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It might not be the most exciting of games, but you can definitely find a way to make it a fun one.
Sometimes, you look ahead at a game on a schedule and think, “Wow, this is going to be a great game between two really good teams and two great quarterbacks.” Other times, you see Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears set to face off against Sam Howell and the Washington Commanders on Thursday Night Football.
While oddsmakers expect the Commanders to walk away Thursday night with a win, this feels like a great opportunity to place a little money on the line to make your game-watching experience a little more fun, even if you have nothing invested in either team playing.
Currently, DraftKings Sportsbook still has the money line for a Commanders win at -258, meaning in order to win a $100 payout on the Commanders winning the game, you would have to wager (and risk) $258 on the bet. On the flipside, if you were willing to bet on the Bears shocking the world and upsetting the Commanders in D.C., a measly $100 bet would pay out $210 on the current +210 odds.
But if, like the oddsmakers, you think the Commanders are going to win, you can string that bet together with others in what is known as a “parlay” to potentially increase your payout. You can head over to DraftKings Sportsbook for a full definition of what a parlay is, but essentially, a parlay is a string of multiple bets (each individual bet known as a “leg”), where for there to be any payout whatsoever, each leg of the parlay has to be correct. It is all-or-nothing. In a three-leg parlay, if one of the bets misses but the other two hit, there is no “partial payout.” It is simply a loss. But if all three bets hit, that is where there might be opportunity for money to be made.
So consider this four-leg parlay for tonight’s game:
Commanders WIN (-258). This goes without saying. The Chicago Bears have yet to win a game all season, including giving up 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to Russell Wilson and the struggling Denver Broncos last week.
Justin Fields OVER 150 passing yards (-525). Speaking of last week, Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields threw for 335 yards and 4 touchdowns against the Broncos. Fields has averaged 215 passing yards per game this season, so he should easily zoom past 150.
Brian Robinson anytime touchdown (-115). Robinson is one-game removed from punching it in the endzone for the third time on the ground in 2023, so here’s to hoping he can continue the trend one more week.
Washington Commanders OVER .5 sacks (-2500). The Commanders have averaged a whopping SIX sacks per game in 2024. One more sack here against Justin Fields and the fourth leg of this parlay pays off.
The parlay odds for this bet would be +176, meaning a $100 bet would pay out $276 (the original $100 bet plus an extra $176). Again, this takes all four individual legs of the parlay have to come true for this bet to pay out. But look at the odds: Instead of a $100 parlay, if four $25.00 bets were placed on each of these legs individually and all four were to come true, the total payout would be $137.21 (the original $100 bet plus an extra $37.21). By stringing these four bets into a four-leg parlay, a winning bet pays out over four-times more than the four solo bets by themselves.
Does this mean the parlay is a safe bet to make? Of course not. Every bet also presents risk. But stringing together a series of less-risky bets into a parlay, while the risk is greater because it presents more opportunities for the overall bet to miss, the potential reward is greater. Once a basic parlay bet is understood and made, the feeling of it hitting is like no other, and soon, a novice sports better can eventually start stringing together ultra aggressive parlays for a big-time payday. You can head over to DraftKings Sportsbook to try to make it happen.
If you like this material, make sure you’re subscribed to The SB Nation NFL Show podcast where we cover Thursday Night Football sports bets every week. You can catch us wherever you listen to your podcasts. As always, you can follow me on Twitter/X @ChrisDunnells. Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.
