Bookmaker margins calculator

In sports betting, it is good to have a game strategy and certainly you are going to use the bookmakers best odds to make the biggest profit. Right, but if you are a good bettor, you should also compare the bookmakers margins, ie their odds margin. It is the bookmakers cut of your bet. It is also a cost to you because it reduces your margin when their margin is deducted on your bet. You want as low a percentage as possible because it gives you and other bettors lower fees.

Calculate what your bookmakers margin is on your bet

Calculating this is not that difficult. Our tip is that when you put your bet you may have 3-10 favorite bookmakers you usually vary between and check the odds. Make a simple template in a spreadsheet where you add these odds from each bookmaker. It doesn’t take long, but it can give you one or two favorites that you always check because they may have the lowest margin.

The formula is simple and we take an example to see how it works.

A match with bookmaker 1 has the odds of 2.10 – 3.40 – 2.95
The same match has with the bookmaker 2 odds of 2.20 – 3.65 – 3.10

Calculate the margin through the formula:
Margin = (1 / home odds) + (1 / away odds) + (1 / draw odds) – 1

For bookmaker 1, it will be 1 / 2.10 + 1 / 2.95 + 1 / 3.40 and then minus 1
This gives us 0.10929 or 10.93%. If your investment is €100, the cost for you on the bet will be €10,93

Let’s check bookmaker 2 that gives 1 / 2.20 + 1 / 3.10 + 1 / 3.65 and then minus 1
This gives us 0.0511 or 5.11%. If your investment is €100, the cost for you on the bet will be €5,11

In this example, we have a difference of 10,93-5,11 = €5,82.
This, of course, is also real money and it is unnecessary to spend more money than is really needed.
Therefore, take the habit of entering your favorite bookmakers into your file and see how the margin varies. If you add several bets a week, this difference in margin will grow large and become a lot of money.