How to read the odds?

Can someone teach me how to read the odds?

whats like 4-7, 5-2,4-1?

if is 4-7... for every 4 bucks u bet on it, u get 7 back is it or wat?

No, 4-7 means if you bet 7 you'd get 4 back. Meaning, that side is odds-on to win, ie heavy favourites. If it's 4-1, you'd get 4 for every 1.

No, 4-7 means if you bet 7 you'd get 4 back. Meaning, that side is odds-on to win, ie heavy favourites. If it's 4-1, you'd get 4 for every 1.

so you always use the right hand side to divide by the left hand side. the lower the number... is the fav?

Odds are expressed as follows. If your team is quote at 4-1 to win it means you put on 1 to get back 4.

If the odds are 4-7 it means you put on 7 to get gack 4.

Therefore your club is at "shorter odds" at 4-7 than if quoted at 4-1.

What you mean by shorter odds?

A couple of minor errors here; let me clarify a couple of things:

When you win, you always get your stake back, so you have your "winnings" which is the amount you have won, and your "returns" which is your winnings + the stake.

So, if you bet £1 at 4/1, your "winnings" are £4, but your returns are £5, because you get your stake of £1 back.

In terms of the odds, what most people have said is correct. The longer the odds, the less likely the outcome is. So if team A has odds of 2/1 to win, but team B has odds of 13/1 to win, you'd say team B has longer odds to win, as it has less chance of winning. In that scenario, you'd also say that team A has shorter odds.

A couple of other things:

If a team is 3/1 on to win, it means that the odds are 1/3 (as opposed to 3/1). This means that if you bet £1, you "win" 33p giving you returns of £1.33 (your stake of £1 + your winnings of 33p).

If a team is, say, 13/2 to win, or 9/2 it's equivelent to 6.5/1 or 4.5/1, but of course you can't have a fraction within a fraction. So if you bet £1 on a team to win at 13/2 you could get returns of £7.50 (winnings of £6.50 + £1 stake).

[/gambling addict]

God damn, why can't you British just use the simple method, 1.25, 1.5, 2.0, 3.25 etc...

Imperial system, driving on the wrong side of the road and this too... typical Imperialists...

/rant over

Oh and BTW, you can change your odds settings to the 'normal' way

go decimal its easier to understand

example

1.56 v 5.7

1.56 is fav.

Shorter the number means you are expected to win.

1.18 v 11.00

1.18 is the fav by a country mile

Cause the shorter the odds, the less the payout as they r favourites to win?

Yeah, definitely decimal is easier.

Say Man Utd are playing Stoke City at Old Trafford, the odds would be something like Man Utd 1.10 Stoke City 13.00 meaning , if you put a dollar on Man Utd to win you would get a payout of $1.10 and if you put a dollar on Stoke to win you would get a payout of $13.00 meaning the bookies would offer more money for the underdogs as they have a less chance of winning ........hope this helps to the people who do not understand odds as i know some people out there are to shy to ask

Cause the shorter the odds, the less the payout as they r favourites to win?

Correctamundo

I much prefer fractions - but then I'm old school!

Go with the decimals, it's the cool way to read odds.

On a serious note though, they are much easier to read if you are just learning.

Correctamundo

meaning???

It could be interesting if one could wager on matches in FM. Not on your own matches of course.

meaning???

"Correct".

"Correct".

Yes, but due to the 10 character minimum, I was forced to go Fonzie on yo' ass

I much prefer fractions - but then I'm old school!

Absolutely!

Fraction odds. Weight in Stones. Height in Feet. Distances in Yards and Miles (unless it's the amount a player has run in a game which is forced to be kms for some stupid reason), milk in pints.

All this modern rubbish. "Tonight, weighing in at 73kg and a height of 184cm, you know him as the man who can run 1609 metres in 16.22 of an hour, Roger Bannister!"

Doesn't have the same ring to it somehow.

VB

Absolutely!

Fraction odds. Weight in Stones. Height in Feet. Distances in Yards and Miles (unless it's the amount a player has run in a game which is forced to be kms for some stupid reason), milk in pints.

All this modern rubbish. "Tonight, weighing in at 73kg and a height of 184cm, you know him as the man who can run 1609 metres in 16.22 of an hour, Roger Bannister!"

Doesn't have the same ring to it somehow.

VB

Doesn't sound right simply because you were brought up with the imperial system, it simply is familiar to you.

But the system that the rest of the world uses is unarguably better, everything is simpler because everything is based around the number 10.

Change to decimal if you are struggling like people have said, will make it much easier. I use fractions because I used to work in a betting office so its like a 2nd language to me lol.

I had no idea what decimal odds meant until this thread, always used (and in all likelihood will continue) with fractional

Absolutely!

Fraction odds. Weight in Stones. Height in Feet. Distances in Yards and Miles (unless it's the amount a player has run in a game which is forced to be kms for some stupid reason), milk in pints.

All this modern rubbish. "Tonight, weighing in at 73kg and a height of 184cm, you know him as the man who can run 1609 metres in 16.22 of an hour, Roger Bannister!"

Doesn't have the same ring to it somehow.

VB

Ditto - except farenheit. I haven't got a clue what 70 degrees farenheit is. Not a clue.

By the way, in the preferences there's an option to change metres into yards iirc.

^ Lol. It's the great juxtaposition for those of us of a certain age. We quote farenheit when it's hot and celcius when it's cold. "Jesus it's 90 today!" or "blimey it's -2". I know exactly how hot 80f is but no idea how hot 25c is, whereas I know how cold -1c is but not 33f.

And I have changed metres into yards, but it still gives full distance in kms.

Finally @ Deo. I was brought up metrically actually. Simplicity (base10) is no reason for something to be better, unless you spend your life having to convert millimetres into quarts*. So never use unarguably when it's actually subjective

VB

* I know.

Hey people. Since we are at this topic, maybe I ask about whether UK uses imperial or metric system now or are they slowly converting to metric from imperial? Cause I am from singapore and will be heading to manchester to study in a couple of years time. In singapore we use metric so i scare when i head there need to use imperial then driving will be a problem as i always gotta convert.

Finally @ Deo. I was brought up metrically actually. Simplicity (base10) is no reason for something to be better, unless you spend your life having to convert millimetres into quarts*. So never use unarguably when it's actually subjective

VB

* I know.

Well, maybe the imperial system 'sounds' better but IMO, Metric is simply the most practical system, it is much more efficient.