Re: Trying to turn £2 into £1000

It can be confusing.

I'm guessing you understand probability though.

Odds are just a slightly different way of expressing probability.

Probability is concerned with expressing your chances of winning. It compares how many possible scenarios will make you win vs how many total possible scenarios there are.

For example your chances of rolling a 3 on a 6-sided die are of course 1 in 6. i.e. 1 event wins for you out of a total of 6 possible events. It is expressed as 1 in 6, 1:6, 1/6 or as a percentage 16.67%.

Odds on the other hand are concerned with your chances for something vs your chances against something.

So the odds of rolling that 3 on the die are 1 chance of winning vs 5 chances of not winning. It is expressed as 5 to 1 against, i.e. the chances are against you because there are more ways to lose than win.

With odds, you can add both numbers together to arrive at the total number of possible scenarios.

So, on a roulette wheel for example there are 37 pockets that the ball can land in. So if you have chose one of those pockets (numbers) the PROBABILTY of that number coming up is 1 in 37 whereas the ODDS are 36 to 1 against (36/1). Note however that casinos only pay out odds of 35/1 on a single number cos they are gits !!

The odds also tell you how much you will win. If the odds are 8/1 then for every £1 you stake you will win £8 plus you will get your £1 stake back for a total payout of £9.

Purwell's recent post said:

"Worcester 15:30, Preseli Star, £1 Each Way at 12/1. "

So the odds were 12/1. If this were a straight bet "to win" it would mean that for every £1 staked you would win £12 plus get your £1 stake back for a total pay out of £13.

An "each way" bet is slightly different. It means you are betting BOTH that the horse will win AND/OR that it will "place" i.e. come in 1st, 2nd or 3rd place (sometimes 4th and 5th too). It is therefore actually 2 separate bets rolled into one. You have to stake both bets. So a £1 bet each way means that bet will actually cost you £2 as you are betting £1 to win and £1 to place.

The "to win" bet is paid out at the full odds whereas the "to place" bet is typically paid out at a quarter of the odds.

An example:

You place a £1 each way bet at odds of 12/1

The bet costs you £2 to make.

If the horse wins then :

The "to win" bet wins and pays out the full odds of 12/1 so that's £13.
The "to place" bet also wins and pays out 1/4 of the odds so that's odds of 3/1 so the pay out would be £4
So together you won £13 + £4 = £17 in total

If on the other hand the horse came in 2nd or 3rd then

The "to win" bet has lost so you lose your £1 stake for that bet
The "to place" bet has won and pays a quarter of the odds which is 3/1 for a pay out of £4.

So in summary, your initial outlay was £2 and you will either win £17 if the horse wins or win £4 if it just places or will lose your £2 completely if the horse fails to place.


At this point you will either understand a little more about odds or you will be even more confused !

I hope some of it helped

Re: Trying to turn £2 into £1000

Well done Jem.

Re: Trying to turn £2 into £1000

Put your shirt on England winning the Rugby today and Lewis qualifying in Pole place at Suzuka !

Re: Trying to turn £2 into £1000

The best of luck to you Malcolm. I'm afraid I only do horses, don't even touch the dogs, although a night out at the dog track can be a very enjoyable experience for a group of family or friends.

Re: Trying to turn £2 into £1000

I am sure I could find an old shirt for that, but who would take one of my old shirts?
If they both won, what would I do with more shirts, and would they be my size?
Silly expression really.

Re: Trying to turn £2 into £1000

Talking about big spenders Emjay, in the old days you could do a bet to last you all day for 3 old pence, it was called credit betting and you started off with your original stake (minimum 3 pence), say you really wanted to splash out and started off with a shilling you wrote on your docket like this.

I shilling each way. Kings Cross 2.00 York
Credit 1 shilling E.W. Queens Arms 2.30 York
Credit I shilling E.W. Handsome Prince 3.00 York

All the way down to the last race at whatever meeting you chose. Of course if the first horse lost you were out, but the interest in the bet went on waiting for the other race results to come in, and if any of the others won you could boast to your mates that "I would have had a shilling on that winner if me first horse had won" You got a days racing and conversation fuel for the pub all for the princely sum of a shilling, and they call it the sport of Kings.

Re: Trying to turn £2 into £1000

Well that's Lewis out of the reckoning.....come on you whites !!!

Re: Trying to turn £2 into £1000

You can still do the various multiple bets, Jem. The one you mention I would call an "Any To Come" bet or "If Cash". I have a list of them somewhere I will look it out. The old fashioned Settlers have all but disappeared though, just cashiers behind the ramp nowadays, know nothing about the game. Betting shops all have 3 or 4 bloody machines making horrendous noises all the while. I don't have any racing channels at home so if I have had a serious bet I normally have to go into the betting shop to watch the race, don't stay long though!

Re: Trying to turn £2 into £1000

Lost track of this a bit, but there is £8 in my account, so that is 4 more attempts. I am going to just do single bets now and see if the bank will slowly grow.
!6:00 Market Rasen, Viens Chercher £2 win at 7/4.

Re: Trying to turn £2 into £1000

And then there are the 'accumulators'. Pick say, 3 races, and a horse in each race. If the first horse won all the winnings went on the second horse. If that won as well, it all went on the third horse. If that won, you had big winnings. If it lost.. You were cursing all the way home.
But I expect you know about that.