How do bookies work?

Question

How do the odds work? What is meant by 3/1 and 11/1? And what are evens?

Answer 1

EVENS means if your bet wins, you winnings and stake are equal, you stake £1, you win £1 (plus your pound of course!) If expressed like any other odds quoted as a fraction, evens means odds of 1/1. Fractional odds LESS than evens, or "odds on" would have the bigger number on the bottom, eg 8/15, or 1/2.

As for other fractional odds. Think of the bottom number as your stake. The number on top is what you would win in relation to that unit stake so 10/1 means of you bet 1 you win 10 (plus your 1)

Odds which are LESS than evens, that is where the number on the bottom is bigger than the one on top, or negative odds, indicate you need a big stake to win a small amount.

Odds are calculated based on several factors, the expert analysis of the likely result, what results are taking the most bets already, and what outcome would cost the bookies money affect the odds offered.

15/8 means you stake 8 you win 15 (so this is slightly worse than 2/1 despite the numbers being bigger!)

Odds are always expressed in lowest terms, with the curious exception of 10/3. which is normally quoted as "100/30" presumably to stop people thinking the commentator is referring to a race at the time of 2.50pm !

Answer 2

They calculate roughly each horse's probability of winning but instead of the sum of the individual probabilities adding up to one, they add up to something bigger, anything from single decimal places e.g. 1.05 to as high as they can get away with.  To arrive at a probability for each price you add 1 to the price and divide the result into 1, in this way, i.e. if the price is 3 to1, add the 2 digits together,3 + 1 (=4), and divide it into the 2nd digit, 1, to get 0.25.  If you are with me so far, take a look at the SP's in a race of a few runners,  do the above exercise and add them up. ( If you get a price like 6 to 4 you add 6 to 4 to make 10 and divide into 4 to get 4/10 i.e. 0.4.)When you get the answer, say it is 1.15, that is known as betting 15% over round.  However, they do not have to do this math every time, as they carry all these figures in their heads, but not necessarily in this form, as they have made a book so many times they instinctively know what works.  In fact probably most bookies would not know what I am talking about but nevertheless that is the theory.

It seems I have got a thumbs down from somebody who is totally ignorant.

PS Evens is 1 to 1 whose probability is 1/2 = 0.5.

Answer 3

With their brains for you rarely see a poor book maker.

Answer 4

If I start by a quick reference to roulette I can carry the idea across so it is simple to understand. How does roulette work. Take red and black. Place a stake on either and if you are correct you get back your chip plus another. If it were just that, neither you, nor the table would "win" in the long run. There are 18 red and 18 black numbers on the table. The house "edge" is the green Zero. On the occassions this come in you would lose your stake. Likewise, if you put a chip on every number on the table, including zero,you cannot win as betting a correct number returns 36-1 so you would lose one chip every spin.

Taking this across to horse racing the bookie is what his name implies, he "makes a book". He offers odds on each runner in a race or whatever so that whatever the outcome,he makes a profit. This is generally known as being over round, when round (ie not winning or losing) is 100%. A quick example, in a three horse race, if he offered 3-1 (stake £1 and get £3 plus £1 stake back = £4 if win) would be under round becouse you would have the advantage i.e if you put a pound on all three horses, whichever won you would be one pound in profit.          If he offered 2-1 each horse then it would be a" round" book as if you put a pound on each runner you would just get your money back.....just like betting the red and black on roulette.

However, the bookie has his "zero" that is "he" sets the prices so in a three horse race you will probably find that the odds would be (if he was generous) Evens for one horse (like black and green pound and pound stake back) 6-4 the second horse that is £1.50 winnings and pound back. and 2-1 that is two pound and pound stake back. So if you put a pound on all three you would lose money unless the third horse came in in which case you would just get your money back.

Hope that explains the principle for you.

Answer 5

3/1 mean you will get 3 for every one

11/1 means 11 for every 1

Answer 6

If you work with a bookie that has any idea of what he is doing. He is working for the juice. He doen't want everyone to lose, he wants his bets to go down the middle.

3-1 at the race track gets you a payoff of around $8.00

That is your 2.00 back plus 6.00.

11-1 at the track gets you around $24.00.

That is your 2.00 back plus 22.00

On the program they give you apay-off chart with the odds.

I don't know what evens are.

Answer 7

The odds work like this.

You give the bookmaker some money - and he buys his wife a nice new fur coat.

Answer 8

Bookies are accountants who manipulate the odds so they can releive you of your money!

Answer 9

same way as everyother thievin B@%£$RD