How Are Odds Calculated In Sports

  

Welcome to the Sports Betting Odds section of The Sports Geek. If you are new to sports betting and don’t understand how to read betting odds (+150, -110, +2200, etc) we will lay it all out for you and help you learn how the betting odds work.

  1. Calculate Sports Betting Payout
  2. What Are The Odds Calculator
  3. How Are Odds Calculated In Sportsbook
  4. Betting Odds Calculator

Totals or OVER/UNDER betting is when you wager on the combined score of the two teams competing in any given game, and whether the total will be OVER or UNDER the sportsbook’s prediction. The amount that is set by the oddsmakers is based on how they foresee a. Vegas Odds is not associated with any professional or collegiate sports affiliations, bodies or teams and all information contained on this site is strictly for entertainment purposes only. We take responsible gambling very seriously and never encourage those underage to participate.

A betting odds calculator allows users to input their stake & odds format they desire (American, Decimal, or Fractional) and quickly calculates the potential return of bets made. A bet calculator is ideal for providing an accurate idea of the bettors’ potential winnings for all types of sports wagers, including standard single bets, using. A parlay bet is a single wager that requires two or more outcomes to all win. The parlay calculator allows you to input your stake & odds in American formats to quickly calculate the payout for.

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Sports Betting Odds Explained

Many people don’t know how to read or calculate sports betting odds, so below we have done our best on explaining how betting odds work. The most common type of sports betting odds used in North America are the American style odds which we explain below.

American Style Sports Betting Odds

Most online sportsbooks will list their odds in what is called “American Odds”. There are a couple different versions of sports betting odds, but these American Odds are the most common odds used. Reading and understanding sports betting odds can bet a little confusing to beginners, so we have provided an example below using two NFL football teams:

American Odds

  • Matchup Odds
  • New England Patriots +120
  • Pittsburgh Steelers -140

The number shown in the bracket represents the odds. The American Odds have two components to them, the first being the positive or negative sign, and the second being the number that follows the sign.

Calculate Sports Betting Payout

The sign in front of the number indicates whether placing a wager on that outcome will pay out more money then you have wagered or less money then you have wagered. If the odd is negative (-) it means that outcome is more likely to happen and placing a bet on that outcome would payout less than the amount you wagered, while a positive (+) odd shows that the outcome is less likely to happen and it would pay out more than the amount you wagered.

The next step is figuring out exactly how much the bet pays out, which is where the numbers in the odds come into play.

A listed odd with a – sign in front of it, such as the -140 in our example above, shows us how much money you would need to wager in order to win $100. So using the -140, this would show us that you would need to bet $140 in order to win $100 in profits. You can easily substitute the $100 bet for a $10 bet by moving the decimal place over one spot, showing us that you would need to wager $14 in order to win $10 in profits.

Examples:

How Are Odds Calculated In Sports

A listed odd with a + sign in front of it, such as the +120 in our example above, shows us how much money you would win on a $100 bet. Using the +120 odds, it shows us that a $100 bet on that outcome would pay out $120 in profits. Again this can easily be converted into smaller or larger size bets. A $10 bet on +120 odds would pay out $12 in profits.

Examples:

Gambling calculatorOdds

Below is an example of NFL betting odds taken from an online betting site.


In this example you can see Los Angeles is listed at +130 ($100 bet pays $130 plus of course your original wager back) and New England is listed at -150 ($150 bet pays $100).

The great thing about betting online is that the online sportsbooks will do the calculations for you before you place your bet. You can click on the outcome or team you would like to bet on, and then input the amount you wish to wager and it will show you your potential pay out before you confirm your bet.

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How Are Odds Calculated In Sports

Decimal Style Sports Betting Odds

Decimal style odds are used mostly in Europe, and are pretty easy to understand. To calculate the decimal style odds all you will need to do is simply multiply the amount you wish to wager by the decimal odds shown and you will get your payout. For example it may look something like this:

If you wanted to place a $10 wager on the USA at 2.40 you would simply need to multiply your $10 wager by the 2.40 odds (10 x 2.40) to find out that the payout is $24. It is important to realize that with decimal style odds it includes the amount you wagered, so to find out profits you would need to subtract your wager ($24 – $10) to find out your potential payout is $14 in profits.

If you wanted to place a $10 wager on Brazil you would again just multiply $10 x 1.55 to find out that you would win $15.50 total or $5.50 in profits.

Decimal style betting odds are very simple to understand, but you won’t see them displayed in many North American sportsbooks. With that said, most online betting sites will allow you to chose the style of betting odds you want displayed, with American odds set as the default.

Educational

Damien

December 4, 2019

In the world of sports betting, many prospective gamblers are either immediately enticed by the profits of betting, or they are too scared to hop into the lifestyle. Either of these is not the safest or healthiest way to get into betting. To be honest, a lot of betting is mainly concentrated on the mathematics of probabilities. Think about it! Have you ever wondered why so many advertisements are telling you that you will win? If so, you’ve probably thought to yourself “How come these random strangers want me to win? Won’t they be losing in the long run?” No, they won’t. Today, we will explain how you can identify the best odds and beat the bookmaker odds and begin winning games.

Firstly, there isn’t a holy grail formula for sports betting. You have to breathe in this fact before you can truly begin to look at the betting world from clear lenses. Remember that you are not betting because you feel like you have a high probability of winning. Instead, adopt the mentality of betting to increase your probability of winning over the bookmaker’s odds. To make profits in betting, your judgment should be better than the bookmakers.

What Are The Odds Calculator

To find the best value odds, you have to understand the concept of value which is important to understand any betting tips. The reward may be either positive or negative. A positive value is if you are more likely to win a wager than the chance in the odds. In other words, a positive value exists when your wager is more likely to win than suggested in the odds. If a wager is less likely to win than the odds suggest, a negative value is. You will need a positive value to make money. To make money, you’ll need a positive value.


When identifying value in sports betting, there are two fundamental steps to take. You have to measure the likelihood of the outcome and then equate those probabilities with the expected chances of the wager-related odds. Matches are very unpredictable and in football betting, there are too many possible variables to use. Therefore, you must try to make assessments using research and analysis while trusting your judgment.

To illustrate how you can identify value in real scenarios, here is an example of football betting. There is an upcoming match between Chelsea FC and Manchester City FC. We want to put our bet on the winner of the match. So, we need to assess the chances our winner will have. In this scenario, for the Premier League standings, Chelsea FC is 4th on the league table with 8-2-3 and Manchester City is 3rd on the league table with 9-1-3. The scales are tipped towards Manchester City for this matchup.

Additionally, when you want to find out the chances of winning for a team, there are many important pieces of information such as world ranking, past meetings, team value, and others. Let’s say from this, Manchester City FC holds a 72% chance of winning against Chelsea FC with 28%. Now, after taking a look at the betting sites online, we have seen that the odds offered for Manchester City are 1.42 which converts to 70.4% for the implied probability. Meanwhile, there are odds of 6.33 for Chelsea which is 15.8% as the implied probability.

How Are Odds Calculated In Sportsbook

From the standings and statistics for Manchester City FC, there is a 72% chance of winning. However, this is higher than the implied probability of 70.4% which means that there is no positive value. There is no positive value once the actual probability is higher than the implied probability. However, Chelsea was estimated to have a probability of 28% which is higher than the implied probability of 15.8%. With these results, it will be best to bet on Chelsea because the odds are in their favor due to a positive value.

Betting Odds Calculator

It seems like a lot to take in, but this knowledge will help you improve significantly in the world of sports betting. Many betting tips will help you learn how to evolve your chances and this is an important step to fully utilize new knowledge on betting. Beating the bookmaker odds is the goal of profitable betting experience and winning games in the long run.