Calculating Payouts

Sports Betting

Sports have been a national and international pastime, hobby, and full out career for many. As such, they have become such a wildly popular event to bet on. Competition is what drives the gambling industry and sports overflows with this concept. When betting on sports, people need to acquire the knowledge necessary in order to understand what they are doing and how to do it. By accomplishing this task, many will be able to start betting on their favorite sports and sports teams, in hopes of getting a big payout. Managing the money is also important, and that is why learning how to calculate potential profits from the different kinds of odds that are given is crucial.

 

Different Kinds of Odds

There are three different kinds of odds that are used in sports betting, American, decimal, and fractional odds. When placing wagers on any of the many sportsbooks that can be found online, it is important to know the differences of each and how to read and calculate properly. Although, on many online sportsbooks they give the bettor the choice of which type of odds they want to use, it is always good to know the others, just in case.

 

American Odds

American odds are given a single numeric value, which is preceded by a + or a symbol. The symbols are there to inform the bettor whether that team is either the Favorite to win, the symbol, or the Underdog, the + symbol. They usually look like this:

Team 1 -110
Team 2 +140

This means that Team 1 is favored to win the match, while Team 2 is the underdog. The numeric values in front of the symbols, refer to the possible profit amount. There are two rules when calculating possible profit, the Favorite will always show how much is needed to bet and the Underdog will always show how much the payout will be based on $100 bets. It would be calculated like this:

The -110 means that the bettor will have to invest $110 in order to win $100, as the favorite has better odds of winning. The +140 means that for every $100 that the better wages, they have the possibility of winning $140 if the underdog wins. It is fairly simple to calculate, all the bettor needs to remember is the difference between the Favorite and the Underdog.

 

Decimal Odds

The name is exactly how the odds are represented, in decimal form. There are no extra symbols or tricks to this style of odds. This system is a much simpler and easier to understand that the other two styles of odds. The way a bettor figures out which team is favored to win is by how low the odds are. The lower the decimal value means that the team has better chances of winning, while the higher the value means that they have less probability of winning. The way these are shown are:

Team 1: 1.20
Team 2: 3.25

The way the potential profit is calculated using Decimal odds is the simplest way out of the three types of odds. All the bettor would need to do is multiply the amount they wagered, by the decimal value that is given in front of the team they bet on. If the bettor placed a $10 bet on Team 1 to win, then that would mean ($10 x 1.20 = $12) they would make a $12 profit, on top of getting their initial $10 bet back as well; they will get a total of $22 for a $10 bet. There is a reason a lot of bettors place at least a small amount on the underdog, as the potential payout is much higher. The bettor places the same $10 bet on Team 2 to win, they will get ($10 x 3.25 = $32.5) $32.5 profit, plus their $10 back.

 

Fractional Odds

This is the third type of betting odds that can be found on any online sportsbook, and bettors should have a basic understanding on how these odds work. These odds are also prevalent in sports betting, as well as in horse racing. They are a little bit more confusing to calculate than the American and Decimal odds types. However, once the bettor figures out how to calculate the potential profit using fractional odds, they won’t have any problem in the future. These odds, as the name would suggest, are represented as a fraction.

In order to determine which team is the favorite and which is the underdog, the bettor needs to see which fraction is lowest, the lower it is, means the higher the odds that team has of winning, and opposite means they have less probability of winning. These would be resented like:

Team 1: 3/2
Team 2: 7/3

The 3/2 odds would be a 1.50 in decimal form and the 7/3 would be a 2.40 in decimal form. As you can see, Team 1 is favored to win as the fraction is lower. You can read a 3/2 odds as 3-to-2 odds, which will help with the profit calculation. A bettor needs to take the first number in the fraction, which is how much money they will win. The second number determines how much money needs to be wagered in order to win the previous amount.

It calculates for Team 1 as, for every $2 wagered, the bettor will win $3. For Team 2, for every $3 wagered, the bettor will receive $7. Another way of calculating the potential profit is to multiply the bet size by the fraction. A $40 bet on Team 1 would win the bettor ($40 x 3/2 = $60) $60, on top on their initial $40 bet. As you can see, there are several ways to calculate the potential payout using the fractional odds.