Gambling odds explained
To those of you who have never placed a bet before things could well
seem confusing. Sports gambling, as with all types of betting has a
few idiosyncrasies that may need explaining. With numbers, stats,
ratios and decimals all over the place how do you know what means
what. Well this short tutorial on some of the basics of betting should
help to clear things up.
Here at Sport4Profit we specialise in providing betting tips on fixed
odds gambling within sport, however spread betting also exists.
Fixed odds gambling
When you place a bet you are entering into a gentlemen's agreement
with the bookmaker. Placing a bet means that you are willing to stake
a certain fixed amount of money against the bookmakers to predict the
outcome of an event correctly. If you are correct then the bookmaker
will pay you the sum of money he has promised to you, when you to
placed the bet.
The way the bookmaker shows the how he rates the probability of an
outcome is by giving odds. These odds translate directly as to how
much he will pay out compared with how much you are willing to stake
on your own prediction for the event.
For instance if Arsenal were playing Real Madrid in the champions
league the bookmaker may put up three sets of odds for the Match
odds market:
Arsenal to win 5/2 or 3.5
Draw 2/1 or 3.0
Real Madrid to win 9/11 or 1.82
If we have a stake of £100 then lets see how our winnings would
be calculated.
If Arsenal won and we had our £100 on them then:
5/2 means for every £2 we stake we win £5.
As £100 divided by £2 = 50
50 multiplied by £5 = £250
However we must give the bookmaker our original stake to
hold on to until the outcome is decided. Therefore when he
pays out our winnings he must give us the original stake
back as well.
If Arsenal were to win we would receive £350, the
original £100 and the £250 winnings.
Decimalised odds (right of normal odds) are derived by adding
1 to the decimalised version of the normal (fractionalised) odds.
Hence for an Arsenal win, the decimalised odds are 3.5:
Converting 5/2 to a decimal: 5 divided by 2 = 2.5
Deriving new decimal odds: 2.5 add 1 = 3.5
When odds are decimalised as shown all you have to do is multiply your
stake by the decimal to find out exactly how much the bookmaker will
give you back.
i.e. For Arsenal to win, the stake again is £100:
£100 multiplied by 3.5 = £350
So you see it's quite simple, if you are still confused try working out
the winnings if you had your money on the other possibilities.
Using the £100 stake again a draw would give you a pay out
of £300, original stake £100 plus £200 profit.
A Real Madrid win would pay out £182, original stake £100 plus £82 profit.