How do American Odds Work?

American Odds Explained

It goes without saying that American odds are how prices tend to be displayed in the US. However, many of the biggest and best UK betting sites will now also let users see American odds. These look very different to how the same price would look as decimal or fractional odds, though the potential profit is always the same.

For American odds, users will see a number shown with either a positive sign, the +, or a negative sign, which is the -, so there is no decimal point or slash involved for these odds. The important thing to remember is that $100 - or the equivalent in whatever currency you are choosing to use - is always used as the baseline metric when American odds are displayed.

When the number is negative, for example, -100 in American odds, this number is the amount of money that would need to be staked in order to achieve $100 profit - or your chosen currency.

When the number in is positive, so +100 for example, this is the profit that would be achieved in the event of a $100 bet being placed.

Evens, which is 1/1 in fractional odds, would be -100 in American odds or 2.0 when shown as a decimal. It all sounds quite complicated for those who are more used to decimal or fractional odds. Yet over in the US, American odds are very much the norm. It just depends on what you are used to when browsing your preferred betting site.

American odds can be particularly handy for handicap betting, which are common markets that are offered for a lot of the most popular sporting competitions in the US like the NBA and NFL.