1. How To Read Fight Odds
2. How Do Boxing Odds Work
3. How Do Fighting Odds Work

by Matt Lo Cascio

The onset of legal gambling in Illinois and many other states has spurred MMA gambling to become very popular. The fights are already exciting, but when you have a vested interest in the outcome, your heart beats a little faster and you end up teetering on the edge of your seat. You might even yell at the TV.

The plus and minus in betting can mean two different things. They are used in American style odds to denote how much a $100 wager will pay out if it wins (when a plus sign is used), or how much must be staked to win $100 (when a minus sign is used). Boxing odds are a cinch. Once you understand how the money line works, you'll be well on your way. Becoming good at boxing wagering, that's another issue. Simply understanding how the odds work, however, is something that comes pretty easy. The money line is simply a way to express odds.

But before you lay down some cash on a fight you have to know how MMA betting odds work.

MMA ODDS: THE BASICS

Let’s start with the basics of MMA Odds. The first thing to know is MMA odds in America will have a + or – sign in front of a number. Let’s use an imaginary MMA fight as an example. And since it’s merely an example, let’s get a little wacky with it. How about Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelianenko? We’ll assume the favorite in this fight would be Fedor. That would make Brock Lesnar the underdog. Favorites always have a minus sign in front of a number, while the underdog will have a plus. In our imaginary fight, Fedor would be the favorite at -180, while Lesnar would be the underdog at +120.

For favorites, the number represents the amount you would need to bet in order to win $100. So if I bet $180 and Fedor wins, I would receive $100 in winnings as well as my $180 wager back.

For underdogs, the odds work a bit differently. The plus sign indicates the amount of money you would win per each $100 wagered. So if I put $100 down on Lesnar and he wins, I would receive $120 in winnings plus my initial $100 wager back.

Most of the time it's a $100 minimum. So you have to bet $100 to win $175 for betting on Belfort. You have to bet $220 on Silva to win $100. Welcome to the Sports Betting Odds section of The Sports Geek. If you are new to sports betting and don’t understand how to read betting odds (+150, -110, +2200, etc) we will lay it all out for you and help you learn how the betting odds work.

PARLAYS, FRACTIONS, AND PROPS

Betting favorites or underdogs is just one way to wager on MMA. There are many other MMA betting options like parlays, fractional odds, and props. Parlays are more difficult to win because you must select at least two fighters and they both must win in order to cash on that wager. The good news is the odds always increase in parlays which make the payouts bigger.

Parlay odds are difficult to figure out. Every betting site will show you updated odds as you add fighters to your bet slip. But if you wanted to see what your parlay odds will be before visiting your preferred betting site, you can use a parlay calculator. For example, let’s say I picked a fighter that was +245 and parlayed that with a fighter who was +325. If you bet $100 on that parlay and won, you would win over $1400. You can even parlay six fighters. A mix of favorites and underdogs in a six-fighter parlay could be worth over $10,000 with just a $100 bet.

Fractional odds aren’t used much in MMA, but they are used when you want to place a bet on a team or player in a non-game situation. Let’s say you were a baseball fan and prior to opening day wanted to bet on the Chicago White Sox to win the World Series. You would see odds around 10/1. That means you would win $10 for every $1 you bet.

Props, aka prop bets or proposition bets, are bets that are placed on something happening during an event and not necessarily a final result. An example would be betting on how many takedowns Khabib Nurmagomedov might land in a fight. You would be offered an over or under on those takedowns. Khabib is the takedown king, so maybe the over/under number would be four takedowns. You could bet either side of that and it wouldn’t matter if Khabib won or lost the fight. Other popular MMA prop bets include picking the round the fight will end as well as the method of finish.

Welcome to the Sports Betting Odds section of The Sports Geek. If you are new to sports betting and don’t understand how to read betting odds (+150, -110, +2200, etc) we will lay it all out for you and help you learn how the betting odds work.

Sports Betting Odds Explained

Many people don’t know how to read or calculate sports betting odds, so below we have done our best on explaining how betting odds work. The most common type of sports betting odds used in North America are the American style odds which we explain below.

American Style Sports Betting Odds

Most online sportsbooks will list their odds in what is called “American Odds”. There are a couple different versions of sports betting odds, but these American Odds are the most common odds used. Reading and understanding sports betting odds can bet a little confusing to beginners, so we have provided an example below using two NFL football teams:

American Odds

• Matchup Odds
• New England Patriots +120
• Pittsburgh Steelers -140

The number shown in the bracket represents the odds. The American Odds have two components to them, the first being the positive or negative sign, and the second being the number that follows the sign.

The sign in front of the number indicates whether placing a wager on that outcome will pay out more money then you have wagered or less money then you have wagered. If the odd is negative (-) it means that outcome is more likely to happen and placing a bet on that outcome would payout less than the amount you wagered, while a positive (+) odd shows that the outcome is less likely to happen and it would pay out more than the amount you wagered.

The next step is figuring out exactly how much the bet pays out, which is where the numbers in the odds come into play.

A listed odd with a – sign in front of it, such as the -140 in our example above, shows us how much money you would need to wager in order to win $100. So using the -140, this would show us that you would need to bet $140 in order to win $100 in profits. You can easily substitute the $100 bet for a $10 bet by moving the decimal place over one spot, showing us that you would need to wager $14 in order to win $10 in profits.

Examples:

A listed odd with a + sign in front of it, such as the +120 in our example above, shows us how much money you would win on a $100 bet. Using the +120 odds, it shows us that a $100 bet on that outcome would pay out $120 in profits. Again this can easily be converted into smaller or larger size bets. A $10 bet on +120 odds would pay out $12 in profits.

Examples:

Below is an example of NFL betting odds taken from an online betting site.

In this example you can see Los Angeles is listed at +130 ($100 bet pays $130 plus of course your original wager back) and New England is listed at -150 ($150 bet pays $100).

How To Read Fight Odds

The great thing about betting online is that the online sportsbooks will do the calculations for you before you place your bet. You can click on the outcome or team you would like to bet on, and then input the amount you wish to wager and it will show you your potential pay out before you confirm your bet.

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Decimal Style Sports Betting Odds

Decimal style odds are used mostly in Europe, and are pretty easy to understand. To calculate the decimal style odds all you will need to do is simply multiply the amount you wish to wager by the decimal odds shown and you will get your payout. For example it may look something like this:

How Do Boxing Odds Work

If you wanted to place a $10 wager on the USA at 2.40 you would simply need to multiply your $10 wager by the 2.40 odds (10 x 2.40) to find out that the payout is $24. It is important to realize that with decimal style odds it includes the amount you wagered, so to find out profits you would need to subtract your wager ($24 – $10) to find out your potential payout is $14 in profits.

If you wanted to place a $10 wager on Brazil you would again just multiply $10 x 1.55 to find out that you would win $15.50 total or $5.50 in profits.

How Do Fighting Odds Work

Decimal style betting odds are very simple to understand, but you won’t see them displayed in many North American sportsbooks. With that said, most online betting sites will allow you to chose the style of betting odds you want displayed, with American odds set as the default.