For those people who have been placing bets or playing casino games for a long time, odds are pretty straightforward and easy to understand. However, if you are new at all this, and you’re only now preparing to test your luck and knowledge, odds can be a bit of a mystery.
Betting or playing games in an online casino without understanding the odds is pointless. The main role of odds in betting and gambling is to provide the players with some sense of direction. All games are random. No matter if you’re betting on sports or you’re playing your favorite casino game, there are many aspects that influence the final outcome, and odds are, without a doubt, the most important one of them all.
Here we’ll take a closer look at odds and all you need to know before starting your gambling or sports betting journey.
Casino Games Odds
Placing a bet on sports and playing a casino game isn’t the same. Although both are considered to be a type of gambling, there are too many crucial differences between the two, so it’s necessary to look at them separately.
What is more, even casino games differ in terms of their randomness, but also, there’s sometimes a huge difference when it comes to odds when plating the same type of casino game with different operators.
With some of these real money casinos, you’ll be able to find a higher RTP rate. RTP (or Return To Player) represents the percentage of the overall invested sum that the casino game, like a slot, returns to players. There are casinos that prefer slot games that return smaller amounts of money to many different players, and there are those that offer slots where there aren’t as many winners but the prizes are huge.
So, for a new player, the odds of winning will start to grow once they understand how all of this works. First, they need to choose an operator with a high RTP rate. Then, they should see if the operator offers welcome bonuses that will provide them with more chances to play, thus giving them a higher opportunity to win.
Sports Betting Odds
Sports betting odds can be displayed in one of three formats:
- American
- Decimal
- Fractional
Regardless of their format, the sports betting odds serve to point out the probability of a potential outcome and to indicate how much you could win by placing a bet on that outcome.
Different sports events offer different betting types, and skilled bettors prefer to learn all the possible bet types for fewer sports (usually for the ones they enjoy watching). Moreover, skilled bettors don’t simply rely on the odds offered by the sportsbook. They also seek additional information like previous matches analysis before placing a bet.
Now let’s see the difference between the three different formats of sports betting odds.
The American betting odds are marked by +/- signs before a three-digit number. The team or the player that has the “-” or the negative sign next to is the favorite, while the other one marked with “+” is the underdog. In the case of the underdog, the three-digit number indicated the sum you’ll win if you bet $100 and for the favorite, it indicated the sum that you need to place as your bet in order to win $100.
Decimal odds are the easiest to understand when betting. If there are two teams, and one of them has a decimal odd of 2,4 while the other has 1,5, the favorite will be the one that has the smaller decimal (that is 1,5). If you win the bet, you can calculate your prize by multiplying the decimal of the bet type you have chosen with the amount of your wager.
And lastly, fractional odds are the ones used in the UK and on horse betting. They usually come in this format 9/5. The number on the left represents the number of times that the sportsbook expects for the outcome to fail, and the number on the right is the number of times the outcome is expected to win.
Now that you have a better understanding of betting, go out there and have some fun. With legal gambling on pro sports growing throughout the country, now is the time for the casual bettors to start enjoying another aspect of sports that adds excitement and opportunity and another connection to the players and the game for the fan.
