How Do Betting Odds

• Betting odds are used to assess the likelihood of an event happening.
• Less likely events tend to have higher odds and offer a larger reward, while more likely events have a lower risk attached and therefore a lower reward.
• Your winnings depend on how much you wager on a given set of odds.
• Betting odds are seen in a range of formats – they are most commonly seen as fractions but are also sometimes presented as decimals.

But betting odds are just as important on casino games, especially on table games like blackjack and roulette. In fact, on these games, the odds and payouts are one of the first things you need to learn. The simplest odd pairing on roulette, for example, is betting on red or black, odd or even. This bet comes with a payout of 1:1 or simply if. Compare odds and offers from the leading bookies. Get the best tips and insight. Place the smartest bets on Oddschecker. Your One Stop Betting Hub.

A quick introduction to betting odds

Decimal and fraction odds might seem confusing, especially if you’re not familiar with online sports betting and all the betting terms and types. This handy guide is ideal for anyone new to betting, or if you’re struggling to read the odds.

It contains a range of useful tips and tricks that will help you better understand just how betting odds work, so you can choose odds and place your bets with more confidence.

Here, we will highlight:

• The key points of betting odds and what you should look out for.
• How to read betting odds and make them work in your favour.
• Tips and tricks to help you understand betting odds more easily.

What are betting odds?

Betting odds are used to present the likelihood of an outcome, as well as help you understand how much you could win from a bet. They are often written out as a fraction (e.g. 2/1) or a decimal (e.g. 3.0).

Betting odds can be applied to anything that has a set outcome and is often seen in sport, football betting, entertainment, and politics. The odds measure the probability of a certain outcome, such as the result of a sports game or reality TV show, or whether a certain party gets the majority vote in an election.

How do betting odds work?

Betting odds are used to determine probability and calculate the winnings from a bet and are often seen in their decimal or fractional form. Odds are commonly recognised as being even, long, or short.

Even odds

When something is just as likely to happen as not, it is given even odds. These are presented as 1/1 in fractional odds or 2.0 in decimal odds. In this instance, your winnings would be the same as your stake.

For example: In the case of 1/1 odds, you win £1 for every £1 you bet.

Therefore, if you bet £10 you’d win £10, and return £20 in total (your £10 stake plus your £10 winnings).

Long odds

If something is statistically less likely to happen, it is given long odds. This means you have the potential to win more than you would on even odds, but the risk of losing is higher.

For example: In the case of 10/1 long odds (or 11.0 in decimal form), you could win £10 for every £1 you bet, and therefore your winnings exceed your stake.

A winning £10 bet at 10/1 odds would result in £100 winnings plus your £10 stake, therefore returning £110 in total.

Short odds

If something has a higher probability of happening, it is given short odds. While short odds are more likely to happen, the winnings will be smaller, and therefore you’ll need to stake higher amounts for a bigger return.

For example: In the case of 1/10 short odds (1.10 in decimal form), you could win £1 for every £10 you bet.

Therefore, a winning £10 bet would result in £1 in winnings, amounting to a return of £11 (your £1 winnings plus your £10 stake).

How to read betting odds

Betting odds are most commonly presented as a fraction or a decimal in the UK. Moneyline odds, which are common in the US, are also becoming more popular.

Reading odds can be confusing if you’re not familiar with what the different sets of numbers reflect. Here, we explain how to read decimal, fraction, and moneyline odds.

Understanding decimal odds

The simple rule of thumb with decimal betting odds is the bigger the number, the larger the return will be. For example, decimal odds of 3.75 will result in larger winnings than decimal odds of 1.75.

To work out your winnings from decimal odds, simply multiply the odds by your stake. The resulting number reflects both your winnings and your stake.

For example: If you bet £10 on odds of 3.75, you would return £37.50 – this means you’ll have won £27.50 (£37.50 – your £10 stake).

How To Read Betting Odds

Understanding fractional odds

Fractional odds are a more traditional way of displaying odds in the UK. Appearing in fraction form (e.g. 2/1), you must first work out your winnings and then add on your stake to determine your total return.

The best way to calculate your returns from fractional odds is to follow a formula:

((stake/second number) x first number) + stake = total returns

This might look complicated, but we promise it will make sense when you plug your numbers in.

For example: If you bet £10 on a 5/2 bet, your calculation would look like:

((£10/2) x 5) + £10) = £35

For longer odds with a larger return, look out for odds where the first half of the fraction is larger than the second half.

For example Odds of 5/1 will return greater winnings than odds of 1/5. If you were to stake £10 on odds of 5/1, then your return would be £60. However, if you were to stake £10 on odds of 1/5, your return would only be £12.

Understanding moneyline odds

Moneyline odds are often used in the US when betting on American sports, but they are becoming more common in Britain. They are presented as a plus (+) or minus (-) figure.

The moneyline shows you how much you have to bet to win £100.

For example: If you are presented with odds of +200, then your return (if you stake £100) will be £300 (your £200 winnings plus your £100 stake).

If you are presented odds of -200 (because this event is more likely) you will have to stake £200 to return £300 (your £200 stake plus £100 winnings).

To calculate the potential payout from a moneyline bet, simply follow this formula

stake x (odds/100) + stake = total returns

For example: If you are presented with odds of +200 and you bet £5, your formula would look like:

£5 x (200/100) + £5 = £15 total returns

Converting decimal odds to fractions

Converting decimal betting odds to fractions takes a bit of basic maths knowledge.

First, take your decimal odds and subtract 1 from the number.

For example: If you have decimal odds of 3.75, subtract 1 and you are left with 2.75. These are odds of 2.75/1.

Odds need to be made up of whole numbers, so we need to take 2.75 and turn it into a whole number. The easiest way in this instance is to multiply 2.75 by 100 and move the decimal along two places. This gives us 275/100.

From there, we can work our way to finding the smallest equivalent fraction.

In this case, we can divide our fraction by 25, leaving us with fractional odds of 11/4 – previously 3.75 when presented as a decimal.

Now that you understand betting odds and how they work, you can begin to use them to your advantage. Browse all the latest sports betting odds or sign up to Grosvenor Casinos today to get started.

How to calculate betting odds return

Using our bet calculator, you can now work out how much a potential bet could return.

The calculator gives you the option to select the bet type, the win odds, your stake, and whether the bet placed will be each way or not.

As well as finding out how much your bet will potentially return, the calculator also gives you the total profit.

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Understanding how betting odds work is crucial for success in gambling, whether you want to win at slots or place bets on sporting events. By knowing the odds of potential bets you can calculate your expected winnings and build an entire strategy for a successful session. Let’s see where betting odds come into action and how to read them.

Betting odds on sports events

Knowing what bet to place on any type of sports events all comes down to the odds. These events can come with different odds based on the bookmaker you place a bet at, so you want to find the ones which offer the best odds for your bet.

However, you should make sure you understand the odds properly as different bookmakers use various formats of odds for their events. This is so mainly because of geographical differences. In general, there are 3 types of odds you can come across; Fractional, Decimal and American. Let’s see how each one works and how to easily read them.

1. Fractional Odds

Fractional odds are usually found at British or Irish bookmakers. They are also referred to as traditional odds since they were used early on, originally on horse races. These odds are usually shown with a hyphen or a slash, for example, 5/1 or 5-1. This odd is read as five to one. So what does this mean exactly?

A fraction odd of 5/1 means that you stand to win £5 in profit for every £1 you wager. So the total payout from a £1 wager to a 5/1 odd is £6. The same formula is used for bigger wagers and bigger odds. For example, a wager of £100 on an 8/1 odd comes with a total payout of £900. So that’s 8 times what you bet, so it’s 100 x 8 = £800 which is your profit, plus your initial £100 back, given you the total winnings of £900.

How Do Betting Odds And Payout Work

This type of odds is still heavily used today, but as we mentioned earlier it’s mostly focused on the UK.

2. Decimal Odds

Decimal odds are also called European odds and they are mostly used in Europe. They are based on the decimal system and are very easy to understand and to work with. With decimal odds, all you need is a calculator and you can easily calculate your profit. This comes especially in handy if you place a single wager and divide it over several events.

The main reason why decimal odds are easy to calculate is that they give you the total expected return. In fractional odds, you need to calculate the profit first and then add your initial wager. With decimal odds, the entire amount is calculated at one go.

For example, you bet $/£100 on a sports event which has decimal odds of 1.60. In order to calculate how much you can win in total all you need to do is multiply your stake with the decimal odds. In this case, it’s 100 x 1.6 which gives us a total of $/£160. As you can see the profit from betting on an event with this odd is $/£60. Just like in fractional odds the higher the odd, the higher the overall payout will be.

3. American Odds

American odds are used pretty much only in the USA and are also known as Moneyline odds. For a person coming from Europe, they can be very confusing, but in fact, they are very simple to read. They are based on placing a $100 bet, so you can easily calculate the end profit based on that bet. The odds for the favourite on an event come with a minus sign, while the odds for the underdog come with a plus sign.

For example, an event can come with +400 for the underdog and -200 for the favourite. So if you bet $100 on the underdog you would make a profit of $400 plus the initial $100 you stake, giving you a total of $500. On the other hand, for the bet on the favourite, you would need to bet $200 in order to win $100, giving you a total of $300.

Betting Odds Calculator

As you can see the American odds are actually quite easy to read if you’re betting $100. Problems can arise when you want to bet with smaller or bigger amounts and you will need to do some maths in order to calculate the correct odds.

Betting odds on casino games

When we talk about betting odds the first thing that springs to mind is the odds on sporting events. But betting odds are just as important on casino games, especially on table games like blackjack and roulette. In fact, on these games, the odds and payouts are one of the first things you need to learn.

The simplest odd pairing on roulette, for example, is betting on red or black, odd or even. This bet comes with a payout of 1:1 or simply if you bet $/£10 and win you will win $/£20 in total. However, the odds of this bet differ depending on whether you are playing European or American roulette. The European version has a house edge of 2.7%, while the American version comes with a house edge of 5.26%. This means that the odds are more in your favour on the European version because of the smaller house edge.

How Do Betting Odds Work In Football

For a more detailed explanation of how betting odds work for Roulette visit our online Roulette page, and for Blackjack visit our guide to playing blackjack.

How Do Betting Odds Work

Other Betting odds to consider

As you can see odds are pretty easy to read once you know what you’re looking for. It’s imperative to know how to read all types of odds before you embark into the world of betting. You never know which types of odds you can come across at different bookmakers.

Knowing how betting odds work will also come in handy when you want to bet on multiple matches or even on multiple features from a single event. Many bookmakers offer multiple bets on single events so things can start to get a little more complicated when you move away from simply making 1 bet.

How Do Betting Odds Work In Sports

Luckily there are ways to reduce the complication because at the end of the day it’s just a calculation. Bookmakers and casinos will often give you a summary of the total you can win, and there are also betting calculators (a good example can be found here https://bookies.com/betting-tools/odds-calculator) which allow you to enter your bets and out comes a total. This is useful as often gamblers will place multiple bets to cover loses, you can’t win them all but you can at least minimise your loss to fight another day.