Betting Line Basics

This page is intended to teach you the basis of what betting lines are and what the juice is. There are also a couple of calculators on this page that you might find useful even if you fully understand these concepts. The odds calculator can be extremely useful for comparing value between lines when both American and decimal values are used.

The Lines

Probably the most important thing that must be understood is the odds. There are two types of odds commonly used for placing wagers; they are decimal and American odds. The American odds uses minus and plus lines to denote the expected payoff. So on a -110 line you have to bet $110 to profit $100 and on a +140 line you profit $140 for betting $100. There are also decimal odds which some find a little simpler as its payout is the decimal number times the wager. So the -110 line converts to 1.909 in decimal odds; and so if you bet $110 dollar your total payout would be $210, $110 for your wager and $100 profit. The +140 would convert to 2.4 in decimal odds. Basically if you minus 1 from the decimal odds it gives you the profit margin on a winning wager. There is no advantage to using either one it is just a matter of preference by the user. Most online sports books offer both. Below is the equation for converting American to decimal odds:

So a -110 and -105 line is then calculated as follows:

Just so we are on the same page the +140 line is calculated as follows:

With some simple algebra you can also convert the opposite way. Although you will probably find it much easier to use our odds converter below or see our odds conversion table for more lines.

Odds Converter

The Juice

The juice is the additional margin that the house adds to the lines so they make a profit. For example you will often see both over -110 (or 1.909) and under -110 (or 1.909); this means the betting outlet uses a 10% margin. You have to bet $110 to profit $100. Most online sports books and Las Vegas use a 10% margin. Pinnacle Sports uses a reduced 5% margin on almost all their lines. This means that theoretically you are paying half as much to play online through Pinnacle Sports as opposed to Vegas. Canadian's land based Sport Select uses a very hefty -143 (or 1.7) margin on their lines. You can try our profit calculator below to determine your net winnings by placing wagers through different outlets. These payouts and the above margins are based on our sample game card found below.

If you select 2 or more games per ticket then the number of games selected is parlayed. A parlay means you have to win all the games on the ticket to get paid. Sport select tickets have to be parlayed which is another major disadvantage to choosing this option for Canadians.

Sample Game Card

Below we compare odds given by the 3 betting outlets used in our calculators and other comparisons through out the site. We have chosen to compare games of equally likely outcomes for simplicity sake; we call these neutral lines. The same margins will general apply to all games at the respected sites, however we would need to make probability assumptions for games that are not neutral. We are making the assumption for the following listed games that both teams have an equal 50% chance of winning.

Pinnacle - You will see either American or Decimal odds depending on which you choose. You then generally have a box beside or under the number were you can enter an amount of the wager.

Vegas - You will most likely see only American odds; we have included the decimal odds for consistency.

Sport Select - You will only get the decimal odds. We have included the American odds for consistency.

As you can see from our profit calculator there are serious financial benefits to signing up with Pinnacle Sports. Unfortunately Pinnacle Sports does not accept players from the US; however SportsBook.com a US only site offers reduced -105 lines every Friday. Through our research we have not found any better lines for people in the US or else where in the world than SportsBook.com and Pinnacle Sports respectively.

Click here if you would like to view Pinnacle Sports company info.

SportsBook is for US Only

Next Page - Betting Analysis

*While all efforts are taken to ensure calculations are correct they are subject to error and change. All results on this site should be treated as estimates and used for entertainment purposes only. If you find any discrepancies between our results and their respective sources please contact us so corrections can be made.

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