When one leg of your parlay ends in a push — a tie against the spread or total — that leg is removed from the ticket and your parlay is recalculated as if you had never included it. The payout drops, but the bet stays alive.
What exactly is a push on a parlay leg?
A push happens when a final score lands precisely on the spread or total the sportsbook set. Say you have a leg on Team A -3 and they win by exactly 3 — no one covers, no one loses. Most major US sportsbooks treat that outcome as a void rather than a loss.
The practical result: a four-team parlay with one push becomes a three-team parlay at the three remaining legs' multiplied odds. A two-team parlay with one push becomes a straight single-bet payout on the surviving leg. You still need every remaining leg to win.
How does the payout recalculation work?
Per the standard payout math explained on the how parlays work page covering legs, multiplied odds, and all-or-nothing payouts, you convert each leg to decimal odds and multiply them together. When a leg pushes, you simply remove its decimal from the multiplication chain.
Here is a quick illustration using three point-spread legs at -110 each (decimal 1.909):
| Scenario | Active Legs | Combined Decimal Odds | Net Profit on $100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| All three legs win | 3 | ~6.96 (≈+596) | ~$596 |
| One leg pushes, two win | 2 | ~3.64 (≈+264) | ~$264 |
| Two legs push, one wins | 1 | ~1.91 (≈-110 equivalent) | ~$91 |
The three-leg figures above align with the roughly +596 American odds cited for a standard three-team -110 parlay. Once you strip a pushed leg, the math collapses to the two-leg equivalent the same way a separate two-team parlay would be priced.
Does a push ever kill the whole parlay?
At the sportsbooks covered on this site — FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Hard Rock Bet — a push reduces the parlay rather than busting it. That said, operator rules vary, so review the house rules tab on your specific ticket before the game. If you built the parlay as a Same Game Parlay, the odds may already have been adjusted for correlation; a push within an SGP follows the same void-and-recalculate logic, but the starting odds were lower to begin with. You can read more about that pricing dynamic on the same game parlay odds adjustment page.
How does a push compare to an outright losing leg?
There is a meaningful difference. A losing leg ends the ticket entirely — you collect nothing regardless of the other results. A pushing leg just shrinks the parlay. If you are weighing whether to include a borderline spread pick versus a safer total, knowing that a push survives can factor into your selection process. The parlay vs single bet vig comparison is a useful reference when deciding whether a reduced parlay still beats what you would earn on individual straight bets.
Does a push affect bonus bet or free bet parlays?
Generally yes, in the same way — the push leg is removed and the bonus bet rides on the remaining legs. BetMGM bonus bets expire in 7 days and carry wagering requirements; a push does not reset or extend that clock. Always confirm terms on the sportsbook's promotions page. Must be 21+ to wager; if gambling feels out of control, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER.
For a deeper look at how parlays are structured from the ground up — including how multiple losing legs interact with each other — visit the explanation of why parlays lose so often due to the 24% vig. And if you want to model your own push scenarios with custom stakes and odds, the free parlay calculator handles leg removal automatically so you can see adjusted payouts in real time.