Odds are the first thing you see next to any selection and the least explained. This page shows how a decimal price turns into a return, what it says about chance, and the words around it that sports and casino screens assume you know.
A price does two jobs at once. It tells you how much you receive if the selection wins, and it hints at how likely the bookmaker thinks the outcome is. Multiply the decimal price by your stake and you get the total returned on a win, with your stake included. Dividing one by the price gives a rough chance. A high price means a long shot, a low price a favourite.
Betting words fall into a few groups: money in, price, outcome and risk. Placing a term in its group makes the whole screen easier to read.
Stake and bet limit. These describe how much you commit and the smallest and largest amounts accepted.
Odds, implied chance and margin. These describe what a win pays and what the bookmaker builds in.
Market, selection, settlement and void. These describe what is bet on and how it is resolved.
Volatility and house advantage. These describe how uneven results are and what a game keeps over time.
Start here if the vocabulary on a betting screen is new.
A price expressed as one number, such as 2.40. Multiply it by your stake to get the total returned if you win.
The amount you place on one bet. It is deducted when you confirm and returned inside any winnings.
A specific question you can bet on, such as who wins a match or how a session of overs goes.
Your pick within a market, for example one team or one side of a line.
Betting after an event has started. Prices change as play goes on.
The panel where your chosen selections and stake are shown before you confirm.
These concepts explain why prices look the way they do and why casino games are not even contests.
The probability a price suggests. Divide one by the decimal odds, so 2.00 implies about 50 per cent.
The built-in cushion in a set of prices. When the implied chances of all outcomes in a market add to more than 100 per cent, the excess is margin.
The long-run share of casino stakes that a game keeps. It is the casino equivalent of margin.
Return to player, the long-run percentage of stakes a game pays back, spread over huge numbers of rounds.
How unevenly a game pays. High volatility means rarer, larger wins.
A bet cancelled and its stake returned, usually when an event cannot be settled under the market's rules.
The figures below use neutral units, so you can try the same sums with any stake.
A stake of 10 units at decimal odds of 1.50 returns 15 units on a win, which is a profit of 5 units. Implied chance is roughly 67 per cent.
The same 10 units at 3.00 returns 30 on a win, a profit of 20. Implied chance is about 33 per cent, so it should win about one time in three.
If either bet loses, the 10 units are gone and nothing is returned, whatever the price was.
Two equal outcomes priced at 1.90 each imply about 52.6 per cent apiece, a total over 100. The excess is the margin.
If a price or payout does not match what you calculated, raise it with the operator's own support. Give the market and the time you placed the bet.
The odds on the slip at the moment you confirmed are the ones that count.
A payout can differ because a market covers something narrower than you assumed.
What players in Pakistan ask most about reading prices.
This guide works in decimal prices because they are the simplest to calculate with. It makes no claim about which formats the operator displays.
Multiply your stake by the decimal odds. The result includes your stake.
No. Higher odds reflect a lower chance of winning, not better value.
Your bet is struck at the price on your slip when you confirm. Prices on screen may continue to move.
Casino bets pay at fixed multiples, and the house advantage plays the part that margin plays in sport.
No. It helps you judge a price, but no knowledge removes risk. Adults only, and only stake what you can afford to lose.
Rules and rounds, game by game