Beginners Guide To Odds

Last Updated on March 27, 2024

What are Odds?

Odds are the prices at which you bet on when you place a bet, so that you know how much you stand to win or lose when you place a bet.

Odds represent a probability of something happening, and it’s actually fairly easy, at least with a calculator, to work it out.

For example, lets discuss the odds that should be offered for a coin toss. Naturally, there is a 1 in 2 chance of it being heads, and a 1 in 2 chance of being tails, and that represents a 50% chance of either.

To work out the odds at which this should be offered, you just use the formula ‘One divided by the probability’.

So, 1 divided by 0.50 (or 50%) is 2.00, and these are the DECIMAL odds that the market should be offering, if they were fair!

If offering odds on a dice roll, the chance of getting a ‘2’ is 1 in 6. So the odds are 6.00, and the odds of getting a ‘3’ or a ‘4’ would be 2 in 6, or 6/2 = 3.00.

What are Odds Types?

When you’re placing your bets, there are a lot of different ‘Odds Types’, and these odds types are just the different ways that odds are presented to players. In fact, there is no real advantage or disadvantage no matter which odds type you’re using.

We actually covered one of those odds types above, so we can start with that one:

Decimal Odds

Also known as EU Odds. This odds type represents the RETURNS that you can expect to receive for the bet that you place.

For example, if the odds of Team A to beat Team B is 2.10 (Decimal). If you bet $200 on these odds, and the bet wins, your RETURNS will be $200 * 2.10 = $420. So essentially, you give the bookmaker $200 when you place the bet, and you receive back $420 because the bet won.

Therefore, your PROFIT is $220 (or $420 – $200)

This is the odds type to use when also working out the odds of Mix Parlay markets. If you multiply the decimal odds of different selections, you will work out the new odds for the parlay. This technique does not work with the other odds types that we will cover.

HK Odds

Also known as Chinese Odds or CN Odds. This odds type represents the PROFIT that you can expect to receive for the bet that you place, but in a decimal format

For example, if the odds of Team C to beat Team D is 0.82 (HK Odds). If you bet $200 on these odds, and the bet wins, your PROFIT will be $200 * 0.82 = $164. So essentially, you give the bookmaker $200 when you place the bet, and you receive back $164 in profit, as well as the stake of $200, because the bet won.

Fractional Odds

This odds type is very similar to HK Odds, in that it represents the PROFIT that you can expect to receive for the bet that you place, but this time, its in a fraction format. It’s an odds type that is popular particularly in UK.

For example, in a tennis match, the odds of Player A to beat Player B is 1/4 (pronounced one to four). If you bet $200 on these odds, and the bet wins, your PROFIT will be $200 * 1/4 = $50. So, you give the bookmaker $200 when you place the bet, and you receive back $50 in profit, as well as the stake of $200, because the bet won.  

MY Odds

Also known as Malay Odds. This odds type is a little different to the others, as there are odds that are negative and odds that are positive.

When the odds are positive, MY Odds actually work in exactly the same way as HK Odds, so its representing PROFIT. Positive MY Odds can only ever be below a value of 1.00 (also known as even money) or something that has a probability of more than 50%.

But when it is negative, it means something slightly different. In these cases, the absolute value of the odds represents how much you need to risk to win one unit. Sound confusing? Lets use some examples:

Lets say the odds are -0.85 (MY). What this means is that in order to win $1, you would be risking $0.85. Or to win $100, you need to risk $85. In most Asian sportsbooks, if the odds are negative, what you type into the betslip is the amount of PROFIT you want to make. So, in this example, if you type $100 into the betslip, you are saying that you want to WIN $100, and therefore, you will risk $85, and it is $85 that is deducted from your balance. If your bet wins, you receive the profit of $100 as well as the original risked amount of $85, so your total returns is $185.

In another example, the odds are -0.62 (MY). If you input $1000 into the betslip and process the bet, a total of $620 is actually deducted from your balance and if the bet wins, your profit will be $1000, but you’ll also get the risked amount of $620 back, making it a total returns of $1620.

Remember, this only applies if the odds are negative, and if the odds are positive, like 0.75 (MY), then whatever you put in the betslip is what you’re risking, and the odds, multiplied by the stake, is the profit you stand to make. You’ll also get the stake back as part of the returns.

ID Odds

Also known as Indo Odds or Indonesian Odds. This is a similar territory to that of Malay Odds, where sometimes the odds are negative, and sometimes they are positive. They are also similar in the way that when you’re betting on something at negative odds, you’re inputting into the betslip how much profit you want to make, whilst if the odds are positive, what you put into the betslip is how much you want to risk.

There are some differences too though. Indonesian Odds are negative when the odds are below even money, and they are positive when the odds are above even money. So the negative value of the odds is less than -1.00, whilst the positive value off the odds is always above 1.00. What this means is that when the odds are negative and you input a number into the betslip, a higher amount will be deducted from your account.

For example, if the Indo Odds are -1.35, and you input $100 into the betslip, then a total of $135 is what you will be risking, and therefore this is the amount that will be deducted from your balance.

US Odds

This odds type actually works in a very similar way to Indo Odds, and actually, is simply the Indo odds value multiplied by 100. When the odds are positive, it shows what profit you would make from a $100 stake. Basically, if the US Odds are +175, if you bet $100, your profit would be $175 if your bet were to win, and you would also receive back the initial stake of $100 that you made.

When are the odds are negative, the odds represent how much you need to risk in order to win $100. So if you input $100 towards a bet at US Odds of -300, you would be actually risking $300, and should bet win, you would receive back the $300 ‘stake’, and a profit of $100. If you were to input $300 into the betslip, you would be risking $900 to win the $300 profit.

Converting Odds Types

There are formulae that can easily allow you to change odds types between one another, with the table below showing the basic trends:

• Decimal odds represent your RETURNS, whilst all other odds types work within the idea of PROFIT
• For odds types except Dec Odds, if the odds are positive, they represent what profit you would make based on a stake of 1, except US Odds, where is based on a stake of 100.
• If the odds are negative, the absolute (or positive) value of the odds represents how much you need to risk for you to earn a profit of 1 unit, except US Odds, where its based on 100 units.