How betting works?

how betting works

📈How odds are calculated
⚽Exploring different bet types
💡Ante- Post Betting
💰Betting exchanges

The betting industry has been with us for a long time. Now in the 21st century, players have the desire to register with a site and get winners. There has also been no shortage of bookmakers who look to consistently make profits.

How betting works looks to be a simple question to answer. A set of odds is laid out for an event, a gambler places a bet on the selection they think will be a winning one and makes a certain stake. Then there is the wait to see what happens to your stake depends on the result of the event. It’s a lot more complicated than that though. This article will look at the following areas of interest.

How odds are calculated
Win Singles
Multiple Bets
System Bets
Ante-Post Betting
Exchanges

Join Bet365 today

The calculation of Odds

When you sign-up with an online bookmaker, you will see that there are different ways in which odds can be represented. The two main ones are decimal and fractional. A £1 bet on a selection that has odds of 2.0 will see you receive a return of £2 if your bet is a winning one. In terms of fractional odds, rather than it being 2.0, the odds will be 1/1 (known as evens), this will see you stake £1, win £1, get your stake back and have a return of £2. The odds are related to the probability of something happening. The best example to use here is the toss of a coin. There are only two alternatives (heads or tails), so both have a 50% chance of winning so the same odds would be given for each possible result.

However, the bookmaker would like to make a profit of course. They could give different odds on there being a head to the coin toss ending in a tail. If they do this, the combined percentage can be above 100. The additional number over 100 ensures the bookmaker can make a profit and this is known as their profit margin.

Check out the odds at Marathonbet

Types of Bet

As well as discovering the odds, new members will find that there are many different types of bets and the gambling industry seems to be introducing new ones all the time. The most basic bet is a win single, for example you can bet £10 on Liverpool to beat Arsenal in the English Premier League at odds of 1.5 (1/2). If they win, then your £10 stake sees a return of £15. However, if the game is drawn or Arsenal get the win, you lose your £10 stake so better luck next time.

To try and win some more cash, you can place a win double. This could see you stake £10 on Liverpool beating Arsenal and Manchester City defeating Tottenham Hotspur at odds of 1.33 (1/3). If the first bet wins, you have £15 going onto the City game and if they also win, you get a return of £20 (the £15 bet winning another £5).

You can continue to add selections but doing so is risky. The winnings increase but so do the odds of your bet being successful. The higher the odds, the less chance of you getting a win become. There are ways of placing bets with a lot of selections and increasing your chances of getting a return.

Each-way betting helps here (as it also does for single bets). You are now placing two bets in one, the first for a win and the second for your selection to be placed. If you place an each-way double, then you will still get a return if only one wins and the other gets placed. Each-way betting is also helpful when placing bets on events such as a golf tournament where you can receive a return if your selection is placed in the first four or five, perhaps even more.

System bets are ideal when involving a lot of selections. For example, say you have three teams you want to bet on. There’s a bet called a patent that involves three singles, three doubles and a treble. This can bring about a big win if all three selections win but also give you a return if less than three of your selections are winners. You can keep adding selections for example one with five can be used as a Lucky 31.

Place your wagers at Bet365

Ante- Post Betting

Most of the time you will be placing bets on selections whose events will be taking place on the same day or in the same week. However, bookmakers that you register with will also offer odds on events that might not be taking place for a few years. If you want to place a bet on France to win the 2022 World Cup, then that’s not a problem. The odds offered will be changing as the weeks go by. It may well be that the odds you take will be a lot better than those when the tournament takes place. Then again, they might be worse, that’s the risk of ante-post betting.

Go to Marathonbet now

Betting Exchanges

This is dealt with in a lot more depth elsewhere in our comprehensive guide to betting. How is it different? Well, rather than the usual bettors v bookmaker situation, with exchange betting it’s bettor v bettor with the bookmaker making their money from commission charges.

As you can see the question of how betting works is far more complex than it sounds. This comprehensive guide to betting on the Sportytrader site will take you through the different elements of betting greatly increasing your knowledge and chances to get wins.

See the Betfair Exchange

More about Online Betting

Sport Betting Advice : Our Comprehensive Guide