How to Read Betting Odds: American Odds Explained

You open a sportsbook for the first time and it looks like a spreadsheet in a language nobody taught you. TEX +168. TB -163. o8 with a -110 hanging off it. Plus and minus signs everywhere and no key anywhere. Most people either guess or close the app. The truth is that learning to read betting odds takes about five minutes, because it all comes down to two signs. Here is the whole thing.

American odds are built around one reference point: 100. Every line is either a plus number or a minus number, and that sign alone tells you two things at once, which side is favored and what the bet pays.

The Two Signs You Need to Read Betting Odds

That is really the entire system. A minus in front of the number means one thing, a plus means another, and once you know both, every board you will ever see becomes readable. Start with the minus.

The Minus Sign Is the Favorite

A minus number marks the favorite, the side expected to win. The number itself tells you how much you have to risk to win $100.

So -163 means you risk $163 to win $100. The bigger the minus, the bigger the favorite, and the more you have to lay for that same $100. A line like -640, which you will see on a heavy WNBA favorite, means risking $640 to win $100. Heavy favorite, small payout.

The Plus Sign Is the Underdog

A plus number marks the underdog, the side expected to lose. Here the number tells you how much you win on a $100 bet.

So +168 means a $100 bet returns $168 in profit. The bigger the plus, the bigger the underdog, and the bigger the payout. A +570 underdog pays $570 on that same $100. You do not have to bet $100, by the way. It is just the yardstick. A $10 bet on +168 wins $16.80.

Spread, Money, and Total Use the Same Signs

On a real game screen you will see three columns: Spread, Money, and Total. Every one of them uses these same plus and minus odds, they just attach to different outcomes.

Moneyline is the straight winner. Spread is the margin of victory. Total is the combined score, the over or under. The odds sitting next to each pick, the +104 or the -110, work exactly the way you just learned. Minus is the pricier side, plus pays more. Once you see it that way, the whole board stops being intimidating, because it is the same two signs repeating in every column.

The One Thing the Signs Do Not Tell You

The sign tells you favorite or underdog and what the bet pays. What it does not tell you is whether you are getting a good price.

The same game is priced differently at different books. One has a team at -163, another has the identical bet at -155. Same wager, you simply keep more at the second one. That practice is line shopping, and it only becomes possible once you can read the number, which now you can.

The Takeaway

Minus is the favorite and tells you what you risk to win $100. Plus is the underdog and tells you what $100 wins. The bigger the number, the stronger the favorite or the longer the underdog. That is American odds, from start to finish.

The board was never a foreign language. It is two signs doing the same job over and over. Read the number, then go find the best version of it.

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