How a ticket card works
ParlayTix is the prediction market for tickets. You don't have to pay full price for a game you may not want to go to. You can buy a card instead: a real ticket that becomes yours if something happens first. Think of a seat at the conference final if your team gets there, or a playoff ticket if a rival drops out.
Parlay your way in. Here is what that means in practice.
What a card says
Every card names three things:
- The ticket. A real ticket to a specific event, with its seat details.
- Your pick. The result that has to happen first, like a team winning a game that comes before the event. The pick settles before the ticket's event starts.
- The upfront price. What you pay now. The card shows it next to the full ticket price, so you can see the difference at a glance.
The product name on the card is Ticket Option. Most of the time we just call it a card.
If your pick hits
Once the result is final, your card records your right to the ticket, and you have nothing else to pay. Getting the actual ticket to you is a separate step. The card shows its own delivery status and timing, so check there. A final result on its own doesn't mean the ticket has arrived.
If your pick misses
You don't get the ticket, and the upfront price is spent. It isn't a deposit and it doesn't come back. That's the trade: you pay less now because you only go if your pick hits. Nothing else to pay, either way.
Why a card can cost less than the ticket
The price starts from the chance that your pick hits. Prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi put a live number on that chance. A pick with about a one-in-four chance is priced at roughly a quarter of the ticket's value, plus a margin for the seller. The less likely the pick, the lower the upfront price.
This works both ways. A pick that is very likely to hit costs close to the full ticket, so a card saves you the most when the outcome is still a real question. The seller sets the final listing price, and the market chance is a guide to it, not a promise of the result. For the full math with an example, read how odds set the price.
Packs: one ticket, every possible winner
Cards come in packs. A ticket holder takes one ticket and makes a card for each possible answer to one question. "Who wins this game?" makes two cards. "Who wins the conference?" can make many more.
The answers rule each other out, so exactly one card in a pack can hit, and whoever holds that card gets the ticket. Nothing is drawn at random. Every card in the pack points to the same seat, so you can look over the whole pack, compare prices and pick the answer you believe in.
Where cards come from
ParlayTix is a marketplace with two sides. Ticket holders and resellers supply the tickets behind the cards. They make packs from seats they hold, set listing prices and fill fan requests. Fans buy cards, bid on them and resell them.
If the card you want isn't listed, you can create a request. You choose the game, your pick, the seat type and what you would pay. Your offer is held in your balance, and you're charged only when a holder fills the request. That happens before the result, so a miss after a fill means your offer is spent. If nobody fills it before it expires, the hold is released.
You can also bid on a card that's already listed. A bid is a nonbinding offer and no money is held.
Owning a card
A card is yours. It sits in your Binder, and you can keep it, give it to someone or list it at your own price. When a listed card sells, the buyer pays exactly your listed price, and a 10% selling fee comes out of what you receive.
Before you buy
Take a moment to check:
- your pick, and when and how it settles
- the upfront price and the full ticket price shown beside it
- the seat details and the delivery timing on the card
- the miss case: if your pick misses, the upfront price is spent
Find your card
Packs for NFL and NBA games are in Shop. Open Shop and make your pick.