How to Read American Odds
How to Read American Odds
Every number FreezyPicks shows you starts with the odds a sportsbook posts. In the United States those are written in the "American" or "moneyline" format: a number with a plus or minus sign in front, like +150 or -200. Once you can read them, everything else — probability, edge, payout — falls into place.
The minus sign: favorites
A minus number tells you how much you'd need to risk to win $100. So -200 means you bet $200 to win $100 (and get $300 back total). The bigger the number, the heavier the favorite: -110 is a slight favorite, -400 is a big one. Minus prices are the most common because the sportsbook's cut — the "vig" — usually lives there.
The plus sign: underdogs
A plus number tells you how much you'd win on a $100 bet. +150 means a $100 bet wins you $150 (and you get $250 back). The bigger the plus number, the bigger the underdog and the bigger the potential payout.
A quick way to think about it
- -110 → risk $11 to win $10 (the standard "juiced" price)
- +100 → "even money": risk $100 to win $100
- +200 → risk $100 to win $200
You don't have to bet in $100 chunks — that's just the reference unit. A $20 bet at +150 wins $30; the ratio is what matters.
Turning odds into a percentage
Odds are really just a probability in disguise. A favorite at -200 is the book saying that side wins about 67% of the time; a +150 underdog is about 40%. We walk through that conversion in Implied Probability, and why the book's percentages always add up to more than 100% in Vig-Free Probability.
Why this matters on FreezyPicks
When we show a pick's best price — say "best -106 @ FanDuel" — we've scanned a dozen sportsbooks and exchanges to find the friendliest number for that exact side. A few cents of price difference doesn't sound like much, but over hundreds of bets it's the gap between winning and losing players. Knowing how to read the odds is how you spot when a price is actually good.
Two minutes with this, and the rest of the Learn section will read like plain English.
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