Action Reverse Bet Meaning & How It Works in Sports Betting

Imagine this: It’s NFL Sunday and you’ve got two games you know are winners.

You consider a parlay, but you hesitate – one loss and that parlay is toast.

You recall that time your early game flopped, yet the late game covered easily, leaving money on the table.

If only there were a way to save that second wager when the first pick goes south.

Enter the reverse bet, a quirky wager that gives your picks a fighting chance in both directions.

Today we are going over everything reverse bets: what they are, how they work, and when to use them – with some real-world examples to spice things up.

Reverse Bets vs. If Bets: The Basics

A reverse bet is essentially a special form of an if bet.

An if bet links multiple wagers conditionally: your second bet only goes forward if the first one wins (and so on down the line).

In other words, an if bet creates a chain – you win the first leg, then your next bet “activates.”

If your first leg loses, any remaining bets are canceled, limiting further risk.

Unlike a parlay where all selections must hit or you get nothing, an if bet isn’t all-or-nothing – you keep any winnings from legs that won before the chain broke.

The trade-off is smaller payouts than a parlay if all picks win, but also smaller losses if one loses.

So what’s a reverse bet?

Simply put, a reverse bet is an if bet that works both forward and backward.

Instead of one conditional sequence, you’re placing two (or more) if bets covering each order of your selections.

For a two-team reverse, that means you’re betting “Team A if Team B” and “Team B if Team A,” simultaneously.

Essentially, you include the original if-bet sequence and its opposite.

This ensures you don’t miss out on a winning second pick just because it was stuck behind a loser in one direction.

Keep in mind that placing a reverse automatically doubles your stake compared to a single if bet – since you’re really making two bets.

For example, a $110 if-bet would require $220 to cover both reverse sequences of that two-team combo.

In sportsbook terms, all reverse bets are “double action,” meaning the next bet fires if the previous one wins, pushes, or is canceled. (If you see “action reverse” in a bet menu, that’s referring to this push-inclusive condition. More on action vs. win reverse in a moment.)

How Do Action Reverse Bets Work?

In practice, reverse bets give each of your picks a chance to be the “if” for the other. If you have at least two selections you like, a reverse bet ties them together in every possible order. Let’s talk mechanics:

In a 2-team reverse, there are exactly two underlying if-bets: A→B and B→A. You’re putting equal money on both scenarios. If A wins (or pushes), it triggers a bet on B; if B wins (or pushes), it triggers a bet on A. You essentially cover both outcomes of which team wins first.
In a multi-team reverse (sometimes called an “if bet round robin”), every pair of selections gets its own if-bet in each direction. For instance, a 3-team reverse isn’t a single chain of three; it’s actually six paired bets: A→B, B→A, A→C, C→A, B→C, and C→B . Similarly, a 4-team reverse consists of 12 if-bets (all possible two-team combos forward and back), and so on. The sportsbook will bundle these for you as one “reverse bet” ticket, but it helps to realize you’ve got a mini-web of conditional bets under the hood. This is very similar to a round robin parlay, which covers all parlay combinations of a set of teams – except here we’re covering all conditional if-bet combinations of your teams instead. When you select more than two teams in a reverse, you’re essentially doing an if-bet round robin on every combination.
“Win Reverse” vs. “Action Reverse”: Most online books let you choose between these. A Win Reverse requires a leg to win outright to keep the chain going; if a game is a push or no-action, the remaining bets do not proceed (the sequence stops). An Action Reverse (the common default) will treat a push or cancel as neutral (no loss) and still activate the next bet. For example, in a win reverse, if your first game ends in a tie, your second bet never happens (and you only risked the first leg). In an action reverse, a tie on the first game would effectively skip it – your second bet still goes through as if the first “didn’t lose” . Because of this, action reverses are generally preferred so that a push doesn’t kill your whole wager (hence the name “action” – your bet continues to have action). Just note that an action reverse risks a bit more since a push doesn’t save you from the next bet; you’re truly in it unless a leg loses.

Key point: Reverse bets are not the same as multi-leg parlays, though they resemble them. With a parlay, all your picks have to hit or you get zilch. With a reverse, each pick is an individual bet with conditional timing. You can still cash something even if not every team covers the spread or wins the game. Think of a reverse bet as a safety-net parlay or a two-way if-bet: it tries to give you a payout if you were half-right, while still juicing your winnings if you nail everything.

2-Team Reverse Bet Example (Step by Step)

Let’s solidify this with a concrete example.

Say you want to bet two NFL point spreads, both at the standard -110 odds, and you’re willing to risk a total of $100. You’ve got Team A -4 in the early game and Team B -3 in the late game. Here’s how different betting options would play out:

Straight Bets: You’d put $50 on Team A and $50 on Team B separately. If both win, each $50 yields about $45.45 profit at -110 odds (total ~$90.90 profit). If one wins and one loses, you’d net roughly -$4.55 (win $45.45 on one, lose $50 on the other) – basically a scratch thanks to the juice. If both lose, you’re out the full $100.
Parlay: You place one $100 parlay on A and B together. A 2-team parlay at -110 each typically pays around +264 (approximately $264 return on $100). If both teams cover, you’d win about $164 profit (and get your $100 back). But if either team loses, the parlay is a total loss of $100 – there’s no partial credit for going 1-1.
Reverse Bet: Now consider the action reverse. You split your $100 stake into two $50 conditional bets: one if-bet for A→B, and another for B→A. Essentially, you have two tickets:
1. “$50 on Team A, if A wins (or pushes), then $50 on Team B.”
2. “$50 on Team B, if B wins (or pushes), then $50 on Team A.”
These two sequences cover both possible orders, and together they constitute your $100 reverse wager (two $50 bets). Now let’s walk through the possible outcomes:
Both Teams Win: The dream scenario. Team A covers the -4 and Team B covers the -3. What happens? In sequence 1, A wins, triggering the $50 bet on B which also wins. In sequence 2, B wins, triggering the $50 bet on A which also wins. You’ve essentially hit four winning bets of $50 (-110 each). Each $50 win pays $45.45 profit, so altogether you earn $45.45 × 4 = $181.80 profit . You also get your stakes back, but the profit is what we focus on. Winning both games in a reverse actually pays more than the parlay’s $164 profit, because you effectively had action on each team twice (once in each sequence). Not bad for the same two picks!
One Wins, One Loses: Here’s where reverse bets show their “half-right” impact. Let’s say Team A covers but Team B falls short. In sequence 1 (A→B), A wins so it triggers a bet on B – which loses. Sequence 1 had a win and then a loss. In sequence 2 (B→A), B was first and lost immediately, so that sequence ends with the initial $50 loss and no bet on A. Tally it up: you won $45.45 profit on Team A in sequence 1, but lost $50 on Team B in sequence 1, and lost another $50 on Team B as the first leg of sequence 2. The second sequence didn’t get to bet on A because B’s loss halted it. Net result: you lose $54.55 overall (you gained $45.45, but lost $50 twice). If instead Team B had won and Team A lost, the mirror happens and you’d also net -$54.55. So with a reverse, a 1-1 split isn’t a wash – you actually drop about 54% of your stake. It’s not great, but compare that to the parlay (which would’ve lost the full $100) or even a one-way if bet: if you had done just “A if B” and A won but B lost, you’d have ended down a bit as well. At least the reverse bet gave that second team a chance to contribute. In fact, thanks to the reverse, you recovered some money by hitting one bet, instead of losing everything. On the flip side, straight bets would only have lost ~$4.55 in juice for a 1-1 result, which underscores that reverse bets are not a risk-free panacea.
Both Teams Lose: Let’s rip it off like a Band-Aid. A loses and B loses. In sequence 1, A’s loss stops the bet on B; you drop $50. In sequence 2, B’s loss stops the bet on A; that’s another $50 gone. You’ve lost $100 total, which is exactly the same outcome as if you’d parlayed and both lost, or if you’d simply bet both straight and they both lost. The damage is capped at your total $100 stake – you can’t lose more than you invested in the reverse.

So in this two-team example, the reverse bet sat in a middle ground between a parlay and independent bets. It didn’t quite minimize risk as well as straight bets (which only lost a few bucks on a split), but it wasn’t as do-or-die as the parlay. You sacrificed a little more on the 1-1 scenario to gain a higher upside on the 2-0 scenario. That’s the trade-off in a nutshell.

Multi-Team Reverse Bets and Round Robins

The example above can extend to more teams if you’re feeling adventurous. As mentioned, a reverse bet with more than two teams is a web of if bets covering each pair. It starts to resemble a round robin, and it can be a lot to keep track of. For clarity:

A 3-team reverse (Teams A, B, C) has 6 sequences (if-bets) under the hood: A→B, A→C, B→A, B→C, C→A, C→B. You’d be placing 6 equal bets. If you risk $10 “per side,” it’s a $60 total reverse. Hitting all three picks means every one of those six sequences will produce two wins, which is a nice payoff. But if one or two teams lose, the math of partial wins gets complicated – some sequences will stop early, others will continue. You might still end up with some profit or a smaller loss depending on which combinations hit. Essentially, every winning pair among your picks will pay out, and every pair involving a loser will cost you.
A 4-team reverse has 12 sequences, a 5-team reverse has 20, and so on (the formula is N × (N-1) sequences). The number of bets (and your total stake) grows quadratically with more teams. This means risk and complexity grow, too. Much like a round robin parlay with many legs, a big reverse bet can yield a mix of wins and losses across all those if-bets. It’s highly possible to go, say, 3-1 on a 4-team reverse and still lose money, depending on which team was paired with which in the losing sequences. Remember: in a reverse, every losing pick gets paired up with every winner in some sequence, potentially burning those wins partially.
Round Robin similarities: If you’re familiar with round robin parlays (where you pick, say, 3 or 4 teams and the book automatically makes all smaller parlay combinations), a reverse bet is analogous but with conditional bets instead of parlays. Both are ways to spread out risk and not put all eggs in one basket. A round robin parlay might pay some parlays even if one team loses; a reverse bet will pay some if-bets if some teams win. In both cases, the more combinations you include, the more you’re staking in total (and the more you stand to win or lose) . Reverse bets allow you to be slightly contrarian to parlays – you’re betting in a way that even a partial win scenario returns something. But don’t confuse “partial payout” with “profitable payout.” You usually need a strong winning percentage on your selections (e.g., 3-1 or 3-0 on a 4-team reverse) to actually make money. If you go 2-2 on a 4-teamer, you’ll likely take a loss once all the sequence accounting is done.

Bottom line: Multi-team reverses behave like a bundle of two-team reverses on every possible pairing.

This can amplify your returns when you nail most of your picks, but it can also multiply your losses if you’re wrong on too many.

It’s a balanced risk strategy for some bettors, but be mindful that the book isn’t giving away free lunches here – they still charge juice on each of those if-bet legs, so larger reverses can rack up juice costs on all the mini bets.

Pros and Cons of Reverse Bets

As with any exotic wager, reverse bets come with distinct advantages and downsides. Let’s lay out the high-level pros and cons to help you decide if this strategy fits your betting style:

Pros (Why Use Reverse Bets?)

Not All-or-Nothing: Unlike a traditional parlay that busts entirely if one game fails, a reverse bet can still return something if not every pick is correct. You don’t necessarily need a perfect sweep to see a payout – e.g. you might salvage some winnings (or cut your losses) if you go, say, 2-1 on a 3-team reverse, whereas a 3-team parlay would be a total loss at 2-1. This built-in “safety net” appeals to bettors who want the action without the complete parlay risk.
Higher Upside than Straight Bets: Reverse bets can yield bigger profits than betting each game individually when you do pick winners. Because each winning combination of teams triggers multiple payouts, the full payoff for a perfect day is sweet. In our example, two wins in a reverse brought $181.80 profit on a $100 risk, compared to ~$91 profit betting them straight. If you have an edge on several games, a reverse bet leverages that edge more than flat singles – without going full parlay turbo mode.
Reduced Exposure vs. Parlays: Many bettors use if bets and reverses as a money-management tool to limit losses. By structuring bets conditionally, you avoid dumping your entire roll on all games at once. For example, with a normal multi-bet strategy you might risk $100 on each of three games ($300 total). A reverse bet on those three might cap your worst-case loss lower than $300 because not all bets go through if you start losing. Essentially, reverses introduce a form of stop-loss; a losing pick halts some of your exposure. It’s a way to be aggressive on wins, but conservative on losses, in theory.
Covers Both Orders (No “Wrong Order” Regret): If you’ve ever made an if bet or parlay and later thought, “Dang, I wish I’d put Team B first instead of Team A,” reverse bets have you covered. Because they include every ordering, you can’t “miss” a payout just because your bets were ordered suboptimally. For instance, if your second pick would’ve won big but your first pick failed, a reverse ensures that the second pick still got its chance in the other sequence. You may still lose money if only one hits (as we saw), but at least you cash that one ticket. In a one-way if bet, a loss on the first leg means the second leg isn’t even placed (zero return even if it would have won). The reverse bet removes that frustration – every team you choose will be a first-leg in one of the sequences, so a winner never goes completely unused.
Flexibility and Control: Reverse wagers come in many sizes (you can usually pick 2 to 6 teams, sometimes more), giving you flthe exibility to tailor risk. You can also choose Win Reverse or Action Reverse depending on how you want pushes handled. This bet type lets you calibrate between the extremes of singles vs parlays. One betting site even notes that reverses offer “better immunity” to losses than parlays while remaining more flexible than most multi-leg bets. It’s a balancing act that some seasoned bettors appreciate.

Cons (Potential Pitfalls)

Complexity: Let’s face it, reverse bets aren’t the simplest wagers in the world. They involve multiple conditional outcomes and can be daunting for beginners. You’ve got to keep track of sequences and understand how the outcomes mesh. If parlays are checkers, reverse bets are 3D chess. Mess up the stake calculations or sequence logic, and you might risk more than you intended or misjudge your returns. The complexity can also make it harder to quickly calculate your profits/losses on the fly. Beginners may want to practice on paper or use calculators (many online reverse bet calculators exist) before diving in with real money.
Double (or Triple, etc.) the Stake: A reverse bet costs more upfront than a single if bet or parlay on the same teams. You’re essentially placing multiple wagers. That two-team reverse for $100 actually meant you had $200 in play (two $50 bets). A three-team reverse with a $100 “notional” stake would be $300 in total bets (since it comprises 6 sequences). So be careful with bankroll management – the ticket might say one amount, but your account will be debited for more because of those extra combinations. New bettors sometimes get sticker shock when they realize a “$50 reverse” drew $100 or $150 from their balance. Always check how your book displays the cost; most will show the total risk before you confirm.
Still Possible to Lose Even with Winning Picks: Perhaps the biggest downside: you can win more than half your games and still lose money on a reverse bet. We saw that with a 1-1 split on a 2-teamer resulting in a net loss. With more teams, the scenarios multiply. You could go 2-1 on a 3-team reverse and, depending on which team lost, end up negative or only marginally up. If two of your teams won but they never got paired together in the sequences without encountering the loser, your profits from those wins might not overcome what you lost on the sequences involving the losing team. In contrast, betting games individually guarantees a profit if you hit more than you miss (assuming equal stakes). With reverses, the settlement is more convoluted. In short, being “mostly right” doesn’t always guarantee a profit here – a fact that can catch bettors off guard. One analysis pointed out that reverse bets are a mix of hedging and parlaying, but not a magic bullet to minimize risk completely.
Juice on Each Bet: Every leg of every if bet in the reverse carries standard juice (the bookmaker’s cut). In a parlay, you only pay juice on the final combo (effectively rolled in). In a reverse, you pay the juice on each separate bet that gets placed. This can weigh down the returns. For example, if you have four teams in a reverse, you’re paying vig on 12 separate bets. That can subtly tilt the math against you more than a simple parlay would (though still usually less risk than the parlay). It’s one reason some experts say reverses are a poor substitute for straight bets in terms of pure expected value over the long run – they’re best viewed as a strategic play if you accept a different risk profile, not as a way to beat the juice.
Not Widely Offered Everywhere: Most major sportsbooks do offer if bets and reverses (sometimes under a special tab or “exotics” category), but not all have an easy interface for them. You might have to manually construct them by placing separate if bets, especially for multi-team reverses. It’s a minor con, but worth noting if you’re shopping around – the convenience of placing a reverse bet can vary.

When (and When Not) to Use Reverse Bets

Reverse bets occupy a unique niche. When should you consider using one? And when might you be better off sticking to simpler wagers? Here are some tips:

Use Reverses for Moderate Confidence Parlays: If you have a couple of games you like but want a cushion, a reverse can be a savvy alternative to a parlay. For example, you feel good about two NFL sides but not enough to risk a full parlay – a 2-team action reverse will pay nicely if both win, yet won’t punish you as badly as a parlay if one flops. It’s a way to hedge your parlay risk a bit. On the flip side, if you’re very confident all your picks will hit, a parlay actually yields higher profit relative to stake (and lower total stake) than a reverse. Reverses are best when you want to balance confidence with caution.
Avoid Reverses for Just “Taking Shots”: Don’t use a reverse bet as a gimmick or lottery ticket. If your goal is a massive payout from a longshot combination, a round-robin parlay might suit that better. Reverse bets shine for bankroll management – they’re about controlling losses, not maximizing a jackpot. If you’re betting small underdogs hoping one big hit covers others, a reverse might just erode your winnings with those extra bets. Similarly, if you only kind of like one of the teams, maybe just don’t include it. All selections in a reverse should be games you feel solid about, because a weak pick will drag down multiple sequences.
Be Mindful of Number of Teams: As a general rule, keep the number of teams in your reverse bet on the lower side unless you have a strategic reason. The more teams, the more combinations (and the more your total risk). It’s tempting to toss in that 5th or 6th team, but remember each addition increases the web of bets exponentially. If you do go big (4+ teams), consider that you’ll need to hit a strong majority of them for the reverse to profit. Two wrong picks in a 5-team reverse, for instance, will blow up a lot of sequences. Don’t overdo it just because the option is there.
Leverage “If” Logic for Staggered Games: A practical scenario for reverses is when your games are at different times. Suppose you have an early game and a late game; a reverse bet inherently acts like “if win then bet later” and vice versa. It can serve as a kind of automatic reinvestment of winnings as the day goes on, without having to manually fire new bets (or chase losses). Just be cautious: some books require if bets on games that don’t overlap time-wise, but others let you do it regardless of start time (the bet will just cancel if a later game’s outcome is required before it’s decided – confusing, I know, but usually the software handles it). If all your games are concurrent, the if-bet nature doesn’t help as much (since you won’t know earlier results to stop later bets), but the reverse still functions mathematically the same.
When Not to Use a Reverse: If you’re only betting two teams and you truly only want one sequence, you might just do a single if-bet. For example, if you have a top pick and a secondary pick, and you only want to risk the secondary if the top pick wins, a one-way if bet suffices. A reverse in that case doubles your risk without aligning with your intent (because it forces the secondary pick to trigger a bet on the primary as well). Likewise, if you simply want maximum payout and don’t care about safety nets, a parlay or teaser might be more straightforward. Never use a reverse bet without fully understanding the payout structure – that’s a recipe for unpleasant surprises. And if the concept feels too complicated or stressful, it’s okay to pass on it; you can be a successful bettor with plain old straights and parlays. Reverse bets are an option, not a necessity.
Practice and Use Tools: Before wagering big, try a small reverse bet to see how it settles. Use a reverse bet calculator to plug in hypothetical results and understand the outcomes. This is especially useful for multi-team reverses. Betting is as much about strategy as picking winners, and reverse bets require a bit of calculation. Once you’re comfortable, they can be a valuable tool in your betting arsenal.

In summary, reverse bets can be a fun and effective way to cover your bases in sports betting.

They allow you to play multiple games with some insurance against a single bad beat, though not without cost.

Always weigh the risk vs reward.

Reverse wagers reduce the “all or nothing” sting, but they introduce their own quirks.

If used wisely – say, when you have a couple of strong leans and want to guard against the order of outcomes – they might just become your new favorite betting trick.

Just remember: no magic bet guarantees profit, but understanding tools like the reverse bet gives you one more way to play the game smarter.

What Is a Reverse Bet in Sports Betting?