A ‘push’ occurs when the result of a sporting event ends in a tie between the sports bettor and the Sportsbook.

Neither party wins or loses. So, the original wager is refunded back to the sports bettor.

Pushes in sports betting is not the worst thing in the world. What’s annoying is that you can spend your time watching the entire game, only to break even.

Nevertheless, sports bettors are not punished by Sportsbooks for push bets. The full wager is always refunded.

Pushes are most common in sports that use the point spread, like Basketball and Football, but they can also be used in sports like Ice Hockey and Baseball in over/under betting.

EXAMPLE

Imagine there was an upcoming NHL game between the Boston Bruins and the Calgary Flames, and the sports bettor was to bet that both teams would combine to score more than 5 goals.

The push comes into play if, at the end of the game, exactly 5 goals were scored.

If the bet was made and exactly 5 goals were scored, the bet pushes and the bettor would receive 100% of their wager back.

PARLAY PUSH

If a bettor is making a parlay, every event in the parlay must win in order for the bet to win. But what if one of these events is a push? Does the parlay become void?

In most Sportsbooks, the answer is no. If a push occurs on one of the events in the parlay, that event is dropped from the parlay entirely.

In essence, it’s as if that event was never selected in the parlay at all.

After the event is removed from the parlay, the payout multiplier is adjusted, meaning that the new payout potential is also adjusted.

However, this is not always the case. Some Sportsbooks will count a push as a loss so it’s important to be aware of that sportsbook’s rules and T&C’s before making the play.