What is bookmaker odds

For each specific outcome in the line, the bookmaker assigns a coefficient, which determines the size of the expected winnings on https://businesspost.ng/sports/hollywood-bets-mobile-app-overview-plus-versions-of-the-website/.

Please note that the amount of the payout and the profit on the bet are not the same thing! To determine the profit, you need to subtract the size of your bet from the payout amount - this way we get the amount of net profit that the winning bet brought.


For example, the following quotes are offered for the match Borussia - Schalke: 1.65 - 4.44 - 5.55 (Borussia win, draw and Schalke win, respectively). If you bet $100 on Borussia, the potential profit is $65 ($100 x 1.65 - $100 = $65).

The betting odds do not only show the size of the potential payout to the player: in addition, it expresses the estimated probability of a particular outcome of an event. The lower the coefficient assigned to the outcome, the higher the probability, according to the bookmaker, this outcome has. So, in the Borussia-Schalke example above, we see that due to the lower odds, Borussia has more chances to win. At the same time, it should be understood that the coefficient is the bookmaker's assessment, an opinion that does not always coincide with reality.

Bookmaker odds can be written in different formats depending on the country in which the bookmaker operates.

Types of betting odds

In practice, the best betting sites use only the three most popular types of odds presentation: English, European and American versions.

English coefficient

It is believed that the birthplace of bookmakers as independent companies specializing in accepting bets in the "industrial volume" is England. It is quite logical that this country gave the betting world its own kind of odds. British odds remain extremely popular in our time, than they are more indebted to British gambling establishments, faithfully honoring the traditions of their ancestors.

Almost all modern British bookmakers offer English odds in their line by default. English odds have a fractional notation, for example, 20/4. This quote displays the ratio of the amount of net winnings to the size of the bet. That is, with a bet of 4 pounds, your net winnings (minus the amount of the bet) will be 20 pounds.

How to calculate such a ratio? The English quote 20/4 is similar to the usual coefficient 6.0. In order to translate the English coefficient into the decimal form traditional for us, it is necessary to divide the indicator in the numerator of the fraction by the indicator in the denominator, and then add one to the resulting number.

The translation of the British coefficient into the European one is carried out according to the formula:
ke = kb +1, where ke is the European odds and kb is the British odds.

European coefficient

European odds were born when the betting business began to gradually migrate from the UK to neighboring France, from where it subsequently rushed at a hurricane pace throughout Western Europe. At first, only British offices functioned on the territory of Western European countries. After a certain time, the British began to have worthy competitors in the face of French and German gambling establishments.

Most of the new offices found the calculation using the English coefficient unnecessarily complicated. So the European, familiar to us, or, as it is also called, the decimal coefficient, was born. At the moment, the European coefficient is mandatory (though not always by default) in all bookmakers in the world without exception, and in many of them it is the only one. The European coefficient is written in decimal form - these are traditional values ​​for us 2.0; 4.3 etc.


American coefficient

The most rare and difficult to understand are American betting odds, which appeared in the United States a few years after the country's independence.

The American coefficient quickly took root in local gambling establishments. The main distinguishing feature of American coefficients is the presence of a “+” or “-” sign in front of the digital indicator. This sign allows you to determine which team is the favorite. A sign of the status of the favorite is the "-" sign.

Let's try to deal with American quotes and calculate the coefficient using the formula:
ke = 100 / (-kam) +1, where ke is the European coefficient and kam is the American minus.

 Let's take the coefficient -105. This quote shows that you have to bet $105 to get a net win of $100. The analogue of this coefficient in the European system is 1.95.