Betting Odds | All Sports Betting Odds Comparison & Betting Tips

Sport Markets and Betting Odds Explained

Of course, before you start wagering on sports, it's important to know the basics. And we cover them all for you.

Most Popular Football Odds

The most popular football betting odds players look for are those on the following markets:

• Match result
• Draw no bet
• Total goals
• Over/Under
• Correct score
• Both teams to score
• First goal scorer

We've got them all for you with real-time updates and lots of bookies to follow to discover the best odds on those and many more markets.

Most Popular Horse Racing Odds

The best horse racing bookies offer odds on several main markets like:

• Win
• Place
• Each-way
• Forecast
• Tri cast

It's also important to note that those are the most popular odds to display in fractional format so if you're up to placing some wagers, don't forget to refresh your memory on what fractions mean in betting.

How do Betting Odds Work?

If you’re wondering how does betting odds work and what should you know about them, you’re at the right place. We’re here to not only help you compare the best betting odds but give you all the details you need to know to make an informed decision.

Simply put, betting odds are numbers associated with the probability of a certain event occuring. Within the betting world they’re used as a ratio between how much the bettor and the bookie stake. If the odds are, say, 3/1, the bookmaker puts in three times more money than you. Which, in turn, means that if you win, you’d get a return equal to three times your bet (plus the amount of your bet). For example, if you wager £1, you’d get £4.

Then, once you know how betting odds work, you can easily calculate how much you’d get per a given stake as well as see if a given event is more or less likely to happen. There are some other important things to also mention, though. Most of them you’ll see below but something we would like to point out right away is that the main factor underneath how do odds work in betting is the bookmakers’ opinion on the probability of things happening a given way. That means every bookie will have different odds, some giving you more value; others being not so much of a good option. Here’s where we come into the picture because we allow you to compare the best betting odds for various sports, events and markets with real-time updates. You’ll see the odds right after the bookmakers post them and you’d be able to pick the best deals available within the online betting world.

How to Read Betting Odds?

Once you know the basis, now comes the next step: how to understand betting odds. Well, that depends on the exact format the odds use. So we should first begin with unravelling the ways you’ll see odds posted and then you’d understand how to calculate betting odds depending on how they’re depicted.

Decimal Odds

One of the most popular odds format is the decimal type. It actually allows you to see much faster what return you’d be getting and what probability the bookie’s associating to a given outcome. You don’t need to do any complicated calculations and you don’t have to wonder what event the bookmaker considers more likely to happen because it’s visible right away. For instance, if you’ve got decimal betting odds of 2.00 and of 5.00, the likelihood of the second outcome happening is smaller than the likelihood of the first outcome happening. And, taking those two numbers as examples one more, if you wager £1, on 2.00 odds you win £2 and on 5.00 odds you win £5. Any time you’re wondering what are good odds in betting, it’ll be the easiest to find the best value deals when they’re depicted in the decimal format.

Fractional Odds

Most commonly used in horse racing betting, those odds are presented in a fractional format where the first number shows how much you can win per a given wager which is, on its own, denoted by the second number. To put it more simply, if you’ve got odds of 5/1, you can win £5 for every £1. If the odds are 5/2, then you’d be able to win £5 per every £2 wagered. If the first amount is lower, though, that means the given outcome is much more likely to happen and you’d win less than what you’ve wagered. For example, the 2/5 odds could offer you a win of £2 per every £5 wagered.

American Odds

American odds are also known as moneyline odds. They are used mainly in the US and rarely utilized anywhere else except for matches within the MMA and other fight sports. They’re not that easy to follow and understand but that’s mainly because they aren’t that widely popular as using decimal odds.

Here the bookmakers don’t just assign a number to the probability of an event happening but they also give it a positive or a negative sign. Contrary to what you might think first, the positive (+) is assigned to the underdog and the negative (-) means those are the odds for the favorites.

On the first occasion, the number shows the potential profit on a £100 bet. Say, you’ve got odds of +150, then if you’ll get £150 on a £100 bet for a total return of £250.

With the negative sign, on the other hand, you’ll see how much you need to wager on the given outcome for you to win £100. For example, if the odds are -200, then you’d get £50 in potential winnings per a £100 bet for a total payout of £150.

Those odds are favoured within the USA while the European bookies more commonly use fractional or decimal numbers.

Converting Between Fractional and Decimal Formats

If you’d like to switch between different formats without having to use a specialized calculator to see what the odds would look like as a fraction or as a decimal, here’s how you should do so:

• Converting odds from decimals to fractionals: Take the decimal and subtract one from it, then look for the nearest whole integer.
• For convert fractional odds to decimals: Divide the number before the slash by the number after it. Then add a one.

Of course, you can simply use an odds calculator to do all the math for you.

What do Odds Mean in Betting?

Of course, when talking about what do betting odds mean, there is no way to skip the topic of probability. Because we cannot know for sure which of the possible outcomes will happen. That's why we're talking about what is more or less likely to occur when it comes to odds.

Betting Odds and Probability

The probability of something happening in betting is the percentage of likelihood that something is going to happen expressed via percentage. But since it’s not actually possible to determine how likely it is for a given team to win, a player to score, etc. with utmost precision, when it comes to sports wagers, we’re talking about implied probability. It can be determined by just dividing one by the decimal odds and then you simply multiply by 100 to get the percentage. Let’s take a look at a few examples:

• Odds of 2.0 = 1/ (2.0) = 0.5 = 50%
• Odds of 3.0 = 1/(3.0) = 0.33 = 33%
• Odds of 4.0 = 1/(4.0) = 0.25 = 25%
• Odds of 5.00 = 1/(5.0) = 0.20 = 20%

Now, what can you do after? Not only determine how high the probability of an outcome is and how much money you can get per a certain amount of bet wagered but also see what’s the expected value of a given bet over time. To do so, you have to multiply the amount you’d win per bet times the probability of that happening and then subtract the loss per the probability of losing.

Let’s take an example:

• The chances of team A to win are set at 2.5
• You’re wondering if you should bet on team A to win
• If you bet £20, you can get £50 in total (that includes you initial bet and £30 in winnings)

Now to the equation:

(30*0.4) – (20*0.6) = 12 – 12 = 0

That means that over time you’d break even and that bet is so-so when it comes to value. What we know to be a value bet is something that’s got an end result of the equation higher than zero. On those occasions it’s possible to win more from your wagers (of course, over a bigger time period).

Find The Best Betting Sites and Compare Odds for Different Sports Betting Markets

Looking for an easy odds comparison tool to use? Trying to decide on which of the latest betting markets available to place your wager? Or you simply want to find some betting tips and most recent odds across the best bookmakers and betting exchanges?

Regardless of whether you’d like to bet on the next World Cup football match, some cricket tournaments, darts, basketball, snooker, Formula 1, horse racing or… whatever else there is to bet on, with us you’d find the most competitive odds right after they become available. Our data changes in real time to provide you with the newest deals and regardless of whether you’d like to bet with an UK bookmakers or online betting sites for international players, we cover it all.

Real Time Updates on the Top Bookmakers, Best Sports Betting Odds and Many Free Bet Offers

If you're a fan of sports betting and you'd like to find the latest betting odds available, we offer you:

• Best pre-match and live betting odds available with different bookies
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Getting to know which sites are offering the best odds and a top-tier betting experience is quite easy. Just check the respective section of our website and you'd be able to see what odds are available for all the events which you can currently place your wager on.