For many newcomers online betting can seem daunting and the details of odds on bets can be overwhelming. However, understanding the basics of online betting is easy enough and here is an explanation of some of the more important concepts you need to understand before you place a bet. First and foremost, you need to understand just what bet you are making.

During the early part of the 20th Century the more standard betting systems that we know today first emerged. The most common of these is odds betting that is also known as betting with the money line.

‘Odds’ are mostly used by UK and Irish bookmakers and are give as a ratio that is the profit won in return for a bet. For instance, a 2:1 bet pays out twice the initial wager as well as returning the initial bet. If you laid down $100 and won a 2:1 bet you would receive a total of $300, your initial $100 and your $200 win. A 1:2 means that you win only half of your initial bet as profit; a $100 bet on odds of 1:2 would return $50 profit plus of course the initial stake making $150 in total.

European, Canadian and Australian online betting sites uses a similar system but odds are given as decimal values. In this method the odds quoted is the total to be paid out including the initial stake. For example a 2:1 odds in the decimal system is quoted as simply 3. Odds of 1:2 are quoted as 1.5 because you will receive a total of 1.5 times you initial stake if you win.

US-based online betting sites prefer to use the moneyline system. This system gives odds as the amount you need to wager in order to make a profit of $100. Odd are quoted prefixed with a ‘+’ when the odds are even or better or with a ‘-‘ prefix if the odds are less than even. For example, odds of 2:1 are quoted as +$50 because a $50 would win you $100. Odds of 1:2 are quoted as -$200 because you would have to lay down $200 to make a profit of $100.