Even though the commonly used type of odds is the decimal odds, most sports bookmakers offering horse racing betting opportunities usually display horse racing odds as fractional odds. It is essentially important that you can read and understand fractional odds perfectly so that you can spot the best betting opportunities easily.
The main point that you need to always keep in mind when assessing fractional odds is that the odds represents only the profit and not the actual return, quite different from decimal odds. In decimal odds, for example, the odds of 4.00 means you will be receiving £40 return for every £10 you wager; the £40 return translates to £30 profit and £10 your original wager.
With fractional odds, the original wager is not calculated. If a horse is rated at the odds of 4/1 and you wager £10, you will receive a total of £40 in profit if the horse wins. This means you will get a total return of £50 including your original £10 wager.
The fractional odds used may not be as straightforward as the one we just discussed, but they are equally easy to understand. If a horse is rated at 7/2 of odds, for example, it means you will be getting a profit of £70 for every £20 you wager. With a £10 bet, your profit will be £35. As always, the total return is the profit you earn from the bet plus your original wager; in this case, your total return will be £35 + £10.
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