Parlay Leg Pushes or Is Voided: How the Payout Changes

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At most US books a pushed or voided parlay leg is simply removed, and the ticket is paid as a smaller parlay on the remaining legs. Your stake is not refunded in full unless every leg pushes. Teasers, round robins and same game parlays follow their own rules, and some older parlay cards in Nevada treat ties differently.

Push versus void: the same effect on the ticket

A push happens when the result lands exactly on the line: a team favored by 7 wins by exactly 7, or a game total of 44 ends with 44 points. A void (also "no action" or "cancelled") happens when the leg cannot be graded: the game was postponed outside the book's window, a listed player did not play, or the market was removed.

The published rules of Encore Boston Harbor in Massachusetts put the two together: if one or more legs of a parlay are no action, cancelled or a push, the payout is recalculated based on the remaining legs. Caesars' Nevada house rules say the number of selections in the parlay is reduced by the number of voids or pushes. Fanatics Sportsbook's Ohio rules say the bet is settled using the remaining selections, which become a new parlay or a single wager.

Worked example: 4-leg parlay, one push

Take a $100 parlay with four legs, each priced at -110. A -110 price means a $110 stake wins $100, so the decimal payout multiplier per leg is 210 / 110 = 1.9091.

• As placed (4 legs): 1.9091 x 1.9091 x 1.9091 x 1.9091 = about 13.283. A $100 stake returns $1,328.34, a profit of $1,228.34 (roughly +1228).
• One leg pushes. The parlay becomes 3 legs: 1.9091 cubed = about 6.958. A $100 stake returns $695.77, a profit of $595.77 (roughly +596).

The push cost you the extra multiplication by 1.9091 but it did not cost the stake. If the three remaining legs all win, you are paid as a 3-leg parlay. If any one of them loses, the ticket loses.

If prices differ per leg, the same approach applies: convert each remaining leg to its decimal multiplier, multiply them, and ignore the pushed leg. For how prices convert, see odds and payout rates explained.

Ties win, ties lose, ties reduce

Older Las Vegas parlay cards are worth a note. A Las Vegas Advisor reader answer from 2012 describes three possibilities for a tie in a parlay at the counter: ties win, ties lose, and ties reduce, which means the parlay shrinks by one team. The usual treatment at many books was the reduce version, but cards could vary by property. Treat that as historical background, not as the rule at any particular book today. The current Nevada practice is printed on the book's rules or card; ask the writer if the wording is not on the ticket.

Teasers

A teaser moves the spread or total in your favor on each leg in exchange for a lower payout, so ties on adjusted numbers are more likely than in a normal parlay.

• Encore Boston Harbor: a push or cancelled leg cancels a two-team teaser and the bet is refunded. For any other teaser, the payout is recalculated without the cancelled or push legs.
• Fanatics (Ohio): a push or void leg leaves the teaser recalculated at the odds offered for the reduced number of legs.
• Caesars (Nevada): the teaser section published online does not include a tie rule beyond minimum selection counts, though football general rules say wagering ties or postponed games are no action.

Some books apply "ties lose" to teasers. That makes a tie on a teased number a loss. It is a book-level choice, so a teaser at one property can be worse than the same teaser at another even with identical lines. The broader trade-offs are in parlays and teasers: when they make sense.

Round robins

A round robin is a set of smaller parlays built from your picks. Pick four teams "by 2s" and you hold six 2-team parlays. The same logic applies inside each one: if team B pushes, every parlay containing B is reduced by one leg. The A-B parlay becomes a straight bet on A; the B-C parlay becomes a straight bet on C; the A-C parlay is unaffected. That is an application of the standard parlay rule, not a separately published exception, so confirm it for the book.

Fanatics' rules add a limit: round robins cannot include selections from the same event, and if same-event picks are wagered anyway the book may settle as if only one of them were included.

Same game parlays

Same game parlay legs are correlated, which makes voids more awkward for the book. Published rules differ.

• Caesars' Nevada house rules say the odds are recalculated on the remaining valid legs when legs are voided or pushed.
• Fanatics says the remaining selections determine the outcome and the odds are adapted accordingly.
• A late-2023 Action Network comparison reported that some US books void the entire same game parlay when a leg pushes, and that at that time FanDuel was the exception that recalculated. Books change this wording often, so treat it as a reason to check, not as a current statement for any book.

Postponed and out-of-window legs

If the game behind a leg is postponed, the leg follows the sport's rule. Encore Boston Harbor's parlay rules say postponement follows the specific sport rules; windows such as 48 hours or 7 days differ between books. A leg that falls outside the window is void and the parlay is repriced. A parlay with a leg that remains pending stays open until all legs are graded.

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