How Do Betting Odds Work?

Odds are an important aspect of sports betting. Understanding them and how to use them is important if you want to become a successful sports bettor. Odds are used to calculate how much money you get back from winning challenges, but that is not all.

What you may not have known is that there are several different ways of expressing odds, or that odds are intricately linked to the probability of a wager winning. They also dictate whether any wager represents good value or not, and value is something that you should always consider when deciding what bets to place.

Odds play an intrinsic role in how bookmakers make money too. Bookies use Odds Checker as a benchmark, meaning there is less variation between gambling venues across the world. With so many numbers pop out in different formats, betting websites can be overwhelming for the beginner.

But if you can get to grips with a few simple mathematical ideas, it will all become a lot easier. This article will show you how betting odds work.

Comparing Sport Betting Odds to Poker Betting Odds

When you come across sports betting odds or even esports, you might want to know that the odds are worked out by looking at past statistics.

For example, when Liverpool FC face anyone at home in a football match, the bookies will most likely be factoring in the fact that they are unbeaten in their last 66 matches at home. Therefore, it is not likely to bet on Liverpool losing a home game.

But like they say, all records are there to be broken! However, if you play poker, you need to be very attentive to calculating poker odds as that will inform you of how likely it is going to occur.

Fractional Odds

Displaying odds in a fractional format is most common in the UK market. Fractional odds are some of the simplest to understand, as they present your potential winnings as a fraction of the money you stake while the denominator represents the amount bet, the numerator is the amount your stake will yield in a winning bet.

Let us say that your betting stake is £10. If you place a bet at 3/1 odds, this simply means that a punter will get paid out three times the original betting stake.

So that would mean that the punter who placed a £10 bet would receive £40 back. Just remember that this includes the original £10 stake, as well as the £30 in betting profits.

You can use the following formula to calculate potential returns with fractional odds:

((Stake/denominator) x numerator) + stake = return
For example: (10 x 5) + 10 = 60

Decimal Odds

Decimal odds are by far the most popular odds system out there in the online betting world and it is mostly used in Europe. Nearly all of the major online websites, regardless of the region, will make decimal odds available to you.

To calculate the decimal style odds all you need to do is simply multiply the amount you wish to wager by the decimal odds shown and you will get your payout.

Decimal odds especially tell you how much money you’ll get from your stake. So if you were wagering £10 on odds of 4.00, it would mean that you’d get £50 in return which includes your original £10 stake and £40 in profits.

American Odds

Also known as Moneyline odds, this odds system displays odds that are led by either a plus or negative sign. These indicate how much you would need to wager to win £100.

For example, if you saw odds that displayed +125, it means that you would need to put down a betting stake of £100 to redeem £125. But if you wagered on odds of -150, then you would need to bet £150 to make a £100 profit.

Types of Odds

If you are planning to enter the betting world, it is important to be able to understand and define all types of odds well.

Once you understand the three popular types of odds (fractional, decimal, and American), you can move towards a more detailed read on this topic and find out how the house always wins.