Decimal odds are the format you will see most often across Europe, Australia and on most modern betting sites. They are popular for a simple reason: the number tells you exactly how much you get back in total, stake included, for every unit you wager.
If a selection is priced at 2.50, a successful one-unit bet returns 2.50 units. That figure already contains your original stake, so your profit is the odds minus one — in this case 1.50 units of profit on top of the unit you risked. To find your total return, just multiply your stake by the odds: a 10 unit bet at 2.50 returns 25 units, of which 15 is profit.
Lower numbers mean a shorter price and a more likely outcome in the bookmaker’s view. Odds of 1.40 suggest a strong favourite, while 6.00 marks a clear outsider. Anything above 2.00 means you stand to win more than you stake; below 2.00 you win less than your stake even though the bet may still be sensible.
Because the maths is so direct, decimal odds make it easy to compare prices between bookmakers — the bigger the number, the better the value on the same outcome.
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