- Understanding Odds Football
- Understanding American Betting Odds
- Understanding Odds Of Winning
- American Odds Explained
American odds are a touch more complicated to understand, but not too much. They are read differently for the favourites and the underdogs. So, using our Manchester City vs Aston Villa example, the odds for Outright Winner converted to American odds come out as the following: Manchester City. The house edge on an American roulette wheel is 5.26%, so having a good grasp of the odds involved is key if you want to improve your odds of winning. There isn’t a solution for how to win.
One of the basics of sports betting is understanding the various types of odds you can find.
It may seems hard to realize that the odds of 1.80, -125 and 4/5 are actually the same… but in reality it’s not that difficult to understand how it works.
Understanding Odds Football
These are the 3 main types of odds you can find:
- Decimal Odds (European)
- American Odds (US)
- Fractional Odds (UK)
Decimal Odds (European)
This is for me the most simple way to look and understand odds… (I’m European…) It expresses the pay-out amount that you would receive from a $1 bet (including the original stake).
Understanding American Betting Odds
Imagine that the odds are 1.80 and your stake is $100. If you win your bet, you will receive $100 x 1.8 = $180 and your profit will be $80.
Some features of this type of odds:
- Decimal odds are always higher than 1.
- Favorites have odds between 1 and 2.
- Underdog have odds higher than 2.
A strong favorite can have odds as low as 1.1… You can find this in soccer. For example, Barcelona playing against Zaragoza at home. In NBA you can also find very low money lines odds, as low as 1.2 or 1.3 (The Heats against the Bobcats at home).
The inverse of decimal odds is the implicit probability. If one team has an odd of 1.80 the probability of wining is 55.56%.
Formulas:
- Pay-out = Stake * Decimal Odds
- Winning = Stake * (Decimal Odds – 1)
- Probability = 1 / Decimal Odds
American odds (US)
With this type of odds you’ll find numbers always greater than or equal to 100 preceded with a ‘+’ or ‘-‘ sign. Note that these signs are not mathematical signs. A negative sign indicates that your winning is less than your stake and a positive sign indicates that your winning is more than your stake. This signs also indicate which team is the favorite (‘-‘ sign) and which is the underdog (‘+’ sign).
Using other words, a negative number expresses the dollar amount that you need to wager in order to win $100, while a positive number expresses the dollar amount that you win from a $100 wager.
Examples:
- If the odd is -120 this means that you need to bet $120 to win $100.
- If the odd is +140 this means that if you bet $100 you win $140.
Formulas:
- Winning = Stake * 100/negative American Odds or Winning = Stake * positive American Odds/100
- Pay-out = Stake * (100/negative American Odds + 1) or Pay-out = Stake * (positive American Odds/100 + 1)
Fractional odds (UK)
It expresses the fraction of a dollar that would be won from a $1 bet. For example, odds of 10/11 mean that $100 will be won with a stake of $110 units.
Understanding Odds Of Winning
Formulas:
American Odds Explained
- Winning = Stake * Fraction Odds
- Pay-out = Stake * (Fraction Odds + 1)