What is a Round Robin Bet in Sports Betting?

A round-robin bet is similar to a parlay bet in that you’re compounding multiple wagers together into one consolidated wager. Unlike your standard parlay bet, however, round robins are significantly smaller scale, and comprise a smaller amount of wagers. 

The name harkens back to round-robin tournaments, competitions where each contestant faces off against each individual contestant in turn, and a similar principle applies here. 

When you place multiple wagers across multiple games, most sportsbooks will offer you the option to group them into multiple small parlays. Online sportsbook software has the capability to categorize these parlays automatically. 

Even so, they won’t automatically tell you what goes into round-robin betting, how their payouts work, and what you should know before placing them, which is why we’ve decided to publish an entire overview covering all three.

Round robin bets require you to place at least three different parlay wagers across a minimum of three different betting lines. Unlike regular uninsured parlay bets, where a single leg failing could cost bettors their entire wager reward, round-robin betting allows players to retain their winning leg’s rewards, even if one single leg fails.

This is because each line has its own sub-parlays. For example, if you wanted to bet on four different NHL games during the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, then your round-robin would also be classified as a group of four different two-team parlays. So even if one line fails to pull through in this situation, you could still recover the winnings of your other lines.

Say you’re not so keen on team sports, but are big on boxing or mixed martial arts. How would round-robin betting work in this context? Not drastically different, as bizarrely as that might seem. 

Instead of betting lines being formulated around teams, betting lines are based around individual fighters. For instance, say you were wagering on a UFC pay per view headlined by Conor McGregor. 

You could bet on him in the main event fight, but if Nick Diaz and Francis Ngonnau were both fighting in preliminary contests on the card, you could wager on those fighters as well. Together, these wagers could be formulated into a round-robin bet. Like round robin bets in team sports, one fighter getting knocked out or tapped out won’t spell the demise of your entire wager, but you’ll still need to have a lot of elements coalesce together to retain most of your award.

Assuming a $110 stake on four standard -110 vig two-team parlays, a low-end round-robin bet could potentially pay out upwards of $1,745.5 in winnings. So, much like their parlay counterparts, round robins are higher risk, but potentially higher reward than single-game bets.

And while one or a few bad legs will limit your final take-home winnings, they ultimately won’t kill off your take-home winnings altogether (unless, of course, your luck was so abysmal that every leg of the four two-team parlays lost). That can mean you have a slightly advantageous betting edge with round robins over standard parlay bets.

Granted, the potential reward here will also be lower than standard parlay bets, which might be a drawback for bettors who are feeling particularly risky. That said, the advent of the online gaming market has allowed sportsbook operators to pay out their rewards faster than ever. Currently, legal sports betting websites are operating in Washington D.C. and in 13 states across the country.

Scrutinize the Ts and Cs around each of these sites as best as you can, read reviews carefully, and do everything you need to do to find your preferred site for round-robin bets. While you’re at it, consider reading our online sportsbook reviews. But how viable are round-robin bets, really?

Although round robins incur less financial risk than regular parlay bets, they still have a fairly similar level of mathematical risk as standard parlay bets. Furthermore, even though losing one leg won’t spell the death of your entire winnings, you’ll still need to make multiple legs work in order to come out on top.

Therefore, if you’re a casual bettor or not already well-acclimated with the sports you’re wagering on, we would caution against starting with round-robin bets as your first wager. A multitude of things need to come together to yield a winning payout, and when they do, they usually yield a lower payout than traditional parlays.

But when these things do coalesce, they can still yield immensely fruitful outcomes, and with minimized loss risk relative to standard parlay bets. Much like middle bets, the success or failure of round-robin bets is very contingent on a multitude of situational variables.

So while they might not be the best regular bets or casual bets, round robins can be excellent wagers when they’re played right. If you’re thinking about placing a round-robin, consider starting with the lowest possible minimum-risk wager, whether that means two or three two-team parlays.

Additionally, if you’re not the most math-savvy person, don’t fret! Online calculator tools like the aforementioned link serve to make round-robin bets more accessible and understandable than ever. Not only that, but sites like ours serve to make the iGaming industry’s best deals, discounts, and no-deposit bonuses more accessible than ever.