How betting works
Odds, stakes and returns, from the beginning. No jargon left undefined.
- Stake
- What you put on the bet. It leaves your balance when the bet is accepted.
- Odds
- The price. On this site they are decimal odds — 2.50, 1.80, 6.00 — and the number means: for every 1.00 staked, this pays back 2.50 in total if it wins.
- Return
- Stake × odds. It is everything that comes back, including the stake. Your profit is the return minus the stake, which is always one less multiple than you might first read into the number.
The single most common misreading: 2.00 is not “double your money” in the sense of tripling your account. 10.00 at 2.00 returns 20.00, of which 10.00 was already yours. The profit is 10.00.
Decimal odds are a probability turned upside down. Divide 1 by the odds and you have roughly the chance the market gives that outcome: 2.00 is about 50%, 4.00 is about 25%, 1.25 is about 80%.
Roughly, because the prices on any board add up to a little more than 100% between them. That margin is how a bookmaker is paid. It is not hidden and it is not a fee taken off your winnings — it is already inside every number you can see.
A short price means likely and pays little. A long price means unlikely and pays a lot.
| Odds | Return | Profit | Implied chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.10 | 11.00 | 1.00 | 90.9% |
| 1.50 | 15.00 | 5.00 | 66.7% |
| 1.80 | 18.00 | 8.00 | 55.6% |
| 2.00 | 20.00 | 10.00 | 50.0% |
| 2.50 | 25.00 | 15.00 | 40.0% |
| 3.40 | 34.00 | 24.00 | 29.4% |
| 5.00 | 50.00 | 40.00 | 20.0% |
| 10.00 | 100.00 | 90.00 | 10.0% |
Every row is a 10.00 stake. Scale it however you like — the arithmetic is linear, so doubling the stake doubles the return and the profit alike.
You back a team at 2.50 with 20.00.
return 50.00 less stake − 20.00
profit 30.00
If it loses, you lose the 20.00 and nothing further. A losing bet cannot cost more than its stake; that is the one thing that is always true of a bet on this platform.
A multiple is several selections riding on one stake. The prices multiply, and every leg has to win. One loser and the whole bet is gone, no matter how right the others were.
Three legs at 1.80, 2.10 and 1.50, with 10.00 on them:
stake 10.00 odds × 5.67
return 56.70 profit 46.70
The same three selections as three separate 10.00 singles would cost three times as much and pay far less if all three won — but they would also pay something when only two did. The multiple trades that safety for the bigger number. That is the entire deal, and it is a worse bet more often than it looks.
If a leg is void, it drops out of the sum at 1.00 and the rest of the multiple stands on the smaller price.
A handicap gives one side a head start, in goals or points, before the bet is settled. It exists so that a lopsided fixture still has a two-sided market worth betting on.
Home −1.5means: take the home team's score, subtract 1.5, and see who wins. Home have to win by two or more for the bet to win. Away +1.5 is the other side of the same line: away can lose by one and the bet still wins.
A half-goal in the line is there to make a draw impossible. A whole number lets one in:
- Home −1.0, home win by two or more — the bet wins.
- Home −1.0, home win by exactly one — the handicap makes it a draw, and the bet is void. Your stake comes back.
- Home −1.0, anything else — the bet loses.
A quarter line — −0.25, +0.75, −1.25 — splits the stake in half across the two whole or half lines either side of it. When the result falls between them, one half wins and the other is void: a half-win. That is why a bet can settle for more than its stake but less than its full return.
Worked: 10.00 on Home −0.25 at 2.00 is 5.00 on Home −0.0 and 5.00 on Home −0.5. Home win by one and both halves win, returning 20.00. A draw and the −0.0 half is void (5.00 back) while the −0.5 half loses, returning 5.00. A home defeat loses both.
A totals market ignores who wins. It asks whether a count — goals, points, corners, games — finishes above or below a line.
Over 2.5 goals wins on 3 or more. Under 2.5 wins on 2 or fewer. The half again rules out an exact hit; on a whole line like Over 3.0, exactly three goals is void and the stake comes back.
Read the line carefully in play: a market that said Over 2.5 before kick-off may be Over 4.5 an hour later, because two goals have already gone in and the price has moved with them.
- The price is re-read on our server when your bet arrives. A move in your favour is taken at our better price; a move against you refuses the bet and offers you the new number.
- The odds you see on a button are what you are struck at — a fractional price is truncated to the two decimals shown, and settled at exactly that. 5/6 displays 1.83 and pays 1.83.
- There is no cash-out. A bet stands until the fixture settles it. See Help for the rest of it.
Odds are a price, not a forecast, and a long-priced winner does not make a bet a good one. Only stake what you would not mind losing — Stakepoint has limits you can set on yourself. 18+.