What Is Round Robin Sports Betting? Examples

Anyone who’s ever played sports knows how a round robin works. Teams, usually in a tournament format, are housed together, such as in the group stages of the World Cup of soccer. Every team in the group plays each other once and then a predetermined number of teams from that group advance to the knockout stage of the event.

Round robin betting on sports doesn’t quite work that way. In this instance, a bettor is taking a series of wagers that are all intertwined in some manner and assembling a parlay play out of them. At the same time, the bettor puts together a smaller set of parlays that take into account all possible outcomes from the first parlay bet.

It coud be viewed as parlay wagering for the conservative bettor. While your potential return from this style of wagering can be greatly reduced, the odds of winning via the round robin bet format increases significantly.

It’s one of the best ways for a player to hedge their bets.

How Does Round Robin Parlay Bet Work? 

To start off, find a series of wagers that you really feel strongly about and assemble them into a parlay.

For example, suppose you’re on the William Hill betting site and you like the Boston Celtics to beat the Toronto Raptors in an NBA game at -110. Then you add in an NFL game where you take the Pittsburgh Steelers at -150 over the Cincinnati Bengals. Finally, you’ve got a good sense that the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames are going to go over the 5.5 total on their game at -110. 

At a $100 wager, this would result in a $607.44 payout – $507.44 in winnings plus a return of your $100 stake.

That being said, hitting three bets in one isn’t as easy as it looks. That’s where the round robin aspect enters the picture. Instead of just counting on all three cashing, you opt for the Meat Loaf philosophy that two out of three ain’t bad.

You’re going to take the same three bets and play a trio of two-leg parlays. Pair the Celtics with the Steelers and the Celtics with the Jets-Flames over. Finally, team up the Steelers and the Winnipeg-Calgary over. 

At a $100 wager, if you hit the Celtic-Jets/Flames combo, that will return $364.46. Each other pairings would bring a return of $318.18. 

The chances of hitting a two-game parlay are 2.6/1, compared to 6/1 for a three-team parlay, so you’ve put yourself in a good position to come out ahead in any instance.

You’ll find that top sportsbooks like DraftKings, FanDuel, or BetMGM will have parlay cards to make building these bests even easier Most alsol offer easy-to-use parlay calculators that will show you the odds and potential payouts available on your wagers.