DraftKings Offering Same Game Parlays Across Multiple Contests

Posted on: September 6, 2022, 09:35h. 

Last updated on: September 7, 2022, 03:46h.

Todd Shriber @etfgodfather Read More
Expertise: Financial, Gaming Business, Mergers and Acquisitions.

Same game parlays are among the innovations brought about by mobile sports wagering, and DraftKings is going further. It is now allowing bettors to use multiple games to build a potentially more lucrative wager.

Same game parlays
Odds seen on the DraftKings mobile app. The company is adding to its same game parlays menu. (Image: DraftKings)

Typically, a same game parlay lives up to what’s being implied: A multi-leg wager on the same event. In a hypothetical example using a football game, a bettor could pick a moneyline wager, an anytime touchdown by a particular player, and an over/under on a wide receiver’s yards.

By allowing bettors to build same game parlays across, well, different games, DraftKings is touting a “more exciting bet.”

Quick same game parlays (Quick SGPs) — pre-packaged same game parlays bets available across NFL, college football, NBA, college basketball, Major League Baseball (MLB), NHL and soccer,” according to the gaming company.

DraftKings organizes the bets by team preference and odds ranges. Rival FanDuel, which is the largest online sportsbook operator in the US, launched a similar same game parlay offering last December.

Potentially Potent Offering DraftKings

Parlays, which are also referred to as “accumulators” in markets outside the US, are popular among bettors and profitable for sportsbook operators, confirming that outcomes are divergent.

Many bettors take a lottery ticket mentality toward parlays, stacking legs in a quest for a big payday. Of course, the odds lengthen with each added leg, and that’s good for the sportsbook, not the bettor. Adding to the advantages of parlays for sportsbooks is the point that many bettors simply don’t understand the math behind these wagers.

For example, a three-team parlay pays 6-1, but its true odds are 7-1. Novice bettors only see the 6-1. As such, some aim for the stars, cobbling together 10-team parlays. That’s a bet with true odds of 1023-1. But a sportsbook only pays 720-1 on a winning 10-team parlay.

For operators, the outcome is tangible. In 2021, every dollar wagered on sports in Nevada included a win of 32.1 cents from parlays, according to the University of Nevada Center for Gaming Research. That’s more than five times the amount won on a per-dollar basis from football — the most wagered-on sport in the US.

As just one more example, nearly half the amount won by Louisiana sportsbook operators in May was attributable to parlays.

New Same Game Parlays Could Be Boon for DraftKings

DraftKings further entices bettors by offering boosts on a same game parlay. The more legs, the bigger the boost. For example, a three-team same game parlay receives a boost of 20%, up to 100%, for bets with 10 or more legs.

Over the long haul, DraftKings and its investors — not clients — could be the ultimate beneficiaries of added parlay offerings. Those bets could play key roles in helping the operator reach profitability.

CEO Jason Robins isn’t running away from that notion, noting at a Goldman Sachs industry conference in June the operator plans to bolster its focus on parlays.