Online Sports Betting Odds

One of the most crucial things about sports betting is the betting odds. Without odds sports betting would cease to exist. Odds are the crucial element that calculates wins.

How do betting odds work?

Odds are calculated by an independent company and not by the sports bookie. These companies use analysts to determine the results and odds. This is calculated on things like:

• Each teams ranking position in the tournament at the time
• Previous performance
• Previous stats from the last encounter between the teams
• Home game or away game
• And so much more

Often you can use the odds as a guideline for placing your bet. The breakdown of odds works as follows, the below example will be how odds are displayed online:

Barcelona                      1.24

Draw                            6.67

Lyon                             10.52

From this, we can tell that Barcelona should be the winner of this match. But, how you ask? Doing a little arithmetic we can see that the payout for Lyon to win is astronomical meaning there is very little chance they will win. The payout for each option is as follows if you place a R10 bet.

• Barcelona to win pays out R12.40
• A draw pays out R66.70
• Lyon to win pays out R105.20

Online sportsbooks would not want to payout over R100 on a R10 bet so theoretically you can assume that Barcelona is the expected winners. The above betting example is referred to as 1×2 or match result.

Who offers the best betting odds

The odds can differ between online sports betting sites, the odds they are supplied with can be changed as bookies want to offer the best odds. Make sure you look around at the different odds on offer and make sure you bet on the one that is offering you the most competitive odds. The differences between bookies will not be that drastic, they are usually all on par but, it still doesn’t hurt to look around at what is on offer.