How to Read Football Odds

Reading football odds is crucial for anyone looking to bet on the game. This guide will explain how to read football odds and interpret different odds formats, such as fractional, decimal, and moneyline. Understanding these formats is key to making informed betting decisions and maximizing potential returns. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to refine your skills, this guide will help you navigate football odds with confidence.

Football Odds Explained

As a new and aspirin football bettor, you have to understand football betting odds and their basic types. The ones that you are going to encounter first are moneyline bets, spread betting, and over/under bets. These three are all that you need to get yourself started. 

Of course, there are different types of odds. The most common ones are American odds, depicted with +/- signs (+110/-110). There are fractional ones as well (10/1), commonly used in the UK and Ireland, and decimal (1.50), which are standard for European bettors.

Football Game Odds

Besides knowing how football odds work, you have to know how they are presented on a betting site. Usually, when you enter the area with all the games, you will see the moneyline odds for the outcome of the game displayed alongside them. You will also be able to see the time and date when the game is played. 

Usually, the brand will display moneyline odds only. But sometimes, you will be able to see the odds for spread markets or over/under lines. Whatever the case may be, with a single click on the game, you can expand the markets and see all of the available ones as well as the lines for each one of them.

Types of Football Odds

As we already said, there are three types of odds that operators usually use. As a US bettor, you are probably more acquainted with American odds, but you might come across other types, so you better be able to recognize them.

Once you understand the odds, you will be able to place bets. Beginner bettors should concentrate on moneyline, spread, and over/under bets, as these three are the main betting types that everybody starts with.

Moneyline Odds With Example

Moneyline Odds are also known as American Odds. American Odds/Moneyline Odds may be the most popular type of odds that you will see on sportsbooks. They are shown as either positive odds or negative odds. Understanding American Odds/Moneyline Odds is as simple as that. Plus, most sportsbooks will have American Odds listed. But, you will want to understand the other odds that you may find on sportsbooks both retail and online. Here are some example for easier understanding this type of odds: 

So, say the Dallas Cowboys are set to face the Kansas City Chiefs. And, say the Dallas Cowboys have a +120 odds and the Kansas City Chiefs have -130 odds. 

1. Positive odds show the potential profit if you were to wage $100. So, if you bet $100 on the Dallas Cowboys to win, the profit you will win if they do is $120. 
2. Negative odds show the amount of money one would have to wager in order to win a profit of $100. So, using this example, you would need to bet $130 on the game and the Chiefs would have to win for you to gain a profit of $100.

Spread Betting Odds with Example

Spread betting, or line betting, is much easier than you think. It involves placing a bet on whether the outcome will go over or under the spread line. The idea of introducing a spread is to even out the odds between an underdog and the favorite.

The favored teams will come with a line that they have to cover for the bet to be a winning one. If they still win but go under the line, the bet is a losing one.

For example, the Los Angeles Rams are -3.5 favorites to win against the Atlanta Falcons (+3.5). For a winning bet, the Rams have to win by four points or more. The Falcons need to win outright or lose by fewer than three points for the bet to count.

Over Under Odds with Example

Over/under betting is actually a type of bet that involves betting on the points scored and not really who wins. So, when you are not sure about the outcome of a match that is predicted to be tight, you can bet on whether the point total will exceed the line or go over it.

For example, the sportsbook sets a line on the Carolina Panthers vs Buffalo Bills game, a 75.5 points total. Of course, the line depicts the joint points scored by both teams. If you want to bet on the over, then both teams need to score a combined 80 points for the bet to go through. If you bet on the under, then you have to hope that the combined scoreline does not exceed 75 points.

Futures Betting Odds with Example

Compared to other types of bets, futures are long-term bets. This means that you can even place them at the start of the season, but you need to wait the entire year to see the outcome. The most popular future bets involve picking the Super Bowl winner, Conference winners, the best team in the regular season, teams to advance to the playoffs, etc.

For example, at the start of the season, you decide to let the Kansas City Chiefs win the Vince Lombardi Trophy at +550 moneyline odds. You will have to wait and see if they make it all the way for your bet to be a valid one. Bettors can also place futures after the season has started. However, the more games are played, the more the situation will change, and some of the odds might go down.

What do – and + Mean in Odds?

A plus and minus signs refer to American odds. You will often see them in conjunction with various types of bets, moneyline bets, a spread, or wherever. The minus sign (-) actually depicts the favorite, while the plus sign (+) shows the underdog of the matchup.

Odds Formats

As a bettor in the US, you will mainly encounter the standard American odds format. Nevertheless, you should familiarize yourself with the other two, the decimal and fractional ones, just in case a situation occurs where you have to know how football odds are calculated.

American odds are the ones indicated by a plus and minus sign. Contrary to what you may believe, the minus sign depicts the favorite and the plus the underdog. These types of odds always use the baseline value of $100. Therefore, when betting on the favorites, you are always risking your stake to win $100. On the other hand, when betting on the underdog, you are risking $100 to get a return.

Decimal odds, also known as European odds, are a bit easier to understand. You can spot both the favorites and underdogs in an instant. Decimal odds represent the amount a bettor can potentially take home for every $1 they wager.

Fractional odds are mostly used in the UK and Ireland and are often referred to as traditional odds. You will recognize them by slashes (/) or hyphens (-). So, for example, 6/1 odds mean that you could win $6 for every $1 you wager. 6/1 is the ratio of the potential profit of your initial bet.

Calculating Implied Probability

So, now that you understand the different types of odds, you will need to learn more before placing your bets. Understanding how to calculate implied probability is especially important. This way, you will know the likelihood of certain outcomes in sports betting.When you want to calculate the implied probability using positive American Odds, it should be pretty easy. So, with the odds from the American Odds example above, here is an illustration of how that would work.

Implied Probability: 100/(Positive Odds + 100)
= 100/(120 +100)
= 100/220
= .454545

This means that the implied probability that the Dallas Cowboys will win the game is 0.454545 or 45.45%. Accordingly, bookmakers believe the Dallas Cowboys have a 45.45% chance to beat the Kansas City Chiefs.

Now, the steps are different to calculate the implied probability for negative American odds. But, they are still fairly simple. So, using the example from above, say the Kansas City Chiefs have -130 American odds to beat the Dallas Cowboys. 

Implied Probability: Negative Odds/(Negative Odds – 100)
= -130/-230
= .5652

So this means that the implied probability is 0.5652 or 56.52% in this case. This means that the Kansas City Chiefs have a 56.52% chance to win the game in this instance.

How to Read Football Odds: Final Words

Betting on football is easy, but only if you are familiar with the odds system. Anyone can pick between an underdog and a favorite, but you have to understand the odds to really know if the bet is worth it or not. Knowing how the odds will eventually help you to recognize the value in your bets and become an even more experienced bettor after some time.

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