What Is Sports Betting?
This article is meant to explain online sports betting for novices. We will try to give an initial instruction on sports betting and provide information on the types of bookmakers. Upon understanding the basic principles of sports betting, you will be familiar with the variety of online bets offered and types of games; plus you’ll know how to place bets at a bookmaker’s office.
First, we will try to explain what online sports betting is and how it works. A sports bet is usually made between a player and an online bookie. In this case, players, upon registration at an online betting venue (also known as bookmaker or sportsbook) are provided with the odds on this or that match outcome, depending on the probabilities of win, losses, or draws. The higher the probability of the outcome, the lower will be the odds on it and, accordingly, the winnings. For example, in a football game between the World team and a backyard team, the odds on the win of your backyard team will be very huge, because they have almost no chance to win; so the odds on a win of the World team will be, on the contrary, miserable, because it is highly likely to win.
Odds In Betting
Now, let’s get more info about odds. Let’s say, for one match outcome, odds of 2 is given. What does it mean? It means that betting on that outcome for $100, you can double your bet in case of your right prediction. If you made a guess and your bet is successful, you get your $100 back, plus an extra $100 for your winnings. That is, every time your bet wins, you get the amount multiplied by the number of odds of the event.
Odds And Probability
We just discussed a relationship between probability and odds. So what does the odds of 2 mean? What probability percentage is embedded in this figure? If you count roughly and do not take into account the edge of the bookmaker’s office, it is 50 percent. But if we take into consideration the average edge that the bookmakers’ offices put in their betting lines before offering odds, we will get about 46 to 48 probability percent of the given outcome.
To find out what is a bookie’s estimate of the probability of a particular outcome, you should divide one hundred by the odds provided. The resulting number will display the percentage of probability.
Let’s take the example of a game where Barcelona plays Betis with Barcelona odds to win are 1.3. If you wish to understand how much Barcelona’s win probability is estimated by an online bookie, you take a hundred and divide it by 1.3. The result will be a 76.9 percent probability, the bookie’s edge not included. So, if Barca wins, your winning will be $130, out of which $100 is your initial amount, and $30 is what you win on your right prediction. As you have already noticed, the winnings are smaller this time. Why? Right: because strong teams win more often, and in order to stay afloat, sportsbooks offer lower odds on competition favorites than on outsiders.