Which bet calculator answers your question
A betting calculator answers one question at a time. What does this pay? What does the price mean? How much should I stake? Below, each question gets its calculator and a worked example.Calculators we’ve reviewed
Parlay calculator
Our own parlay calculator. Enter a stake and the odds of each leg, and it shows the payout, profit, total odds and the chance of the whole bet landing. Void legs, Asian half wins, free bets and profit boosts are built in.
Hedge calculator
Our own hedge calculator. Enter your bet and the odds against it, and it shows the hedge stake, the result either way, and whether a cash out offer pays more.
Dutching calculator
Split one stake so that every pick pays the same amount. Works for 1X2, correct scores and racing.
Asian handicap calculator
Free Asian handicap calculator for whole, half and quarter lines. It shows what your bet pays for every result.
Surebet calculator
Splits a stake across two or three prices so every outcome returns the same, shows the profit whichever side wins, and recalculates when a bookmaker limits you.
Closing line value
CLV compares the odds you took against the odds at kickoff, which is how you tell a good decision from a lucky result. The guide does the sum in decimal odds and shows why the simple version overstates it. A calculator on the page does both.
Kelly stake calculator
Our own stake calculator, built for this guide. Enter a price, your own chance and your bankroll: it returns the stake in cash and as a share, with full, half and quarter Kelly one tap apart. It also shows the break-even chance sitting inside the price, your edge over it, and how fast the bankroll grows at the size you picked.
Odds converter
A converter for decimal, fractional, American, Hong Kong and Indonesian odds. It also shows the implied probability, the break-even win rate, and the return and profit on your stake. Enter both sides of a market and it gives the bookmaker margin and the no-vig odds.
Which betting calculator answers which question
| Your question | Tool or sum | Example on this page |
|---|---|---|
| How much will I win? | Stake × odds | 100 at 2.50 pays 250 |
| What does my parlay pay? | Multiply the odds | 2.00 × 1.50 × 3.00 = 9.00 |
| What does an Asian handicap pay? | Asian handicap calculator | 100 on −0.25: a draw returns 50 |
| What chance does a price give? | Odds converter | 2.50 = +150 = 40% |
| How big is the bookmaker's cut? | Odds converter, two prices | 1.91 both sides = 4.71% |
| How do I split a surebet? | Surebet calculator | 2.10 and 2.05 = 7.47 profit on 200 |
| How do I back two picks for one payout? | Dutching calculator | 50 at 2.00 and 25 at 4.00 both pay 100 |
| Should I hedge? | Payout ÷ hedge odds | 77.78 locked in either way |
| How much should I stake? | Kelly calculator | 4.55% of bankroll |
| Is the bet worth making? | Kelly calculator, EV line | +5 per 100 staked |
| Did I get a good price? | CLV calculator | 2.20 against 2.00 = 10% |
| What is a free bet worth? | Stake × odds, minus the stake | 50 at 4.00 pays 150 |
Payout, parlay, hedge and free bet sums need nothing more than the calculator on your phone. Margin and expected value run on the odds converter and the Kelly calculator. Each one is worked through below.
Bet payout calculator: what you get back
Payout is everything the bookmaker returns, and your stake is inside it. Profit is what you keep on top.
Stake 100 at 2.50 and the payout is 250, the profit 150. Bookmakers print the first number on the slip, so it is easy to count the stake as winnings. In American odds, the moneyline format, the same price is +150. In fractional odds it is 3/2.
A minus sign flips the logic. At −110 you stake 110 to win 100, and the slip shows 210.
With decimal odds, any phone calculator does the job. Got an American or fractional price? Convert it first in the odds converter, which also shows the return and profit on your stake.
Accumulator and parlay calculator
Accumulator is the British name, parlay the American one. The bet is the same: several selections, and all of them must win.
Multiply the decimal prices together, then multiply by the stake. Three selections at 2.00, 1.50 and 3.00 give 9.00, so 100 returns 900.
Now look at the chance. Those three legs together imply 11.1 percent, about one time in nine.
→ Type 9.00 into the odds converter and it gives you that chance as a percentage.
Asian handicap calculator: half wins and losses
An Asian handicap gives one team a start in goals, so the bet itself has no draw option. On a whole line, such as 0 or −1, the bet can end level, and then you get your stake back. A quarter line, such as −0.25 or −0.75, splits your stake into two bets on the two nearest lines.
Stake 100 on −0.25 at 1.90. If your team wins, you get 190 back. A draw returns 50: half the stake comes back on the 0 line, and the other half is lost on −0.5. If your team loses, you get nothing.
Asian totals use the same split with goals. Over 2.75 at 1.90 pays 145 when the match ends with three goals. Half the stake wins on over 2.5, and the other half comes back on over 3.0.
→ The Asian handicap calculator lists what your bet pays for every result. Asian totals are in its second tab.
Odds converter and implied probability
Divide 100 by the decimal odds and you get the implied probability. At 2.50 it is 40 percent.
Read it as a target. A bet at 2.50 has to win 40 times in 100 just to break even. At −110, the American standard, the target is 52.4 percent.
→ Our odds converter is an odds calculator for five formats, with the break-even percentage updating as you type.
Margin calculator: the bookmaker's cut
Convert both sides of a market and add the two percentages. At a single bookmaker the total comes out above 100, and the part above 100 is the margin. You will also see it called the vig, juice or overround.
Two sides at 1.95 add up to 102.56 percent. At 1.91, they add up to 104.71. A gap of two points sounds small. It is bigger than most price differences you will spot between bookmakers.
Take the margin out and you get the fair price. For two sides at 1.91 it is 2.00 each.
→ Type both prices into the second field of the odds converter to see the margin and the fair prices.
Surebet calculator: stakes when odds disagree
Take the best price for each side from two different bookmakers, and the total can drop below 100. That is a surebet, or arbitrage bet.
Say one bookmaker offers 2.10 and another 2.05 on the other side. The two percentages add up to 96.4. Split 200 as 98.79 and 101.21, and either result pays back about 207.47. You make 7.47 whatever happens.
Getting there is harder than the sum. Prices move within minutes, rounded stakes change the profit, and bookmakers limit accounts that do this often.
→ For two or three outcomes, the surebet calculator splits the stake and shows the profit after rounding.
Dutching calculator: one payout, several picks
Dutching is the surebet method used on part of a market. You back two or more outcomes of one event, and the stakes are sized so each of them pays the same.
A match has the home win at 2.00 and the draw at 4.00. Put 50 on the home win and 25 on the draw. Either result returns 100, a profit of 25 on the 75 you staked. The away win loses both bets.
That last line is the difference from a surebet. A surebet covers every result, so something always pays. A dutch leaves at least one result open, and when it comes in, the whole stake is gone.
The two picks above work like one bet at 1.33, which is 100 divided by 75. Many bookmakers sell the same pair as a double chance bet. If its price is higher, one bet beats two.
And the more picks you add, the lower that combined price falls. Back every result at one bookmaker and it drops below 1.00, because each price carries its own share of the margin. You then lose money whichever result comes in.
→ The dutching calculator splits a total across two to six picks or works backwards from the profit you want. It warns you when the picks cannot make money.
Hedge calculator: locking in a profit
You bet 20 on a team at 11.00 to win the cup, and it reaches the final. Win and you collect 220. The opponent in the final is priced at 1.80. Do you hedge?
Divide the payout you are holding by the hedge odds: 220 / 1.80 = 122.22. Stake that on the opponent. If your team wins, you collect 220 and lose the hedge, 77.78 up. If the opponent wins, the hedge pays 220 and your first bet is lost, 77.78 up again.
So you give up most of a possible 200 profit for 77.78 that cannot go away. Your bookmaker may also offer a cash out on the first bet. Compare that figure with 77.78 before you choose.
No special tool is needed here. One division gives the hedge stake, and one subtraction gives what you lock in.
Kelly criterion calculator for stake size
The Kelly criterion turns a price and your own view of the chance into a share of your bankroll.
On a price of 2.10 that you rate a coin flip, it returns 4.55 percent. Many bettors stake half of that. Why? The formula trusts your estimate completely, and our own estimates tend to run high.
→ Try the Kelly calculator: it sizes the stake, then shows what happens if your estimate is five points too high.
Expected value calculator: is the price right?
Expected value, or EV, is what a bet earns on average if you could place it many times. Multiply your chance by the decimal odds and subtract 1.
A 50 percent chance at 2.10 gives 0.50 × 2.10 − 1 = +0.05. That is +5 for every 100 staked over the long run. The same 50 percent at 1.90 gives −5.
The 50 percent is your guess, not a fact, and the result moves with it. The Kelly calculator prints EV next to the stake, so one set of numbers gives you both.
CLV calculator: did you beat the close?
Closing line value, or CLV, compares the price you took with the last price before kick-off. It helps when a good bet loses, or a bad one wins.
Took 2.20 and saw the odds close at 2.00? You beat the closing line by 10 percent. Do that over hundreds of bets, and the market is agreeing with you. The closing price still includes the margin, so the real edge is smaller.
→ The closing line value guide has the calculator and shows how to take the margin out. Some bet trackers work it out for every bet you log.
Free bet calculator and the missing stake
Most free bets are "stake not returned". A 50 free bet at 4.00 pays 150, not 200.
Longer prices suit them better. At 4.00 you keep 75 percent of what a cash bet would return. At 10.00 the free bet pays 450 instead of 500, so you keep 90 percent.
→ Multiply the free bet by the odds, then subtract the stake: 50 × 4.00 − 50 = 150. The bonuses section lists the free bets and other offers we have checked.
What no betting calculator can check
A sports betting calculator is exact with the numbers you type and knows nothing else.
It will happily price a bet that cannot win, or size a stake from a chance you made up. Three things stay outside it: whether the price is still there, whether the bet gets voided, and whether your account is about to be limited.
And where do you find the price in the first place? Odds comparison sites show many bookmakers' prices on one page, and arbitrage scanners look for surebets across them.