How To Read Odds For Sports Betting
Therefore there are low odds for favorites and high odds for outsiders . However, they are presented, being able to convert your odds into a break-even percentage is a crucial part of understanding what is actually a good bet. If the odds are +200 that means the book is giving you the odds that the bet will come in one-third of the time. If you think the likelihood is higher than that, it is a good bet.
In the San Francisco/Detroit example above, the market has 4.58% vig. That’s just a hair more than a typical spread betting market with -110 on both sides, which has 4.54% vig. Since the favorite is considered the team with the better chance to win, a winning wager will usually pay out less than the original amount wagered. When a bettor places a wager on the moneyline, they simply pick a side to win.
If the score is exactly what the bookies set, then the bet is a push and everyone gets their money back. When the spread is small, moneyline bets are often better since the spread does not indicate a clear underdog. Get the latest sports betting news & VSiN programming updates with this free daily email from VSiN, The Sports Betting Network. We alluded to some of the factors that can ‘move’ opening odds. One-sided action, a fundamental change in event participants or playing conditions, or just a general perception of outcome are all factors. As a result, the house trimmed the number one full point to try to restore the betting balance.
If you are betting on the Miami Heat to win (+102) against Milwaukee Bucks (-121), you are essentially backing the underdog in the game. In our next part we’ll cover the various types of sports bet there are. You will often hear it said as 3/1 against – well think of that as 3 chances against something happening versus 1 for it happening i.e. it is a 1 in 4 chance. And as we know 1 in 4 or 1/4, is an implied probability of 0.25. In addition to the financial information that odds provide, they also contain information about how likely the sportsbook thinks an outcome is. Now probability may be something you last thought about at high school, but some very simple maths can take you a long way when thinking about odds.
Obviously there has to be a catch, though, or the bet would be way too simple. The sportsbooks balance their risk by setting different prices on each team. You win a smaller amount than you bet if you pick the favorite, and you generally win more than you bet if you pick the underdog. The stronger the favorite the less you will win, and vice versa. The bookmaker has set the lower probability on the Kings winning the match, with their odds at +185. If you want to bet on the Kings as the underdog, you’d have to stake $100 to potentially win $185.
A line of -160 means that you would have to bet $160 to win your base amount of $100. A team with a moneyline of -130 wouldn’t be favored nearly as strongly as a team with a moneyline of -330. Each online sportsbook has its own set of house rules in place.