smartest bets to make. What ends up happening is that the house has a larger advantage over the players. That means that even if a parlay bet is won, sportsbooks are happy because they know that the odds are much worse compared to the actual winnings.
Gamblers also don’t particularly like dealing with the stress of a parlay bet when so many games have worked out in their favor. It could be frustrating to get a single loss, and therefore lose all money. The stress alone keeps many from even dabbling in them.
Examples of Real-Life Big Winners
These 12-team parlays might seem impossible, but they do hit on occasion. Two in the last year have made headlines online.
In fall 2021, a story broke that there was a 12-team parlay bet winner with a $150 wager. With 341-to-1 odds, they were able to go home with a pretty big payday. Earlier that year, another person placed a 12-team parlay bet by wagering $50. They ended up taking home $21,000 for their efforts.
One of the craziest things about the latter story was how easy they were able to win the parlay. In all 12 contests, they only had one close game to sweat out. It’s one of the easiest 12-team parlay bets won in recorded history.
Why Are People Attracted to 12-Team Parlay Bets?
There’s something very enticing about a parlay bet that involves so much money to possibly win. Many people like the idea of some huge odds working out in their favor. They know it’s a longshot win, but what if it does happen?
Another reason why people lean towards parlay bets is that they want to have everything in one single bet. They feel confident enough about their picks that they don’t need to go around and itemize everything. The payout becomes much better if they all end up winning.
Finally, those who might not be into sports betting too much like the idea of hitting big once and never looking back. It’s common for people to visit Las Vegas and put together a parlay bet with a small amount of money just to see what happens. Just make sure to hold onto that ticket so that if it does hit, winnings can be collected.
Will 12-Team Parlay Bets Stay Popular?
At this point, it’s hard to imagine that 12-team parlay bets will be anything more than a fun variation of betting. Most people making money in sports gambling don’t touch 12-team parlay bets. It’s mostly a novelty, but there’s no denying that winning can be life-changing.
It’s important to stay reasonable with every single 12-team parlay bet made. Even with slightly smaller parlay bets, no one should expect to win any more than once or twice in a lifetime. Whittle it down to smaller parlay bets, and that’s when more consistent winning occurs.
Sportsbooks will continue to offer 12-team parlay bets, and even larger ones for that matter. As long as people are willing to put the money down, they’ll gladly accept it. Just know exactly what to expect before throwing money away on a long shot.