When it comes to sports betting, many people are familiar with the concept of odds, especially when it comes to the world’s biggest sport – the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). If you’re looking to get into betting or just want to know more about the odds, here’s a quick guide to help you understand the fundamentals.
Understanding Odds And Probability
Odds are simply the odds of an event or game happening (or not). For example, the odds of a UFC fight ending in a KO are 1.23 (shortest odds) or 2.0 (longest odds). The probability of an outcome occurring can be calculated by multiplying the odds of the outcome occurring by the total number of possibilities (in this case, there are 12 possible outcomes for the first round of a UFC fight, thus 4.35×12 or 51.4% chance of getting KO’d in the first round of a UFC fight). In the context of a sporting event, the term ‘probability’ can be used to represent the likelihood of an outcome occurring. So, in essence, the odds are the mathematical probability of an event occurring. Take the example of a fight ending in a submission – the odds of this are 1.23 (shortest) or 2.0 (longest). However, the probability of this outcome is only 4.35% (51.4% x 12) because there are 4.35 possible ways for this to happen.