In this guide, I’ll show you how to hedge a parlay to get the most value whether you have one leg left or you want to know how to hedge a parlay with 2 legs left.
I get it, sometimes you don’t want to sweat through the last game of a massive parlay when a massive payday sits on a knife edge.
In order to hedge our parlays we need to use the Parlay Hedge Calculator. I’ll be using this calculator in the following guides.
How to Hedge a Parlay With 1 Leg Left
If we only have a single leg remaining of the parlay we just need to place a single hedge bet on the opposite outcome to what we bet on for our final parlay leg.
For example, if we only need LA Lakers to beat Miami Heat to win our parlay. We would place our hedge bet on Miami Heat to beat LA Lakers.
We can calculate exactly how much we should bet on Miami Heat using the Parlay Hedge Calculator.
Enter our Parlay Information
In order to use the parlay hedge calculator you must first select the hedge method you are going to use from the drop down.
If we are hedging only one leg we can use either method. It does not make a difference.
Next enter the number of legs remaining in your parlay. You can do this with the dropdown menu at the top of the calculator
Next, we want to tell the calculator if the parlay was placed with cash or if we use a free bet to place the parlay.
Just click on the toggle options.
Once we have selected the bet type. We now need to enter some information about our parlay. The total odds for our parlay using moneyline odds and the size of the bet we placed on the parlay.
Enter Our Current Leg Odds
Below the parlay information section we can enter the odds for the remaining legs of the parlay. Once entered our bet stake needed for the hedge will be displayed. Additionally the total profit or loss will now display also.
If the best odds for Miami Heat to beat the LA Lakers were +120 then the calculator suggests we should place $363.64 on Miami Heat.
If Miami Heat beat the LA Lakers, we will lose the $100 parlay.
However, we will win $436.36 from the hedge bet on Miami Heat. Leaving us $336.36 in profit.
If LA Lakers win then we win our parlay and profit $700 from the parlay. Our hedge bet on Miami Heat will lose $363.64 leaving us in an overall net position of +$336.36
Parlay Hedge Calculator: Single Leg Summary
To summarize a one leg parlay hedge:
- Enter the number of remaining legs
- Choose our bet type
- Enter our parlay odds and bet stake
- Enter the hedge odds
- Place our hedge bet
If you are looking to hedge out multiple legs of a parlay then you will need to use either the sequential hedge method or the multi-parlay dutching method of the calculator.
How to Hedge a Parlay with 2 Legs Left (or more)
When hedging a parlay with only one leg remaining to win. We don’t need to worry about any other legs.
However, if we have a parlay with multiple legs remaining then the other legs become important in regards to which hedging technique we need to use to hedge the parlay.
The two hedging techniques to use for multiple legs are:
- Sequential Hedge Method (Used when legs are played a different times)
- Multi-Parlay Dutching Method (used when legs are played at the same time)
First We’ll look at the Sequential Hedge Method
Sequential Hedge Method
In order to be able to hedge the parlay effectively using the Sequential Hedge Method, each remaining leg must resolve before we can hedge the next leg out.
This is because we need to account for the losing hedge bet in the next hedge bet.
This is called the Sequential Hedge Method and is modified from the Sequential Lay Method.
Just like before we need to select how many remaining leg we have along with our bet type.
Enter the total odds of our parlay and how much we bet on the parlay in the ‘Parlay Information’ section of the parlay hedge calculator.
Now we just need to enter the odds of our remain legs. Enter them into the calculator in the order they will be played! This is very important as the order the bets will payout is important to how much we bet on each leg.
For example, if the remaining parlay legs were:
- Pittsburgh Steelers to beat Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Saturday 6pm
- Detroit Lions to beat New York Giants @ Sunday 1pm
- Jacksonville Jaguars to beat Dallas Cowboys @ Sunday 7pm
We would enter the odds of Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+120) in Leg One, New York Giants (-120) into Leg Two and Dallas Cowboys (+105) in Leg Three.
Placing our Sequential Hedge Bets
Once we have entered the odds for our legs the calculator will workout how much we would need to place on each leg.
However, we only need to place the hedge bet for the first leg i.e. the bet on Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
If Tampa Bay Buccaneers win the game versus Pittsburgh Steelers. Then our parlay would lose and our hedge bet would win. In this scenario we’re done hedging and don’t need to place the bets on Leg Two or Leg Three.
Alternatively, If Pittsburgh Steelers win then our parlay is still active. We lose our hedge bet and now must move onto leg two of the parlay.
We lost $169.32 on our leg one hedge bet so we need to factor that into the leg two hedge bet. Due to this the hedge bet stake will get larger as the parlay progresses to factor in the stakes of the previous losing hedge bets.
Until ultimately our parlay wins or one hedge bet wins.
If our Leg One hedge bet loses, enter the amount we bet into the ‘Hedge Bet Placed’ box. This records how much we bet on this leg. As the odds available on subsequent leg may change during the course of the parlay altering our final hedged profit.
I’ve illustrated this in the image below, the odds for our 2nd Leg change from -120 to -145. This changes the suggested stake amount for Leg One. The ‘Hedge Bet Placed’ box records the amount we placed.
Sequential Hedge Parlay Method Summary
- Select Sequential Hedge Method from the dropdown
- Enter the number of remaining legs from dropdown
- Choose our bet type
- Enter our parlay odds and bet stake
- Enter the current hedge odds for each leg
- Place our hedge bet for leg one using the suggested stake
- Wait for leg one result
- If parlay leg loses – Take no more action!
- If parlay leg win – Continue
- Enter the hedge bet stake in the ‘Hedge Bet Placed’ box
- Update the odds for the remaining leg if necessary
- Place our hedge bet for the next leg using the suggested stake
- Repeat process until the parlay either wins or one leg loses
Multi Parlay Dutching Method
If you have multiple legs that are occurring at the same time you are unable to use the Sequential Hedge Method discussed previously.
However, you can use the Multi Parlay Dutching Method.
In this method we will place multiple smaller parlays to hedge our current parlay.
One of the advantages of multi parlay dutching is that the legs can be occurring at the same time.
Additionally, we are able to place all of our hedge bets at the same time. As a result, we don’t need to wait for each leg to finish or track the results of each leg.
One of the disadvantages of the multi parlay dutching method is that it’s only practical to use it when two or three legs remain.
Open up the Parlay Hedge Calculator.
Once you have opened the Parlay Hedge Calculator, we need to set the calculator to Multi Parlay Dutching mode. We can do this using the dropdown menu like the image below.
Select the number of remaining legs in the parlay
Set the bet type to normal ‘Cash Mode’ or ‘Free Bet’ mode depending on whether you used cash or a free bet to place the original parlay bet.
Enter the odds for the parlay and how much we bet on the parlay in the section below.
Enter Information About Our Remaining Legs
We now need to tell the calculator what the last two legs in our parlay are and who or what the opposing outcome is for those legs.
For example, if our last two legs of our parlay were Kansas City Chiefs to beat Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos to beat Miami Dolphins.
We would want to enter the odds available at a sportsbook into the ‘Parlay Legs’ section of the calculator along with the name for each bet outcome. (These odds are just a rough guide we can alter these later)
We always want to put the outcomes of our parlay legs (The outcomes that have to happen to win the parlay) in the ‘Outcome One‘ boxes on the left hand side of the ‘Parlay Legs‘ section.
Once we have entered the outcome names and odds into the Parlay Legs section we will now have a number of parlay bets generated in the Hedge Parlays section below.
These are the parlays we need to place in order to hedge out our original parlay with two remaining legs.
In our example we will place three separate two leg parlays.
- Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins to win
- Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos to win
- Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins to win
Check Sportsbooks for Best Parlay Odds
The Odds Override boxes can be used to input the odds of the parlay if you find better odds or the odds on offer are altered by the sportsbook.
I recommend using a parlay builder tool to find the sportsbook with the best odds for each parlay we need to place. Enter those odds into the Odds Override box and place the parlay using the figure in the Suggested Stake box.
The Total Profit or Loss is displayed at the bottom of the calculator. In our example we would make a $170.45 profit no matter who won or lost the next 2 legs of the parlay
Multi-Parlay Dutching Summary
- Select Multi Parlay Dutching Method from the dropdown
- Enter the number of remaining legs from dropdown
- Choose our bet type
- Enter our parlay odds and bet stake
- Enter the outcomes of the remaining legs.
- Check the best odds for generated parlays
- Enter into Odds Override boxes
- Place our parlays using the suggested stakes
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