These are the traditional players in the market, so you can expect good welcome bonuses and some reasonable odds. Fixed odds bookies will never be able to offer as higher odds as betting exchanges. This does not really make a difference if you are betting on the favourites, but if you are betting on an outsider the odds difference can be huge. For example, if you wanted to bet on Holland to win the World Cup you can get odds of 42 at Betfair (£10 wins you £420) but only 33/1 at William Hill (£10 wins you £330). Traditional fixed odds bookmakers make up for this by offering significantly better offers once your accounts is open. They can do this because they make more money from their customers. Betting exchanges make money by charging a percentage of winnings ranging from 2% to 5%, whilst fixed odds bookmakers take everything from losing bets. Of course, they have the disadvantage of having to pay out on long shots and favourites, but there are very healthy margins.
The key to winning with fixed odds bookies is to take advantage of the continual betting offers.
A great strategy is to bet and lay arbitrage from one bookie to another. This is when the odds differ slightly between bookmakers and can be taken advantage of. For this, to work you need to have funded accounts with as many bookmakers as possible and keep an eye out for changes in prices. The World Cup is an excellent platform for this as it is held over a short period of time and player changes can affect winning chances. Here we highlight the key traditional bookies and the welcome offers. Remember though, the best offers will come after you have opened your account as they want you to come back for more….
- Ladbrokes – Well established with a large range of bets – Claim your £50 of free bets here
- William Hill – One of our favourite fixed odds bookies – Claim your £25 free bet here
- Paddy Power – A huge Irish bookie well worth a look – Claim a £20 free bet here
- 888 Sports – A recently added sportsbook with good offers – Claim a free £88 bet here
- Betfair Fixed Odds – Set up after the BlueSq acquisition – Claim a free £50 bet here
Bet attractions with fixed odds
The major distinction between fixed odds and spread betting is that in fixed odds betting, your potential profit or loss is ‘fixed’ by the bookmaker’s odds. With sports spread betting, however, your potential profit or loss might be several times more than your initial wager.
For example, if you bet £100 on a favorite to win at 1/5 in a football match, your possible return would be £20 (plus the return of your capital) and your potential loss would be £100.
However, a £100 football Supremacy spread bet on a favorite, purchased at 2 on a 1.8 – 2 spread, would generate a profit of £100 for every goal above the spread. For example, a 5-0 victory for the favorites would yield £300 ((5-2) x £100). However, if the match ended in a tie, you would lose £200 ((0-2) x £100) and £300 ((-1-2) x £100) if the underdogs won by a goal.
Examples of fixed-odds betting
Odds against bets: If your horse wins the race, your return will be a simple multiplication of your stake times the odds on offer, for example, a £10 bet on a horse at 10/1 will return £100 plus your £10 stake. You will lose £10 if the horse does not win the race.
Even money bets: If your bet wins, you will receive precisely the same amount as your stake. For example, if you bet £50 on a football team to win at even money, you’ll get £50 back plus your original £50 stake if they win. You will lose £50 if that team does not win.
Betting odds: If your bet wins, you’ll win a fraction of your original wager. For example, a £100 bet on a cricket team to win at 1/5 would return £20 in addition to the original £100 deposit. You will forfeit £100 if that cricket team does not win.
Decimal to fractional odds
The amount that will be paid if the bet wins is shown in fractional fixed odds. 4/1, for example, will yield 4 times the stake as well as the initial stake.
The odds of 4/1 are also known as ‘four-to-one and ‘four-to-one-against.’ ‘One-to-four’ or ‘four-to-one-on’ refers to a wager that pays out a quarter of the initial bet in winnings as well as the original stake. A bet of 1/1 is referred to as an ‘even money bet.
Decimal odds take into account the stake’s return and are based on the decimal value plus one of the fractional odds.
Even money bets are referred to as 2, whereas the 4/1 example above would be referred to as 5, and the 1/4 example would be referred to as 1.25.
Multiples and accumulators
An accumulator bet, often known as a parlay, is a single bet that connects together many bets and relies on all of the bets prevailing in order to win money.
This sort of betting allows for higher odds than a single bet, potentially resulting in a bigger return on the initial wager if all of the bets are successful.
For example, you could obtain 10/3 odds on Everton beating Manchester United, which would indicate a potential return of £43.33 on a £10 wager if Everton won.
If you wanted to place an accumulator bet on Everton beating Manchester United at 10/3 and Liverpool beating Aston Villa at 5/4 (known as a double), you’d be looking at a possible profit of £97.50 from a £10 stake if Everton and Liverpool both won their respective matches.
You can place up to eight bets at once at Spreadex, and you can choose from a range of accumulator and multiple bet options such as Trixies, Patents, Yankees, Lucky 15s, and many more.
