Decimal Odds

Understanding Decimal Odds

Decimal odds are the standard and most popular method for specifying odds across the globe, particularly in Europe, Canada and Australia. As such, Decimal odds can also be called European Odds or Continental Odds.

Decimal odds show the total amount you will get back if your bet wins for every 1 unit you stake. Unlike other types of odds, decimal odds always include the initial stake in the return rather than just the profit. If 1 unit is £10.00, then you would get back £25.00 if the decimal odds were on offer at 2.50. This £25.00 return would be made up of £15.00 profit and £10.00 initial stake.

With decimal odds, 2.00 is seen as evens. This means that you would double your money if you were to place a bet at 2.00 – that is your initial stake back as well as the amount you staked as profit. Anything under decimal odds of 2.00 is described as ‘odds on’ and is seen as being more likely to happen as it has a greater than 50% chance of winning. Where a bet is ‘odds on’, you need to stake more than you will make in profit – for example, decimal odds of 1.40 would see a profit of 0.4 units for every 1 unit wagered. Anything above decimal odds of 2.00 is described as ‘odds against’ and is seen as being less likely to occur due to having less than 50% chance of winning. When a bet is ‘odds against’, you will make a profit of more than your initial stake should the bet win – for example, decimal odds of 2.75 would see a return of 2.75 units – including a profit of 1.75 units – for every 1 unit staked.

The majority of online bookmakers have built in functionality on their websites to allow you to easily change the format of odds should you wish to. This is usually found either in your account settings or as an option to choose from when looking at the available bets via a drop-down box. This takes the hard work out of manually converting odds as the websites do it for you automatically.

Should you wish to convert decimal odds to fractional though, this can be done by:

• (1) Writing down the decimal divided by 1, e.g. decimal odds of 0.75 would be 0.75/1
• (2) Multiplying both the top and bottom of the fraction by 100 (if 2 decimal places) or 1000 (if 3 decimal places, e.g. 0.75/1 x 100 would be 75/100
• (3) Simplifying or reducing the fraction, e.g. 25 goes into both 75 and 100 to give fractional odds of 3/4

As well as their widespread use, decimal odds make it easy to calculate your return by simply multiplying the decimal odds on offer by the amount you are betting. This makes it particularly useful if you like to place doubles, trebles or other larger accumulators as all you need to do is multiply the odds of each leg in your accumulator then multiply this by the stake.

Decimal odds also make it very easy to find the best price when comparing the same bet across multiple bookmakers, unlike other odds formats. The best odds are represented by the highest number – find the biggest number and you know that you will get the best return for your stake.

As decimal odds usually are written to two decimal places, this provides the bettor with even more accuracy.

Decimal Odds Formula

Stake x Odds = Return

Decimal Odds Examples

1) In baseball, if New York Yankees are favourites at odds of 1.66 to beat New York Mets who are the underdogs at odds of 2.35 and you stake $50.00 on New York Yankees to win:

$50.00 stake x 1.66 odds = $83.00 return

You would win $83.00 if New York Yankees win, which is made up of your initial $50.00 stake and $33.00 profit.

2) In cricket, if Australia are favourites to win the World Cup at odds of 4.50 and you stake £100 on them to lift the trophy:

£100.00 stake x 4.50 odds = £450.00

You would win £450.00 if Australia win, which is made up of the £100.00 stake and £350.00 profit.

3) In football, if Real Madrid are favourites at odds of 2.10 to beat Atletico Madrid and Barcelona are favourites at odds of 1.45 to beat Sevilla and you stake €20.00 on a double of Real Madrid and Barcelona:

2.10 odds x 1.45 odds = 3.045

€20.00 stake x 3.045 odds = €60.90

You would win €60.90 if Real Madrid AND Barcelona win, which is made up of the €20.00 stake and €40.90 profit.