How To Calculate Odds Payout

Posted : admin On 4/14/2022

How to read the toteboard, calculate odds, and figure pay-offs.

A single bet is the most commonly used betting type. It is a straight stake placed on the outcome of an event, for example, a Premier League football match, tennis match or horse race.

  1. This means that you must bet $350 to win $100. Moneyline odds only calculate the amount potentially won on a bet, and not the total payout. Calculating Odds. To learn how to calculate odds, let’s.
  2. True Odds Parlays.

If the outcome of the event to which you have applied your stake actually happens, then you win. If any other outcome happens, then you don’t.

What is a Single Bet?

It is an individual, self-contained bet. Think ‘One Selection – One winning outcome’.

You will find this type of bet on any sports market that is available at any bookmaker. Solely focusing on what is a single bet, it’s the punter putting their money up against the odds supplied by a bookmaker on an outcome.

How

You are presented with the odds options, the risk and reward of your stake is then your own call to make.

The total winnings that are returned from a successful single bet will be totally dependent on the odds at which you struck your bet. The higher the odds, the bigger the winning return that the bookmaker will pay you.

The winnings are calculated by the amount of stake placed on the selection, multiplied by the odds. Winning bets get their stake returned.

If the single bet loses then you will be leaving all of your stake in the hands of the bookmaker.

How To Calculate Odds Payout Calculator

How to work out a single bet?

The value of a bet is all in the odds that are offered by the bookmaker. This is where you have to try and assess what the value of the odds presented are.

If you want to work out a single bet, it’s fairly straight forward to calculate potential returns in both fractional and decimal odds format. Let’s get our math on (decimal is quicker and easier).

Fractional

Stake x (enumerator + denominator) / denominator = winnings

Example £10 stake at 5/4 odds

£10 x (5 + 4) / 4 = £22.50 (winnings only, original stake not included)

Decimal

Stake x odds = payout

Example £10 stake at 9.0 decimal

£10 x 9 = £90 (includes original stake)

Winning and Losing example in Horse Racing

Craps

It’s the Grand National, one of the biggest races in the UK. There is a maximum of 40 horses permitted, so it’s a big field. You pick one of those horses called Old Mare. You place a £10 single bet on Old Mare to win at odds of 28/1 in the race.

Placing that bet means that the only scenario which sees that bet win is Old Mare crossing the line first. Those are big odds at 28/1 which actually calculate to only a 3.4% implied probability of her winning the race.

But you have studied form and think that she has a much better chance of winning than the odds imply. At least a 10% chance (which would be a 9/1 price). So you think the bookmaker has misjudged and set the odds way too high. Good news. This is something called a ‘value bet’ based on your own perceptions.

Old Mare literally has her day at the races and wins the Grand National. You were right. So you multiply your single bet stake of £10 by the fractional odds of 28 giving you a £280 winning return. You will also get your £10 stake returned.

If however, half way round, Old Mare decides she’s had enough, tires and fades away to finish anywhere in the field but first, then you lose your single bet stake. Remember that there are 39 other positions that she could finish in that would leave your bet as a loss.

Winning and Losing Example in Football

In a football match, there are always three outcomes. A home win, a draw or an away win. Whichever of those three options has the highest odds on them, is the one that the bookmaker believes is the least likely to happen (underdog).

At the other end of the scale, the one with the lowest odds is the one that they think is the most likely to happen (the favourite). Backing the favourite is less risky, but less profitable. Backing the underdog is riskier, but would return bigger winnings.

When you place a single bet on a football match, then you are needing one of three possibles outcomes to happen. There are two options waiting in the wings to trip you up.

For example, the draw in a football match can catch out a lot of punters. It’s Liverpool v Everton in the Premier League. You back Liverpool to win. Everton are resilient though and play out a 1-1 draw. Even though Liverpool didn’t lose the match, your bet on them would have lost because they didn’t win.

Each Way Single Bet

Going back to the example of Old Mare, a variation of a single bet that could have been applied is an Each Way option. That means that half of your stake goes on a “win’ and the other half on a “place”.

A place finish is for example in the Grand National, anywhere in the top five places except first place. First place is always a win.

If you have a £10 stake you would be playing a £5 each way bet as you are essentially placing the two bets in that single and the two stakes have to be even.

So if you placed a £5 each way (£10 stake) on Old Mare and she won the race, both parts of the bet (win and place) get paid back to you.

If she comes home fourth for example (placed), you win just the “place” part of the bet, losing the “win” part. If she comes home anywhere outside of the top five, you lose both parts of the bet. The each way option on a single bet is a popular way to back selections with big-odds, as it cuts down on some of the risk that your stake is applied to.

Single Bet Strategies

There are many single bet strategies and really it’s all a personal approach and your own valuation of risk and reward. Backing smaller odds selections, those more likely to win more often, for example, is a single bet strategy in a very simple form.

Other punters may enjoy the bigger risk of playing for underdog success. Somewhere in the middle of all that is value. It’s learning how to spot the opportunities where you think bookmakers have higher odds on a selection than you think they should be.

The dice odds are what make these games worth playing. However, the trick is learning how to calculate when the chance is in your favor and when it isn't. Often, players are under the mistaken impression that they need extremely high odds in craps and other games to make money. That obviously isn't the case as evidenced by the fact that casinos make money on a game with just a 0.7% house edge.

Calculating Craps Odds

How To Determine Odds Payout

Craps odds are simply the ratio of winning rolls to the total number of remaining possible outcomes. So, the chance of getting any number using a normal die is 5 to 1. That means that if you bet on any number coming up and are paid 4 to 1 then you are at a disadvantage, when playing at casinos this is known as the house edge. However, the craps odds are some of the best in the casino and if you are able to play close to optimal strategy you stand to win more than you lose.

The dice probability for any roll of a single six sided die is easy to work out since there are only six possible outcomes. However, anytime you add another die the outcome is multiplied by an additional six making the dice odds a bit trickier to calculate. So, if you have two dice then the possible outcome jumps to 36 and a game with three dice gives you an unbelievable 216 outcomes. If you want to see the odds of a certain total coming up you have to determine how many possible combinations will give you that total and subtract that amount from the total possible outcomes. The number of combinations vs. the number of outcomes gives you the odds.

Just to illustrate we'll calculate the craps odds of getting a total of 7 when throwing two dice. There are six combinations that will equal 7 when you have two dice. They are a 1&6, 2&5, 3&4, 4&3, 5&2 and 6&1. Since there are 36 possible outcomes with two dice our odds of getting a total of seven is 30 to 6, since 36 possible outcomes minus 6 ways to get a seven equals 30. This is then simplified as odds of 5:1.

How To Calculate Odds Payouts

Contrary to popular belief the odds in craps of getting a certain result are always the same on each time the dice are thrown. Just because you've rolled a double six the last five times in a row doesn't change the dice probability. While it seems less likely to see a long run of the same numbers coming up it does happen. The odds will work out to their proper ratio over time and casinos know this. That's why they pay the way they do for certain combinations. The law of averages does apply and while you might not always be at the casino long enough to see that it doesn't make it any less true.