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NBA Parlay Calculator: Best Strategies and Tips for Using an NBA Betting Calculator

Publish Date: 01/21/2025
Fact checked by: Ronnie Flores

NBA betting is extremely popular among fans of the sport. And thanks to our basketball parlay calculator, you can maximise the value of your bets and make parlay betting a hugely enjoyable experience.

In this short guide, I will explain exactly how our basketball parlay calculator works and outline the key benefits of using the tool every time you make an NBA parlay bet. I’ve even got some expert advice to help you use the tool, plus details of some other calculators you can use for placing NBA wagers.

Parlay calculator



Try out some of our other Calculators

Starting point: A basketball parlay bet in simple terms

In simple terms, a basketball parlay is a single bet that contains at least two selections. To win your parlay bet, you need all of your selections to be successful. A common NBA parlay will involve betting on the winner (in other words, a moneyline bet) of 2+ games, but you can also place parlays covering spreads, totals and even prop markets. Because a successful parlay bet requires multiple selections winning, you will find they have much longer odds compared to placing single bets.

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Pros and cons of basketball parlays

nba parlay calculator pro contra
Pros & Cons
  • Huge payouts
  • Great for knowledgeable fans
  • Excellent for fun, low stakes betting
  • Basketball can be a very tough sport to predict

How to use our basketball parlay calculator in five easy steps

Using our basketball parlay calculator is quick, easy and extremely user-friendly. Here’s a step-by-step guide to what you need to do:

  1. Enter your preferred odds format. The tool allows you to use decimal, American or fractional odds.
  2. Select your bet stake.
  3. Insert the odds for each selection in your parlay. You can use the Add Odds button to insert new legs to your bet.
  4. Press Calculate and you will immediately see the potential returns of your bet.
  5. You can then adjust the stake, number of legs and/or the odds, to get updated results for your potential returns.

Three reasons why you should use our basketball parlay calculator

As you can see, our basketball betting calculator is straightforward to us. So the next big question is - why should you use the tool when placing your parlay bets? Here are three great reasons:

💰 Compare Prices and Find Value

If you put together the same NBA parlay at a selection of different sites, you will find wildly contrasting prices. Naturally, you want to use the site that has the longest odds for your chosen parlay. Our parlay calculator enables you to instantly compare identical parlays across multiple brands. Within seconds you will be able to spot which sportsbook gives you the best value for your bet.

🔄 Tweak Your Bets

There are a lot of moving parts to parlay bets, and this can make them slightly difficult to interpret. For instance, if you change one leg of the bet, the odds will immediately alter, thus creating an entirely new bet and new potential returns. By using our tool, you can easily adjust your selections, and/or your stake, to instantly see the new potential payout. You can then play around with the fields to identify your ideal wager.

📊 Change the Odds Format

Betting odds can be displayed in American, decimal or fractional formats. Different sites use different formats, which can lead to some confusion when trying to compare prices. To help you out, there is a field on our parlay calculator that allows you to switch between the different formats. You can also use our moneyline calculator to instantly convert odds into the format of your choice.

A working example of the NBA parlay calculator

The below table shows the moneyline prices available for a road win on three upcoming NBA games:

GameBetting site 1Betting site 2Betting site 3
Lakers vs Jazz-113-108-117
Kings vs Knicks+110+116+106
Warriors vs Clippers+200+202+191

Now let’s look at how you can use our parlay calculator to view the potential returns from these three bets:

Betting site 1

  • Stake: $10
  • Odds:
    • Selection One: -113
    • Selection Two: +110
    • Selection Three: +200

Payout: $119.00

Betting site 2

  • Stake: $10
  • Odds:
    • Selection One: -108
    • Selection Two: +116
    • Selection Three: +202

Payout: $125.25

Betting site 3

  • Stake: $10
  • Odds:
    • Selection One: -117
    • Selection Two: +106
    • Selection Three: +191

Payout: $111.44

Inputting this information into our NBA parlay calculator just takes a few seconds and will instantly be able to see that your potential returns at betting site 2 are around $14 higher than at betting site 3. In other words, a minimal amount of effort can make a big difference to your bottom line.

Get the most out of our NBA parlay calculator

nba parlay calculator

Using our calculator is simple, but there are a couple of nifty tricks you can use to get the best possible value from the tool:

Go for a double

When using our tool, you can add 10+ selections to your parlay. However, I can highly recommend that you stick to two leg parlays (commonly known as doubles) when you first start using the calculator.  Because there are only two legs, doubles are the easiest parlay bets to get to grips with. You should only try out bets with three or more legs once you are confident that you know exactly how the calculator works and you are comfortable adjusting the fields.

Only use one odds format

As I outlined earlier in this article, different betting sites display their odds in different formats. All of the formats have pros and cons attached to them, and it would be wrong to suggest that one format is the best. However, it is vital that you decide which of the formats works best for you. Which do you find the easiest to understand? Which allows you to instantly assess value and find the best parlays?

Once you have got your answer, stick to that format whenever you are comparing odds. If you encounter sites that do not display odds in your preferred format, use our moneyline calculator to convert the odds before inputting the information into the parlay calculator. Having everything in the same format will make life considerably easier for you when comparing parlay returns and assessing value.

Three other calculators you can use for your basketball betting

You can bet on basketball in several different ways. Aside from our parlay calculator, we also offer a number of other tools to help you find your ideal basketball wagers:

  • Kelly Criterion calculator: The Kelly Criterion is a mathematical formula strategy that can work out your ideal stake for any bet. All you have to do is insert into the calculator the current odds and the implied probability of the bet winning. The calculator will then tell you the optimum percentage of your overall bankroll to use on the wager.
  • Hedge calculator: Hedging is the process of placing one bet, and then going to a second betting site to place an additional wager on the same event. Our hedge calculator gives you in-depth information relating to different scenarios concerning the outcome of your bets. The bottom line is that our hedging calculator will help ensure you always make a profit when you hedge your bets.
  • Arbitrage calculator: Arbitrage betting (also known as arbing) is taking advantage of price discrepancies at betting sites. Because of these discrepancies, you can place a series of bets on the same market and guarantee a profit regardless of the event’s outcome. By inserting the highest available odds for each selection into the arbitrage calculator, you can instantly see the best strategies for guaranteeing a profit from these markets.

Final thoughts: Take your basketball betting to a new level

The basketball parlay calculator is fun to use and will greatly enhance your enjoyment of betting on the NBA. More importantly, it will enable you to easily find the best value NBA parlays, thus maximising your potential returns if you land a winning bet. In short, the parlay calculator needs to be an essential tool in your basketball betting kit. Enjoy!

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NBA parlay calculator: FAQs

⛹️ What is an NBA parlay bet?

An NBA parlay is a single basketball bet that incorporates multiple selections. The most popular type of NBA parlay involves placing moneyline bets on at least two games. Our basketball parlay calculator allows you to view your potential returns from these parlay wagers.

🤔 Do parlay bets offer good value?

Because they combine markets, parlay bets have longer odds than standard single bets. This means that whilst they can be more difficult to win, they do offer much greater returns. If you use our NBA parlay calculator you can identify the parlays that offer the best betting value.

🆓 Is the Ballislife parlay calculator free to use?

Yes. Whilst some sites charge you for using parlay calculators, all of the betting calculators at Ballislife are entirely free to use.

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