How Pregame works
How a parlay request becomes a ticket in your book: what the engine does, what you control, and what your money is exposed to.
Your side of the ticket
You are the house: you set the rules, and the engine quotes parlays for you. Bettors ask for prices on parlays. When quoting is on and its checks pass, the engine sends a quote. If the bettor takes it and the trade confirms, you hold the house side of that ticket.
If any leg (one pick in the parlay) loses, you keep the bettor’s stake. If every leg wins, you lose your amount at risk on that ticket. The engine does the quoting; the risk is still yours.
Two sides of every ticket
The bettor pays a stake for a possible payout. Your amount at risk is the difference. The Floor and the Tickets page show all three separately.
Where requests come from
On Polymarket Combos, a bettor sends a parlay request (an RFQ, or request for quote) to competing market makers, and each can answer with a price. A request is a chance to quote, not a trade.
Polymarket currently allows 400ms to submit a quote. The bettor’s acceptance and the trade come after that. See Polymarket’s RFQ flow.
From request to confirmed fill
- Check scope. Your sports, games, teams, leg count, and parlay price range decide whether the request fits your book.
- Check market data. Each leg’s order book must be fresh and pass spread, depth, and movement checks. Duplicate or related legs are skipped unless same-game pricing is on for that sport and the engine can price them.
- Price it. The engine starts from fair value, its estimate of the parlay’s true price from its legs’ market prices, and adds your margin.
- Check room and time. Your money on hand and your limits cap the size. A request without enough time left is skipped.
- Send, then wait for proof. The quote being received, the bettor accepting, and the fill confirming are separate steps. The Floor shows the latest step it has confirmed.
Autopilot or manual control
Choose how the engine sets your margin: how far your quote sits above fair value, shown in bps (basis points: 100 bps = 1%). Either way, the engine still runs its market-data, funding, and execution checks.
- Autopilot: learns from past auction results and aims for the auction win rate you pick. Selective, Balanced, and More fills set different targets; none promises that rate.
- Manual control: you set a base margin for each leg count. Automatic pricing additions are skipped; team adjustments you set still apply.
- Outcome prices: Market follows the market price, Offset adds your adjustment, and Pin price fixes a value until you clear it. These change what the engine quotes.
Autopilot never prices below a floor made of configured fees, minimum edge, risk reserves, spread, and measured adverse selection (losses from bettors who know more than the price). Book-balance and team adjustments can also move the margin. The pricing panel says when it is using a fallback because recent auction data is thin.
What an edge depends on
Quoting above an accurate fair value can make money on average, before costs. Three things must hold: the probabilities are right, the price covers costs, and the quotes bettors take are not systematically worse for you than the ones they pass on.
- Market prices are estimates. A midpoint can lag the news or reflect a thin market.
- Shared outcomes concentrate losses. Many tickets can depend on one result.
- More volume does not fix bad pricing. Repeating a losing trade grows the expected loss.
What a fill does to your wallet
When a ticket fills, the bettor’s stake and your amount at risk together fund the payout, held as Polymarket Combo positions. Money locked in an open ticket is not cash you can spend.
Your wallet and tickets update only from confirmed data. A bridge saying a deposit is done is not the same as your balance updating, and a game ending is not the same as a confirmed market result.
When the bettor wins
If every leg wins for the bettor, you lose that ticket’s amount at risk. The stake is already counted in it; do not subtract it again.
- Per ticket limits the most one ticket can put at risk.
- Total open limits what all open tickets and pending quotes can put at risk together.
- Team limits cap your risk on tickets that include a chosen team.
- Loss limits auto-stop quoting when a day’s or week’s losses, settled results plus the current value of open tickets, reach the share of bankroll you set.
A quick route through Rules
- Scope: pick a leg-count range and parlay price range. Use the sport picker and game panels to choose which games you quote.
- Pricing: choose Autopilot or Manual control, then check the targets and where they come from.
- Risk limits: set Per ticket, Total open, Fills per day, and your loss limits.
- Teams: turn teams on or off and set a dollar limit per team.
- Save status: wait for Saved. Until then, the server has not confirmed the change.
Presets are starting points, not a promise that a book is safe for you. Check their numbers before you start quoting.
What the safety checks do
When a required condition fails, the engine does not quote. It checks your money on hand, your limits, fresh usable market data, request deadlines, and that your desk is turned on. Accounting or connection problems can auto-stop quoting.
These checks protect how quotes are sent. They do not guarantee correct prices, nonstop service, on-time settlement, or profit. The status beside the quoting button shows what the desk has confirmed.
Watch, prepare, then choose
You can explore the public Floor before signing in. In Preseason, practice mode with real requests and no money at risk, you can set up your desk while you wait for quoting access. A request on screen, or an Eligible label, is not a practice fill or a profit forecast.
- Explore requests
- Review your rules
- Check account and funds
- Start only when ready
After you press Start quoting, wait for the engine to confirm. To stop new risk, press Stop quoting and wait for confirmation. Closing the browser does not stop the engine; filled tickets keep their risk.
Open the Tickets page to pin tickets, follow their legs, and see which shared outcomes move your book. The bell collects confirmed activity and connection problems while this tab is open.
Words you will see
- Parlay request (RFQ)
- A bettor asking makers for a price on a parlay. RFQ means request for quote.
- Quote
- The price your desk offers on a request.
- Leg
- One pick inside a parlay.
- Fair value
- The engine’s estimate of the parlay’s true price, starting from the product of its legs’ market prices.
- Margin
- How far your quote sits above fair value, in bps. 100 bps = 1%.
- Fill
- The bettor took your quote and the trade is confirmed; it is now a ticket. An accepted quote alone is not a fill.
- Ticket
- A filled parlay you are on the house side of.
- Bettor’s stake
- What the bettor paid. You keep it if the parlay loses. Some screens call it the premium.
- At risk
- What you lose if every leg wins: the payout minus the bettor’s stake, before fees.
- Settled
- Every leg decided, or one leg lost: the result is final.
- Profit / loss (P&L)
- Money made or lost. Realized means settled tickets only.
- Chance to pay
- An estimate, from market prices, that the bettor’s parlay hits. It cannot confirm a result or settle a ticket.