Gambling may seem a more complicated pastime than it actually is. It has a lot of strange terminology but it’s easy to learn the basics, which are all you need to understand how to make the best bets.

These days, you can bet on anything and everything so learning what it’s all about will come in handy if you fancy a flutter on the Grand National or even a bet on Big Brother.

Understanding odds and placing a bet

Whether it’s at the racecourse, in the bookmakers or online, placing a bet is the same and very simple.

You choose the outcome of an event, hand over some money (your stake) and get it back plus winnings if you’re right.

Bookmakers want you to bet with them and so offer you the best odds they dare on every selection of an event.

They try to take into account every factor that could affect the outcome but it’s not an exact science and they don’t always get it right. The key to understanding betting is knowing how to read the odds.

Simply said, odds represent the chance of a particular result happening, but in gambling they also contain all the information you need to know how much you could win.

Traditional format odds, like you see at the racecourse and mentioned on television, are always 2 numbers separated by a slash.

For Example

Let’s say the odds are a 1/3 on a horse as an example.

If you add the 2 figures together and imagine that the race could be run over and over that many times (1 + 3 = 4), then the 2nd number (3) is the number of times that horse would be expected to win.

So, for every 4 times the race was run that selection would be expected to win 3 times.
Similarly, odds of 33/1 suggest that if the same race was run over and over then that selection would only be expected to win once every 34 times.

Ready to Place a bet?