Getting to Grips with the Odds Offered by Bookmakers
Understanding the odds on offer for any betting fixture is relatively simple, however there are a few differences in the way that they are displayed, depending on where and who offers the odds. So let’s start by telling you about the odds you will find in the UK, as this is as good a place as any to begin.
You will find the odds displayed as, for example 10/1, this is odds against meaning that when you place a £1 bet should that bet then go on to win you will get back £10 as winnings and your £1 stake returned, so £11 in total will be given back to you.
Some odds however maybe displayed as 6/4, these odds date back to the time when the UK was pre-decimal, and in this instance you will get back £6 for every £4 you wager, plus your stake back, the easiest way to work odds out, when they are displayed this way, is to divide the first digit by the second, so 6 divided by 4 works out at one and one half, so you will get for a £1 stake, if that wager wins, £1.50 in winnings plus your £1 stake returned.
When any selection you have chosen is a favourite to win the event, you will often see odds such as 4/9, in these circumstances when the second digit is higher than the first digit, this means that the selection is known as “odds on”, so in layman’s terms, for every £9 you put on that selection if it wins, you will get £4 returned as winnings plus your £9 stake back.
So putting £1 on a 4/9 shot will get you back £1.44 in total, which is £0.44 in winnings and your £1 stake back, to arrive at this figure simply divide 4 by 9 then times that by 1 and then add your £1 stake back.
There will be one other type of betting odds you will come across, which is the even money bet. This, as the name suggests, will payout your winnings, should the selection you are wagering on win, at the same ratio as the amount you placed, so if you place a £1 bet on an even money chance, and it wins, the you will get back £1 in winnings and your £1 stake returned.
The above UK type betting odds are known as fractional odds and have been used in Great Britain for years, however when you bet online you may come across odds which are displayed in various different ways. We shall now take a look at what the most common additional ways to express odds are.
Decimal Odds
Many online betting and gambling sites will display the odds on offer for any betting event as what are known as decimal odds. These are relatively easy for punters to understand once they have mastered the art of working them out!
Let’s take a look at some examples using those facts and figures we used in our previous section. Firstly a 10/1 shot, this will be displayed as 11.00 on sites which use decimal odds, the art to understand how these odds work in when displayed this way. All of the calculations have been done for you, and the decimal odds offered will be how much you get back for your £1 stake, so if you see odds of 11.00 that means you will get back, in total £11 should that selection win, which as in our earlier 10/1 example, is the same return, just a different way of expressing it!
Should the decimal odds be less than 2.00, then that selection is “odds on”, take our second example above where a selection was offered at odds of 4/9, when expressed in decimal odds this would be presented as 1.44, meaning you get a total of £1.44 back made up of your stake which is always returned on a winning wager and £0.44 in winnings.
You may also come across yet another way of seeing odds on betting events displayed, this is known as the American way, and no prizes for guessing in what part of the world you will find these odds!
American Odds
When you see odds displayed the American way you will probably be sitting there looking at them slightly confused, as at first glance, for someone in Europe or the UK they look extremely odd. However once you get your head around them they are very easy to understand and once mastered, you should have no problems translating them into odds you are used to seeing.
In American odds and betting, there will be two possibilities, one of them will be positive and the other will be a negative. These odds are also known as Moneyline odds, and you will be able to bet on one of two outcomes in any betting event.
Should you see the odds offered in the American way, and these odds are negative then this figure is the amount you would need to place on that particular wager to win £100, if on the other hand the figure is presented as a positive figure, then that is how much you will win and get back should that particular selection win and you have a £100 wager on it.
Lets us show a couple of examples and we will stick to using the figures used in previous examples, those being 10/1, and 4/9 as shown above in our first section describing UK betting odds. When American odds are used, the selection which is a 10/1 shot will be displayed as +1000, and the 4/9 shot will be displayed as -225. Should a selection be even money then you will see this displayed as either +100 or -100 depending on how that particular betting site chooses to display these even money betting propositions.
Fortunately a lot of betting sites will now let you choose either decimal, fractional or American odds from a drop down menu on their betting sites. This enables you to see the odds in a format you are familiar with. So if you haven’t understood any of the above then look out for, and use those drop down boxes!
