People bet on sports for several reasons - for fun, to make a game more interesting, and even to make money. If you intend to bet on sports to make money, then you should know the different wagering odds you will come up against in your betting travels.
Wagering on odds can be done in one of three distinct ways:
1) Wagering on the Money Line which is predominantly the American way of betting
2)Wagering on Fractional Odds which is very popular in the United Kingdom
3)Wagering on Decimal Odds, the European way of betting.
Money Line
Betting on the Money Line is the easiest way to wager a little bit of money to win a lot or vice versa. A money line will look something like this:
- New York Jets -500
- New England Patriots +350
What this means is that the Jets are the favourite team; meaning they are favoured to win that game over the Patriots. This is why they have the minus (-) sign in front of their odds. All favourites have a minus (-) sign in front of the odds, in the case of a money line wager. The money associated with the Jets is $500. So if you place a wager on the Jets at -500, this means that you are betting $500 that they will win. For every $500 you bet, you will win $100. Your take in this case would be $600, which constitutes your original wager of $500 and your $100 win. Why would anyone want to do this, i.e. wager so much money only to win $100? Well, think about it. The Jets ARE the favourite. This means that they are more likely to win than the Patriots. So, even if you risk that much money, you are more likely to come out on top with a win than a loss.
The Patriots are the underdogs; meaning they are not favoured to win that game over the Jets. This is why they have the plus (+) sign in front of the odds. All underdogs have a plus (+) sign in front of the odds, in the case of a money line wager. The money associated with the Patriots is $350. This means that for every $100 that you wager on the Patriots, you will win $350. Your take in this case would be $450. Seemingly this is a better wager than a bet on the favourite team but think about it. The Patriots ARE the underdog; meaning they are not likely to win that particular game against the Jets. This means that you are more likely to lose your original wager. Why would you want to bet on a team that is likely to lose? Get the picture?
The Money Line can take another form called Even Money. A typical Even Money line odds would be:
- New York Jets Ev
- New England Patriots +150
This means that you will get paid even money on your Jets wager. So if you bet $100 on the Jets, you will win $100 or, if you bet $150, you will win $150.
Fractional Odds
Fractional odds are most easily understood if you think about them as regular fractions.
A Fractional Odds line would look something like this:
- New York Jets 1/4
- New England Patriots 10/1
If you divide the first number into the second number, you will get a multiplier. You would then use this multiplier to determine your returns. For example, a $100 wager on the Jets means that your returns will be $25. How? It's quite simple. Divide 1 into 4. You will get a multiplier of 0.25. This means that if you place a $100 wager on the Jets, you returns would be $25. You can conclude that the Jets would be the favourite because you are betting more money to win less. But it is likely to be a guaranteed win, so why complain!
A wager on the Patriots means that you are betting less to win more. Your stake would be $1 to win $10. How? Again, very simple. If you divide 10 into 1, your multiplier becomes 10. This means that for every $10 you wager, your returns would be $100.
As in the case of the Money Line, a winning wager on Fractional Odds means that you would receive your original bet back along with the returns from the wager. So, in the case of the Jets, if you placed a $100 wager, your winnings would be $125, you're your original $100 bet and your $25 returns.
In the case of the Patriots, if you wagered $10, your winnings would be $110, which includes your original $10 wager and your $100 returns.
Decimal Odds
Decimal Odds are popular in Europe, Australia, and Canada. They are especially favoured by betting exchanges as they are the easiest to work with for trading purposes. They are much easier to deal with than fractional odds because there are no complicated calculations to work out. The Decimal Odds are the multiplier so you can almost immediately guess what your total winnings (returns and original bet) will be.
A typical Decimal Odds line would look like this:
- New York Jets 2.60
- New England Patriots 1.77
Because Decimal Odds already include your total winnings, a $1 wager on the Jets would mean a total win of $2.60. Similarly a $10 wager would mean a win of $26. If you were to wager on the Patriots it would mean that your overall win (if you DO win) would be $1.77 for every $1 wagered.
Point Spread Wagering
Point spreads are most commonly used in football and basketball odds. They are the adjustments the Sportsbook makes to the final score of a game. A typical Point Spread odd would look like this:
- Chicago Bulls -11 (-105)
- Denver Nuggets +11 (-115)
The above means that the Bulls are the favourite to win the game by 11 points. The Nuggets are the underdog and will most likely lose by 11 points. If the Jets win the game by 11 points, the bet becomes a Push and all bets on the Jets are returned to the bettor. If the Bulls win by 12 or more points, then any wagers placed on that team will mean that $105 will need to be wagered in order to win $100. If the Nuggets are selected, this means that you acknowledge they are the underdog and that they will lose the game by 12 or more points. A loss of exactly 11 points means that the bet is a Push and all monies wagered on the Patriots will be returned.
So, let's say the final score in the Bulls/Nuggets game was 187 with the Bulls at 100 points and the Nuggets at 87. All wagers on the Bulls would win because the Team won the game by 13 points (i.e. they covered the point spread).
Let's say the final score was 189 with the Bulls at 102 points and the Nuggets at 87. In this instance all bets on the Nuggets would lose because they did not cover the point spread. If you add the final score of the Nuggets to the spread, you will see what I mean. (87 + 11 = 98. They did not cover the spread by 11 or more points.)
Read more about Sports Bet Types and their Payoffs
