I always just nod my head when people start talking like “I’ll give you 2 to 1 odds,” but I definitely am not sure what they mean.
I THINK I do–so like if team A is playing team B, and I am trying to convince you to place a bet with me, and I am SOOO confident that team A will win, I might say, “I’ll give you 2 to 1 odds that team A wins,” it means if we both put $5 in the pot, and If I win, I’ll get $10 bucks back (my 5 and his 5), but if he wins he makes more than 10? Does he make $20?
In: 2
If I give you 2 to 1 then I’m saying “For every 1 you offer, I’ll give you 2 in return if you win”.
Say we’re going to flip a coin. If it lands heads then you give me £1. If it lands tails I’ll give you £2.
If instead you put £5 in, then I’d be giving you £10 (that’s 2 of mine for each 1 of yours). If you put in £13.49 then I’ll give you £26.98.
2-1 means you’d get back (or owe) double the bet. You’d do it to convince someone to take a bet they may otherwise not take by offering them more of a payout if they win.
“I’ll bet you $10 that the Knicks beat the Celtics”
“The Knicks suck. No way”
“I’ll give you 2-1 odds”
Meaning, I’ll give you 20 if the Knicks win, you give me 10 if the Celtics do.
That help?
Let’s take the simplest “2 to 1 odds” situation: roll one six sided die. Alice bets that it’ll be less than 3, Bob bets that it won’t. To make that a fair bet, Bob has to offer 2 to 1 odds. Imagine each side of the die is worth $1: Alice puts up her $2, Bob puts up his $4, and the winner gets the pot.
Give you another example: when Chuck says to Dan, “I’ll lay you ten to one you can’t make that shot,” what chuck is saying is that he thinks Dan is about 91% likely to fail, so he’s willing to bet his $10, against Dan’s $1,
In algebraic terms, “x to y odds” means the side’s odds are x over x+y. So if I say “three to five odds” what I’m saying is that you have a 3 in 8 chance; if you win, you get my $5, if I win, I get your $3. The other way of saying that is “y gets you x,” so if I say “2 gets you 10 in even hundreds,” it means you have a one in six chance of winning my $1000, but it costs you $200 to bet, if you lose, I get your $200.
Your “pot” analogy is spot on!
If I give you 2-1 odds. I am saying I will put $2 into the pot and you only have to put $1 in. The winner simply wins the pot. You can scale those numbers up proportionately to anything.
2 to 1 could mean you put 2 dollars to the pot, your friend puts 1. You have a chance to INCREASE your 2 dollars by 50%, getting a TOTAL of 150% of your original money, which is 3 dollars. While your friend can INCREASE their 1 dollar by 200%, getting a 300% return of 3 dollars.
Just to confuse you:
Should you ever travel, take note that the notation varies by culture. In many parts of Europe, the odds are displayed as a decimal number. To calculate your winnings, you multiply your bet with that decimal. So your odds would be 1.5, and your friends’ 3.0.
You have to be very careful when you are talking about odds. When talking about odds, there are generally two forms (I’ll ignore money lines which are a form of odds):
X to Y
and
X for Y
You will see both of these mentioned for odds and sometimes mixed. It is important to understand the difference when assessing the value of your bet…
When “to” is used to separate the odds, you get your initial bet back. When “for” is used to separate the odds you do NOT get you initial bet back.
If you bet $100 with 2 to 1 odds, you will receive $300 if you win. $100 x 2 PLUS your initial bet of $100.
If you bet $100 with 2 for 1 odds, you will receive $200 if you win. You will not get your $100 back.
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