Betway Odds Explained | How do Betway Odds Work?

Betway odds – what do they mean? And more importantly, do they give good value to bettors in South Africa? We tackle those crunch questions and show you how to calculate probabilities and margins. Also, if this operator ticks the right boxes for you, the latest Betway sign up code is worth checking out.

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How do Odds Work in Betway?

Knowing how Betway odds work is a vital component of becoming a successful sports bettor. In a nutshell, the odds tell us three important things:

1. The payout a player will receive on a winning bet.
2. The bookmaker’s implied probability of a selection being correct (winning).
3. The bookmaker’s margin on a particular betting market.

We’ll explain most about these further down the page. First, let’s look at the odds formats that you will find at Betway South Africa.

European Decimal

The default odds at Betway’s setting are European decimal. With these odds, the stake is included in the payout. Therefore, stake x odds = total payout.

It’s worth noting that some betting companies, such as Hollywoodbets, use Asian decimals, which do not include the stake in the prices.

• European decimal (Betway): Supersport United @ 3.55
• Asian decimal (Hollywoodbets): Supersport United @ 2.55

Fractional

As our Betway review explains, fractional odds are the favoured format for UK bettors. If you prefer to have the odds displayed like this, you can change them in the menu (at the bottom).

With fractional odds, if you bet the amount to the right of the division symbol, you win the value quoted on the left, for example:

• Odds of 12/5 means if you bet R5, you would win R12, so the total returns are R17 (stake + winnings). Of course, if you bet R10, you’d win R24, and so on.
• Odds of 20/1 means a R1 bet wins R20 – total returns of R21.

It’s widely accepted that decimal odds are easier to understand, which is particularly useful when comparing Betway odds against other bookmakers.

How to Calculate Betway Odds?

Let’s show you how to calculate odds and go through the reasons for doing so. As mentioned, the prices tell us a few things:

Payouts

We encourage all new bettors to use European decimal odds because the payout calculations are straightforward.

stake x decimal odds

Using the prices from this match between Supersport United and Orlando Pirates:

• R100 bet on Supersport to win, returns R355 (R100 stake back + R255 winnings)
• R100 bet on the draw, returns R340 (R100 stake back + R240 winnings)
• R100 bet on Orlando to win, returns R198 (R100 stake back + R98 winnings)

Implied Probability

Implied probability is the chance of a bet winning based on the odds. You can calculate the implied probability like this:

1 / decimal odds x 100 = implied probability

• Supersport: 1 / 3.55 x 100 = 28.17%
• Draw: 1 / 3.40 x 100 = 29.41%
• Orlando: 1 / 1.98 x 100 = 50.50%

When learning how to bet on Betway, this is one of the most important data points for finding value. Let’s say you’ve done all your research and your probability predictions are:

• Supersport: 20%
• Draw: 20%
• Orlando: 60%

This means that the bet on Orlando is a good value because your probability is higher than Betway’s, whereas the other two wagers offer no value (based on your predictions).

Margins

From the implied probabilities, we can easily calculate the margin to see what Betway is adding on the top of true odds.

For a 3-way match result market, simply add the three implied probabilities together:

• 28.17% + 29.41% + 50.50% = 108.08%

True odds equal 100% – any amount over 100% is the ‘vig’ (a.k.a. the bookmaker’s margin), which for this market is 8.08%. The higher the margin, the more inflated the implied probabilities are, meaning there is usually less value.

Now you know how to calculate margins, it’s worth checking other markets to see the differences.

Betway Odds FAQ

Take a look at our FAQs for more information related to Betway South Africa’s odds.