Match Odds Explained
If you want to come out on top against the bookies it is vital that you understand the fundamentals. When it comes to sports betting there is nothing quite as fundamental as the odds that the bookies offer. Unfortunately, betting odds can prove very confusing. That’s especially true for people who are new to betting.
Read some interesting betting related articles. This time the subject is Match Betting. Online Betting.me.uk helps you to bet more successfully. Different Types of Soccer Bets Explained with Advice on How to Use Them. Before we get to the details, let us know about match odds which is very. Read our expert guide on betting odds and gain an understanding of how online sports betting odds wok. Learn about fractional odds, decimal odds and more.
That’s where this article comes in. We’re going to explain exactly how betting odds work, how they are set and the differences in the ways they are displayed. After taking in all the information below, you will be much better equipped to set about making some profit.
What Do Betting Odds Represent?
At their most basic, betting odds tell you two things:
- How much you stand to make should the selection win
- The probability of the selection winning
Take this example. If you were looking through the weekend Premier League fixtures and saw a team had fractional odds of 2/1 (that’s decimal odds of 3.0) you would know that you stand to win £2 in profit from every £1 that you stake should the team win. You’d also know that the bookmaker who set the odds ranks the team’s chances of winning as one in every three times the game is played.
If you saw a team had fractional odds of 8/13, you’d know that for every £13 you stake, you will win £8 or profit and that if the game was played 21 times in total, the bookies think the team would win 13 times and fail to win eight times (what is known as the implied probability).
Working out an implied probability percentage from fractional odds is simple. You just divide the stake by the combined sum of the two numbers which make up the fractional odds. In the case of 2/1 the equation looks like this:
1 / (2+1) = 0.33 or 33%
For odds of 8/13 this is the equation:
13 / (8+13) = 0.62 or 62%
That’s how the maths works but when it comes to the actual odds that bookmakers set, it’s a little more complicated.
How Do Bookmakers Set Their Odds?
The basic business model of a sportsbook is fairly uncomplicated. Bookmakers set the odds and take bets on an event. When that event ends they pay out everyone who backed the winner and then keep the rest for themselves.
But, consider the following horse race.
| Selection | Fractional Odds | Decimal Odds | Implied Probability | Profit From a £10 Bet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horse 1 | Evens | 2.0 | 50% | £10 |
| Horse 2 | 3/1 | 4.0 | 25% | £30 |
| Horse 3 | 7/1 | 8.0 | 12.5% | £70 |
| Horse 4 | 7/1 | 8.0 | 12.5% | £70 |
As you can see, the combined implied probability of the selections above is 100%. From a bookmaker’s perspective that is a big problem. That’s because, presuming they’ve got the same amount of liability on each selection, they’d never make any money as they’d have to collect and payout the same amount.
So, the bookmakers will build something called an overround into their odds. Here’s a real example of a match odds market from a football match:
| Selection | Fractional Odds | Decimal Odds | Implied Probability | Profit From a £10 Bet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Man Utd | 1/2 | 1.5 | 66.7% | £5 |
| Draw | 18/5 | 4.6 | 21.7% | £36 |
| West Ham | 13/2 | 7.5 | 13.3% | £65 |
With an total implied probability of 101.7%, the bookmaker who set those odds is guaranteed to make a profit of 1.7% assuming that they have the same amount of liability on all three selections. Of course, it rarely works out that the bookies manage to spread their liability evenly but you need to know that when you look at a betting market you’re not simply looking at a reflection of how the bookies think the event will pan out. There’s much more going on behind the scenes.
Armed with this knowledge of how the bookmakers set their odds, you can concentrate on finding value. That is, finding a bet where you believe the odds (and therefore the implied probability) is too big. If the bookies think that a side has a 50% chance of winning but you think they’ve got a better chance than that, that’s value.
The Difference Between Decimal and Fractional Odds
You will have seen above that we’ve spoken about both fractional and decimal odds. They are just different ways of conveying the same information but they do add another layer of complexity.
All the major online bookmakers will shows their odds as both fractions and decimals so it’s important that you understand just what they are showing and how to switch between the two. Thankfully, it only requires simple maths.
To go from a fraction to a decimal is as easy as dividing out the fraction and adding one. Here’s how that looks for odds of 2/1:
(2/1) + 1 = 3.o
And using our second example from above, 8/13, it looks like this:
(8/13) + 1 = 1.62
If you want to go from decimal odds to fractional odds is similarly simple. You just minus one from the decimal odds, turn that number into a fraction and reduce it down to it’s simplest form.
Let’s take decimal odds of 4.5, this is the equation:
4.5 – 1 = 3.5
35/10 -> 7/2
If the decimal price is 1.25, you convert it into fractional odds like this:
1.25 – 1 = 0.25
25/100 -> 1/4
Here’s a list of some of the most common fractional odds and their decimal equivalents (for a more in-depth list click here).
| Fractional Odds | Decimal Odds | Implied Probability |
|---|---|---|
| 1/10 | 1.10 | 90.9% |
| 1/5 | 1.2 | 83.33% |
| 2/5 | 1.4 | 71.43% |
| 1/2 | 1.5 | 66.67% |
| 1/1 (evens) | 2.0 | 50% |
| 3/2 | 2.5 | 40% |
| 2/1 | 3.0 | 33.33% |
| 4/1 | 5.0 | 20% |
| 9/1 | 10.0 | 10% |
| 100/1 | 101.0 | 0.99% |
Key Terminology
When reading betting advice or searching for a value bet on the bookies’ websites you’ll come across some key terms relating to betting odds. To round up our article on betting odds, we’ve covered the most widely used terms to ensure you don’t get confused in your search for winners.
Stake – The amount of money that you place (or wager) on a specific bet.
Price – The price of a bet is simply another way of referring to the odds. You can either say that a football team can be backed at odds of 2/1or that their price is 2/1.
Odds On & Odds Against – Two of the key terms that you’ll hear when it comes to betting odds are ‘odds on’ and ‘odds against’. These terms refer to whether a price is greater or lower than evens. Any price above evens is known as odds against, while anything below evens is odds on.
Short and Long Odds – If something is described as being short odds it means the price is low. A long odds shot will provide you with a bigger win but is much less likely to win.
EducationalMatch Odds Explained
Damien
November 22, 2019
Types of online betting
Soccer is one of the most thrilling and popular sports in the world. Wagers make the game more exciting. There are many different types of betting on soccer matches. This guide will plot each sort of wager and clarify how it works. We will explain different types of soccer bets with advice on how to use them.
Match odds
Before we get to the details, let us know about match odds which is very important in soccer bets. Match odds determine the profit of your winning in betting. Bookies offer odds on wagers depending on the probability of the match. The odds may differ for different types of wagers. The team or the score which is more likely to happen has lesser odds where the other option has higher odds. You can earn a lot of profits by betting against the bookmaker and winning the wager which is quite difficult. The higher the risks, the greater the reward.
Betting types
There are various types of soccer bets. The wagers are quite simple but the tricky part is in predicting the correct outcome of the game which makes it worthwhile. Some bets are a bit complex than the others. There are pros and cons for every wager. You should try to figure out which wagers suits you the best and bet accordingly to get your money’s worth. Soccer is a simple game between two teams where the result depends on the goals scored.
Full-Time Result Bets
Full-Time Result is the most popular and simplest comparing to the other wagers. There are many ways of this betting. There is a win-draw-win where you bet on which team will win or if a match will end in a draw.
Half Time Result Bets
Half Time Result and Half Time/Full-Time Result is a popular twist to the Win-Draw-Win wager. Half Time Result includes the result of a match at half time only. The odds are almost the same as the Full-Time Result wager. You need to predict the match results of both half time and full time in Half Time/Full Time wager. The odds are a bit complex here because of two results.
Double Chance Bets
There is Double Chance wager which gives you more chances. It is quite similar to the previous bet we’ve talked about but you will get two options out of three to get it right. You will win the wager if you can get one of them right. So, this a much safer bet but the odds are lower comparing to the other bets.
Draw No Bet Bets
Then there is DNB (Draw No Bet) where which is also safe is there are only two options to choose between. You will only need to choose which team will be the winner of the match. No need to worry, the wager will be canceled if the match ends with a draw. The odds here are less than win-draw-win but slightly greater than double chance.
Correct Score Bets
Let’s talk about the more complex wagers. Correct score betting is quite harder than the previously mentioned wagers because of the chances of winning are slimmer. In other wagers, you only needed to predict the win/ draw/ lose of a team. Here, you need to correctly predict the exact match score at the end of the game. You will need to take a lot of factors into account and choose between the odds carefully. This wager gives better odds due to its difficulty.
First and Last Goal Scorer Bets
First and Last Goal Scorer is a simple yet tough wager. You need to predict which player will score the first and last goal in a match.
Scorecasts is a mix of both correct score and first Goal Scorer wagers. It is a very complex sort of bet.
Over/ Under Bets
Over/ Under Bet is a popular and easy sort of wager where you need to predict whether the total number of goals scored will be greater or less than a certain number. Sometimes there are more odds of total goals that give you more options to choose from.
How To Predict A Match Using Odds
There are also other special types of wagers where they bet on special events or actions. Like, extra-time score, time of the first goal scored, penalty awarded, red/ yellow cards shown, the number of corners, live betting, combining various types of wager, etc.