# How Novig parlays work

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Canonical: https://novigapi.com/guides/novig-parlays
Facts checked: 2026-11-12

A Novig parlay is one order on two or more legs that must all win, priced by a request-for-quote auction among liquidity providers rather than the order book. Novig's fee page, checked on 12 Nov 2026, says each parlay quote already includes a fee of 0.10 x P x (1 - P) per contract. (Source: [Novig Help Center: Fees on Novig](https://support.novig.com/en/articles/16195057-fees-on-novig))

## Why parlays are priced differently

Straight trades match on an order book between users. A parlay combines legs that rarely have a resting order book of their own, so Novig prices them by quote. When you build a parlay, Novig asks all of its liquidity providers for a price and returns the best one. Every parlay is quoted for that specific combination of markets at that moment.

## How the quote auction works

1. Novig checks the legs, creates a request for quote and opens a 3-second auction.
2. Each registered maker can answer with a price and the largest stake it will take, or decline.
3. The lowest price wins because it pays the user the most; a tie goes to the larger maximum stake.
4. When you accept, the winning maker gets 1 second to confirm, the last look. If it confirms, the trade executes.
5. The parlay settles as one position when its legs grade.

Novig's docs say it passes over quotes whose maximum stake is below the user's stake or below $10, and quotes from makers whose balance cannot cover their collateral. During the beta, makers must confirm 99% of last looks or are locked out of quoting for 5 minutes. Ludlow Exchange filed its RFQ and combination-contract rules with the CFTC on 29 June 2026.

## The parlay fee

Parlays carry a 0.10 coefficient instead of the 0.06 used on live and futures straights, and the fee is already in the price you see. Novig's example: a quote of 10.9 cents per contract reflects a fair price of 10.0 cents plus a fee of 0.10 x 0.10 x 0.90, or 0.9 cents. On 100 contracts you pay $10.90 and receive $100.00 if every leg wins.

Parlay fee per 100 contracts by fair price (calculated from Novig's formula)

| Fair price | Fee per 100 contracts | All-in quote |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 10% | $0.90 | 10.90% |
| 20% | $1.60 | 21.60% |
| 30% | $2.10 | 32.10% |
| 50% | $2.50 | 52.50% |


## Straights and parlays side by side

Straight trades versus parlays on Novig (checked 12 Nov 2026)

|  | Straight trade | Parlay |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Counterparty | Another user | The liquidity provider that won the auction |
| Pricing | Order book | Request for quote, best price returned |
| Fee | None pre-game; 0.06 taker fee live and on futures | 0.10 coefficient, inside the quote |
| Maker credit | Available on fee-carrying markets | None on combination contracts |
| Through the API | Yes | Users cannot take parlays through the API; makers can quote them |


## Settlement

All legs must win for a parlay to pay. If any leg loses, the parlay can settle immediately, even while other legs are still open. Otherwise it settles after every leg has settled. A protected NFL leg that settles at fair value does not by itself make the parlay lose; see the [protected props guide](https://novigapi.com/guides/novig-protected-props) for how that leg is valued.

## When a parlay costs more than its legs

If the legs are independent, the fair price of a parlay is the product of the leg probabilities. Two legs at 50% make a fair 25% parlay; the 0.10 fee adds 0.10 x 0.25 x 0.75, or about 1.9 cents, for a quote near 26.9%. Taking the same two legs as pre-game straights costs no fee at all. When legs are correlated, such as a team covering and its quarterback going over his passing line, the fair parlay price can differ a lot from the simple product, and the makers bidding in the auction price that correlation in. Compare a quote with the straight prices before assuming the parlay is the better route.

## Parlays in Novig's public data

In Novig's free daily markets.csv, a parlay appears with the report ticker COMBO, only on the day it executes. Because it trades once, its open, high, low and close are all the same price. That makes parlays easy to filter out when you study straight-market prices, or to isolate when you study parlay pricing.

If you work with this data in code, Novig has an official trading API and free daily CSVs. [The Novig data API](https://novigapi.com/novig-api) is an independent, read-only layer on top: no Novig account, names resolved, intraday line history, fair prices and alerts.

## Questions

### How are Novig parlays priced?

By a 3-second request-for-quote auction. Novig asks its liquidity providers for a price, the lowest price wins, and the winning maker has 1 second to confirm when you accept.

### Is there a fee on Novig parlays?

Yes. A 0.10 x P x (1 - P) per-contract fee is built into the quote, so nothing is added at checkout.

### Can I place Novig parlays through the API?

Novig's fee page says parlays cannot be taken through the API. Registered makers can quote parlays through the RFQ interface.

### Can I protect a parlay leg?

Yes, on eligible NFL player legs before kickoff. The toggle protects every eligible leg in the parlay at once.

## Sources

- [Novig Help Center: Straight trades vs. parlays](https://support.novig.com/en/articles/15724187-straight-trades-vs-parlays-on-novig)
- [Novig API docs: RFQ overview](https://docs.novig.com/api/rfq/overview)
- [Novig Help Center: Fees on Novig](https://support.novig.com/en/articles/16195057-fees-on-novig)
- [Novig Help Center: Protected Markets](https://support.novig.com/en/articles/18234712-protected-markets)
- [Novig public data: markets.csv](https://docs.novig.com/public-data/markets)
- [CFTC filing: Ludlow RFQ functionality and combination contracts (29 Jun 2026)](https://www.cftc.gov/filings/orgrules/rules0630268380.pdf)
- [Novig docs: Maker Credit Program](https://docs.novig.com/maker-credit-program)

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