If you are a serious sports bettor it is definitely important to understand the betting odds for each game. It is important to know the type of bets you can make in a game to help you have a better chance of winning. Without the right knowledge about this, you are just an idle player who throws away money for nothing. This page helps you understand the odds of sports betting in US and winning and being a successful gambler.
What you need to remember is the three main types of betting odds: Fractional, Decimal and American. The names may sound strange or unrelated but these are the main features you need to know to help you with placing your bets.
Determining the odds of betting is just a reflection of the chances or possibilities of a certain outcome of a game or event. There
has to be an outcome at every game or event and the odds are the interpretation of these chances or outcomes. Online bookmakers
usually allow you to choose from the list of odds you would like to use.
Decimal Odds – Many bookmakers use odds instead of calculating the percentages. This type of decimal odds is used in many of the European countries and is thus sometimes referred to as the European Odds. To calculate this you need to formulate a chance percentage and then divide it into 100 to determine the decimal odds. For example, if you bet on a game with 5 decimal odds, then you will win $5 for every pound you bet. If you bet $10 then you will get back $50.
Fractional Odds – Fractional odds are also very commonly used in the United Kingdom. With a given 20% chance of winning your fractional odds is 4-1 which means you lose 4 times for every one time you win. This would also mean that you have a 20% possibility of winning and an 80% possibility of losing! For example, if you place a wager of $20 on an event with 4-1 odds
then you win $80 and you bet of $10 will be returned to you, giving you a total of $90.
American Odds – American odds are also known as Money line odds. A + sign indicates the amount you would win if you wager $100 and a – sign shows how much you need to wager to win $100. What I mean is the US odds of betting are noted as +400, 5 for decimal odds and 4/1 for fractional odds, which will be divided by the positive or negative odds.
Some of the other gambling odd terms are briefed below:
A fixed odd bet is when a gambler places a certain wager against the bookmaker to forecast on the outcome of a
Your stake is the total amount of money you lose or risk at a gamble.
The term laying odds refers to a bookmaker taking bets whereby you agree on a bet and the bookmaker lays the
specific outcome of the game or event.