Betting Odds Explained

If you’re new to betting, the first things you should do, is learn how betting odds work. It’s very important because it helps you to understand what your potential winnings will be. At first, it may appear overwhelming, but relax, read our guide and let us explain it all to you.

DON’T WORRY! We are going to discuss how to read and interpret odds. This is essential when making smart decisions while sports betting and it’s not as hard as it seems at first. 

Odds are a statistic, of the predetermined chances, that one team will win a particular event based on many factors. Basically, it’s how likely some team will win or lose or whatever you are betting on. The sportsbooks then juice it a bit and boom, you have your odds

• Click here for The Best NJ Sportsbook Guides on the web
• Click here for our top 10 Rankings

“I want people to understand, gambling is not a bad thing if you do it within the framework of what it’s meant to be, which is fun and entertaining.”
Michael Jordan

What are Odds

Simply put odds, are how much you win, “Payoff” in relation to how much you bet “Stake.”

Odds – A pair of numbers used in gambling to express the ratio of payoff to stake

Payoff – How much you win

Stake – How much you bet

Betting odds are used by a sportsbook to determine the chances of a given result of a sports event. The odds given determine the probability of a particular outcome occurring in any sports event.

How to Read the Odds

What are all these numbers! With a little bit of knowledge you too can read the odds like you were reading your Facebook or Instagram home page.

Here are the sports betting odds from draftkings.com, one of the leading New Jersey online sportsbooks, for the opening game of the New England Patriots on Monday Sep 8th. We will refer to this example throughout this article.

So what are we looking at here? Let’s break it down.

Point Spread, Total Points and Money Line are the types of bets. For a comprehensive review please click on any of the links provided. They have different odds set for them. You need to decide what type of bet you want to make. Once you decide the type of bet you can think about the odds. 

The numbers in green are the odds. This is how much you will win depending on how much you risk. The – sign and the + sign are significant as you will read below.

So what does it mean?; How Do Fixed Odds Work?

Calculations are based on $100.
We must also understand that there is a Favorite (-)  and an Underdog (+) 

Odds are determined by who is most likely going to win the match. 

The New England Patriots are the favorite -250

 -250 means you need to bet 250, to win 100

So you need to wager $250 to win $100 

If the Pats win, you win $100 plus your wager back for a total of $350.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are the underdog +200.

+200 means you need to bet 100, to win 200.

So you need to wager $100 to win $200 .

If the Steelers win, you win $200 plus your wager back for a total of $300.

---

New England Patriot: -250 ( – means the Favorite)

                    VS.

  Pittsburgh Steelers      +200 ( + means the Underdog)

So the different types of bets have different odds as you can see and different sportsbooks have different odds as well.

 This is very important to know because this is how a player truly can get an advantage. If one book is offering +120 and the other is offering +125, it’s a no brainer, you pick the bigger win for the same wagger.

Best Odds for NJ Sportsbooks

This is where we come in! We bring you the best odds from all the major bookies, all compiled into an easy to use, at a glance, format. (We have a staff of 20 starving, eager, unpaid tech interns strapped to high powered data processors just combing through odds all day like rain man or clockwork orange.)

We follow all current market trends from dropping odds and blocked odds to bet in-play with in-Play Odds. We are your eyes. We are your ears. We are your brain. This is why it is crucial for you to check out our other articles and guides here on US-Bookie.com and to check out our rankings to see exactly who the best bookies to place bets with are. 

Fractional Odds Explained

If you visit a website that has foreign roots you might run across some weird kind of fractional odds. I never liked fractions in school, I’m not sure why they are bringing them to sports betting but they also have calculators to convert these “fractions” back to normal odds. But if you want to use the cheese between your ears, here’s the basics.

Odds Against – Favorite

Odds On – Underdog

Example #1

Odds Against (Favorite): 3/1   

The number on the right is the stake (1) 

The number on the left is the potential Payoff (3) per unit staked

In the case of a 3/1 bet, your bet is $100 and if it is successful you will win $300. The total return on this bet would therefore be $400.

In normal odds this would be expressed +300

Example #2

Odds On (Underdog): 1/3

The number on the right is the stake (3) 

The number on the left is the potential Payoff (1) per unit staked

In the case of a 1/3 bet, your bet is $300 and if it is successful you will win $100. The total return on this bet would therefore be $400.

In normal odds this would be expressed -300

Decimal Odds Explained 

Decimals are another alternative for betting odds 

Decimal odds are written as 4.0, which is equal to 3/1 in fractional odds.

When you see decimal odds the number include your stake as if it was a 1 one.

If you bet $100 at 4.0 and your bet wins, you will get back $400 (initial $100 plus $300 winnings). 

The probability of 4.0 chance winning is 25.0% – based on this calculation 1 / 4 = 0.25

Long Odds vs Short Odds

You have probably heard the terms Long Odds and Short Odds. You most likely have been betting these two ways and didn’t even know it. This is a quick way to describe odds and mean the same as Odds On and Odds against. 

If you see something which has Short Odds, then they will be the favourites to win a sporting outcome. In general, odds which are close to, or lower than even are considered Short Odds. However, a price of +500 could technically be termed short odds, if the opposition in a match was priced out at -1000 for example. short odds generally do not offering much profit margins, because the bookmaker thinks that the outcome is likely to happen. 

On the other hand, Long Odds are when an outcome doesn’t have much chance of in the bookmakers’ eyes. This is where the profit is to be made in betting on the underdog. This doesn’t happen too often and the bookmakers know this, but Long Odds are presented so that people will place wagers on them.

Short Odds offer less value, but bring more certainty of bringing some rewards. Long Odds are those which offer much better value, but have less chance of happening.