Football odds how does it work

It is, in essence, a way to keep all of the games that are posted each day and throughout the week organized. That makes it easy for the bettor and the bookie. In our scenario, the Bengals are the home team, which means they will be listed last and the Colts, as the visitors, will be on the odds slip first. When you place a bet live at a Vegas sportsbook or over the phone, you would say the number of the team on which you want to wager and not the name.

Usually the spread will be first. Thus, all of the basic bets are in one place, allowing for easy access. The point spread, which is the most popular type of bet, lists the favored team with a minus sign and a number and the underdog with a plus sign and the same number as the favorite.

The team that has the minus sign, which is the favorite, has points deducted from its final score, while the dog, with the plus sign, has points added. The favorite must beat the spread, which means they have to win by more than the negative number to pay off. The underdog pays off in two instances—if they win outright or if they lose by less than the spread. In our scenario, Indianapolis is at If you bet on the Colts at If you wager on Cincinnati, which is the underdog, your bet pays off if they win the game outright or if they lose by less than If in our example the spread was reset to 10 with the Colts favored and they win by 10, then the game is considered to be a tie, which in betting terms is called a push.

If there is a push all bets are off and the sportsbooks return all wagers back to the bettors. Calculating your potential winning is a lot more straightforward as well, as all you need to do is multiply your stake by the decimal odds. If you placed a bet on one you will have a higher payout, as you would expect.

If you were to place a bet on an odds-on selection your return will be less as it is deemed more likely to happen. As the title suggest these are more common in America. They start either with a positive or a negative sign, e.

Calculating the odds is a hard and essential task, and bookmakers only give the job to the most professional individuals in their field. These people gather the necessary data, add the cash flow projections to it, and calculate the odds' margin before they release the price. And they do that every day for millions of events across multiple sports and competitions. Bookmakers have made mistakes in the past, but they aren't that notable.

Read more how to get the best betting odds here. How do betting odds work? Odds explained Calculating the odds is a long and hard process, but if you get the hang of it, you would be better equipped when you place bets in the future. Analyzing the Data Data analysis is the first and most crucial step in the process of calculating the odds. Cash Projections The next step after calculating each outcome's possibilities is to include the cash projections into the equation.

The Margin After bookies have calculated the odds and how much money they would stand to make from the matched, they need to post the odds. How can punters benefit from the football odds? Have bookies made a big mistake with calculating the odds in the past? Understanding how odds are calculated and what they mean in practice is an essential part of the toolkit for a successful punter.

It underpins everything else that follows so getting comfortable with both the prices and what they represent is an important skill that's well worth learning. Odds represent the probability of an event occurring. The price shown translates into a percentage chance of something happening or not.