Understanding Odds in Sports Betting
When you’re betting on sports, it’s imperative that you understand the odds of any prospective wager you plan to place. But understanding sports betting odds is more than just comparing numbers and looking for the biggest or smallest. With the right know-how, you can deduce your potential payout and work out the probability of each outcome.
So that you can develop this knowledge too, we’ve created this guide that covers all the key aspects of how sports betting odds work. In it, you’ll find all three main formats of sports betting odds explained, the types of bets you will see them used on, and how they affect your payout.
American/Moneyline Odds
If you are a fan of American sports, then it’s likely you will have at least come across odds in the American (moneyline) format. These are displayed as three or four numbers with a preceding plus or minus symbol.
The larger the number, the less likely that outcome is and the larger your payout. For example, odds of +700 offers a bigger win than -800 but the latter is much more likely.
With American odds, the way that you work out the size of your potential payout differs, depending whether you’re looking at positive or negative odds.
For positive moneyline odds, the number after the + tells you how much you’d win from a £100 bet. For example, a £100 wager on +300 odds would win you £300 and return a total of £400 (including your original stake).
In contrast, negative American odds show you how much you would need to bet to win £100. That means you would have to wager £500 to bag £100 of profit on odds of -500.
British/Fractional Odds
Here in the UK, the most common form of odds is the fractional format. If you select this option (or keep the default), you’ll see the odds displayed as a fraction with two numbers separated by a slash such as 5/1, 7/2, or 2/5.
Again, the smaller the fraction, the more likely the outcome and the lower the potential profit. Using fractions can make it a little more difficult to spot which is the lowest with just a glance, but you can work it out easily by dividing the first number by the second.
So from 5/1, 7/2, and 2/5 odds, the lowest is 2/5 as this gives you 0.4 when you do the calculation.
Fractional odds make it easy to calculate your winnings. The number on the left is how much you’ll win for a wager of the amount on the right.
For example, 5/1 odds would yield winnings of £5 for every £1 staked and return a total of £6.
European/Decimal Odds
In much of the rest of Europe and many African countries, decimal odds are most common. These are the easiest to read as they don’t require any complicated calculations.
As with all odds formats, the smaller the number, the more likely that outcome is believed to be. A smaller number also denotes a lower potential payout if your bet does win.
Calculating your winnings from decimal odds is as simple as multiplying your wager by the odds. There’s no need to add on your stake afterwards as this is accounted for in the number.
For example, a £1 bet would return £6 for odds of 6, while that same wager would payout £2.20 for odds of 2.20.
Types of Bets
You will find these three odds formats on many different types of bets. Generally, they work the same way for every type, but some special wagers like accumulators are a little more complicated.
Over-under
Over-under bets are a wager on the total score of the game, not on which team will win. Sometimes called totals bets, these wagers are available for most markets and require you to predict whether a game will end with the total score being above or below a figure set by the bookie.
Accumulator Bets
Accumulator bets, which are sometimes called “accas” or parlays, are bets that combine multiple wagers together. They can be used for predicting the outcomes of several games taking place on a single day or different events within a game, such as which team will win, a particular player to score, and the number of goals.
When making an accumulator bet, you’ll notice that the odds are much longer than a single wager. This is because the odds of an acca are calculated by multiplying them all together. So if you’re predicting the outcomes of three games with respective odds of 5/1, 3/1, and 4/1 your accumulator odds will be 60/1.
This means that, if you predict all three outcomes correctly, a win will yield £60 for every £1 bet instead of a combined £12
Accumulator bets offer bigger payouts but that come with a lower probability of winning. This is reflected in the difference between parlay odds and the odds of making the same bets separately.
Teaser Bets
Teaser bets are special accas used in sports that have a point spread market. The name comes from the fact that these special bets allow you to “tease” the spread to make it more or less likely to win with the odds being adjusted to reflect that.
You could use a teaser bet to increase the payout if you think the team you’re betting on will easily beat the spread.
As with standard acca bets, all constituent wagers within your teaser must win for you to trigger a payout.
Prop Bets
Prop or proposition bets are sometimes called “specials”. They are generally a wager on an event occurring within a game, such as the number of yellow cards during a football game or whether there will be a Safety Car during a Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The odds for prop bets work in the same way as traditional wagers, with the option to see them in American, fractional, or decimal formats.
How do Odds Impact Payout?
Odds are a reflection of two factors: the likelihood of an event occurring and how much you will win if it does.
These two factors are linked, shorter odds will deliver smaller payouts while longer odds will yield more. This is why you can win more betting on an underdog and why parlays offer substantially larger payouts as both of these bets are less likely than alternative wagers.
What Does It Mean When Odds Are Negative?
Negative odds refers to the American format where they can be displayed with either a plus or a minus symbol. Negative odds are those that start with a - and have three or four numbers after it.
The smaller the odds, the smaller the payout, so you can expect negative odds to offer proportionately small returns. However, this also means that that outcome is more likely to occur.
For example, odds of -200 would pay £50 from a £100 bet compared to £200 of winnings from the same wager on odds of +200. The implied probability of these two events is 66.7% and 33.3%, respectively.
Vegas Odds
Vegas odds is a term that refers to moneyline odds. The phrase is becoming much less common in modern parlance, especially so here in the UK where the moneyline format isn’t the go-to option for displaying odds.