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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 Kenny Pickett and the Pittsburgh Steelers set to face off against Will Levis and the Tennessee Titans on Thursday Night Football.
While oddsmakers slightly expect the Steelers to walk away Thursday night with a win, it is essentially a “pick ‘em” with uncertainty surrounding both teams. That means 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 Steelers win at -142, meaning in order to win a $100 payout on the Steelers winning the game, you would have to wager (and risk) $142 on the bet. On the flipside, if you were willing to bet on the Titans pulling off the technical upset against the Steelers in Pittsburgh, a measly $100 bet would pay out $120 on the current +120 odds.
But if, like the oddsmakers, you think the Steelers 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:
Steelers WIN (-142). This goes without saying. The Tennessee Titans will be starting a quarterback who is only making his second NFL start in his career, and the Steelers have T.J. Watt and Company on the other side of the ball.
Steelers UNDER 29.5 points (-700). But the Steelers offense isn’t a juggernaut either. The Steelers have only put up over 25 points once in 2023, and that was 26 points against the Cleveland Browns back in Week 2.
Tyjae Spears OVER 14.5 receiving yards (-120). Four weeks ago, Spears had 18 receiving yards against the Bengals. Three weeks ago, he had 35 receiving yards against the Colts. Two weeks ago, he had 48 receiving yards against the Ravens. Last week, he finished with only nine receiving yards, but still had three receptions on four targets. He’s a solid bet to cross 15 receiving yards this week.
Titans defense OVER .5 sack (-3000). Kenny Pickett has been sacked 17 times in 2023 already. One more sack here makes the final leg of this four-leg parlay hit.
The parlay odds for this bet would be +305, meaning a $100 bet would pay out $405 (the original $100 bet plus an extra $305). 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 $142.81 (the original $100 bet plus an extra $42.81). By stringing these four bets into a four-leg parlay, a winning bet pays out over seven-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.
