A quick guide to online betting and odds

With the finals of Wimbledon throwing up some surprises and more than a few people finding they’re quids in after betting on the right person, betting on sporting events is becoming more and more popular.

Many people routinely bet on events like the Grand National and the World Cup, but it can pay off to take a few outside risks. But what if it’s a whole new world for you and you’ve never placed a bet on anything? Confused by odds? Not sure how it works? We’ve put together a handy beginners guide to betting online.

As with most areas of interest, the internet is both extremely helpful and extremely daunting. There are, of course, loads and loads of online sports betting sites to choose from. It’s important you select carefully and stick with a reputable site, like FREEbets.org.uk.

There are lots of different ways to bet on your favourite sporting event, but the first thing you need to get your head around is sporting odds. If you don’t understand the odds then you’re not going to have much of a chance to win much – unless you’re super lucky!

So let’s start with the very basics. Outside of the betting world, we tend to talk about odds in percentages. So, you toss a coin and there is a 50/50 chance of you getting heads or tails but all of the possible outcomes add up to 100%.

Odds reflect the same chance of probability of a specific outcome in an event. So, think of them as an interpretation of the chance of something happening. Bookmakers form odds to show these chances. Online bookmakers will let you choose which type of odds you want to use.

In Europe odd are commonly expressed as decimals. For example, if you think something has a 20% chance of winning then divide it into 100 and this gives you odds of 5. So, for every pound you stake on the probability of someone winning, then you get £5 back. If you bet £10 then you’ll get £50 back should you win.

In the UK we tend to use fractional odds. Taking the same 20% chance of winning, the fractional odds are 4/1. This means that for every one time you win then you will lose four times (or you have 20% chance of winning and 80% chance of losing).

American odds are different again, and if you want to bet on American sports you’ll have to master them. Odds in the US are known as lines or money line odds. If the odds are marked with a + signm then it shows you how much you would win if you bet 100. If it’s shown with a – then they show how much you need to bet to win 100.

Tags: reward, risk

Category: Entertainment