We’ve all encountered betting odds in life at least occasionally.

Even for those of us who’ve never visited a betting shop, racecourse, or bookie website, betting odds will crop up on the news or in general discussion.

But if you don’t know how they work, they can be distinctly mystifying, especially when they’re in the form of fractions but don’t seem to correlate to how fractions actually work.

Our step by step guide will take you through everything you need to know to read and understand betting odds in every major format. Never again will you be baffled when you come across betting odds on a betting site, or out in the wild.

Betting odds represent the amount somebody can expect to win in the event of their bet being successful. The higher the odds, the more a bettor will get if they win their bet, while lower odds will result in a much more modest return.

Because of the way betting works, betting odds also become a representation of probability.

Higher odds mean that an outcome is considered much less likely to occur, while low odds will indicate that a team or player is the favourite to win.

Indeed, betting odds have become so ubiquitous in life that the word ‘odds’ has become a colloquial synonym for ‘chances’ - e.g. ‘Wow, what are the odds of that happening?’

People often interpret betting odds as a direct translation of the likelihood of something happening - but while they certainly offer an indication of that likelihood, it’s important to remember that’s not all they’re doing.

Bookies manipulate their odds to guarantee themselves profits (more on that later), often resulting in a skewed set of odds for many events.

When considering betting odds, keep in mind that they don’t directly represent the true chances of something happening.

Types Of Betting Odds And How To Read Them

Betting odds come in a few formats, which each dominate in different parts of the world.

Although there’s no ‘correct’ betting odds format, some are certainly more confusing than others to the layperson.

In each case, though, once you’re used to reading odds in a certain format, it’ll probably feel like the ‘right’ format for you.

There are three main types of odds used in the western world.

The traditional format for betting odds in the UK is fractional. At first glance, fractional betting odds can look very confusing, but they’re reasonably straightforward once you know your way around them.

Fractional odds indicate the amount you will win depending on your original stake, with the first number showing your winnings, and the second your stake. Here are a few examples below:

2/1 odds indicates that for every £1 staked you will win £2 (equal to 3.0 in decimal odds and +200 in moneyline odds)

1/2 odds indicates that for every £2 staked you will win £1 (equal to 1.5 in decimal odds and -200 in moneyline odds)

5/4 odds indicates that for every £4 staked you will win £5 (equal to 2.25 in decimal odds and +125 in moneyline odds)

The only trouble with fractional odds is that it can be quite difficult to compare them, especially if you’re not yet very comfortable with reading them. This means that you might not always be certain of whether one set of odds is better than another.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-to-use-decimal-odds" target="_blank" title="">Decimal</a> (European)

For many people, decimal odds are the easiest to understand. They’re used mostly in Europe, but are catching on in the UK as well. With decimal odds, you simply multiply your stake by the odds to calculate your total return (including your original stake) on a bet. For example:

3.0 odds means that if you bet £1, you receive a total of £3 if your bet wins (equal to 2/1 in fractional odds and +200 in moneyline odds)

1.5 odds means that if you bet £1, you receive a total of £1.50 if your bet wins (equal to 1/2 in fractional odds and -200 in moneyline odds)

2.25 odds means that if you bet £1, you receive a total of £2.25 if your bet wins (equal to 5/4 in fractional odds and +125 in moneyline odds)

The maths involved for decimal odds is therefore much easier, but it’s important to remember that you’re calculating your total return, not just your winnings, as is the case for fractional odds.

To non-Americans, moneyline odds are the most confusing of all. To start with, they come in two different formats, depending on the likelihood of an outcome. For an outcome that is more likely than not to occur (i.e. a favourite), moneyline odds are expressed in the negative, while for an outcome that is less likely to occur (i.e. an underdog), the odds are expressed in the positive.

For a favourite, the odds indicate the amount you have to bet in order to win £100 (or, as they’re more commonly used in the US, $100). For an underdog, meanwhile, the odds indicate the amount of profit you’ll make if you bet £100.

+200 odds means that if you bet £100, you’ll make £200 in profit if your bet wins (equal to 2/1 in fractional odds and 3.0 in decimal odds)

-200 odds means that you need to bet £200 in order to make £100 in profit if your bet wins (equal to 1/2 in fractional odds and 1.5 in decimal odds)

+125 means that if you bet £100, you’ll make £125 in profit if your bet wins (equal to 5/4 in fractional odds and 2.25 in decimal odds)

This format is rarely used in the UK, and British bettors are therefore unlikely to want to use it - but it never hurts to have a basic understanding of how these things work.

You’re fairly unlikely to need to do much converting most of the time, as most betting sites allow you to choose your preferred format of odds in your account settings. Pretty much all bookie sites will allow you to choose between fractional and decimal odds, while some will also include moneyline odds, and the odd one will even include some more exotic odds formats, such as Indonesian or Malaysian odds.

Occasionally, though, you may need to convert from one format to another - for example if you’re completing an offer where the minimum odds are expressed in fractional format, and you prefer decimal.

While you certainly can put your brain to use and work out the maths by hand, the easiest way to do so is to use an <a href="https://outplayed.com/calculators/odds-converter">odds converter</a>.

It can be useful to work out the implied probability of an outcome from the odds you’re seeing - i.e. the approximate likelihood of that selection winning.

For each type of odds, there’s a different calculation you can use to work out the probability (though you can again simply use an odds converter).

To turn fractional odds into probability (as a percentage), you can use the following formula, with the odds expressed as x/y:

So for example, you would do the following calculation for odds of 2/1:

Decimal odds are perhaps the easiest to convert to probability - the formula is simply 100/odds.

For example, for decimal odds of 4.0, you would do the following calculation:

Moneyline odds are probably the most awkward to convert to probability, as you have two different calculations to perform depending on whether the odds are positive or negative.

For underdogs (with positive odds), we use a similar method to fractional odds. First, divide the odds by 100, and then use the formula (1 / (x + 1)) * 100 to work out the probability.

For example, for moneyline odds of +400, you would do the following calculation:

For a favourite, we use the same formula, but then subtract the end result from 100.

For example, for moneyline odds of -400, you would do the following calculation:

People often assume that betting odds are a direct representation of the likelihood of something happening, but that isn’t necessarily the case.

For a full explanation of the various techniques bookies use to determine odds, check out our <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-are-betting-odds-determined">guide</a> - but we’ll talk you through the basics here.

There are a few different factors that go into the algorithms that bookies’ software uses to decide odds, which can roughly be broken down into two categories.

It’s not the only consideration that goes into betting odds, but it’s certainly an important one!

Bookies will use enormous amounts of data, including past performance of each team/player/competitor, weather and other conditions, and past matchup results, to assess the likelihood of all possible outcomes within a match or race.

A bookie doesn’t exist to predict the future - its reason for existence is to make money, and it ensures itself profit through its oddsmaking.

An ‘overround’ is factored into the odds you see on a bookie’s website, which is their <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-betting-sites-make-money">margin</a> on their pricing.

They also adjust their odds constantly as people make bets, aiming for the same volume of betting on all sides of an event.

This allows them to ensure that they make their profit regardless of the outcome of that event.

The available odds for a certain event can vary quite drastically from bookie to bookie.

This can mean a pretty major difference to your potential profit, so if you’re looking to place a bet on a particular match or race, it’s worth your while finding the bookie with the best odds.

Fortunately, there are tools online to help you do exactly this, so there’s no need to trawl through the bookies’ sites manually looking for the highest odds.

Websites such as Oddschecker compare the odds from the biggest UK bookies to allow you to find the highest odds for whatever you want to bet on.

Stephanie Sorrell

How To Read Betting Odds: A Step By Step Guide

Odds seem like a relatively simple concept in theory. If you want to place a bet, the odds tell you what you stand to make from it and give you a rough idea of the likelihood of it winning.

But, when you realise that <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-are-betting-odds-determined">probability isn’t the only factor that determines odds</a>, things start to get more confusing. Bookies will adjust their odds to encourage betting on either side of an event, and of course, they add on a margin to all their odds to ensure they make a profit.

So with all those factors to consider, how do you work out whether a bookie’s odds are good value for money? Especially if you’re relatively new to <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide">sports betting</a>, you might not have the expertise to decide for yourself what the likely outcome of a match or race might be.

In this article, we’ll take you through how odds work, what might make odds ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and how to decide for yourself whether the odds you see are worth taking. We’ll also explain what odds to look for when you’re <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">making money through Matched Betting</a>, and how you can take things even further through <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-value-betting">Value Betting</a>.

By the end, you’ll have all the information you need about odds, so that you can use Outplayed's available tools plus your own experience to assess the odds you see and make an informed decision as to whether they’re worth taking.

Odds in sports betting are based on the simple principle of telling the bettor how much they stand to win if their bet is successful. High odds mean they’ll win a large amount, while low odds mean a relatively small amount, when compared to their original stake.

Inevitably, odds also correspond (sometimes more loosely than others) to probability. A bookie is always going to be willing to pay out more if an outcome is considered unlikely to occur, and less for what is considered a highly likely outcome.

For this reason, odds can also be viewed as an indication of probability. Low odds imply a high chance of something happening, whereas high odds imply a low chance of something happening.

If you look at the odds for a certain event, you can therefore gain an idea of how likely each outcome is thought to be.

For example, let’s take a look at this upcoming football match between Cardiff and AFC Wimbledon.

We can see that the odds offered for Cardiff are pretty low at 1.5, while the odds for Wimbledon are much higher at 6. A draw, meanwhile, also has fairly high odds, at 4.2.

This tells us that the bookie considers a Cardiff win to be by far the most likely outcome, with a draw relatively unlikely, and a Wimbledon win more improbable still.

They’re therefore willing to offer a pretty high payout for a Wimbledon win, and a much less significant one for a Cardiff win.

While odds can be used to give you an idea of the chance of something happening, though, it’s important to remember that probability isn’t the only thing that determines odds.

As well as adding on their margin, bookies will adjust their odds to encourage bettors to bet on certain outcomes. The aim is to ensure they have a balanced volume of betting on all sides of an event, so that <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-betting-sites-make-money">they profit regardless of the outcome of the event</a>.

In the UK, odds come in <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-to-read-betting-odds">three main formats</a>: fractional, decimal and moneyline. We’ll give you a quick rundown of how each format works here.

Fractional is the traditional odds format used in the UK, and means that odds are displayed in the form of a fraction. When you hear someone talking about ‘odds of two to one’ or ‘odds of seven to two’ they’re using the fractional odds format.

​​Fractional odds indicate the amount you will win based on your original stake, with the first number showing your winnings, and the second your stake.

For example, 2/1 odds indicates that for every £1 staked you will win £2.

The problem with fractional odds is that they’re quite difficult to compare, for new bettors especially. Unless you’re already very familiar with how they work, you’ll have to do some maths to be certain of how much better or worse one set of odds is than another - and the majority of us would probably prefer not to have to do maths if we can help it.

Most people agree that <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-to-use-decimal-odds">decimal odds</a> are the most straightforward. They’re presented as a number with decimal places, and you simply multiply your stake by that number to get your potential return.

For example, 3.0 odds means that if you bet £1, you receive a total of £3 if your bet wins.

You should be aware that your calculation for decimal odds gives you your total return (including your original stake), whereas fractional odds involve calculating your winnings (which don’t include your original stake).

Moneyline odds are the most confusing of all. They come in two different formats, depending on the likelihood of an outcome, which is one good reason why they’ve never really caught on this side of the Atlantic.

For an outcome that is more likely than not to occur (i.e. a favourite), moneyline odds are expressed in the negative, while for an outcome that is less likely to occur (i.e. an underdog), the odds are expressed in the positive.

+200 odds means that if you bet £100, you’ll make £200 in profit if your bet wins

-200 odds means that you need to bet £200 in order to make £100 in profit if your bet wins

Most British bookies allow you to choose between these three odds formats, though some only offer fractional and decimal, and a couple of others throw in a host of exotic Asian odds formats as well. You can usually find the option to change odds format either at the top of the sports betting screen, at the very bottom of your page, or in your account section.

You can use an <a href="https://www.aceodds.com/bet-calculator/odds-converter.html">odds converter</a> to work out equivalents between sets of odds, but here are a few commonly offered odds and their equivalents in each format.

You can also infer the <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-implied-probability">implied probability</a> of each outcome from the odds given, so we’ve included the percentage chance for each set of odds as well, to give you an idea of how likely each is considered to be.

Factors That Affect Whether Odds Are ‘Good’

Now that you understand how odds work, the question is how to determine whether what you’re seeing offers you good value.

Naturally, there’s no single point at which odds can be said to be ‘good’, because it all depends on the real likelihood of an outcome occurring. This means that identical odds can be good or bad, depending on the context of the event in question.

If you can determine that the actual probability of something happening is higher than the odds would imply - so for example, something has a 50% chance of occurring, but you’re seeing odds of 3 - those odds would certainly count as being ‘good’.

On the other hand, if you can tell that the actual probability of something happening is lower than the odds would imply - say, something with a 20% chance of occurring, and you’re seeing odds of 3 - then those odds would be pretty poor.

Another consideration is the age-old calculation of risk vs reward. Does the amount you’re risking, and the risk of losing, merit the potential reward you’re seeing?

Even without taking into account the actual likelihood of something happening, you may well consider extremely high odds or extremely low odds not to come out favourably when you consider risk vs reward.

For example, in the football match we looked at earlier between Cardiff and Wimbledon, you might feel that neither team is very appealing. It can be helpful to methodically lay out your options and potential results to help you decide, as shown below.

At odds of 1.5, although your bet is clearly pretty likely to win, you aren’t making that much profit. Even if you put £100 on Cardiff, you’d only make a profit of £50 if they win - and although they’re the favourites, it’s still perfectly possible for them to lose or draw. Many bettors would feel that, in cases like this, the reward isn’t large enough to justify even the fairly small risk.

At odds of 6, meanwhile, Wimbledon will certainly give you a hefty return if they win - that same £100 bet would get you £500 in profit. But that win really isn’t very likely to happen at all, meaning that many bettors will feel the risk is too high to justify the reward.

Bookies will offer <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-european-handicap">handicap markets</a> to help to even things out, though, so just because the match odds are heavily one-sided, that doesn’t mean you won’t find suitable odds on any market for that match.

When deciding whether you like the look of the odds available on an event, it’s always worth weighing up whether the risk of your bet is justified by the potential reward.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-are-the-best-odds-for-matched-betting" target="_blank" title="">What Are Good Odds For Matched Betting?</a>

When you’re Matched Betting, you have very different considerations to think about.

You don’t care about whether the bet wins or not, so risk vs reward isn’t a consideration - so long as you’re doing it correctly, there isn’t any risk at all.

But that doesn’t mean the odds don’t matter. Depending on the type of bet you’re placing (whether it’s a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/qualifying-bet-guide">qualifying bet</a> or a free bet), you’ll need to evaluate the odds you see based on a few criteria.

There are a number of things you can do to help you form an accurate assessment of whether the odds you’re seeing are good value or not, and to take advantage of valuable odds you encounter.

Once you've got the hang of assessing odds for Matched Betting, it's worth considering moving on to more advanced sports betting techniques such as Value Betting.

Value Betting is the practice of finding bets where the odds are higher than the real probability of a win would imply. If you place enough of those bets, you're statistically likely to end up in profit over the course of your betting.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/our-membership-levels-explained">Outplayed's Pro and Elite memberships</a> include dedicated Value Betting tools that allow you to find bets at good odds, which hold value, including the following:

There are lots of things that can make odds ‘good’ - it all depends on the context of the event, and of what you’re trying to achieve.

But generally speaking, the best ways to identify good odds will remain the same: gain knowledge and experience of the sport in question, compare odds between bookies (and exchanges), and use any Oddsmatching and Value Betting tools available to you to locate the best value selections.

And if this article has piqued your interest in <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">making profits with Matched Betting</a>, why not give it a go with the <a href="https://outplayed.com/user/register#1">Outplayed free trial</a>? You’ll be making your first profits before you know it!

What Are Good Betting Odds?

Value betting involves placing bets that are more likely to win than suggested by the bookmaker’s odds.

Value betting is a betting strategy that gives you an edge over the bookmakers by finding odds that are higher than they should be.

It involves accurately working out how likely an outcome is, then using this information to find ‘overpriced’ bookmaker odds and betting on these.

Unlike with <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting"></a><a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Matched Betting</a>, you won’t lock in a profit when placing a value bet.

But, if you can consistently find bets that have value to you – known as positive expected value (+EV) bets – you can make fantastic long-term profits from value betting.

Even better, value betting works with <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/top-tips-to-avoid-being-gubbed">gubbed accounts</a>.

In this article, you’ll find out about how bookmakers set their odds, different value betting techniques, and a range of value betting tools.

First, we’ll look at some key ideas that help us understand how to find value bets.

Fair odds accurately reflect how likely a bet is to win.

A bookmaker offering fair odds would have no edge and would pay out as much in winnings as they took in losing bets over time.

With a coin toss, the chance of either heads or tails is 50%.

A bookmaker offering fair odds on a coin toss would pay double your stake if you won and take your stake if you lost.

To work out the return on a winning bet, the bookmaker multiplies your stake by the decimal odds. You win double your stake on a winning bet at fair odds for a coin toss, so the return on a £10 stake is:

Return = Stake x Odds = £10 x 2.0 = £20

£10 of this is just you getting your stake back, so the profit is £10.

There’s a 50% chance your bet wins, so you’ll make £10 profit half the time and lose your £10 stake the other half. Over time, you’ll break even, and so will the bookmaker.

The bookmaker would then go out of business quickly, which is why they don’t offer fair odds.

Implied probability shows how likely an outcome is, as implied by the odds.

It’s a really important concept when it comes to value betting. Lower odds bets are more likely to win, and higher odds bets less likely.

To work out the implied probability of a bet, you divide 1 by the decimal odds. For the fair odds coin toss bet, this is:

Implied probability = 1 / 2.0 = 0.5 = 50%

We know the actual chance of either heads or tails is 50%. Since the implied probability of the bet is the same as the actual likelihood of it winning, we can see that the odds of 2.0 are fair.

In betting, <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-expected-value">expected value</a> is the average profit you’ll make from placing a bet.

It takes into account the likelihood of the bet winning or losing, the profit you make if it wins, and the loss you take if it loses.

For a £10 bet on a coin toss at odds of 2.0, the expected value (EV) is:

EV = (0.5 x £10) + (0.5 x -£10) = £5 - £5 = £0

This is just a way of saying, with maths, that you win £10 half the time and lose £10 the other half. It also shows there’s no long-term value to this bet for either you or the bookmaker. We’ll look at how to find that value later.

Bookmakers set their odds to ensure they profit in the long run. They work out the fair odds for a bet, then set their odds lower than this to give themselves an edge.

For a coin toss, they might lower the odds from fair odds of 2.0 to 1.9. This bet will return £19 if it wins (a £9 profit), and you’ll lose £10 if it loses.

EV = (0.5 x £9) + (0.5 x -£10) = £4.50 - £5 = -£0.50

In the long-term, you’ll lose 50p on average for each £10 bet you place, meaning this is a negative expected value (-EV) bet.

The bookmaker, on the other hand, makes a 50p profit for every £10 staked. This is their edge, or margin, and is the key to how they make money from the bets they offer.

Bookmakers use betting analysts, sports traders, and quants (quantitative analysts) to assess, as accurately as possible, the likelihood of an outcome.

The odds can then be set accordingly, making sure to reduce the odds a bit to factor in that all-important margin.

Some bookmakers also take into account odds from betting exchanges or other bookmakers when setting their own odds.

When two football teams play each other, betting analysts look at data, including previous results, recent form, expected weather conditions, team selection, and injuries.

They use this to predict the likelihood of the outcomes of a wide range of bets.

A bookmaker setting match odds for Serbia v England might assess the chances of the three possible outcomes as:

These correspond to fair odds of 9.52 for a Serbia win, 4.65 for a draw, and 1.47 for an England win.

To factor in a margin, the bookmaker lowers these odds to set their actual odds. For this game, they might have odds of 8 for Serbia, 4.5 for the draw, and 1.44 for England.

These are Betfred’s actual odds for the game. The imagined fair odds are an estimate of what these might be.

An educated guess was made that Betfred reduced Serbia’s odds by a much bigger factor than England’s, to take account of the <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/betting-on-the-longshot/">favourite-long shot bias</a>.

It’s been observed many times that bettors tend to bet on ‘long shots’ or ‘underdogs’ more than they should, based on the odds, so bookmakers can reduce the odds of long shots by more than they do with favourites.

Bookmakers can be roughly divided into two types – sharp bookmakers and soft bookmakers.

Sharp bookmakers are aimed at professional bettors. They tend to have lower margins and adjust their odds very quickly, using sophisticated systems.

Sharp bookmakers set their own odds, using advanced systems and models.

Most of the process is automated, allowing them to react to events like player injuries quickly, often adjusting odds in a few seconds. They are also often the first bookmakers to create a particular betting market.

The initial odds offered by a bookmaker are called opening odds. They are often released late at night or early in the morning, so are also known as overnight lines.

Although they don’t operate in the UK, Pinnacle are often referred to as the sharpest bookmaker. They don’t offer <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/qualifying-bet-guide">sign-up or reload bonuses</a>, so can afford to have smaller margins on their betting markets.

Pinnacle post opening odds with low betting limits of perhaps a few hundred pounds. ‘Sharp’ bettors – experienced, well-informed, and often professional bettors – are often the ones placing the first bets on these opening odds. Pinnacle then adjust their odds based on the betting activity of these sharp bettors, whose opinion they value.

Once Pinnacle have refined their odds from their opening odds, they can confidently increase their betting limits to as high as £50,000 or more for some markets.

Due to their sophisticated methods, sharp bookmakers have very efficient odds. This means that, once the margin has been removed from their odds, they tend to be an accurate indicator of fair odds.

Many Asian bookmakers, for example, Dafabet and 188Bet, are generally considered to be sharp bookmakers.

Soft bookmakers are aimed at casual bettors. They tend to have higher margins and adjust their odds relatively slowly, often in response to odds changes at sharp bookmakers or exchanges.

Most well-known bookmakers, like Bet365, Paddy Power, Ladbrokes, and William Hill are soft bookmakers. They offer <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/qualifying-bet-guide">sign-up and reload bonuses</a> and have bigger margins than sharp bookmakers.

Soft bookmakers don’t price their markets as efficiently as sharp bookmakers, so their odds tend to be a worse indicator of fair odds.

Despite their bigger margin, it can be easier to find overpriced odds with soft bookmakers, since their odds are more likely to be mispriced.

This can be exploited by value bettors, who can often bet on overpriced odds at soft bookmakers, extracting long-term value.

Exchange odds are set by bettors, and change as a result of supply and demand.

Betting exchanges use peer-to-peer betting, where bettors bet against each other, rather than taking bets offered by a bookmaker. Exchanges make money by charging a commission on winning bets, although you can get <a href="https://outplayed.com/matchbook">0% commission with Matchbook</a> with <a href="https://outplayed.com/user/register">Outplayed membership</a>.

Exchange odds arise differently to bookmaker odds. To form the market initially, individual bettors set their own odds. These odds then change as bets are placed. If more bets are placed on one outcome, these odds tend to drop, and the odds for the other outcomes in the same market increase.

As more bets are placed and more money enters the market, it becomes more ‘well formed’. The amount of money available to place bets (the liquidity) increases, and the gap between the back and lay odds (the spread) decreases.

New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki suggested a compelling idea in his book The Wisdom of Crowds.

He argued that “the many are smarter than the few”. In terms of betting exchanges, the suggestion is that a large number of people betting on a market, and causing the odds to change, often leads to odds that more accurately reflect the likelihood of the bet happening than bookmaker odds, set by experts.

Studies have shown a very close correlation between the implied probabilities of an outcome at betting exchanges and the likelihood of that outcome occurring.

A 3-year study by Franck, Verbeek and Nüesch, of all 5478 games played across the ‘Big Five’ football leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France), showed that exchange odds tend to be a better predictor of actual results than bookmaker odds.

Source: <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1503350">SSRN</a>

Another reason exchange odds are a better indicator of fair odds is that the odds aren’t reduced to create a margin, unlike at a bookmaker.

The idea of the wisdom of crowds isn’t perfect.

For example, if a bookmaker’s odds for Liverpool start to drop, just because lots of people decide to back Liverpool, this could lead to more people betting on them.

This would then cause the odds to drop further. Herd mentality could then ensue, with ‘fear of missing out’ leading to ever more bets placed on Liverpool.

Since there was no sound reason for the odds dropping, bets placed on Liverpool would have increasingly poor value the further the odds dropped.

Value betting is the placing of bets on betting markets that have been overvalued by bookmakers.

It’s clear that the odds are literally stacked against us when we bet at a bookmaker.

What Is Value Betting? Everything You Need To Know

Earnings from&nbsp;<a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Matched Betting</a>&nbsp;can vary enormously depending on factors like your starting bankroll, the amount of time you have to put in, whether you’re using a brand-new set of accounts, and whether you’re also doing related offers like casino offers.

You can expect to make over £850 from the initial sportsbook signup free bets, and thereafter you can make £300 - £1000+ a month from reload offers for existing customers.

You can also take over £1400 worth of value from casino welcome offers and a further £300 - £1000+ a month from casino reload offers.

In this article, we’ll explore some of the better offers that can contribute towards your monthly profit goal, and also delve into some case studies of how our members make up their monthly profits.

How Much Can You Make From Matched Betting Signup Offers?

Signup offers are the easiest offers to start with when you’re Matched Betting, so you should absolutely focus on these first. These are one-time promotions that each bookmaker offers as a way to attract new customers - and they tend to be very profitable. 

Normally, signup offers involve you signing up to a bookmaker, placing a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/qualifying-bet-guide" title="">bet to qualify</a> for their welcome promotion, and then using the rewarded free bet or bonus to lock in a guaranteed profit for yourself.

In the members area of Outplayed, there are more than 40 bookmaker signup offers to complete, and if you do them all, you should expect to make more than £850 in pure profit. You can access all of these for free using our free trial.

When you first start Matched Betting, each signup offer might take you quite a while to complete, and you may wonder if it’s worth all the time and effort (spoiler: it is!).

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