Betting Odds - Fractional or Decimal - Another Idea

[gemma-the-husky]

Not sure if this is the best forum for this.

Here's my thoughts


The latest concept is to change fractional odds to decimal odds.

It seems to me that this doesnt help at all really - the right concept is to go to an over-round calculation, and express every odds as the investment required to get back 100 points

so, if you get a soccer match with odds

8/15 home,
5/2 draw
7/1 away

its not clear how much the bookie is taking out of the book, and whether these odds are reasonable. Youi have to work out the over round, and this isnt instant, although you wil lhave a feel for it.

instead just have "odds" represented by the over round calculation. so in this case

65
29
12
----
106 total

its easy to see the bookies are taking 6% from this market, because the over round calculation is just a simple addition

and if you bet the home win, you have to put 65 on, to win 35 , and therefore get 100 back.

We would get used to this really easily.

50 is evens
25 is 3 to 1
10 is about about 10 -1 (90-10 9-1 actually)
2 is about 50-1

even easy for the bookies, as punters can bet sums that will pay them out a 100 units, or a multiple thereof

[Cramer]

Can do this on some software for Betfair by using implied probabilities instead of the prices.

Why would bookmakers want to do this?

[psilocybin]

The bookies would never go for it for obvious reasons. Besides you can't easily work out what your return is from a given stake, which is something easily down with fractional odds, and even easier with decimal.

[FleetFanatic]

Personally I don't give a shit what their overround is.

If I want to back a football team, I'll shop for best odds.

They all have overrounds - what matters if you're placing the bet is that you get the best odds possible.