How do American odds work?
Have you ever encountered American odds? There’s so much sports betting chatter these days from across the Pond that punters here in the UK and Ireland are beginning to hear more and more about US style betting odds.
Whereas the Brits and Irish tend to deal with decimal or fractional odds, the tradition of using American odds is strong in the USA and Canada. In fact, you can sometimes convert your odds to American style over here too.
Well, if you’re unsure about what American odds are all about then you’re in luck, because Paddy Power is here to help.
Read on to understand American betting odds when they’re positive and negative, and see how you can quickly convert US odds into a format you might be more familiar with.
What are American odds?
American odds work like an index that show how much money you stand to win, or how much money you need to stake, based on $100. Like any other odds format, the aim is to show punters the likelihood of an outcome happening and the amount of money you stand to win, should you successfully back that outcome.
They look like this:
The odds are the blue figures that are inserted in each bet option. So, in this instance, FanDuel are offering +1500 odds on the Cleveland Browns to beat the Baltimore Ravens.
What does this mean? Well, if you stake $100 on the Browns and they win, then you earn $1500 profit PLUS your stake back.
How do American odds work?
American odds work like an index that centres around the Zero mark. The odds can go up into positive numbers, or down into negative numbers. When the number goes up, so does your profit potential. However, it also indicates a reduced likelihood in that bet winning. Meanwhile, when the number goes down, your profit potential is reduced, but your chances of winning increase.
Now, positive and negative American odds don’t actually work the same way. We’re going to need a couple of examples to show you how they work.
Positive American odds
Positive American odds show how much profit you stand to make from a $100 bet, should it win. So, an NFL bet on the Steelers to beat the Bengals at +110 would earn: $110 profit + $100 stake = $210 in total.
When American odds sit at +100 you’re effectively earning equal money for your bet, just like an Evens bet (1/1) in fractional odds.
Negative American odds
Negative American odds work a little differently. They show how much money you need to bet in order to secure $100 of profit. So, in our example of the Bengals vs Steelers game, you’d need to bet $130 on the Bengals to earn $100 profit. You total return would be: $130 stake + $100 profit = $230.
As you can see here, the difference in profit value between the Bengals and Steelers isn’t huge. Both the negative and positive odds are close to the index level of +/- 100.
American odds converter
Now you know about how American odds work, it’s time to see how they relate to fractional and decimal odds. All betting odds aim to show a return for a bet, so in that respect American, decimal and fractional odds aren’t that different.
In fact, it’s fairly easy to convert odds between the three once you get the hang of it. For our example, we’ll use odds on Spain to win the Nations League. Here, they are at 3/1 to get the job done.
Spain to win the Nationals League at 3/1 means you get £3 profit for every £1 you stake, so a total return of £4. This translates into:
- Decimal odds of 4.00 – You earn £4 back in total (profit + stake) for every £1 bet
- American odds of +300 – You earn £3 profit for every £1 bet, so £4 in total
In order to convert, you simply need to understand how both odds you’re looking at work.
Want an easier way to do it? Use Paddy’s Odds Converter here and crunch the numbers in seconds!
READ MORE
The latest odds are on PaddyPower.com nowTHE PADDY POWER GUIDE TO SAFER GAMBLING – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
