#my uncle was a bookie. he was also a conman and these facts are related

[somecunttookmyurl]

ooh i have a question about betting odds actually because i never understood how you could have like 1:10 instead (bigger number on right) like. would that not mean you pay them money? why would anyone ever place a bet on odds like that?

great question! common source of confusion.

so with betting odds the first most important thing to remember is this: you always get your initial stake back if you win

the odds are then what you get back on top of that

if something is 10:1 that means for every £1 you bet, you will get £10 on top if it comes true. a £1 bet would therefore come back as £11 (your initial £1, + your £10 winnings)

if something is 1:10 then for every £10 you stake, you gain £1. so your hypothetical £1 stake comes back to you as £1.10. something 1:10 is so basically guaranteed to happen (there's a 90% chance it does, 10% chance it doesn't) that bookies aren't going to give you much of a prize for saying it will. similarly most people won't bother betting on it because getting an extra 10p simply isn't worth the effort it took to do it in the first place.

sometimes you get funky odds like 9:14 or 17:2 but they all work the same way. the left number is what money you get (on top of your initial stake) if you bet the number on the right. bet £14 and win? get an extra £9. bet £2 and win? get an extra £17

tldr odds 'the other way' don't mean you owe them money, it means your additional payout on top becomes fractional. 1:100 truly would not be worth it because you'd have to bet £100 to get a whole extra £1