What are the Most Common Sports Betting Odds Formats?

What is a betting odds format? In short, it’s how the odds are presented with a betting operator. There are three primary betting odds formats to be aware of:

  1. American Odds
  2. Fractional Odds
  3. Decimal Odds

Let’s roll through all three to get you up to speed.

American Odds Format

This format uses the “plus” (+) and “minus” (-) symbols in front of the odds. The negative/minus symbol indicates how much money you’d have to bet to win $100. A positive/plus symbol indicates how much money you’d win if you bet $100.

For example, if you see a +150, that means if you bet $100 and are successful, you’d win $150. If you see a -150, that means you need to bet $150 to win $100.

The American format typically has the team or athlete name in front of it, such as Boston Red Sox -100 or Dallas Cowboys +125.

When you’re looking at a game or event’s odds, the option with the smallest negative number is the favorite, the option with the larger number is the underdog.

For example:

Boston Bruins -115
Toronto Maple Leafs +105

In this scenario, the Bruins are the favorite and Maple Leafs are the underdog. You would need to bet $150 to win $100. The Leafs are the underdog and if you bet $100 on them, and win, you’d earn $105

Fractional Odds

As the name suggests, this odds format uses fractions. They’re displayed such as 2/1, 1/1 (evens), 15/1, 100/1, etc. In this case, your wager is the denominator (bottom) and your payout is the numerator (top).

So to calculate your payout, you take your wager and replace it with the bottom figure, then multiply the top figure by the bottom figure.

For example: Let’s say the odds are 12/1 and you decide to wager $50. You’re looking at 12/$50 and, if successful, would earn a payout of $600.

Fractional odds are primary used for “futures” such as which team will win the championship, horseracing, golf, etc.

Decimal Odds

The use of decimals is another popular odds format. It’s similar to the fractional odds format but uses decimals instead. So odds look like 1.2, 2 (evens), 1.44, 2.25, etc.

Figuring out your payout, if successful, is easy. You simple take the amount of money you wagered and multiply it to the decimal odds.

For example: Let’s say the odds are 1.44 and you wager $50. Your bet is successful. To figure out your payout, you calculate 50×1.44. In this case, your winnings is $72.

Also important to note, the team or option with the smallest decimal number is the favorite; the biggest number is the underdog. The bigger the number, the bigger the underdog. Also the bigger the return for a successful wager.

You can turn American odds into Decimal odds by taking the (negative) American odds and dividing it by 100. For example, if the American odds is -250, you would take 250 and divide it by 100, which gets you 2.5 Then you add one, so your -250 American odds is 3.5 in Decimal.