The easiest way to calculate horse race betting odds

If you’ve ever been to the racetrack, chances are you’ve seen the tote board. It’s that gigantic board with tons of horse race betting information that you should pay attention to.

It features things like track condition, post time, minutes to post, the race number, and more—all information you need for betting success. But perhaps the most important part of the tote board is the odds.

The betting odds, however, don’t tell you how much cash the horse will pay you. Instead, it tells the amount of profit you’ll score and the amount you need to lay down to score that profit when you bet on horse racing.

For example, let’s say the horse race wagering tote board lists odds as 6-5. That simply means that you’ll score $6 for every $5 you wager. And 30-1 means you’d net $30 in profit for every $1 you wager. But there’s one thing you need to know when looking at the tote board odds. They’re actually rounded off. So 3-1 odds might actually be 2.9-1.

Now that you know how much profit you stand to win through horse race wagering, you can use the tote board information to figure out what the exact win odds are on a specific horse.

First, look at the total win pool and amount bet on that particular horse. The total pool includes all the money bet on all the horses to win. It is not, however, the total amount of cash that will be paid out to winners.

Before the track hands out cash, they’ll take between 14% and 20%. That’s their fee, and it’s standard (hey, the track needs to make some money).

To calculate the precise odds on your horse, just subtract the take from the total prize pool, and then subtract the amount bet on your horse. You’ll then have the total amount of cash that will be paid out.

Take that figure and divide it by the amount bet on your horse to get the precise odds. Here’s an example.

Let’s say the total prize pool is $900. The amount bet on horse #1 to win is $300. The track takes 15% of the total prize pool, which is $135. That leaves $765 in the prize pool. Now, take $765 and subtract the amount to win, which was $300. You’re left with $465. Finally, divide $465 by $300 and you’ll get 1.55. Because you need to round this figure off, you’re left with 1.5-1 odds.

Once you know how to read horse race wagering odds, all you need to do is head to the track. Or better yet, stay home and hit Sports Betting Online. When you wager on horses at the online racebook, you’ll get 10% cash back, no matter how your horse does. That’s 10% cash back on all your bets. Every week. Every horse racing bet. Win or lose.