Understanding Betting Odds Formats and Different Bet Types

If you’re keen to learn about sports betting odds and the main different bet types that are generally available for most sporting events, such as football, then you’ve come to the right place.

Here, we will be taking a closer look at the difference between UK fractional odds, European decimal odds, and American/moneyline odds. These are the three main odds formats that you can generally find at today’s best sports betting sites, such as 10bet Africa.

A closer look at the odds formats

When you sign up to a fully licensed sports betting site, you often get the choice of how the odds are displayed. The three main odds formats are generally UK fractional odds, European decimal odds, and American/money line odds.

The best thing to do before placing a sports bet on any sports betting app is to select a format you are more comfortable with. Alternatively, you might want to try out all of these odds formats before finally settling upon the format you would prefer to use. Let’s take a closer look at some examples of how this works:

  • A bet that comes with American/moneyline odds of -800 is the same as saying 1/8 in UK fractional odds and 1.13 in European decimal odds. It also means that this odds-on favourite bet has a whopping 88.90% implied probability rate of occurring. In other words, this kind of bet is more likely to return you a profit, but you would need to lay a lot of money down to get a decent profit/return
  • A bet that comes with -133 American/moneyline odds is the same as 3/4 fractional odds and 1.75 decimal odds. This bet has a 57.10% implied probability rate
  • A bet that comes with 300 American/moneyline odds is the same as 3/1 in fractional odds and 4.00 in decimal odds. This bet has a 25% implied probability rate
  • A bet that comes with 1900 American/moneyline odds is the same as 19/1 fractional odds and 20.00 decimal odds. This bet has only a 5% implied probability rate. In other words, this kind of bet is less likely to win or return any profit

Avoid placing unrealistic bets

To save yourself a bit of money, try and avoid placing unrealistic bets that are less likely to return you a profit. For example, a horse that you may have your eye on because of its funny name or shirt colour may have 100/1 odds of winning, which is 10,000 in American/moneyline odds and 101.00 in decimal odds (with only a 1.00% implied probability rate of winning).

The payout would, therefore, be 100x times your initial stake. However, a longshot/outsider bet like this is unlikely to ever occur. That’s not to say 100/1-priced markets never come in. It’s just very unlikely to occur. In other words, try and avoid placing bets with long odds like these and stick to placing more realistic bets with shorter odds that are more likely to occur.

Learn the different bet types

Another important thing you should do before you place a bet would be to try and learn the different bet types. Let’s just say that you want to place a bet on the Premier League in a football match between Crystal Palace and Southampton FC. For this particular event, you might be able to find more than 200 different betting markets!

The main bet type that you can find in most football matches include outright winner/result. For example, ‘1’ means the home team to win. ‘X’ means the match to end in a draw, and ‘2’ means the away team to win.

Some of the other popular football betting markets that you are also likely to come across are the following:

  • Correct score
  • Over/under goals
  • First half/second half score
  • Both teams to score
  • Handicap bets
  • First goalscorer
  • Last goalscorer
  • Minute of the first goal
  • How many yellow/red cards will there be in the match
  • Minute of the first corner/throw
  • Total number of corners/throw-ins during the match
  • Exact goals
  • Which team to score first
  • First goalscorer scorecast
  • Team to win first/second half and team to win both halves
  • Highest scoring half

The best thing to do would be to learn these different bet types before placing a wager. You can then place a pre-match bet before the game kicks off. Don’t forget that you can also place a bet as the action unfolds, thanks to Live Betting (in-play betting). If you live in Africa and fancy placing a real money wager on any upcoming sports, 10bet Africa is a great place to start.

This fully licensed African sports betting site is currently offering all new members a guaranteed welcome bonus. It’s free to sign up to, and it accepts several popular African online payment methods. The 10bet Sports betting app is one of the best mobile betting apps available online today, and it can be downloaded and installed into any modern smartphone or tablet device in less than a minute.

Nakoa Davis
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