Getting action on a game can add a thrill factor that is hard to find in any other aspect of life. Making some money while doing it, well, it doesn’t get much better than that. But what happens when you jump onto your favorite sportsbook and they bombard you with a series of numbers (odds) which are meant to represent the chances of your team winning, when all it really looks like is math on steroids!

What Does Plus 600 Mean In Betting Games

1. A betting odds calculator and converter multiplies the stake by the odds to determine the potential profit on your sports betting wagers. Simply enter your stakes and odds, and our tools will tell you how much profit you should expect to receive using American, fractional or decimal odds.
2. –150 means you must bet $150 to win $100.) If the odds are plus (+), that amount of money would be earned on a successful $100 wager. +150 means you make $150 on a $100 wager.).

What Does +400 Mean in a Bet? We explain How American Odds work. If you ever visited a bookie online, you know that there are different types of odds you can bet on. They all predict the probability of an outcome in an event but come in different formats which can be confusing for new bettors. American Odds are the default odds at American sportsbooks. These odds are based on winning $100 for a given bet. Betting a Favorite: The odds for favorites will have a minus (-) sign, and represent the money you need to risk to win $100. So if you're betting on the Packers at -140 against the Vikings, that means Green Bay is a slight favorite. A $10 bet on +120 odds would pay out $12 in profits. Examples: Below is an example of NFL betting odds taken from an online betting site. In this example you can see Los Angeles is listed at +130 ($100 bet pays $130 plus of course your original wager back) and New England is listed at -150 ($150 bet.

If this is how you feel when your trying to place a wager, read on. The following is a simple guide on how to read sports odds and give yourself the best chance of taking home some cash.

What does +200 mean? +200 is a specific set of odds attached to a given sports event. These are in the form of ‘American’ odds’. The +200 represents the amount a bettor would win if they had wagered $100. A profit of $200 and a total payout of $300. Other types of odds are Decimal and Fractional.

What Types of Odds Do Sportsbooks Use?

Globally sportsbooks use one of three types of odds:

1. American
2. Fractional
3. Decimal

There are positives and negatives in the use of all of them. One thing is for sure, if you are going to bet on sport, you will run into one of these odds formats and you NEED to know how to read, understand and eventually capitalise on them.

This article will focus heavily on American odds.

How to Read American Odds

The basis of American odds is that they reflect two different aspects to the bet:

• in the case of the underdog: how much money a gambler will win if they bet $100,
• in the case of the favorite: how much a gambler needs to bet to win $100.

Quite a big difference between the two, and definitely a little tricky to navigate at first.

The following is an example of the moneyline market using American Odds, which was offered by a sportsbook during the NBA playoffs

Note:As the Portland Trail Blazers are the home team they are listed second in this market. Interestingly in many international or offshore sports the home team is listed first. Perhaps in this case the home court advantage is what has led the sports books to install the Trail Blazers as the favoured team.

We can tell Portland has favoritism as the odds have a minus sign at the front. Any time a team has minus sign out front, the bettor knows they will be receiving less than a 2 – 1 payout figure. In fact in this case, to win $100 wagering on the Trail Blazers you would need to stake $128.

In this particular example, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the outsider or underdog as they have odds with a plus sign at the front (plus money). This means if you bet $100 on OKC then you would collect $105 profit, a total return of $205.

Clearly the bookmakers considered the game to be potentially close and therefore odds were reasonably tight. As it turned out the Trailblazers dominated the second half and ran out convincing winners 114 – 92. Moneyline bettors who took Portland, go to bed with a tidy profit. In actual fact the margin of victory is irrelevant as the Moneyline requires just one condition be met, a win.

How to Do the American Odds Math?

What Does 220 Mean Betting

Despite the American odds looking confusing at first sight, the underlying math is not too difficult. Having said that it could be much more user friendly.

Another key point to remember is that American odds do not include the original stake in the calculation. They only reflect the profit from the wager. The original stake needs to be added to reflect the total payout or total return figure.

Referring back to the previous example the following math applies:

The issue with this way of reporting odds is that the bettor has to do more than one level of calculation themselves. While it’s all fairly straightforward it does affect the user experience negatively.

How are American Odds Different to Decimal Odds?

The decimal odds system, which is being increasingly used by sports bookmakers across the globe, removes the extra step of calculation required by the bettor when American Odds are in use. It is a much simpler method to offer odds on the identical market and immediately gives a total return or payout figure by using one simple multiplication.

The NBA example used earlier in the article using decimal odds would read as follows:

The payout calculation is where the ease of decimal odds is highlighted:

Underdog:

Favorite:

It is clear that the decimal method is a much simpler way for sport bettors to calculate their potential winnings than than the American odds system.

Another downside to using American odds is that they are almost unusable when working with parlay betting. A parlay or multiplier is where a bettor takes classic bet types and parlays several of these into one wager. In order to multiply the individual odds to create the parlay payout figure, the moneyline is first converted to decimal odds. Highlighting the extra step of math sportsbooks require bettors to do when they solely offer odds in the American format.

It is hoped that one day soon most sports books will offer decimal odds instead of American odds. As legalized sports betting explodes in popularity across the US and more mobile sports betting platforms come online, it is hoped that at the very least, functionality to switch between types of odds is added to all betting apps. After all, sports betting is about entertainment, and user experience should be the number one focus from all corporate bookmakers.

How to Identify Sportsbook’s Margin When Using American Odds

Sportsbooks clearly need to make money to continue to operate and therefore it is understandable that they will take a cut along the way. Understanding when that cut is too large is critical in giving yourself the best chance of turning a profit.

When dealing with American odds on 50/50 markets like total points or point spread the margin is quite simple to recognise.

For example the market on an NBA game may be offering an over/under points total of +/-214.5 points.

In this market, without any bookmaker edge, the odds would read +100 for each option. That is a doubling of the bettors money based on the market essentially being a coin flip. $100 invested would return a profit of $100. Clearly this is not the case in reality. If you spot a market like this through a sportsbook promotion (a rare occasion), then load up!

The sportsbook is only offering -110 meaning a bettor would need to invest $110 to return a profit of $100. This equates to approximately a 4.5% margin (vig) for the book. To be profitable long term the bettor would have to correctly pick this market 53% of the time. A tall order.

Some books will offer a smaller vig, for example -108 but others will be less generous and wind their margin out to numbers like -112. These numbers are often seen in live betting markets due to the greater perceived risk the sportsbook take on with live markets.

It is best, as a rule, to avoid markets where the market is skewed too far in the favor of the book.

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Before you hit the confirm bet button on your mobile sportsbook make sure you are fully aware of what price you are actually buying. While American Odds can at times be confusing there is still an art to spotting and cashing in on value. Best of luck!

Good Luck and as always, gamble responsibly!

What Does +100 Mean In Betting

As someone who reports on the latest NJ sports betting news, I can easily answer questions about the latest casino partnership or online sports betting platform launch.

(In case you didn’t know, DraftKings Sportsbook just launched its sports betting app in New Jersey.)

What I can’t answer is any question about what it means to actually place a sports bet. Since I am writing less about online poker these days and more about legalized sports betting, it seems appropriate that I understand what all the fuss is about.

I began my quest by seeking the answers to what might seem like some fundamental questions. As someone whose only gambling vice to date is poker, the thought of placing my first informed sports bet is intimidating, to say the least.

I say “informed” because I will confess to placing bets while at the horse races. So that you know, I usually choose the horse based on its colors and nothing more.

But that is about to change.

So, what is a line anyway?

Now, don’t laugh. It is the one question I have had for quite a while and have been too embarrassed to ask.

What Does Plus 600 Mean In Betting

Theline is merely the number assigned by the bookmakers handicapping the team perceived as more likely to win.

For example, if Team A is perceived to be seven points better than Team B, the bookmaker can handicap Team A by seven points. The line becomes Team A to win by more than seven points or Team B to lose by less than seven points.

Come to find out, that example is a point spread bet. Of course, that opened a whole new can of worms … the different types of sports bets.

So, I went down that rabbit hole next.

What are the different types of bets?

There are a ton of resources on sports betting out there. I am not going to lie, my quest to understand the types of bets ended up confusing me more than helping.

That is until I found some straightforward explanations from TheLines.com.

Here are the types of sports bets I found:

Point Spread Bet: Described above, the point spread bet is the most popular type of sports bet. It’s how the sportsbook evens the playing field.

Moneyline Sports Bet: Without knowing it, I have placed many, many moneyline bets throughout my life. To place a moneyline bet, the sports bettor picks a team a to win. It’s as simple as that.

Parlay Sports Bet: A parlay bet is a single bet that relies on two or more specific outcomes to be a winner. For instance, a sports bettor might bet Team A to win by more than 10 points AND Team C to win by more than six. Both teams must win to collect on the bet.

In-Play Sports Bet: In-play sports bets take place during the game and offers game-specific odds and options for bets during the game.

Prop Bet: Is a bet on a specific player or event. TheLines.com uses this example:

How Many Yards Will Tom Brady Pass For?
Over 197.5 -110
Under 197.5 -110

Looking at that example, my next question was …

What do the plus and minus mean in sports betting?

In the example above, a $110 bet would pay $100. When a sports bettor goes to collect, he will receive $210 — the $110 bet plus $100 for the win.

Most bets include a handicap, so the odds on both sides of the bet are even or close to it. Moneyline bets are different because there is no point spread to even out the odds.

As an example:

Patriots -600
Redskins +400

Looking at the odds, the Patriots are the favorite to win the game. The team with a minus (-) is usually the favorite, while the team with a plus (+) is often the underdog.

A bet on a favorite will pay out less. In the above example, a $600 bet on the Patriots will pay $100, while a $100 bet on the Redskins would pay $400.

The more I learn, the more I need to learn

I surprised myself by looking at some images of boards from a few sportsbooks and realized I understood some of it. There is still so much to learn.

I find myself consulting a sports betting dictionary often as I come across terms I do not understand. (Trust me; there are a lot of them.)

I’m still apprehensive toward placing that first bet. The more I read, the more I want to know, and the amount of information out there is overwhelming.

The NFL regular season kicks off in just a month. My goal is to place my first sports bet then, even if it is only theoretical. The big problem is I am not sure I will be in a state that has legalized sports betting.

Until then, though, I still have a lot to learn. Sure, I could just dive into sports betting head first, but I like money too much for that approach.