Betting Odds

Understanding the essence of betting odds will greatly assist punters in increasing their returns in the long term. With a treasure trove of betting types such as: fixed odds betting, stake, laying odds, odds against, even money, odds on, short odds and long odds, knowledge is key to doing well. Place wagers and win bets more often with a solid grounding in betting odds.

Punters the world over simply love the excitement generated by the lead-up, the contest, the outcome and the payouts revolving around sports games. There is something truly unique about the mesmerizing feeling generated by correctly predicting the outcome of a match, tournament or competition. Enter the exciting world of sports betting – a jackpot-zone that is jam-packed with a complex series of numbers, probabilities and a dollop of good luck!

What are the betting odds?

It’s important to understand exactly what betting odds are all about in gambling. Punters will do well to remember that those very numbers that they see on display do not actually represent their true chances that any specific event will take place. What those betting odds do represent however are the amounts of money that the bookies will pay out when you win a bet placed through them.

Bookmakers basically take the true probabilities that an event or series of events will occur and then tailor them to make a profit for themselves. This is rather complex to understand but will be explained further. Let us use a horse race as an example with three horses named Jack of Spades, Ace of Spades and King of Hearts competing in an illustrious event. Assume that the odds are 10%, 50% and 40% respectively.  What these figures represent are the relative probabilities that any of these outcomes will occur. The total is 100% and is thus deemed a ‘fair book.’

Thus there is 9/10 chance of the first result not occurring, a 5/10 chance of the second result not occurring and a 6/10 chance of the third result not coming good. What the bookie will always want to do is to increase his/her values to over 100%.  Thus Jack of Spades may be at 20%, Ace of Spades at 65% and King of Hearts at 50%. Note that now the total odds exceed 100% and are standing at 135%. This differential of 35% is what the bookie gets – that’s his/her cut, regardless of who wins the race. That’s the theory at least, when everything is working according to plan.

How do punters win in sports betting?

The only way to win big in the long term is to understand the system. This requires correctly predicting the relationship of the true probabilities to the payout odds. Bettors will want to place their money on outcomes where the payouts are better than the true odds.  But don’t feel sorry for the bookies if they don’t collect on certain events. That’s because they’ve got their tails covered most of the time with brokerage fees known as the vigorish or vig – it’s a snap.