1. Betting Fractions
2. How Do Betting Fractions Work
3. How To Read Betting Odds Fractions
4. Betting Fractions To Decimals

I bet you can't read this without cracking up laughing - Free download as Word Doc (.doc), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. We will have every type of betting odds explained to you so that you will become a successful punter. Moreover, we will tell you how to use them. Betting Odds Explained If you have only ever bet with UK bookies then the only odds format you might be familiar with are fractional odds. Modern betting, especially online, is however now a global.

In the next section, we will have betting odds explained for you. If you are a novice, we do recommend you stick around. Odds are one of the important factors in sports betting, and you need to make sure you understand their purpose and function. As you will see below, there are different odds formats, but they all play the same role – they help you determine if a bet is worth placing or not. You certainly need to read about odds in detail to figure out what they are before you place a bet. So, how do betting odds work? After reading this post, you will see that it is not as complicated as you thought. Check it out.

List of the bookmakers with the best betting odds

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How do betting odds work?

For instance, let’s say you want to place a bet on a sports event and the odds are +200 (3 in decimal odds). It means that you would get £200 back with a bet of £100. If that number is -200 (1.5 in decimal odds), it means that you need to stake £200 to get £100 in return if your bet is correct. When it comes to American odds, an even bet is displayed as +100 (2 in decimal odds).

Purpose of Odds

Now, let us explain the betting odds to you so that the next time you are at a sportsbook, you will know what you are doing. One of the purposes of odds in sports betting is to show how likely a particular outcome is to occur. If the outcome is very likely to happen, the odds are as low as they can be, and vice versa. Hence, if you are betting on a team that has bigger chances of winning than the other one, and they win, you will gain a very small profit, as opposed to what you could get if you bet on the team which is less likely to win.

Now, the other purpose of odds is to determine how much you will get if your wager wins. You should be able to view the odds of a bookmaker at the moment of placing your bet. Lower odds mean lower payouts and greater chances of winning, whereas higher odds mean higher payouts and less chance of winning. Even money odds mean that your chances of winning are 50/50.

Formats of Betting Odds

Now, we cannot explain the betting odds in detail without talking about odds formats. In general, they are three: fractional, decimal and moneyline/American odds. The reason as to why you need to be familiar with them all is that at some point you will have to deal with them in some form. The good news is, they have the same functions and mean the same thing, it is just that they are expressed in different ways. We will give you detailed information about each format, including how to read betting odds.

Decimal Odds

This is the most common odds format, which used to be common in Australia, Canada and Europe in the past. However, lately more and more bookmakers have adopted this format, as a result of which it has become the norm. An exception to this is some betting sites in the USA.

The reason decimal odds format has established itself as the standard is that it is displayed as a single number, which is positive. The number expresses how much money you will receive for guessing the correct outcome and includes the original stake. For instance, if you make a stake at odds of 1.5, every £1 staked will return £1.50. If you make a stake at odds of 2.25, for every £1 you will receive £2.25. As far as decimal odds are concerned, an even money stake is displayed as 2.00.

Moneyline Odds

We shall now move on to the next odds format. Moneyline odds are more often than not used in the States, which is why they are often referred to as American odds. So, if you encounter the term American odds, do not worry, this is not a new odds format you are not familiar with. It is the same as moneyline odds. Read more about how to bet with moneyline.

What is typical of these odds is that they are expressed in a negative or positive number. If a negative number is displayed, it serves to show how much money you have to give away to win back £100. If a positive number is displayed, it shows how much a £100 bet would win if it is correct according to the news.

Fractional Odds

This odds format used to be the standard in the United Kingdom. However, understanding betting odds of this kind is not easy. As you will see, it is not as straightforward as decimal odds, which is probably the reason why the latter are taking over the British Islands. For a novice, fractional odds may be a little tricky, especially when it comes to calculating one’s potential profits.

For your peace of mind, we shall say that the format is not as complicated as it appears to be. With a little practice, you will get things right eventually. Normally, the format is expressed as a fraction. Take for instance 5/1 (in decimal odds: 6). It serves to show that you can win five units for each unit you stake. The same goes for 7/1 (in decimal odds: 8), which means that you can get three units for each unit you stake. Here is how to read odds: “five to one” for 5/1 and “seven to one” for 7/1. When it comes to fractional odds, an even bet is expressed by 1/1 (“one to one”). So far, so good. This does not look so complicated yet.

In sports betting, and especially with fractional odds, you can also get odds of 5/2, 11/10 or 6/4. Now, that makes things a little complicated. For instance, 6/4 serves to show that for every four units you stake, you are going to get six units. As a whole, this means that per every unit you stake, you will get 1.5 units. And as for 11/10, every ten units you stake will get you back eleven units, which means 1.1 units per one unit you bet.

If the first number in this odds format is greater than the second, this is said to be “odds against”. What it means is that the potential winnings will be much bigger than the amount of money you need to stake. Overall, this is the same as positive moneyline odds.

However, when the potential winnings are fewer than the amount of money you need to stake, this is called “odds on”. Basically, it is the same as negative moneyline odds. How is this expressed in numbers and pronounced? For example, 4/7 odds is pronounced as “seven to four on”. As it suggests, every seven units you stake will get you four units.

You are probably wondering how to convert odds so that you can use them in your desired odds format (in case they are displayed in a format you are not well acquainted with). No worries. You do not have to make complicated calculations. You can simply use different odds converter sites, which automatically convert the desired number into the format you wish. No effort or calculations required on your part. It is fast and easy.

Why Are Odds Different With Different Bookmakers

It is not uncommon to encounter different odds for one and the same event with various sportsbooks. For instance, some of top online bookmakers may display odds of 2.30 for a team to win a game; and others may offer odds of 2.20 for the same team to win. Now, this is another important aspect of understanding betting odds. We mentioned earlier that one of the purposes of odds is to show how likely a particular outcome is to happen. However, this view is expressed by the bookmakers themselves.

So, it is safe to say that odds are a matter of opinion. Someone else’s opinion. So, the more sportsbooks there are, the more different odds you are likely to encounter for the same sporting event. There are many factors that determine the odds with a particular bookmaker. They could be affected by the profits a sportsbook has made in a certain market. So, it does not always mean that the odds express the possibility of a particular team winning the game. It could be much more than that.

Your job is to correctly guess the outcome of a match because that will make you a good profit. The more often you predict the correct end result, the more you will win. This is all that matters. You can be a successful punter. Of course, there is more to winning at sports betting than simply understanding the odds and making correct predictions. If you want to make a profit consistently, you need to know about other things. Not to worry, in the next sections of our guide, we will explain other key aspects of sports betting, and hopefully, we will make you an informed and reasonable bettor who knows what they are doing. Keep reading.

Other Betting Markets & Strategies

If you have only ever bet with UK bookies then the only odds format you might be familiar with are fractional odds. Modern betting, especially online, is however now a global affair and depending on who you bet with it is now common to see other odds formats including decimal odds, percentage odds, proportional odds and American Odds (referred to as moneyline).

Betting companies based in Europe in particular will generally provide odds in decimal format by default, and this can make calculating fixed odds prices a little difficult to the uninitiated. Even with UK bookmakers many bets are represented as decimals, such as most handicap markets. Not to worry, in this article we explain the difference between odds systems and how to calculate, compare and convert fixed odds winnings using any format.

• Odds:

Betting Fractions

Odds Format Comparison and Conversion Table

Types Of Fixed Odds Formats

Quick Reference

By treating the amount you can win as 'Z' we can easily summarise different odds types.

• Fractional Odds - the number on the left displays the amount you can win from a given stake (Z).
• Decimal Odds - display the amount you can win from a stake of one unit stake, plus your stake (Z + 1).
• American Odds - positive odds are simply multiples of 100 (Z x 100), negative odds are division of 100 (100 / Z).

Fractional Odds

This format is most familiar in the UK and Ireland and continues represents the most common format. At the end of the day if we haven't given up miles, yards, feet and inches yet in the UK so it will be a long time until we switch to decimal odds as default. Think of a betting shop window, have you ever seen anything but fractions?

The fraction is a mathematical representation of the amount a punter can win (first number) versus the amount they need to stake to win that amount (second number). Therefore 4/1 means you for every £4 you want to win you need to stake £1. The first number represents what you will win excluding your stake, so if you were to place a £1 bet at 4/1 you would win £5 but also get your £1 stake back giving you total returns of £5 if the bet win (£4 winnings + £1 stake).

Fractional odds must always be whole numbers. If potential winning are not divisible by 1 as a whole number then the stake unit increases to the closest whole number representation. If you had a price of 3.5/1 it cannot be written this way so in this instance it becomes 7/2, this is the closest whole number derivative of that price. In the case of a price that was say 3.3333/1 this would be represented as 10/3 and so on, see odds table above.

If something is odds-on it means for each unit you stake you will receive less than one unit back in winnings. In the instance of 1/4 for example for each £1 you want to win you need to stake £4. If your winnings are equal to your stake then the odds are 1/1 but this is commonly referred to as Evens.

When betting on an each-way price for example you will often need to work out your own each way odds. If you back a horse at 12/1 each-way at one quarter of the total odds and the horse were to place the place part of the bet would be paid out at 12/4 or 3/1.

I like to think of fractional odds like bet you would place with your mate where you don't actually part with your stake. For 4/1, you say if you win I will give you £1 but if I win you give me £4.

Decimal Odds

The favoured odds format in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Effectively anywhere where you drive in kilometres per hour bookies will use decimal odds. Luckily decimal odds are not too hard to understand and once you have encountered them a few times it is easy to convert from decimal to fraction (or vice versa) in your head.

The decimal represents the amount you would win including getting your stake back. 4/1 in fraction therefore now become 5.0 in decimal, here you are staking £1 and getting returns of £5, your winnings are still £4 it's just that the price included getting your stake back.

Taking the example from fractional odds above for decimal odds you are having a bet but giving your stake away. For 5.0, you say I will give you £1 now but if I win you give me £5 back.

The equivalent of evens (1/1) in decimal is 2.0 this is one unit stake and one unit winnings (1+1=2). A line that is odds-on in decimal format will always be a decimal of 1, so for example 1/4 (£4 stake for every £1 won) in decimal would be 1.25.

If you want to a quick way to work out your winnings in decimal format simply multiply what you want to stake by the decimal. For example if you stake £5 at 3.0 (2/1) then multiply 5 x 3.0 giving returns of £15. If this were odds on, say 1.40 (2/5) multiple 5 x 1.4 this gives £7 returns, etc.

In the case of an each way bet with decimal odds, using the previous of a 12/1 horse this would be 13.0 in decimal. If you back this each-way and it places at one quarter the odds unlike fractional you can't just divide the winning odds by 4. First subtract the stake (13-1) then divide by 4 (12/4 = 3) and add the stake back (3+1=4). The decimal odds for the place would therefore be 4.0 (3/1).

Decimal odds tend to be favoured by betting exchanges such as Betfair and in index, financial and spread betting.

American (Moneyline) Odds

As it says on the tin these odds are favoured in America and are a little different to fractional and decimal odds as these can be both positive and negative numbers.

Positive American Prices

If a betting line is favourable (i.e. you can win more than one unit per one unit stakes) then American odds are positive. This tells you how much money will be won for each £100 wagered. If a money line shows +400 this means for every £100 stakes you will win £400, this is equivalent to 4/1 in fractional or 5.0 in decimal.

Negative American Prices

How Do Betting Fractions Work

Conversely if the odds are unfavourable (odds-on, i.e. for each one unit stakes you will win less than one unit) then American odds are displayed negatively. This time the moneyline quotes the amount that must be wagered to win £100. In this instance if the American odds are showing -400, meaning you must stake £400 for each £100 winnings, this is equivalent to 1/4 in fractional or 1.25 in decimal.

How To Read Betting Odds Fractions

Percentage and Proportional Odds

It is rare to see but occasionally you may see your chances of winning represented as a percentage. These are not odds prices as such but instead show the percentage of winnings relative to stake or the percentage of times you need to win to break even. A proportion is just a percentage divided by 100.

Percentage win for a 4/1 bet would therefore be 400%, meaning you will win 400% of your stake (very similar to positive American Odds). Conversely an odds-on line like 1/4 would be 25% winnings relative to stake.

Betting Fractions To Decimals

The percentage win to break even represents the number of times a bet at those odds would need to win so that you didn't lose overall. Taking our consistent example of 4/1 you would need to win 20% of the time to break even. An odds-on line such as 1/4 would need to win 80% of the time to break even. For more see the table at the top of this page.