What does it mean when for example someone says so and so has odds of 3-1 of winning etc?

Question

Or like she has a 4-50 chance of losing for example

Answer 1

it means you have a 75% chance. Think of it like rocks in a bag. There are 4 total, and 3 are blue and 1 is green. There is a 3-1 chance of getting a blue.

Answer 2

3-1 simply means for every 1 unit bet, you can win 3 units back.  

4-50 means every 4 units bet you will win 50 units back.

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Answer 3

3-1 means that for every £1 you bet, you win £3 net (or £4 return).

4-50 is when you bet £50 you win £4 net (or £54 total return)

Answer 4

4 in 50 = 1 in 12.5 so you would have 1 chance out of every 12.5. ....for every $1 you bet you would recieve $12.50....

3-1 means you would win 1 for every 3 you have....bet 300 to win 100.

Answer 5

I think some of the people above have probability confused with betting odds.

Probability is the straight up % chance of one outcome out of the total number of possible outcomes, e.g. 1 out of 6 chance of any one number on a die coming up, or 1:6.

Betting odds is the amount paid for a wager on a particular outcome. If i bet you 1:2 that a 6 won't come up on the die, and if it does come up, I have to pay 2 dollars for every dollar you bet.

It sounds like your friend is talking about probability. A 50% chance of losing is 1 out of 2 chance of losing (you can also state this as 50% chance to win, btw.) So, out of the total number of outcomes, she would win half of them.