Horse racing is an exciting and adrenaline filled sport. Not much comes close to the heart pounding thrill of hearing the horses thundering down the stretch towards the finish line and watching your horse beat the odds and WIN! Well, if you won some money when those horses crossed the line, that may make it more exciting! As a matter of fact, it is DEFINITELY more exciting when you win money!
How do you do it? Where do you start? Bet Thoroughbreds already has a few guides out there to help you with beginners betting in horse racing. The next part is learning about the odds. How do you decipher what they mean, and more importantly, how do you beat them and win?!
Understanding the Odds
The odds will tell you the probability of a win the bookkeepers or handicappers are giving that horse, such as top Chaltenham odds at sports.williamhill.com.
Odds are usually written in the fashion of 2/1, 7/1, 5/2. You will usually see these numbers next to the name of the horse, as in the above image of entrants into the Kentucky Derby. These will tell us how “likely” it is for that horse to win, or at least do well in the race. A horse that is 2/1 is more of a favorite than a horse with 10/1 odds. This is because we can calculate the percentage chance that horse has to win:
Find the percentage chance of 2/1 of winning:
Add the right hand side (1) to left hand side (2) to get 3. Now the right hand side (1) is divided by (3) to give us .033 or 33.3%.
Find the percentage chance of 10/1 of winning:
Add the right side (1) to the left hand side (10) to get 11. Now the right hand side (1) is divided by (11) to give us .091 or 9.1%.
As you can see with 2/1 odds there is statistically a 33.3% chance that horse will win, and with the 10/1 odds, only a 9.1%. It is important to note, that these are not set in stone percentages! These odds are created to give a sense of where the horses MAY end up, but as with anything, nothing is a sure thing!
But how much money will I make?!
Ok, so you understand the odds and the percentages of what they mean, but how much money will you make if you bet?! That is an important question and we will review it now.
Let’s take a look at 2/1 again. If you bet $10 on 2/1, you would add 2+1 and get 3. That means you would get a return of $30, $20 in winnings and your stake of $10. Using the same rules, if we bet $10 on the 10/1, 10+1=11 or $110. You would win $100 and your stake of $10, making it $110.
What about odd odds?! How about 7/2. Well, 7+2=9, 9 divided by 2 =4.5, so a $10 bet would win $45, $35 in winnings and $10 stake.
Another Perspective.
Is that confusing? Another way to approach the odds from a beginners perspective is to just look at it like this:
2/1 means, for every $1 I bet, I get $2 back. So for odds of 2/1, if I bet $5 I will get back $10!
This also goes for the pesky 7/2. Now think of it as, for every $2 I bet, I get $7 back. So if you only bet $1, you get half or $3.50 back. And if you bet $2, you would get the $7 back.
You can also try an converter calculator if you want to do it faster!
Conclusion
In this introductory guide on odds, we went over how they can be converted into a probability or percentage chance to win, and also how they translate into money won. If you have an questions please comment below and we will help you out!
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