How to read Horse Race Odds?

Question

Betting on a horse race.. how do you read odds... lower the # the better?

Answer 1

Lower odds mean that more people are betting on that horse.  That means that a lot of people think that the horse is going to win.  It doesn't mean that it will for sure, but people think it will.

Really high odds suggest that people think that the horse has no shot of winning the race.

If you bet on a horse with really low odds, you don't win very much money.  If the horse is "even odds" that means it's 1-1 or "one to one."  That means for every $1 that you bet, you'll get $1 back.  And you always get back your initial bet.  So if you bet $2 on a horse at even odds, then you'll get back your $2 and you've won $2 ($1 for every $1 that you bet) so you'll get back a total of $4.

If your horse is 2-1, you get $6... $2 for every $1 that you bet and your $2 back.

If a horse is 10-1, you get $22... $10 twice plus your original $2.

If you bet on a longshot, you win a lot more money, but they'll likely win less often.

Lower isn't really better... you get less $ back in the end... lower just suggests that the horse has a good chance to win.  If you want to bet on horses with low odds or high odds depends on your betting strategy.

Answer 2

If the odds are 2 - 1  you bet 1 win 2

5 - 1  you bet 1 win 5

5-7  you bet 7 dollars and win 5  

you always get your wager back

Answer 3

If the favorite is "short odds", say 2-1, a $2 bet will net you $6. You get your $2 bet back and the $4 you won at 2-1. Oftentimes favorites go off at even shorter odds, like 8/5 or 3/2, which means that you are not even doubling your money. Unless you feel very strongly about the horse, horses going off at these odds are known as "prohibitive favorites" - meaning that they are so likely to win that the race is not worth betting.

Yet, statistically favorites only win 1/3 of the time, which means that for the majority of the time most of the people are wrong. In horse racing, you are not betting against the house but rather against other bettors. When they bet the favorite down to short odds, other horses in the race offer higher odds - value. It is a bettor's job to look for false favorites - horses that people like for silly reasons or under suspect circumstances. In these situations, a bettor can toss the favorite out of his exotic bets for very high odds, or bet 2 or 3 other likely winners to win. These are the best betting opportunities.

  

Answer 4

The lower the odds the better the horse is.  If the horse is 2-1 and another is 10-1 then the 2-1 is picked to win.  The odds constintly change depending and people betting on them.   But for money reasons you always want a higher odd horse to win because thats more moeny but a less chance they are gonna win.

Answer 5

the other answer's are correct, if you remember how to work out fractions, its pretty easy to learn what odds will pay what!