Horse Racing Odds
With internet betting, placing a bet on a horse race has never been easier. There’s no more going into a bookmakers and finding your way around, now you can place bets online, but there’s no one to explain what to do. The Internet has introduced many new fans to horse racing but if you are new to the sport then you may need the horseracing odds explained and our beginners guide makes it easy.
So what are horseracing odds? Well the odds given to a horse by a bookmaker used to show what he feels may be likely to happen in a horserace. So a horse who is a hot favourite would be the one with the shortest odds and most likely to win, at the back of the field you should see the outsiders, assuming of course the bookmaker has done his job properly.
There are two types of horseracing odds, bookmaker’s odds and decimal odds. It used to be that when betting on horseracing, the only odds available were bookmaker’s odds but more and more often we are seeing the easier form of decimal odds in bookmakers such as Ladbrokes.
Bookmaker’s odds are shown in fraction form, such as 7/4 or 9/2. It’s not the easiest system to understand but the easiest way to demonstrate it – and settle your own bets – is by using a method called ‘money-to-money’. So in a 7/4 bet, you would place a bet of £4 for a money-to-money bet, if your horse wins then you will receive £7 back, plus your stake, easy to work out as you just add the odds together. Of course with odds such as 2/1 or 5/1 the bet is much easier to equate. For a 5/1 bet, a £1 stake would win you £5 plus your stake back.
Decimal odds would show 7/4 as 3.75 and 9.2 as 4.5, they can be whole or decimal numbers and working out winnings just requires multiplying your stake by the sum. It’s a much simpler method and many online bookmakers such as Paddy Power bookmakers are now offering the choice of both methods.
Decimal odds are a big change for bookmakers but now you can see how it all works, and are able to work out what your winnings should be, now it’s time to log on and place your bet.