{"id":415,"date":"2016-10-17T10:14:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T10:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/?page_id=415"},"modified":"2021-12-07T17:59:15","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T17:59:15","slug":"bookmaker-odds-and-margins","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/articles\/betting-guide\/bookmaker-odds-and-margins\/","title":{"rendered":"Bookmaker Odds and Margins"},"content":{"rendered":"
If you are going to have a bet on a regular basis then it is vitally important that you fully understand betting odds and how they work. Odds prices are simply a number that indicates to the bettor the financial return that is available if that selection wins.<\/p>\n
For each event a book is created that gives the betting odds for each competitor\/team taking part. These odds roughly reflect the real probability of that competitor winning but will give an indication of the chances.<\/p>\n
The odds of Manchester City winning the Premier League will be much shorter than for Everton winning it, this is because the bookmaker believes – based on their research and evidence – that City have a better chance of winning the title than the Merseyside team.<\/p>\n
The lower the odds a bookmaker offers, the more they believe that scenario will occur. Odds, however, are impacted by lots of things, such as popularity – the more people bet on something the lower the price goes; and opinion – the more positive noises there are the lower the prices go. This is why it can be possible, on rare occasions, to find odds that are actually better than probability dictates.<\/p>\n
Remember though, prices also have a profit margin for the bookie built in, so on balance, odds are always lower than real probabilities dictate. This is why they say “the bookmaker always wins”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are three main ways of expressing odds, namely decimal odds, fractional odds, and American odds, with other Asian variations such as Malaysian, Chinese, and Indonesian.<\/p>\n
These are the odds that most of us in the UK grew up with. Go into any bookmakers shop and the odds will be in fractional form. In Britain, you will find everyone seems to talk about their selection being 2\/1 rather than \u2018oh it\u2019s 3.0.\u2019<\/p>\n
How do you go about understanding fractional odds? Well, if a selection is priced up at say 5\/2, then for every ‘2’ you bet, you will get ‘5’ back; the figure on the left indicates how much you\u2019ll win and the one on the right refers to the stake needed to win that amount. Therefore, if you place \u00a32 you will win \u00a35 plus your stake back (\u00a37 total). This is described as being odds against, or positive odds.<\/p>\n
Many bets, as is the case with a lot of favourites, will be odds-on or negative. That means the figure on the left will be smaller than the one on the right. If it\u2019s 10\/11 you have to bet \u00a311 to win \u00a310, plus your stake back.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a whole range of fractional prices available, for example, 2\/1, 9\/4, 5\/2, 11\/4. In that example, each of the odds is slightly higher than the previous one. Recent years have seen more fractional odds appearing, such as 11\/5 and 85\/40, to allow for minor changes and cover a wider range of prices.<\/p>\n
Learning the fractional odds is really important if you want to be able to successfully gauge how the market is moving. For example, which of these odds is the shortest: 7\/5 or 11\/8? It\u2019s simply a case of dividing the figure on the left by the one on the right. 7 divided by 5 = 1.4 and 11 divided by 8 = 1.375, therefore 7\/5 is slightly higher than 11\/8.<\/p>\n
If you grew up in Europe you may be more familiar with decimal odds. It makes sense given that Europe has embraced the metric system whereas in the UK we are still semi-Imperial, hence the fractions for odds.<\/p>\n
The rising popularity of online betting however means that even if you are British you will have encountered this format more and more. Especially if you’ve tried betting with more continental bookie’s sites where the default odds can often be decimal, or if you’ve tried more exotic bets such as Asian Handicaps, where odds are generally shown in decimal.<\/p>\n
With decimal odds the big difference is that the odds shown include your stake money that will be returned if you win. For example, 2\/1 in fractional odds simply explains that if you stake \u00a31 then you\u2019ll win \u00a32, plus your \u00a31 stake back. Now, in decimal terms, this is represented as 3.0. This means for a \u00a31 stake you will receive \u00a33.00 back if your bet is a winner, however, there is no need to add your stake back on as it is included already.<\/p>\n
The key figure in decimal odds is 2.0, the equivalent of evens in fractional betting. If the decimal odds are less than 2.0 then this is the equivalent of an odds-on shot in fractional odds. For example, 1\/2 in fractional odds is 1.5 in decimal, as \u00a31 wins you 50p so your return is \u00a31.50.<\/p>\n
American odds are also sometimes called lines or money line odds. These do take a bit of getting used to from my experience.<\/p>\n
For positive odds, you\u2019ll see a “+” sign, and this tells you how much you\u2019d win with a stake of 100 units. For negative odds you will see a “\u2013” sign, and this shows how much you will need to stake to win \u00a3100.<\/p>\n
For example, if the fractional odds are 4\/1, the decimal odds would be 5.0 (as it includes the return of the stake) and in US odds it would be given as +400. Here a stake of 100 will generate a profit of +400 if the bet wins.<\/p>\n
For negative odds of say 1\/4 (1.25 decimal) American odds would be -400, showing you how much you will need to stake (400) in order to win 100.<\/p>\n
Other odds formats exist such as Hong Kong, Indonesian, Chinese Malaysian and others, although these are rarely found as standard at any sites a UK punter would use.<\/p>\n
If you want to bet with these odds formats you may need to shop around a little. BetVictor, for example, are good for offering 5 or 6 variations.<\/p>\n
In summary, other odds formats work as follows:<\/p>\n
This is basically the same as decimal however it doesn’t include the stake. So whereas evens in decimal format is 2.0, in Chinese it would be 1.0. 7\/1 in decimal would be 8.0, in Hong Kong it would be 7.0, etc.<\/p>\n
Very similar to American odds except measured in units of 1 rather than 100. When positive, the number reflects the size of the bet needed to make a profit of 1. When negative, they show the profit you can make from a wager of 1.<\/p>\n
Similar to Indonesian odds, Malaysian odds are also based on units of 1, however, the system is inverted. When odds are positive, say 2\/1, in Malaysian this is represented as -0.5, you multiply the stake by odds to give profit; for every one unit profit you need 0.50 stake. For negative odds, you divide the stake by the odds, e.g. 1\/2 is now 0.5; you make a profit of 0.50 for every 1 unit staked.<\/p>\n