Odds Types
Odds are numbers, which are used to calculate how much you can win at a given stake. In general the rule is the higher odds the lower probability of winning. Here is interesting article about odds and bookmakers' earnings. Online bookmakers operate with three different types of odds. Depending on which markets the bookmaker targets, they are offering odds in Decimal, American or British type. The best online bookmakers in the market will probably offer you the possibility to choose the format you like.
Decimal odds - European style:
Decimal format is most common one. The odds show how many units the bookmaker pays out per unit staked.
Decimal odds are usually presented with 2 decimals, sometimes with 3 (at Pinnacle Sports for example).
How this works? Let's look at example.
Let's say that we have placed a 100€ bet on Manchester United against Liverpool at odds 1.80.
PAYOUT: 100€ * 1.80 = 180€
PROFIT: 180€ - 100€ = 80€
Very easy to calculate! That is why decimal profit is most common format at online bookmakers.
UK odds - Fraction format:
UK odds shows the profit that you will have if your bet win.
Almost all British bookmakers still keep this format as very popular in UK. It is very easy to convert
UK odds to decimal odds. All you have to do is add 1 to UK odds and you will get decimal ones. That is how you will easily
calculate payout. Profit calculation is even more easy. You will calculate your profit if you multiply stake with UK odds.
Example: Let's say that we have placed a 100€ bet on Manchester United against Liverpool at odds 4/5.
PAYOUT: 100€ * (1+ 4/5) = 180€
PROFIT: 100€ * 4/5 = 80€
American format:
Americans have to be different then Europeans in every way. Their odds
are real nightmare for anyone who have ever used Decimal or UK format.
First of all, there are two types of American odds, positive (E.g 250) or negative (E.g -250).
Positive American odds
The positive odds show you how much you will profit from a stake of $100. If your
stake is 100$ then it is easy to calculate the winnings. But since we don't place that kind of bets all the time,
let's see how to calculate the payout and profit with normal stake.
PAYOUT: Stake x (1 + US odds/100)
PROFIT: Stake x US odds/100
Example: 50$ bet on draw at odds +250
PAYOUT: 50$ x (1 + 250/100) = 175$
PROFIT: 50$ x 250/100 = 125$
Negative American odds
The negative odds show you how much you need to stake to win $100. Formula for payout and profit calculation would be:
PAYOUT: Stake x (1 + 100/US odds)
PROFIT: Stake x 100/US odds
Example: 50$ bet on Home win at odds -250
PAYOUT: 50$ x (1 + 100/250) = 70$
PROFIT: 50$ x 100/250 = 20$
We hope that you can do this without calculator in your hand :-) We couldn't. But I guess Americans are smarter then
us :-)
You can find all soccer betting odds here.
