Odds and prices
How do betting odds work?
A price tells you two things at once: what the bet pays, and what the book thinks the chance is. Minus 118 means C$118 risked to win C$100, and it also means the book is pricing that outcome at roughly 54%.
Decimal, fractional and American are three ways of writing the same figure. Once you can turn any of them into a percentage you can stop caring which one your app is set to.
The minus and the plus
A minus price is the favourite. The number after it is what you have to put up to win a hundred. At −150 you risk C$150 for a C$100 return on top of your stake.
A plus price is the underdog. The number is what a hundred wins you. At +180 a C$100 bet returns C$180 profit, C$280 back in the balance.
Canadian apps mostly default to decimal, which folds the stake into the payout. Decimal 2.50 means C$10 comes back as C$25 total, not C$25 profit. That single difference catches out more people than anything else on this page.
Turning a price into a percentage
Decimal is easiest: divide one by the price. 2.50 gives 0.40, so 40%. American minus prices: take the number, divide by itself plus a hundred. −150 becomes 150 ÷ 250, which is 60%.
Plus prices flip it. Divide a hundred by the number plus a hundred. +180 becomes 100 ÷ 280, so 36%.
Add up both sides of a two-way market and you will get more than 100%. That extra slice is the hold, and it is how the book gets paid. Across the sportsbooks we track it runs from a little under 4% up past 9% depending on the market.
Doing this on a handset
Every app in our list lets you switch format in settings, usually two taps deep under a display menu. Pick one and never touch it again. Flipping formats mid-session is how a stake gets typed into the wrong box.
The bet slip does the arithmetic for you, and it does it after you have already tapped the price. Look at the return figure before you confirm, because on a small screen the difference between 2.50 and 25.0 is about four pixels.