Odds form the basis of any sports bet.  When you place a bet on a sport, whatever it may be, you will place the bet using the odds offered by the bookmaker.  Even when betting at an exchange and betting against an outcome to occur, you are still placing a bet using odds.

There is no getting away form using odds when placing a bet and that’s why understanding betting odds is so important.

Depending on your level of sports betting experience, you will have many different questions regarding betting odds.  What are betting odds?  How do I understand betting odds?  How are betting odds used?  What types of betting odds are available?

Thankfully, we have the answers to these questions and so much more below, so keep reading to begin understanding betting odds the simple way.

1. Why do I Need to Understand Odds in Sports Betting?

The simple answers to ‘why do I need to understand odds in sports betting?’ is because you cannot place a bet on sports without knowing how they work.

In truth, you are completely wasting your money if you are placing bets without understanding betting odds.  You can load up the homepage of any online sports bookmaker and while they will not all offer the same sports and betting markets, they will all have one thing in common and that’s betting odds.

If you do not understand betting odds, you will never know on what outcome to place a bet.  For example, you may have an idea of which team is favourite to win a football match but how do you know if you are getting good value with your bet if you do not understand the odds?

Failing to understand betting odds means you will never know a good value bet and every bet you place will be a massive risk.  You can take some of that risk away by understanding betting odds.

2. Can I Win More by Understanding Odds in Betting?

To say you can win more by understanding odds in betting would be misleading.  However, by understanding betting odds, you give yourself a much better chance of winning than if you did not.

Understanding betting odds allows you to judge how likely an event is to happen and what your potential winnings will be.  Clearly this information will allow to make a better judgement when placing a bet compared to someone who did not understand this information.

So, by understanding betting odds, you will have a better chance of placing a successful bet due to the knowledge of how likely the outcome is to happen and the amount of money you can win if the bet is successful.

There are three main types of betting odds you should understand and these are:

• Fractional Betting Odds
• Decimal Betting Odds
• American Betting Odds

You never know when you may need to use any of three types of betting odds highlighted above.  Continue reading to find out more about each type of odds but first let’s take a look at a odds ratios and what they mean.

3. Understanding Odds Ratios

Generally, you will find odds ratios in terms of 1.  The number in question will fall on 1, below 1 or above 1.  So, an odds ratio of 1.35 means that the outcome is 35% more likely to happen but a 0.70 odds ratio means the outcome is 30% less likely to happen.

Having a basic understanding of this will help you as we move on to understanding the different forms of betting odds.

4. Understanding Different Types of Odds

As mentioned above, there are three different types of odds you need to become familiar with and you will see an explanation of each below.

Fractional Odds

Fractional odds are commonly used in the United Kingdom and Ireland and their roots are in horse racing.  However, you will also see them used at online bookmakers throughout Europe, especially when betting on football.

Whenever you see a potential outcome listed with a / symbol between two numbers, this is fractional odds.  Examples of fractional odds include 9/1 and 1/4.  As you can see, the larger number is on different sides for these odds and you need to know what this means before placing a bet.

There are two ways to understand fractional odds and the first is by looking at the likelihood the event will happen.  For example, if a bookmaker offers odds of 9/1 for Fulham to beat Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, this means Fulham have been given a 10% chance of winning the match.

You can work this out as follows:  1 / (9 + 1) = 0.10 x 100 = 10%

Understanding betting odds in this way allows you to decide how likely an outcome is to happen.  In this case, it is not very likely and unless you have some strong information to suggest Fulham will win the game, you will not place this bet.

The second way to understand fractional odds is to work out how much money you could win if the bet is successful.  Using the same example as above, if you place a €1 bet on Fulham to defeat Manchester City you could win €9 plus you will receive your €1 back.  If you bet €2 you would win €18 and so on.

You can work this out as follows:  9 x 1 = €9 or 9 x 2 = €18

Now you know how to work out the probability of an event happening and how much you could win if it does happen, you have a much stronger basis on which to decide on your bet.

We can also look at the other fractional odds listed above, which was 1/4.  Using these fractional odds, the outcome of the bet has an 80% chance of happening.

You can work this out as follows:  4 / (4 + 1)  = 0.80 x 100 = 80%.

This means there is a high chance of the outcome happening and a better chance your bet will be successful than the odds of 9/1.

In terms of potential winners, odds of 1/4 show for every bet of €4 you will win €1 or for every bet of €8 you will win €2 and so on.  In the football bet used above, Manchester City at 1/4 to win the match and this makes them the big favourites.

However, using your understanding of betting odds you know you will need to bet a lot of money on Manchester City to win to make it worthwhile placing a bet.  Understanding betting odds has allowed you to come to that conclusion and you can do the same when using decimal odds.

Decimal Odds

Decimal odds are used more often on betting exchanges than standard bookmakers.  However, all good online bookmakers will give you the option of using both fractional and decimal odds.

Many people prefer using decimal odds because it is easier to work out the potential winnings from a bet.  Examples of decimal odds you will find at online bookmakers include 9.0, 2.5 and 1.25.  In simple terms, the higher the number the smaller the chances of success but the larger the amount of potential winnings.

For example, if you bet on an outcome at 9.0 using a €10 stake you could potentially have €80 in winnings.

You can work this out as follows:  (9.0 x €10 stake) – €10 stake = €80 winnings.

Taking 1.25 as an example, you have (1.25 x €10 stake) – €10 stake = €2.50 winnings.

As you can see from the two examples, the smaller the number, the less money you are likely to win.  However, the smaller the number the more likely the outcome is going to happen.

As you can see when looking at both fractional and decimal odds, understanding betting odds is not difficult and it does not take long to master the various forms of odds available.

American Odds

A form of betting odds which may not be as well known in Europe and the United Kingdom is American odds.  This is because American odds are usually reserved for betting websites which operate exclusively to the United States market.

They often referred to as ‘moneyline odds’ and used for line betting in the United States.  Understanding betting odds means you must know about all three types of betting odds and that includes American betting odds.

When betting using American odds, you will generally find two types, one of which are favourites and the other underdogs.  The favourites will be shown using a number which has a minus (-) symbol in-front of the number.  When judging which team or player is the favourite from more than one betting market, you can ignore the minus sign.

For example, -200 is a stronger favourite than -150.  Just use the larger number to work it out.

Underdogs are shown using a plus (+) symbol and the higher the number, the bigger the underdog.  So, a +150 underdog has a better chance of winning than a +300 underdog.

When working out potential profit using American odds, you must use a baseline value of $100 when making a bet.  Betting on a favourite means you are risking money to win $100 and betting on an underdog means you are risking $100 to win the amount stated by the odds.

For example, if the odds are -120 for the favourite, you must place a bet of $120 to win $100 from the bookmaker.  The two outcomes are therefore to lose $120 or win $100.

When betting on a +300 underdog, you only need to bet $100 but you will win $300 if the bet is successful.

Understanding American betting odds is not as easy as fractional and decimal.  Most online bookmakers will allow you to switch between the three types of odds but you never know when you may need to use any of the three so you must understand each of them.

5. Understanding Betting Odds in Sport

There are many different sports on which you can place a bet.  The popularity of these sports in terms of betting will vary depending on your location.  For example, Ice Hockey betting is more popular in the United States than the United Kingdom.

However, all top online bookmakers will have most sports covered and some of the most popular include football, tennis, golf and ice hockey.  So, how do you read odds in each of these sports?

Football Odds

The main market for football matches is Match Winner and for this you will see three sets of odds.  One set of odds will relate to the home team, also known a ‘1’ in betting terms.  The second set of odds is for the away team and this is known as ‘2’ and the third set of odds is for the draw and this is known as ‘x’.

Based on your understanding of how odds work from the information above, you can quickly assess which outcome is the favourite to happen and which outcome is considered most unlikely.

Take Chelsea vs Newcastle United in the Premier League for example.  Using fractional odds, as they would in the United Kingdom where the game is being played, Chelsea are 2/9, Newcastle United are 12/1 and the draw is 5/1.

This immediately tells you Chelsea are the overwhelming favourites to win this match and Newcastle United are big outsiders.  You will find many additional football betting markets but when understanding betting odds, the Match Winner market is the best place to start.

Tennis Odds

Tennis odds are slightly different to football odds in that there can only be two outcomes from a tennis match, not three.  Therefore, you will see two sets of odds, one which refers to player A and the other which refers to player B.  Both are listed for the player to win the match.

The odds will be listed under the players name but also as ‘1’ and ‘2’, which is similar to the football betting odds.  Don’t worry, will quickly become accustomed to seeing and using ‘1’ and ‘2’ in your betting.

So, in the match between Jeremy Chardy and Kei Nishikori at the 2019 Brisbane Open, Chardy was on offer at 4/1, while Nishikori was just 1/6.  That tells you Nishikori is the big favourite to win the match, with Chardy being the underdog and less likely to win.

Golf Odds

With golf odds, we are going to switch to decimal odds as this is a sport which is played across the planet, with various international and domestic tours taking place throughout the year.  However, the first major golf tournament of the calendar year is The Masters.

Unlike the football and tennis odds listed above, the odds for golf tournaments are more like a list.  Each player who is playing in the tournament will be listed and next to their name you will find the odds for them to win the tournament.

Looking at the odds for the 2019 Masters, both Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth are at 11.00, with Dustin Johnson at 12.00 and Rory McIlroy at 13.00, along with Justin Thomas.

The first thing you will notice is the odds are much higher than those to win a football or tennis match.  Golf is not a one-off match and the major tournaments are played over four days.  There are many players who are capable of winning as you can see from the names above because the odds are so close between the players.

Therefore, you know by looking at these odds that despite the potential good returns from backing a favourite to win the 2019 Masters, there are actually many players who are considered good enough to win the tournament and that is where the risk comes into play.

Ice Hockey Odds

In our final sports example for understanding betting odds, we are going to look at ice hockey.  This is a sport which is played throughout the world but the most popular is without doubt the National Hockey League in the United States and Canada.

As you may have guessed from the previous examples, as we are looking at the NHL, we will be using American odds.  When betting on the NHL, you will find you have little choice but to use American odds, especially when betting on the moneyline, as discussed above.

Taking the Winnipeg Jets vs Pittsburgh Penguins as an example, the Jets are +110 and the Penguins -130 on the moneyline.  There is no market for a draw and using the information from the American Odds section above, you immediately know the Penguins are the favourites because they have a (-) sign in-front of the number while the Jets are the outsiders as they have a (+) sign in-front of the number.

You also know you will need to place a bet of $130 on the Penguins to potentially win $100 and a $100 bet on the Jets to win $110.  You can also deduce that because the number of the Jets is quite low, they are not a massive outsider and could potentially cause an upset.

Understanding betting odds in a simple way will help you a great deal with your betting.  If you do not have a basic understanding of how odds work, what they mean and the various forms of betting odds, you should not be betting.  Use the information above to familiarise yourself with betting odds before you place a bet and never bet more than you can afford.