What is a straight trade?
A straight trade is a single-leg wager on one outcome — things like:
Moneylines
Point spreads
Totals (over/under)
Player props
Futures
When you place a straight trade, you're either accepting another user's posted price or setting your own price and waiting for someone to take the other side. Either way, your counterparty is a real person, not Novig.
Why this matters: because there's no "house" on the other side of the trade, there's no vig baked into the price. If your trade gets matched, you and the person on the other side agreed to that price directly.
Note: If a market has little or no liquidity, Novig may step in as a market maker to fill your straight trade so you're not left waiting indefinitely.
What is a parlay?
A parlay combines two or more individual selections ("legs") into a single wager. All legs have to win for the parlay to pay out.
When you build a parlay on Novig, your request goes out to all market makers through a process called Request For Quote (RFQ). If a market maker is able to price your parlay, they'll do so instantly, and Novig returns the best available price to you. This means every parlay is priced in real time based on live market maker liquidity, so you get the most competitive price for that specific combination.