What are the odds, and how can we determine them?

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What are the odds?

Every player must know how odds are determined and what they actually are. To help you get started, this article will get you familiarised with odds. Before you begin betting, you will learn how to calculate odds correctly.

Basic types of odds

  • American
  • Fractional odds
  • Decimal
  • Moneyline
  • Positive and Negative odds

Significance and standard odds

To win, we must analyse and check the odds ourselves. The most common ones are three.

  • In a win-or-lose bet, you bet on one team to win and another to lose. The odds for the winning team are smaller, and those for the losing team are larger; for example, Real Madrid has odds of 1.20 for a win against Santander and 2.25 against Barcelona. If you bet 10£ on Barcelona, they win and you win 12£; your clear profit is 2£.
  • You can find large odds by betting on a handicap. For example, if Real Madrid is playing against Santander and you bet on a -2 goal handicap for Real Madrid, then if they win 3-0 then your bet will have been successful and the odds will be at 2. You have bet €10, so you win €20.
  • When betting on football, it is worth remembering that the odds for over and under a number of goals or points can be different from one team to another. For example, if Real Madrid are playing Santander and the odds for over 3.5 goals are 1.75 and you bet £10 on this outcome, you will win £17.50 if Real Madrid win by three or more goals.
  • 1.4. Exotic bets are more advanced bets offered by online bookmakers and are of great interest to all players. Accumulators allow you to combine several forecasts on different matches, such as under/over with an end result, or handicap. These accumulators can be tricky to guess, but they offer greater profit because the odds for each separate forecast are multiplied together and then by your bet amount.
  • The type of bet that offers you the greatest profit is one where you combine your favourite with a handicap against it.
  • Teaser bets are different from regular bets in that you can support your team with a handicap and bring yourself a profit with a combination. In this case, you’re betting on the safe side, and the odds aren’t large but the risk is smaller.
  • The so-called if-bet combines two bets. First you place a bet that must finish in order for the second bet to take effect. If that happens, you can reinforce your second bet with the profit from your first bet.

Types of odds

European odds are a little more straightforward. If a team has odds with a + sign in front, then you have to bet under €100 to win at least €100. If it’s the opposite and the sign is a – you have to bet over €100 if you want to win the given amount.

Here are 4 examples:

  • Team A: -150 odds
  • Team B: +200 odds
  • Team C: +600 odds
  • Team D: +1000 odds

If you bet on team A, you have to risk over £100. If you bet on team B, you will win £100 if you risk £50; if you bet on team C, you will win £100 if you risk £16.67; and if you bet on team D, you will win £100 if you risk only £10.

In the United Kingdom, fractional odds are quite popular.

For example, if you bet on boxer A and boxer B, you have 4/7 odds for boxer A and 3/2 odds for boxer B. This means that fractional odds are smaller than 1, which means a favourite; the others point towards an outsider. It’s clear that boxer A is the favourite. If you want to win €100 by betting on a favourite and vice versa if you bet on an outsider, you have to put down over €100 in order to win €100. However, if you use this second one, you can win €3 by betting €2; this is the basic scheme.

The standard decimal odds are those which most Bulgarians are familiar with.

For example, in a tennis match between player A and player B, the odds for player A are 1.50 and for player B are 2.45. In this case, you have to bet £100 on player A if you want to win £100; if you bet £200 on player A, you’ll win £100. The opposite is true for player B: if you bet £100, you can win a clear profit of £145; if you bet £200 on player B, you’ll lose money overall.

2.4. Moneyline

In the United States, bookmakers usually use money line odds. These odds either have a positive or negative value.

What about the positive and negative Odds?

  • If the odds are positive, then the bettor will win €100 if they put down €100 and this is done if the odds are excelling. For example, fractional odds of 4/1 will be counted as +400 but, on the other hand, fractional odds of 1/4 are not positive.
  • When a number is negative, the odds determine how much you need to bet to win £100. For example, if the odds are 1/4, it means that if you bet £100 then you have a 25% chance of winning £400. However, if the odds are 4/1 then 4 pounds must be bet to win 1 pound; this is not negative.

Bookmakers also offer even-money bets, which are expressed as +100 and -100. In cases where the bookmaker does not show the negative sign, bettors should be aware that this means an even chance of winning or losing.

How can you convert decimal odds into American odds, and vice versa?

Depending where you are in the world, betting odds may be presented differently. Converters of odds are widely available on the internet; however, how can you easily convert decimal odds into American ones and vice versa without using a calculator? Here is your answer.

If you are used to betting with European bookmakers, then you probably know that the most common betting odds are American and Decimal. Now, before we go into an explanation about how to convert one type of odds into another, there is something we have to clarify first.

In American odds, positive and negative figures are used to denote win, place and show bets, doubling the number of possible combinations. The conversion formulas for larger and smaller odds are identical to those used with decimal odds.

The positive figure represents the amount you will win if you bet 100 units of currency. For example, if you bet £100 on odds of -150, you would win £150. The negative figure is how much you must bet in order to gain a profit of £100. To learn more about betting odds, read our article on “Betting Odds Comparison: American vs Decimal.”

Conversion of Decimal odds into American odds

To convert odds of 2.00 or higher, use the formula below:

To see how the formula works, here is an example of converting 2.50 into American type odds:

Decimal odds = 2.50 American odds = 5.40

To convert odds smaller than 2.00 into American odds, use the formula below.

Let us convert odds from 1.50 to 1.80:

The decimal odds of 1.50 are equivalent to -200 American odds, while the decimal odds of 1.80 are equivalent to -125 American odds.

Option #2: Converting American odds into European decimal odds

If you are familiar with American odds, there are two rules you need to remember when converting them into decimal odds.

If you want good odds when betting on the US team, divide the money line by 100 and add 1.

To convert odds from American to decimal, add one to the American number.

Let’s say the odds of a particular team winning are +200 and +600.

American odds of +200 mean that if you bet $100 on the outcome, you’ll win $200. In decimal odds of (200 / 100) + 1 equals 2.00, which means if you bet $1 on the outcome, you’ll win $2.

To convert American odds to decimal odds, divide 100 by the American odds and add 1.00.

You can convert odds from -130 and -900 in Decimal type odds to Fractional type odds by dividing one number by the other.

American odds = 1.769 / 1.111 = 1.5086 American odds = 0.769 / 1.111 = 0.5915