Round Robin Bet

What is a round robin bet?

The round robin bet is not a popular tool in the arsenal of many bettors. A lot of people new to gambling may not even know what it is. It was built for people who like the idea of having upside, but do not all-or-nothing propositions. If you hate the feeling of losing one leg of a big parlay and ending up broke, the round-robin may be for you. 

How does a round robin bet work?

A round robin bet is actually a series of bets. Think about it as playing a bunch of numbers boxed in a state lottery, playing a trifecta or exacta box with a bunch of horses at a racetrack. A round robin takes a series of wagering options and plays every combination of those options parlayed together in separate bets. With a parlay, every outcome you include needs to hit in order for you to get paid out. With a round robin, you can have a selection that loses and still cash some of the other legs to hopefully break even or create a small profit overall. Just like anything in life or sports betting, there is a catch. Round robins can help you limit your downside, but they do so by trading off the limits on your upside. 

Here is an example to illustrate how this works.

A bettor may have an interest in betting on three teams on a given slate of games. The best way for that bettor to do so is by parlaying those three outcomes together on a single bet. Parlaying the three outcomes would give the bettor the best chance to maximize his upside but in order to do so, he needs to correctly pick all three games as winners. If any one of those three games loses, the bettor loses whatever he ended up risking.

How does round robin betting work?

With a round-robin bet, those wagering dollars are actually split up into multiple bets using the outcomes the bettor selects. Part of the money would still go to a three outcome parlay with all three choices, but you would also have equal parts going to smaller two-team parlays with each combination of the three outcomes in the bet. A three-team round-robin is actually four separate bets as opposed to that three-team parlay. The round-robin bettor would get a three-team parlay but would also have three two-team parlays. One bet would be Team A and Team B, one would be Team A and Team C, and the third would be Team B and Team C. What this strategy allows you to do is be wrong on one of those bets and not end up losing all of your initial wager. If Team A happens to lose, you would still have a winning ticket with Team B and Team C parlayed together that would get you some money back. If all three teams win, you would have a higher payout by parlaying them together, but you still end up with a nice payout on a round robin if you were correct on all three games.

It really comes down to your tolerance for risk. Round robins give you a chance to limit your downside, but you do have to give up a little bit of upside in the process. For those trying to make a score but also limit the number of times they have to deposit to do so, round robins are a better strategy than the all-or-nothing approach of playing big upside parlays.