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Breaking Down Betting Odds
Fractional odds – We start with these odds because we feel they are the easiest to understand. Fractional odds are most frequently seen in the realm of horse racing, so any one who has been to the track will already be familiar with them. The example we will take a look at are the odds of 2/1. This means that you would win two dollars if you bet one dollar and were a winner. The odds can be less than even also. Odds of 1/2 would mean that you would have to bet two dollars to win one dollar. So in other words, if you wager $100 with odds of 1/2 and are correct, you will take home a total of $150 including your $100 wagered and $50 being your profit.
Decimal odds - These are more frequently used internationally, but are still important to know because in the online gambling community many times the casinos are internationally based. Upon you first interaction with this form of odds you may feel as though you need to be a math professor to understand them, but upon further examination you will see there is no problem. We will continue with our example from earlier, so if your odds are 1.5, that means you must bet $2 in order to win 1$. This would be the equivalent of odds of 1/2. Decimal odds may also be presented as whole numbers so do not be confused by the name. Odds of 3.00 are the equivalent to 2/1 and means you take $2 upon a successful $1 bet. An easy way to deal with decimal odds is to multiple your odds by the amount you wagered to calculate your total winnings. In order to calculate just your net profit you subtract this number by your original amount wagered. So if you have odds of 1.25 and you wagered $100 and won you would multiple 1.25 by 100 with the result being 125. So $125 are your total winnings, with your net profit being $125 minus the original $100 you wagered for a profit of $25. We are sure you got it! But if not here is an easy chart to convert fractional and decimal odds.
Money line odds - These are most common odds you will see in American sports betting. Simply stated, the money line is the amount that must be wagered to win $100, or the amount won for a $100 wager. They are expressed as numbers greater than 100, and they can be either a positive or negative number.
If the money line is a positive number then the odds are the amount you would win if you were to bet $100 and won. For example, a money line of +200 means that you would make a profit of $200 if you bet $100 and were correct. That's also equivalent to fractional odds of 2/1 and decimal odds of 3.00.
A negative money line represents the amount that you would have to bet to win $100 if you were correct. For example, a -200 money line means you would win $100 if you bet $200 and won. It is also equivalent to fractional odds of 1/2 and decimal odds of 1.5.
Parlay's Explained
Parlays are a favorite bet for one reason, the potential of a big payout with a minimal bet. But don't get too excited this is not a giveaway; this possibility exists because the odds are stacked against you. But don't be discouraged because if you do your homework you might be able to navigate parlaying to some profit. So now lets move on to what it is and how you can quickly multiply your money.
In order to place a parlay, you must make a bet that links two or more outcomes together. Your parlay bet is dependent on all of the wagers together, meaning that if any part of the bet loses your parlay as a whole is lost.
In American sports there are two major kinds of parlays you may do. You can wager against the point spread, or against the money line. The parlay using the spread usually has a fixed payoff, with the payout increasing the more teams you bet on. The payoff can range from 13-5 on a 2 team parlay to 100-1 on a 8 team parlay. This means that if you bet on two teams, you can win $13 for each $5 you bet. So if you bet on 8 teams and win, then you will get $400 for every $1 you had wagered.
The second option, the one that you more frequently see internationally as well, are bets against the money line and these do not use fixed odds, rather your overall payoff is calculated based on the odds of each team. This is because with the inclusion of the spread it now assumes a 50-50 chance on each team.
So to better understand a parlay bet and the potential winning possibilities using the odds we will work with an example. In simple terms you take the odds of one event multiplied by the odds of every other occurrence that you are betting on multiplied by your wager. So if you are doing a three team parlay and each team have the same odds to win and you wager $100 your parlay would look something like this. 1.5 *1.5*1.5*$100=$337.50 less your original bet in order to see your net take home. So in essence the odds of you parlay are 3.375. So you can see how this can quickly turn into a huge payout on something like a 10 team parlay, especially if there is an underdog picked in there.
Fractional/Decimal Fractional/Decimal Fractional/Decimal
1/5 1.20 5/4 2.25 5/1 6.00
2/9 1.22 11/8 2.38 11/2 6.50
1/4 1.25 7/5 2.40 6/1 7.00
2/7 1.29 6/4 2.50 13/2 7.50
3/10 1.30 8/5 2.60 7/1 8.00
1/3 1.33 13/8 2.63 15/2 8.50
4/11 1.36 7/4 2.75 8/1 9.00
2/5 1.40 9/5 2.80 17/2 9.50
4/9 1.45 15/8 2.86 9/1 10.00
1/2 1.50 2/1 3.00 10/1 11.00
8/15 1.53 11/5 3.20 11/1 12.00
4/7 1.57 9/4 3.25 12/1 13.00
8/13 1.62 12/5 3.40 13/1 14.00
4/6 1.66 5/2 3.50 14/1 15.00
8/11 1.77 13/5 3.60 15/1 16.00
4/5 1.80 11/4 3.75 16/1 17.00
5/6 1.83 3/1 4.00 17/1 18.00
10/11 1.91 10/3 4.33 18/1 19.00
Evens 2.00 7/2 4.50 25/1 26.00