How to Read Betting Odds – A Pocket-Size Beginner’s Guide

At its core, betting is about developing skills to predict outcomes for particular events, i.e., a sports match. You can follow March Madness Predictions to learn more about betting odds if you’re on the verge of betting for the first time or already have some experience but want to polish it.

Each event you bet on can have a handful of different outcomes. Rolling dice, for example, has six different outcomes, meaning you have a 16.67 percentage of chance to win. At BetUS, you can see a preview of some betting odds, and below, you’ll find a guide on how to read them.

Reading betting odds explained

Here’s how to read betting odds:

1. Calculating betting odds for probability

If you see a betting odd with two numbers separated by a slash, e.g., 4/1, that’s an example of a fractional odd. You can use fractional odds to calculate the likeliness of an event to happen. For instance, we can replace these numbers with letters and get something like a/b. The probability of an event to occur in percentages goes by the equation % = b/ (a+b).

In line with this equation, 1/4 is 4 / (4+1), which is 0.80, which means there’s an 80% probability of the event happening. Similarly, 1/1 is a 50% chance, 4/1 is a 20% chance, and 9/1 is a 10% chance for a particular event to happen.

2. Calculating betting odds for winnings

Betting odds are the ones that enable you to calculate the winnings. In other words, you can calculate precisely how much money you can win for a particular bet. Here’s how that works. As in the example mentioned above, we will replace the numbers with letters (a) and (b). Simply put, for each value of slot B (what you bet), you can win A with an added value of the stake return.

Examples:

Betting $4 on odds 1/4 is a winning of 1$.
Betting 1$ on odds 1/1 is a winning of 1$.
Betting 1$ on odds 4/1 is a winning of $4.
Betting 1$ on odds 9/1 is a winning of $9.

3. Calculating decimals of betting odds

With betting odds, you’ll undoubtedly face decimals. Exchanges, for example, use decimals instead of fractions more often, which is why you should also learn how to read decimals in betting odds, as they’ll show them only in this format. Frankly, they’re easier to read and go by the following equation: odds times the stake minus the stake are your winnings. Here are some examples: