Understanding the Odds
One of the keys to being a Pro Tipster is understanding how betting markets work – why odds are at the rate offered and how to take advantage of value. Although types of markets are fairly standard (albeit with different names) the way odds are offered vary greatly depending on the territory you are in.
Fractional Odds
Fractional odds are traditionally offered in British and Irish markets and are expressed as a fraction – for example 4/1, 13/2 or 1/5. The odds quote the net total that will be paid out to the bettor for a successful wager relative to the stake – for example £100 bet at 4/1 (“four to one” or “four to one against”) will return £400 profit; or a bet at 1/4 (“one to four” or “four to one on”) will return £25 profit to a £100 stake. In either case the bettor receives his stake back so in the first example he would receive £500 in total and in the second £125. Odds of 1/1 are known as “evens”.
How to Convert Decimal Odds to Fractional?
Decimal odds are favoured in European, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and Asian markets. They differ from fractional odds in that the decimal expresses the total return for a stake in a wager rather than the profit as outlined above. For example, €100 staked at 2.05 will return €205 euros total while €100 staked at 1.75 will return €175 – so decimal odds of 2.00 are equal to 1/1 or “evens”.
How to Convert Moneyline Odds to Fractional?
Moneyline odds are favoured by American bookmakers. There are two possibilities – the figure quoted can either be positive or negative. Positive odds indicate that the bet is better than evens while negative odds indicate that the bet is worse than evens.
If the figure quoted is positive, the odds are quoting how much money will be won on a $100 wager. As an example, odds of +400 would return $400 profit to a $100 wager. However, when the figure quoted is negative, the odds are quoting how much money needs to be staked to win $100 in profit – for example 1/4 odds are shown as -400 as it would take $400 staked to win $100 in profit.
Even money is shown as +100 or -100 – some bookmakers will show a negative symbol while others will not.
Odds on ProTipster
We’re showing the most popular odds across your territory while you are posting tips or viewing them. You can easily change it from the top of the betting tips menu. If you want to check the best tips on ProTipster click here.
If you want to convert your odds while posting you can do it from your settings.
As a Pro Tipster, odds are very important. A bookmaker’s job is to create a book whereby no matter how many bets he takes on various outcomes, he remains in profit and odds set by a bookmaker reflect that mathematically. Therefore a Pro Tipster has to be able to decide which outcome is more likely to happen than the odds offered using all the information available to them and tip accordingly.
Sometimes, a bookie will get it wrong and there is obvious value – but those occasions are rare. The true test of a Pro Tipster is if they can continue making profit even when the odds are well set. At ProTipster we take our odds from Betradar a data company which provides odds for many different bookmakers.
