01
Beginner
The fundamentals
The basics before placing a single bet: how sports betting works, how to manage your budget and avoid the most common beginner mistakes.
- Odds and stake
- Single and combo bets
- Bankroll
- Licensed bookmaker
Main guide · 01
Sports betting for beginners: understand before you start
The full path, from the first stake to tracking your bets.
Go further
10
01.1
How does sports betting work?
Market, odds, stake, settlement: the full mechanism behind a bet.
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01.2
How does a first sports bet work?
What actually happens, step by step, and what to check before you confirm.
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01.3
Single bet or accumulator: what are the differences?
What multiplying odds does to the potential payout, and what it does to your chances.
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01.4
What budget should you set for sports betting?
Deciding what you can afford to lose before you play, and why the timing matters.
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01.5
Bankroll in sports betting: definition and management
The difference between what you accept losing and how you slice it up.
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01.6
What are the risks of sports betting?
Financial risk, problem gambling risk, and the protections that exist.
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01.7
The most common mistakes when starting out in sports betting
Chasing, raising stakes, stacking selections: what costs the most.
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01.8
How do you check that a bookmaker is licensed?
Licences, the protections that come with them, and the warning signs of an unlicensed site.
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01.9
How do you track your bets: what data should you record?
The data to record to build up a usable record.
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01.10
Sports tipsters: how do you assess them and avoid the traps?
Why a high strike rate can hide a negative ROI.
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02
Beginner to intermediate
Betting markets and bet types
What the odds you're looking at actually represent: the market they belong to, the possible outcomes, and how your selection gets settled — 1X2, moneyline, over/under, handicaps and secondary markets.
- Market and selection
- Line
- Settlement rules
- Handicaps
Main guide · 02
Types of sports bets: understanding the main markets
Market, selection, line, odd: what the price you're looking at actually represents.
Result and winner
4
02.1
1X2 betting: understanding the 1, X and 2 odds
1, X or 2: the most common three-way result market in football.
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02.2
Moneyline: how does betting on the winner work?
Betting on the winner, usually two-way. Common in tennis and basketball.
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02.3
Double Chance: what do 1X, 12 and X2 mean?
1X, 12, X2: a selection that covers two 1X2 outcomes at once.
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02.4
Draw No Bet: how does the refund-if-drawn bet work?
One outcome played, stake refunded if the match ends in a draw.
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Totals and events
3
02.5
Over/Under: understanding totals betting
Line, selection, odd: don't confuse the threshold with the price on an Over/Under market.
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02.6
BTTS: what does "both teams to score" mean?
Do both teams score? A market often correlated with Over/Under, without being equivalent.
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02.7
Correct score: how does this market work?
A market with many outcomes: why the odds run high, and what that doesn't mean.
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Handicaps
3
02.8
Handicap betting: how does it work?
An artificial adjustment applied to the score, the margin or the total — two families not to confuse.
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02.9
European Handicap: how it works and how it differs from Asian
Three possible outcomes after a whole-number handicap, including a handicap draw.
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02.10
Asian Handicap: lines, refunds and half-wins explained
Two sides, refunds, quarter lines and half-wins — the full settlement table, line by line.
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03
Beginner to intermediate
Odds and probabilities
What odds are actually telling you: the different formats, implied probability, the bookmaker's margin and the idea of a value bet.
- Odds formats
- Implied probability
- Fair odds
- Value bet
Main guide · 03
Odds and probability: reading the price of a market
The full journey, from the displayed odd to the closing line.
Go further
7
03.1
Odds formats: decimal, fractional, American
Decimal, fractional, American: learn to read and convert every odds format.
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03.2
Implied probability: converting an odd into a percentage
The formula, a table of examples and a calculator to go from an odd to its implied probability.
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03.3
Margin-free odds: removing the overround from a market
How to redistribute the overround across the outcomes, and what the result does not tell you.
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03.4
Fair odds: from an estimated probability to a fair price
Going from an estimated probability to a fair odd, in all three formats.
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03.5
Value bet: what the edge actually measures
Detecting the gap, the step before calculating the EV.
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03.6
Closing line value: comparing with the market's last price
The other possible comparison, which requires no personal estimate.
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03.7
Odds converter
Interactive tool
Convert odds between decimal, fractional, American and implied probability. The four fields stay in sync, with gross return and net profit. No account needed.
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04
Intermediate
Bookmakers
How a bookmaker makes money, the different types of market players, and regulation country by country.
- Bookmaker margin
- Sharp vs soft bookmaker
- Betting exchange
- Regulation by country
Main guide · 04
How does a bookmaker work?
Building odds, margin, risk management.
The business model
3
04.1
How do bookmakers make money?
Stakes, winnings paid out, gross gaming revenue and risk management.
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04.2
Bookmaker margin: definition and calculation
Implied probabilities, overround and conversion into margin-free odds.
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04.3
Bookmaker margin calculator
Interactive tool
Calculate a bookmaker's margin from its odds: book percentage, overround, theoretical payout and estimated margin-free odds per outcome. No account needed.
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Bookmaker types and betting models
3
04.4
What are the different types of bookmakers?
Market makers, follower bookmakers and hybrid models.
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04.5
Sharp or soft bookmaker: what are the differences?
Limits, reaction speed, margin and customer profile.
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04.6
Bookmaker or betting exchange: what's the difference?
Two different models for organising and monetising bets.
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Regulation and licensed bookmakers by country
10
04.7
Bookmakers licensed in France by the ANJ
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04.8
Bookmakers licensed in Belgium by the Gaming Commission
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04.9
Bookmakers licensed in Switzerland by the Gespa
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04.10
Licensed bookmakers in Germany under the GGL
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04.11
Licensed bookmakers in Spain according to the DGOJ
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04.12
Licensed bookmakers in Italy according to the ADM
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04.13
Licensed bookmakers in Portugal according to the SRIJ
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04.14
Bookmakers licensed in the Netherlands by the Ksa
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04.15
Bookmakers licensed in Great Britain by the UKGC
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04.16
Bookmakers licensed in Brazil by the SPA/MF
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05
Intermediate
Odds movements
Why a price moves, how to read it, and what a movement can reveal about the market — the heart of OddScore's analysis.
- Direction and size
- Steam move
- Market signal
- Bookmaker consensus
Main guide · 05
Odds movements: understanding what the market does
Why a price shortens or drifts, how bookmakers react, and what these shifts can reveal before a match.
Go further
5
05.1
Why odds change before a match
Injuries, stake volumes, bookmaker adjustments, timing: the main reasons that can move a price before kick-off.
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05.2
How to read odds movements: the complete guide
Direction, size, speed, timing, consensus: what to look at to interpret a line move without getting lost in the numbers.
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05.3
How bookmakers adjust their odds
Why two bookmakers don't always show the same price, and what their adjustments can reveal about the market.
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05.4
Market signals: what a movement can reveal
Not every move tells the same story. Learn to tell market noise apart from a signal that deserves your attention.
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05.5
Steam Move: when the market moves fast
What a Steam Move is, why it can spread across multiple bookmakers simultaneously, and how to read it.
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06
Intermediate to advanced
Pre-bet analysis
Building an analysis before a match, comparing it with the market, and understanding what AI can really bring to sports predictions.
- Analysis method
- Odds and predictions
- Predictions by sport
- Limits of AI
Main guide · 06
Sports betting predictions: how to analyse before betting
How an analysis is built before a match: data and context.
Building the analysis
5
06.1
How do you analyse a match before betting?
Form, context, statistics and reading the odds: the full framework.
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06.2
How do you make a sports prediction?
A five-step method, from collecting data to comparing it with the market.
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06.3
How do you evaluate a sports prediction?
Judging a line of reasoning rather than a single result.
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06.4
Is a reliable prediction really possible?
Why no prediction is guaranteed, and how to measure how solid one is.
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06.5
The most common mistakes in sports predictions
Confirmation bias, chasing losses, overconfidence: what distorts an analysis most.
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Comparing the analysis with the market
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06.6
Odds and predictions: how to use odds in your analysis
How to use an odd as analysis data, without mistaking it for a certainty.
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06.7
Why look at odds movements before a prediction?
What an odds movement signals, and what it never says.
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06.8
Prediction or odds analysis: what is the difference?
Sporting intuition and market reading: two complementary approaches.
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Analysing sport by sport
3
06.9
Football predictions: how to analyse a match
The 1X2 market, the weight of the draw, form and the fixture list.
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06.10
Basketball predictions: how to analyse a game
Winner, spread, over/under points, NBA and EuroLeague.
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06.11
Tennis predictions: how to analyse a match
Surface, recent form and head-to-head records.
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Models, data and AI
4
06.12
AI and sports predictions: what it really changes
What AI can do to read data, and what it never turns into a certainty.
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06.13
The limits of sports predictions generated by AI
Incomplete data, black box, overconfidence in a precise figure.
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06.14
Can you predict a match result with AI?
Why estimating a probability is not predicting a result.
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06.15
Football predictions and artificial intelligence
xG, form data and models applied to football.
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07
Advanced
Profitability, risk and performance
Measuring your performance over the long run: ROI, expected value, variance, drawdown and ruin risk management.
- ROI and yield
- Expected value
- Variance and drawdown
- Sample size
Main guide · 07
Sports betting profitability: how do you measure performance?
The full picture: profit, ROI, expected value, variance, sample size, drawdown, risk.
Go further
8
07.1
ROI and yield in sports betting: calculation and interpretation
The first metric, and its limits.
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07.2
Expected value (EV): understanding the theoretical edge of a bet
What the average expected outcome means, and doesn't mean.
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07.3
Variance in sports betting: why do results swing?
A good decision can lose. A bad one can win.
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07.4
Drawdown: measuring the dips in a bankroll
Two strategies with the same final result can have gone through very different dips.
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07.5
Risk of ruin: how can a bankroll be exhausted?
How a badly sized exposure can wipe out a capital.
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07.6
Risk management in sports betting: what can you actually control?
Exposure is controllable. The outcome of an event is not.
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07.7
How many bets does it take to evaluate a performance?
What determines the amount of data you need.
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07.8
Sports betting, stocks and crypto: can you really call it investing?
Methods that overlap, economic products that don't.
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08
All levels
Glossary
Every definition on the site in one place: terms already covered in a guide, plus about thirty more that have no dedicated page of their own.
- Overround and book percentage
- Back bet and lay bet
- Liquidity and stake volume
- Synonyms and related notions
Main guide · 08
Sports betting glossary
Every definition on the site in one place, each with its own anchor.