Decimal odds are without a doubt the simplest odds on the market to understand. Most modern sportsbooks offer players the ability to see odds expressed as a decimal number. As well as being the simplest, they also work in tandem with crypto betting the best. It means that this is a vital method of showing odds for crypto players to understand. Keep reading to make sure that you’re able to understand how decimal odds can impact your betting.

What Decimal Odds Mean

There are a few things to understand about decimal odds. In terms of how they are expressed on the screen though, there are just two aspects that you really need to understand.

  • The odds are shown as a decimal number, such as 3.45
  • The number will always be higher than 1.00

It offers a very different layout to how other more traditional odds are expressed, but it’s a much simpler layout. It might be difficult to understand if you’ve never seen odds shown before, but once it’s explained it is very simple to get your head around. The basic explanation behind decimal odds is that your wager is multiplied by the decimal number, which will then calculate your payout for a winning bet. It’s extremely simple to work out potential payouts because of this.

With crypto players starting to become a bigger part of the market, a simple way to work out payouts is vital. For example, working out your potential payout with a bet of 0.00038 BTC on a 13/2 wager or +650 odds is a lot more difficult to work out than 7.50 odds would be.

Decimal Odds from a Crypto Perspective

Decimal odds are without a doubt the best way for crypto players to place wagers. Put extremely simply, if you need to place a wager quickly, which can be a necessity when using in-play betting, decimal odds will allow you to work out the payout quicker. When it comes to finding value, it’s important to know the payout level. American and fractional odds won’t offer the same speed.

Working out your Payout

This is just a case of multiplying your stake by the decimal odds that are offered. So, a wager of 0.1 BTC on a 2.40 bet would return 0.24 BTC. This is the total payout and not the level of profit. In order to work out the profit just take the stake away from the payout. So, in the previous example the calculation would be as follows:

0.24 – 0.1 = 0.14

This means that the profit on this wager would be 0.14 BTC. Of course, there’s a formula for both the payout and profit available.

Profit

(Odds – 1) * stake

Payout

Odds * stake

As you can see from both of these formulas, it’s much easier to work out your potential payouts and profit than any other form of odds.

Can you Work out the Probability with Decimal Odds?

The implied probability can be worked out with decimal odds. In fact, it essentially tells you the probability instantly. A bet with odds of 3.5 basically means that in theory, the bet will win 1 out of every 3.5 times that it is placed.

Of course, in order to work out the full probability and overround, you will need to go through a little bit more work. But, the individual probability of that single bet, can be worked out in the same manner as the above example.

Finding Value

For crypto players, finding value can sometimes be a difficult task. However, what can be helpful is using offers when they appear. Crypto sports betting offers tend to have lower wagering requirements than crypto casinos. It means that players can get much better value using offers than betting purely with their own crypto. An example of this would be placing a bet on the favorite to win using your own crypto and offsetting this by using a free bet to wager on the underdog. This would allow you to cover both options and significantly increase your chances of making a profit.

Another excellent way to find value is to use the in-play betting market. This involves looking for games where some value is offered, which means some research has to be done. Once the potential value is found, then watching the game is vital. From here, players will be able to see when the odds for the value bet increase. As the odds increase, the value also increases and this is when the bet should be placed.

An example of this would be over 200.5 points being scored in an NBA game. This is obviously a relatively rare occurrence, but if you find a game where both teams are high scoring and also tend to score late in the game, then this could be classed as a value bet. If the total score is below 100 at the halfway point, then this would be the time to place the wager.

Decimal Odds Converted to Other Odds

When odds are shown in different forms, you might want to change them. If you’re used to seeing odds in a different format, then this will be vitally important to you.

Converting to American Odds

Converting to American odds isn’t too difficult to carry out. However, there are two different formulas that are required. The first is when the decimal odds are 2.00 or above. In this case, the formula is as follows:

(Odds – 1) * 100

The second way is when the odds are below 2.00. The formula for this is as follows:

(-100)/(odds -1)

The reason for this is that American odds can be expressed as either positive or negative. The first formula will give the positive odds, and the second formula will give the negative odds.

Converting to Fractional Odds

Fractional odds are a bit harder to convert to. This is because it’s not always going to give a nice clean number to work with. The formula for working out fractional odds is as follows:

(Odds – 1)

The odds would then be divided by 1 in order to give the fractional odds. This might give something like 3.5/1. This obviously wouldn’t be shown in this way at any betting site, so then both numbers have to be multiplied until they are both whole numbers. In this case, the final odds would be 7/2.

Why Convert Odds?

Not all sportsbooks show odds in the same way. If you use a variety of crypto sports betting sites, then it means that you might come across different odds. In this case, you will need to convert the odds to the same method of expressing them. This is the only way to definitely know which site is offering you the best odds. You’ll then be able to give yourself the best chance of making a profit on your crypto betting.

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Nakul Shah

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In 2016, I worked on my first client to help write a white paper for a crypto and blockchain project they were building, and started delving deeper into blockchain and distributed ledger technology.

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Will Wood

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Updated on 24/04/2024