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
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.
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