If you’re new to sports betting you’ve probably visited one or two betting websites and you probably noticed different ways odds are being listed for the sport events. Before you place your first bet, it is key that you understand how to read betting odds to avoid making any mistakes and to ensure that you can properly measure your risk/reward related to a possible outcome.
Generally, betting odds are posted in one of these formats: American, Decimal or Fractional. All of them signal how much money you could win by betting on a specific outcome based on an implied probability. All three formats are described below in more detail.
American (or US) format
As its name indicates, this format is historically more commonly found in the U.S.A. In this format, you will quickly notice a ‘+’ or a “-” sign in front of a three digit number. The ‘+’ sign flags the underdog who will compete in the event you are looking at while the “-” sign indicates the favorite based on past results.
For example, you’re looking at the following line for the outcome of a game between Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Mets.
Even if you don’t know anything about baseball, by looking at this line you would know right away that Pirates are the underdogs (‘+’ sign) while the Mets are favorite to win (’-’ sign). In terms of the risk/reward ratio associated with this line, you should also know that while riskier to place your bet on the Pirates, in case they win you will make much more than if you placed the same amount on the Mets winning. Below is the same line with the added explanation of what would be the outcome for each if you placed a $100 bet.
While the Pirates ‘+185’ is relatively easy to understand, you may scratch your head about the Mets “-200” quote. Well, an easy way to remember is that the odds with a ‘-’ sign represent the amount you’d have to bet to win $100. So for our example in our example you’d have to bet $200 on the Mets to win $100 ($300 payout).
Note that sometimes the American odds are also referred to as Moneyline odds.
Decimal (European) format
The Decimal format is more popular in continental Europe, Australia and Canada. Of the three types of odds you’ll encounter in your betting endeavors, decimal odds are the easiest to work with. Decimal odds are generally displayed like in this line for a match between Ajax Amsterdam and Glasgow Rangers:
The three columns represent the possible outcome of the game: 1 – Ajax wins, x – tie or 2 – Rangers wins. If let’s say you placed a $100 bet on Ajax to win and you were right, you will receive back $144 or $44 in winnings. Similarly, for a $100 bet on a tie, you will receive back $500 or $400 in winnings and for a $100 bet on a Rangers win, the payout would be $630 with a $530 profit.
The quick and easy way to calculate the possible payout is to multiply the amount available to stake with the listed odds:
$100 x 1.44 = $144
$100 x 5.00 = $500
$100 x 6.50 = $650
Below is an example with the line for the same game but from a different sportsbook. Notice that the win/tie/loss fields are spelled out instead of the 1×2 example above. Also notice the slightly different odds for Ajax wins and tie outcomes based on a different probability metric used by this sportsbook compared to the first one. Fractional (British) format
Fractional odds or British odds are commonly used in the UK and when betting on horse racing. They are fractional numbers (written with a slash, for example, 9/2).
For example, 2/1 means you win $2 for every $1 you bet. In other words, 2/1 pays out $3, that is, $2 winnings plus the $1 stake.
Tip: if you want to say fractional odds aloud, like 9/2 or 2/1, you would say “nine to two” or “two to one.”
The number on the left (9) dictates how many times the sportsbook expects the relevant outcome to fail whereas the number on the right (2) tells us how many times the outcome is expected to succeed.
To know the possible profit you multiply the stake by the fractional odds and to find out the total payout you add the stake to the calculated profit.
Conclusion
Regardless of how you’ll encounter the odds being displayed, you’ll quickly find yourself able to find the answer to questions like “How much would I make taking this line?”. Also, to avoid running continuous calculations on possible profits and payouts, the sportsbooks will always display these amounts before placing your bet. Alternatively, you can quickly calculate them by using any of the available online betting odds calculators which can be found by searching on any of the major online search engines.
