Sports’ betting is one of the trendiest things in the world right now. People from all walks of life are enjoying the entertainment offered by sports betting. The thrill of watching a sporting event with a ticket in hand is the same whether you are in South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia or Swaziland.
The coming of online sports betting has made the activity that much easier. Now even someone out in the field planting maize or mining can place a bet in real time. There are many South African online sports betting firms.
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Understanding the Odds
There is no use betting on any sport if you do not understand the odds. The odds give vital information to the sports punter. Besides informing the gambler how much they stand to win they also tell the gambler the probability of winning the bet. The importance of understanding the odds cannot be overstated. Odds are represented in three standard formats.
Fractional Odds
Fractional Odds are also called traditional odds. This is a British system that uses fractions to show the odds offered on a particular bet. An example of such odds is 6/4 on Team A beating Team B. In this example the punter stands to win R250 from R100 bet.
The odds indicate that the probability of winning this bet is 40% sports. This information is essential in selecting which bet to make. Most successful sports bettors use gambling strategies to find the best bet to place.
American Odds
As usual, the Americans had come up with their standard. The American format of displaying odds gives more importance to whether the team is the underdog or the favourite. The odds for the favourite are the ones with a negative number and for the underdog, a positive number is used. Take for example a game between Manchester City and Liverpool with odds -145 for Manchester City FC and +450 for Liverpool FC. The odds show that Man City FC is the favourite. They show that a punter needs to bet R145 on the favourite to win R100. However for the same game if a bettor places R100 as a wager on the underdog the payout for a win is R450.
Decimal Odds
This is the most easily recognizable way to represent odds, especially for online gamblers. The method of using decimals to show the odds of an event was made popular in Europe and Australia. This is a very easy-to-understand way of representing odds. Odds of 2.45 mean that you will earn 2.45 times your bet in the event of a win. This means that betting R100 will win you R245.
These odds are presented differently by bookmakers in different regions. But essentially they mean the same things. At online casinos the operators allow punters to switch from one format to another and back.