PROVIDING YOU WITH ALL THE BEST BETS
If you're looking for ways to improve your online betting strategies and turn losing bets into winning bets, you've come to the right place.
Here is a closer look at some of the most important things you should understand before placing sports on your favourite sporting events at a fully licensed and regulated iGaming site.
What are the three odds formats in sports betting?
When you sign up to an online sports betting site and take a look at some of their latest betting markets, you will notice that the default odds format will be displayed in one of the following three standard formats:
- Odds format: American/moneyline
- Odds format: Fractional
- Odds format: Decimal
The best thing about today's most trusted online bookmakers is that you can actually change how the odds are displayed on that website. For example, if you were brought up in the United Kingdom, you might want to set the odds format to fractional odds.
If you live in certain parts of Canada or the United States, you will probably want to select the American/Moneyline odds format. In most other countries, for example, in Europe, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and India, the decimal odds format is more popular.
Let's take a quick look at a few examples and include the implied probability rate (IPR) for these odds:
- American/moneyline odds: -350. Fractional odds: 2/7. Decimal odds: 1.29. IPR (implied probability rate): 77.80%
- American/moneyline odds: +150. Fractional odds: 21/20. Decimal odds: 2.05. IPR: 48.80%
- American/moneyline odds: +1000. Fractional odds: 10/1. Decimal odds: 11.00. IPR: 9.10%
Most experts agree that you would be better off choosing a format that works for you and is easiest to understand and then sticking with that format whenever you sign in to your iGaming account to place sports bets.
Which iGaming sites have the most competitive odds?
If you live in the United Kingdom and want a non GamStop betting list of sites which allow you to place bets still even though you are currently self-excluded on GamStop, one of the most trusted sites you can turn to in 2024 is the globally renowned ReadWrite.com iGaming review site.
What to remember about sports betting odds and implied probability rates at online sports betting sites
The most important thing to remember about sports betting odds and implied probability rates at online sports betting sites is that the higher the IPR is, the more likely that outcome will occur.
For example, suppose you notice that a bet you are about to place a wager on has 1/5 fractional odds for the favourite (which is 1.20 in decimal odds or -500 in American/moneyline odds). In that case, the IPR for this outcome is a whopping 83.30%, which means it will almost certainly happen.
In comparison, something with a 50/50 chance of occurring would have a 50% IPR rate and appear as 1/1 (EVENS) in the fractional odds format, 2.00 in decimal odds, and +100 in American/moneyline odds).
At the other end of the scale for an outcome that is very UNLIKELY to occur, with perhaps only a 1.50% IPR, it would appear as 1,000/1 in fractional odds, 1,001.00 in decimal odds, and +100,000 in American/moneyline odds.
Final thoughts
As you can see, if you understand what the odds and by definition the implied probability rates are trying to tell you, there is the potential it can help you place far more strategic bets with a greater chance of winning – although spotting the true outliers like Leicester City winning the Premier League title in 2015/2016 is very, very difficult, as is the effort of clubs like Leicester trying to stabilise their top-six credentials.
However, the other important thing to remember in sports betting is that even when betting on the favourites, you aren't always guaranteed to win. Even the outsiders/underdogs can upset the odds sometimes and beat the odds-on favourites.
The other thing is that the sports betting odds for any event are subject to change at any time.
Before betting, you can give yourself a much better chance of turning losing bets into winning bets by researching as much as possible about an event you want to bet on. It's also advisable to stay on top of the latest news and gather as much relevant data and statistics as possible to improve your chances of winning.