Online Sports Betting: How Do Sports Betting Odds Work?

Betting in sports–be it real-life sports or online sports–is not as simple as betting on who would win or not. There are a number of things that you need to consider. These things can even help you decide on who to bet and how to make your bet. These numbers are what you call betting odds.

If you want to start betting on sports or perhaps try out online sports betting, you should learn how to read and interpret the odds on sports events and use them to your advantage. With that in mind, here is a guide to everything you need to know about sports betting odds and how you can have them work to help you win big on your wagers.

What are “odds”?

Simply put, the term “odds” refers to the probability of something to happen, or the other way around. Thus, odds refer to the amount of probability that a player would win, the margin of the possible win, the round or time they might win, or the other way around.

Data from odds can go from simply saying that Team A has a higher chance of winning over Team B, to getting to the smallest details of the game and predicting it. These odds are calculated by experts in each sport based on various data including, but not limited to: player and team history, the game record of each team, vitals of players, popularity, and a lot more.

There are three ways for sports betting odds are presented, and they differ depending on the region or country of the game being played: there are American odds, UK odds, and European odds.

American odds

American odds present two opposing teams in two categories: the underdog and the favorite. To spot who the underdog team is, they would be the one with the positive (+) sign preceding their odds number. On the other hand, the team who is the favorite would have a negative (-) sign preceding their odds number.

For favorites, the higher the absolute value of their odds, the higher their probability of winning is. As an example, a team with odds of -200 has a better chance of winning than a team with odds of -150. Always remember that you need to take their absolute value and do not take the sign into consideration.

On the other hand, for the underdogs, the bigger the number, the bigger of an underdog they are. Thus, a team with +100 odds has better chances of winning than the one with +200 odds.

UK odds

Also known as fractional odds, this is mostly seen in horse racing odds, aside from football odds, the oldest sports in the world. As the name tells, these odds come in the form of fractions.

Fractional odds tell bettors the percentage of what they would win, should they choose to bet on specific players or teams and that player or team wins. This will be computed with the base wagered amount into consideration.

To better understand this, take for example betting on a team with ⅕ odds. This means that if the team wins, a bettor would gain £1 for every £5 they bet. The total payout would be £6. 

European odds

Also called decimal odds, this type of odds is popular in Europe, Australia, and Canada. Decimal odds are oftentimes called by others as the type of odds that are easiest to read.

Decimal odds tell bettors how much of their bets they would win, should the team or player they bet on wins. For example, if the odds of a team are 3.0 and they won, players who bet on them would win 3x the amount they wagered.

Thus, if you bet $100 on a team with 3.0 odds and they won, you will get $300 in the payout.