Online Curling Betting in the UK: Sites, Markets and What the Odds Actually Cost

Updated October 2026

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Curling is one of the quieter sports on a UK betting site. The World Curling Championship, the European Championships, the Grand Slam of Curling and the Winter Olympics all draw lines at licensed bookmakers, and in-play markets exist on the bigger events. That is the whole picture: the market is small, the schedule is seasonal, and the same handful of firms will quote prices whenever curling is on. This guide is written for the punter who wants to know which bookmakers list curling, what the betting slip looks like when they do, how the prices are built, and what the margin costs on every pound staked.

The starting point is the licence. Any operator offering bets to customers in Great Britain must hold a remote betting licence from the Gambling Commission, and the Commission’s public register is the only place that confirms it. The Commission does not maintain a list of permitted sports or markets; a bookmaker can offer curling under its remote general betting standard (real events) licence if it chooses to. The practical consequence is that the size of a firm’s curling book depends on commercial interest, not on statutory scope, and several of the ten operators reviewed here list curling only during the Winter Olympics and World Championships while others carry it year-round through the World Curling Tour.

Current as of 30 October 2026 against the Gambling Commission’s public register.

The ten bookmakers reviewed here

The ranking below is built from each operator’s stated licence, its stated offer terms at the time of the review, and the market coverage each describes on its own pages. Offers are described qualitatively: the headlines state what the bookmaker publishes, and the paragraphs beside them state the conditions attached.

Fitzdares — premium bookmaker with horse racing at its core

Fitzdares holds a Gambling Commission remote licence under account 400, and its app markets cash out, accumulators, Lucky 15s, specials and ante-post markets on horse racing, football, tennis, rugby, cricket, golf and American football, with in-play live odds. Curling is not named in that feature list. The firm’s identity is built around horse racing and a premium customer tier, and the product pages it describes centre on football and the racing codes. A punter whose primary interest is curling will find the in-play features well-developed, but the niche sports catalogue is narrower than the larger generalist firms reviewed here.

Verdict: Fitzdares is a credible account for a punter who already follows its racing and football product. A bettor looking specifically for curling lines will more often find them at a generalist with a bigger winter sports programme.

BetMGM — LeoVegas Gaming’s UK sportsbook with a split free-bet welcome

BetMGM’s UK sportsbook is operated by LeoVegas Gaming PLC under Gambling Commission account 39198. Its stated welcome offer for new UK customers who deposit £10 or more and place a sports bet within 7 days is four £10 free bets, broken into two football accumulators of four or more selections and two sports multiples of two or more, valid for 7 days with a minimum odds requirement and opt-in. The split structure is unusual: a punter who prefers singles or outrights cannot use two of the four free bets as advertised, because they are tied to accumulator formats. A punter who bets accumulators regularly will find this works; one who bets singles will find half the welcome locked away.

Verdict: BetMGM’s licence is solid and the app is full-featured. The welcome structure rewards a specific betting pattern, and a punter whose pattern is different should read the allocation before opting in.

Kwiff — “surprise” stake boosts under Spryme Ltd

Kwiff describes itself as a trademark operated by Spryme Ltd, and the app carries a 17+ age rating. The Commission’s public register lists the brand under Eaton Gate Gaming Limited. Kwiff’s product differentiator is its randomised stake boost: a placed bet can be promoted to a higher payout at the bookmaker’s discretion. The mechanism is not a price boost, where the odds are increased, but a boost on the stake that wins. The uncertainty cuts both ways: a punter does not know in advance which bets will be boosted, and the boost is at the bookmaker’s discretion, not the punter’s. Curling coverage runs through the firm’s general sportsbook, and the boosted-stake feature applies across sports when the algorithm selects the bet.

Verdict: Kwiff is a novelty account rather than a primary one. The licence is in order; the staking gimmick is the reason to keep a small balance there rather than to stake the winter sports book on it.

Lottoland — lottery-led hybrid with a sportsbook attached

Lottoland’s UK app combines casino, lottery betting, sports betting and scratchcards, and it states that it is licensed by the Gambling Commission for customers in Great Britain under EU Lotto Limited, account 38991. The brand’s centre of gravity is lottery product: lotto bets, scratchcards and instant win games sit at the front of the app, and the sportsbook is one product among several. Curling markets are available through the sportsbook tab but are not the firm’s focus. A punter who already uses Lottoland for its lottery product will find a working sportsbook on the same account; a punter whose interest is only in curling will find the layout weighted away from sports.

Verdict: Lottoland works as a secondary account for a punter who plays the lotto side. A dedicated sports bettor gets more from a sports-first operator.

Midnite — gaming-native sportsbook with a £25 free-bet welcome

Midnite’s site cites Gambling Commission licence 101839 and shows in-play events, an acca builder, popular accas and price boosts with maximum-stake limits. Its stated sports welcome offer is for new customers who bet £5 or more on pre-match odds of EVS (2.0) or greater within 14 days of sign-up: £25 in free bets and 50 free spins, valid for 7 days. The minimum price of 2.0 is the kind of condition a casual punter trips on without thinking: a bet at 1.8 or 1.9 does not qualify, and the 14-day window is long enough to fit around a curling calendar but short enough to read carefully. The free spins element ties the welcome to a casino product as well, and the 7-day expiry on the free bets is the constraint that decides whether a punter uses them on a single curling event or splits them across a week of fixtures.

Verdict: Midnite’s licence and product are current. The welcome is a fair exchange for a £5 qualifying bet, provided the punter reads the 2.0 minimum and the 7-day expiry before the bet goes down.

Octobet — 50% back as a free bet under Octopus Game Limited

Octobet holds a Gambling Commission remote licence under account 62545, with Octopus Game Limited as the licence holder. The stated sportsbook welcome is 50% back as a free bet up to £50, plus a £10 casino bonus. The “back as a free bet” wording matters: a free bet pays winnings only, not the stake, so a £50 free bet at 3.0 returns £100 in profit, not £150. The 50% structure means a punter staking £100 on the qualifying bet gets a £50 free bet if the qualifying bet loses; a punter staking £20 gets a £10 free bet. The £10 casino bonus is a separate term, with its own conditions, attached to the same offer.

Verdict: Octobet’s headline is generous on the qualifying stake but the value depends entirely on the free-bet mechanic. A punter who understands that the stake is not returned gets a real £50 at risk; one who expects a cash refund will be disappointed at settlement.

Unibet — Platinum Gaming’s long-established generalist

Unibet states it has operated since 1999, and its UK site is run by Platinum Gaming Limited, Gibraltar, under Gambling Commission account 45322. The stated sports welcome offer is “Get £40 in Free Bets when you bet £20”: a deposit and sports bet of £20 or more at minimum odds of 2.0 (1/1), with free bets expiring within 7 days of issue, for new GB customers using a debit card or instant bank transfer. The debit-card or instant-bank-transfer restriction is the kind of detail a punter using an e-wallet overlooks: a deposit by another method does not qualify. The 2.0 minimum is a standard threshold; the 7-day expiry is the constraint. Unibet’s curling coverage sits inside a full winter sports programme, and the firm is among the longer-established generalists on the UK market.

Verdict: Unibet is a strong generalist for a punter who uses a debit card or bank transfer and is comfortable with a 7-day free-bet window. The welcome does not suit a punter who funds the account by other means.

Fafabet — Best Odds Guaranteed on racing under Taichi Tech Limited

Fafabet holds a Gambling Commission remote licence under account 57385, with Taichi Tech Limited as the licence holder. The brand’s racing-led feature is Best Odds Guaranteed on UK and Irish horse racing win and each-way bets from 9am on race days: if the starting price is bigger than the original price, the bigger odds are paid. The BOG structure is a racing product, not a curling one, but the licence and platform support a full sportsbook. A punter looking for curling will find the firm’s wider sportsbook rather than a curling-specific feature; the racing product is where Fafabet’s edge sits.

Verdict: Fafabet’s racing feature is real and useful. A punter whose interest is curling will use the same platform for its sportsbook, but the differentiation is racing, not winter sports.

Bet600 — Tyche Tech’s BOG-focused sportsbook

Bet600 holds a Gambling Commission remote licence under account 44731, with Tyche Tech Limited as the licence holder. The brand pays Best Odds Guaranteed on horse racing: if the starting price is bigger than the early or show price taken, the bet is paid at the SP. The mechanism is the same as Fafabet’s but the platform is newer. Curling sits within the general sportsbook, and the firm’s product description is racing-weighted. The BOG applies from the point of bet placement, and the punter gets the better of the price taken and the final SP.

Verdict: Bet600’s licence and platform are current, and the BOG feature is the reason to open an account. Curling lines are available through the sportsbook but the brand’s product page centres on racing.

BetGoodwin — Goodwin Racing’s sports-and-casino hybrid

BetGoodwin’s stated sports welcome is “Bet £10 & Get £15 in Free Bets”, made up of a £5 sports bet, a £5 acca and a £5 Sub-Cover bet. Goodwin Racing Limited is the licence holder under Commission account 2927. The Sub-Cover bet is the unusual line: a £5 free bet that pays out if a chosen selection finishes second by a narrow margin, or in similar near-miss conditions, with the precise trigger set out in the firm’s own terms. The three-part welcome splits a small bonus into three narrower products rather than one free bet, and a punter must use all three within their own expiry windows.

Verdict: BetGoodwin is a working account with a structured welcome. The Sub-Cover bet is the feature to read carefully; the rest of the offer is standard.

What curling betting actually is

Curling is a four-player team sport (two players in doubles) where each player throws two of the team’s eight stones down a sheet of ice towards a circular target called the house. A game runs to 8 or 10 ends, with international competitive games generally played over 10 ends. In each end, both teams deliver eight stones alternately, and the team with the stone closest to the centre of the house — the button — scores one point for each of its own stones sitting closer to the button than the opponent’s nearest stone. Stones outside the house do not count. Tied games go to extra ends, and the hammer — the last stone of an end — goes to the team that did not score in the previous end; a blanked end keeps the hammer with the same team.

A curling stone weighs between 17.24 and 19.96 kg (38 to 44 lb) under World Curling Federation rules. The sport became an official Olympic medal sport at the 1998 Winter Olympics, and mixed doubles was first held at the Olympics in 2018. Those two events — men’s, women’s and mixed doubles at the Winter Games, and the World Curling Championships — are the fixtures that reliably draw a betting market at UK-licensed bookmakers, with the European Curling Championships and the Grand Slam of Curling filling the gaps between Olympic cycles.

Where the betting market comes from

There is no statutory list of permitted sports or markets in Great Britain. A bookmaker licensed by the Gambling Commission can offer curling under its remote general betting standard (real events) licence if it chooses to, and the LCCP sets the conduct standards for how those markets are priced and settled, not which events may be priced. The Commission’s role is licensing, conduct and consumer protection; the choice of which sports to list sits with each operator. The practical result is that curling is offered seasonally by the larger generalists and the year-round by firms with a winter sports programme, and the schedule of available markets tracks the World Curling Tour, the World Championships, the European Championships, the Continental Cup and the Winter Olympics.

In-play betting on curling is offered by GB-licensed bookmakers, and the controls around it are the operator’s licence conditions and customer-protection duties. The legal position is not that in-play is “unrestricted”; it is that in-play is permitted under the same licence as pre-match, with the conduct rules in the LCCP. Esports are treated like any other event; virtual events are a separate licence category; bets on politics, TV shows and novelty markets are also offered by GB bookmakers, and no statutory prohibition on any of these was found in the legal framework reviewed here.

Who holds a Gambling Commission licence, and how to check

Every operator reviewed in the table below holds a remote betting licence issued by the Gambling Commission under the Gambling Act 2005, as amended by the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014. Since 2014, an operator whose remote facilities are used in Great Britain needs a Commission licence wherever it is based: a Curaçao, Maltese or Gibraltar registration is not a substitute. The Commission’s public register can be searched by business name, trading name, domain or account number, and it is the whole test of whether a brand holds a licence. A licensed operator may use a .com domain as well as a .co.uk one, so the domain proves nothing on its own.

The register confirms three things: the account number, the licence holder (which may be a parent company rather than the trading brand), and the categories the licence covers. Several brands can run under one licensee — Ladbrokes and Coral, for example, or Paddy Power and Betfair — and the trading brand and the licence holder are not always the same entity. The featured set below is not the whole market; the Commission lists many more remote betting licensees, and no featured brand is “the only” licensed one.

The licence numbers above are the Commission’s own format: a remote general betting standard (real events) licence carries a prefix identifying the account and a suffix identifying the licence. A punter who wants to verify any of them enters the account number or the trading name into the Commission’s public register and checks the categories listed. The categories are the scope of the licence: a remote general betting standard (real events) licence covers real-world sporting events, while a separate category covers virtual events, and a third covers pool betting. Betting exchanges run under a betting intermediary licence, which is a different category again.

What the market types look like on a curling slip

The market types a bookmaker publishes for curling depend on the event. The World Championships, the European Championships and the Winter Olympics draw the deepest markets: match winner (the 1X2 equivalent for a two-team sport), handicap, total ends over or under a line, correct score after a stated number of ends, winning margin, and team to score first or last. The smaller Tour events draw a match winner and the occasional handicap, with totals and correct score less often. Outright markets — the winner of the World Championship, the gold medal at the Winter Olympics — run during the qualifying period and settle on the final.

Match winner is the simplest market: a price on each team. The bookmaker’s margin is built into the two prices, and the punter who backs either side pays for the privilege of betting rather than for any information. A handicap market adds or subtracts a stated number of ends from one team’s final score, and the price reflects the spread. Total ends is an over-or-under line on the number of ends played, which is a way of betting on how close the match goes without picking a winner. Correct score is a market on the final numerical score, with the long-shot prices that come with a market that has several possible outcomes.

In-play markets follow the same shape, with prices that update as the end progresses. The hammer — the last stone of an end — is the key tactical concept: a team with the hammer in a blanked end keeps it for the next end, and a team that scores gives it up. The bookmaker’s in-play model prices the hammer as an advantage, and the punter who understands when the hammer changes hands reads the in-play market more sharply than one who does not.

How the odds are built and what the margin costs

The bookmaker’s margin is the cut the firm takes from every market, built into the prices so that the implied probabilities of all outcomes sum to more than 100%. On a two-way market with decimal odds of 1.90 on each side, the implied probability of each outcome is 1 ÷ 1.90 = 0.5263, or 52.63%. The two implied probabilities sum to 105.26%, and the difference between that sum and 100% — 5.26% — is the bookmaker’s margin, also called the overround. The punter who bets on this market loses 5.26 pence of every pound staked, on average, before any consideration of which side wins.

The margin changes by market and by event. A match winner on a World Championship game with a clear favourite might be priced at 1.40 on the favourite and 3.00 on the underdog, summing to 71.43% + 33.33% = 104.76%, an overround of 4.76% and a margin of 4.5%. The same match with a closer contest, 1.85 and 2.05, sums to 54.05% + 48.78% = 102.83%, an overround of 2.83% and a margin of 2.8%. The bookmaker tightens the margin on the markets it expects to take more money on, and widens it on the markets where it expects less liquidity, because a wider margin compensates for the risk of an unbalanced book. The punter looking for value compares margins across bookmakers on the same event rather than chasing a headline price.

On a curling match at the World Championships, a typical margin sits in a band of roughly 4% to 7% on the match winner market, depending on the bookmaker and how close the contest looks. Lower than 4% is unusually tight, and the punter who finds it on a regular basis is looking at a market the bookmaker is competing hard for. Higher than 7% is unusually wide, and the punter who bets it regularly is paying a premium for the privilege. The exact figure changes event by event and firm by firm, and the only way to know the margin on a given price is to convert the decimal odds to implied probabilities and add them up.

The calculation itself: take the two decimal odds, divide 1 by each to get the implied probability, add the two probabilities, and subtract 1. The result is the margin as a decimal. Multiply by 100 for a percentage. For 1.90 and 1.90, the calculation is 1 ÷ 1.90 = 0.5263, added to itself = 1.0526, minus 1 = 0.0526, or 5.26% — the same number arrived at by a different route. The two prices are symmetric, which is why the implied probability is the same on each side; in an asymmetric market the two implied probabilities differ, and only the sum matters for the margin.

What the licence costs the punter — and what it gives back

A Gambling Commission licence is compulsory at the point of consumption. Providing gambling facilities in Great Britain without the licence the Act requires is an offence under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005, aimed at the operator. The customer who bets on an unlicensed site commits no offence under the framework reviewed here, but loses the protections the licence provides: no GAMSTOP coverage, no Commission complaints route, no approved dispute-resolution body, no British consumer redress if funds are withheld, and no coverage by the 10x bonus cap or the £150 vulnerability check. Enforcement against unlicensed operators is disruption rather than blocking: cease-and-desist notices, search-engine referrals, and work with registrars, hosts and payment providers. The Commission has been given, or is about to receive, court-order DNS blocking powers, but no general ISP blocking regime is in operation.

The licence gives the punter several things. GAMSTOP is the national multi-operator online self-exclusion scheme, mandatory for online operators since 31 March 2020, with periods of six months, one year, five years, or five years with auto-renewal. After the minimum period the exclusion stays in place for a further seven years unless the customer asks GAMSTOP to remove it. A financial vulnerability check applies to licensed remote betting when a customer’s deposits minus withdrawals exceed £150 in a rolling 30 days; the check is a public-record check (bankruptcy, county court judgments) rather than an income check or a credit reference check. Deposit limits are the customer’s choice: there is no state-set ceiling, and operators must offer a gross deposit limit on a fixed time frame, with the first changes having applied since 31 October 2025 and a second phase postponed to 30 September 2026.

Identity verification happens before the first deposit, including on a free bet or a bonus. Name, address and date of birth are checked, and the punter cannot place a bet anonymously. Source-of-funds questions at higher spend are normal under the money-laundering rules, and a punter who cannot answer them loses the account. The minimum age is 18.

The bonus cap, in force since 19 January 2026, is 10x: a £10 bonus at 50x wagering needs £500 of bets to clear, and under the cap no bonus requires more than 10x turnover. Mixed-product promotions — an offer that requires gambling on two or more product types such as betting, casino, bingo and lottery — are banned. Credit cards are banned for gambling in Great Britain, including credit-card-funded payments through an e-wallet; debit cards and bank-based payments are not covered. Advertising is governed by the CAP Code and the BCAP Code, enforced by the ASA, alongside the LCCP marketing conditions, and operators are responsible for marketing by their affiliates.

The player pays no tax on betting winnings in Great Britain. General Betting Duty is the operator’s tax on gross profits, currently 15%, and from 1 April 2027 a new remote betting rate of 25% applies within it; whether operators pass duty on through odds is not established. Spread betting is a separate regime with its own rates.

Help and where to find it

GamCare runs the National Gambling Helpline. GambleAware funds treatment and research. The NHS operates gambling clinics in several regions. Gamblers Anonymous runs peer support meetings. GAMSTOP is the self-exclusion route for online accounts. A punter who wants to set a deposit limit can do so at any licensed operator, and the limit applies across the products on that account, not across firms. A punter who wants to self-exclude across every UK-licensed online account registers with GAMSTOP, and the exclusion covers every operator that holds a remote licence.

A financial vulnerability check at £150 in net deposits over 30 days is the Commission’s own threshold, and the check is a public-record check, not a credit check. A punter who has had a county court judgment or a bankruptcy in the recent past should expect the check to surface it, and the operator will respond under its own procedures. The punter who cannot satisfy the check loses the account.

The Commission’s published lists of operators that have failed to integrate GAMSTOP, or that have breached social responsibility codes, are public, and a punter who wants to check a firm’s standing reads those lists alongside the register.

Tournaments, events and the schedule that drives the market

The World Curling Championship is the annual flagship. The men’s and women’s events alternate between the World Men’s Curling Championship and the World Women’s Curling Championship, with the top finishers qualifying for the next World Championship. The European Curling Championships run in the autumn and feed into the World Championship qualification pathway. The Continental Cup is a team event between Europe and North America, and the Grand Slam of Curling is the top tier of the World Curling Tour.

The Winter Olympics is the quadrennial showcase. Curling has been an official Olympic medal sport since 1998, and mixed doubles was added in 2018. The Olympic curling tournament is the event that draws the deepest betting market at UK-licensed bookmakers, with outright, match, handicap, totals and correct-score markets typically available from the qualification stage onwards. The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina is the next Olympic cycle, and the men’s, women’s and mixed doubles events will all be priced.

The World Curling Tour runs year-round and feeds into the Olympic and World Championship qualification. The smaller Tour events draw a thinner betting market, with match winner and the occasional handicap the typical depth. Outright markets on the Tour are rarer than outright markets on the World Championship and the Olympics, and the punter looking for outright value shops the major events.

The schedule is seasonal in the UK betting sense: the European Championships in autumn, the World Championships in the spring, the Olympics in February, and the Grand Slam events scattered across the winter. A punter who follows the calendar sees the market thicken and thin with the season, and the bookmakers add and remove markets to match. The same bookmaker that lists curling throughout the Olympic and World Championship cycles may not list it at all in July, when no meaningful event is running.

A short note on language and culture

Curling is a British-rooted sport in origin — the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, founded in 1838, is the game’s governing body — and the international federation, the World Curling Federation, is headquartered in Perth, Scotland. The sport’s vocabulary is Scottish: a bonspiel is a tournament, a hack is the foothold used to push off, and the house is the target. A stone is sometimes called a rock, and the skip is the team captain who directs play. The terminology crosses into the betting market: a “blanked end” is a market concept, and a “hammer” is a tactical concept that the in-play model prices. A punter who bets curling regularly picks up the language by reading the rules, not the betting pages.

What to check before placing a bet

The licence is the first check. The Commission’s public register is the only place that confirms it, and the punter who bets at a brand not on the register has no recourse under the British framework. The account number, the licence holder, and the licence categories are the three things to verify. A registered trade mark and a registered company are not the same as a Commission licence, and a brand that advertises a Curaçao or Malta registration alongside a UK-facing site is still required to hold a Commission licence for GB customers.

The market and the price are the second check. The margin on a two-way curling market is the implied cost of betting, and the punter who compares margins across firms on the same event gets a better price than the punter who bets the first one they see. The total ends market and the correct score market have longer-shot prices, and the margin on those markets is wider than on the match winner.

The qualifying terms of any offer are the third check. The minimum odds, the qualifying bet, the deposit method, the time window and the free-bet expiry are the five things that decide whether an offer is worth the qualifying bet it requires. A £5 qualifying bet at 2.0 minimum to receive £25 in free bets is a different offer from a £20 qualifying bet at 2.0 minimum to receive £40 in free bets, and the difference is the qualifying stake, the time window, and the markets the free bet can be used on.

The wider picture

Curling is a niche sport in the UK betting market, and the niche shows in the depth of the market. The match winner market is reliably available at the larger generalists during the major events; the handicap, totals and correct score markets are available at fewer firms; the outright market on the World Championship and the Olympics is available at most. The in-play market is thinner still, with prices updating end by end rather than stone by stone, because the betting models price ends, not stones.

The licence framework treats curling the same as any other real-event sport: it falls under the remote general betting standard (real events) licence, and the conduct rules are the same as for football or tennis. The punter looking for a special set of rules for curling will not find one. The punter looking for a bookmaker that treats curling as a first-class sport will find a handful — the larger generalists with a winter sports programme — and the rest treat it as a seasonal add-on.

The market is small, but it is real, and the punter who knows the sport and the licence framework gets the same protections and pays the same margin as on any other sport at a UK-licensed bookmaker. The curling season runs from October to April, and the Winter Olympics cycle adds a four-year spike in market depth. The rest of the year the market is thin, and the punter who bets curling in July bets at a bookmaker that has carried the lines over from the previous season or has pulled them entirely.

Frequently asked questions

How do you bet on curling?

Pick a licensed bookmaker, open an account, verify your identity, deposit by debit card or bank transfer (credit cards are banned for gambling in Great Britain), and find the curling market under the winter sports or individual sport heading. The match winner market is the simplest: a price on each team. Handicap, total ends and correct score markets run on the bigger events. Place the bet at the displayed price, and the bookmaker settles the bet when the event finishes according to its own rules.

Can you bet on curling in the UK?

Yes, at any bookmaker licensed by the Gambling Commission. Curling falls under the remote general betting standard (real events) licence, and several of the ten bookmakers reviewed here list curling markets during the World Championships, the European Championships, the Grand Slam of Curling and the Winter Olympics. A punter who wants curling year-round finds a thinner market; a punter who bets around the major events finds match winner, handicap, totals and outright markets at the larger generalists.

How is a bookmaker’s Gambling Commission licence checked?

The Commission’s public register is searchable by business name, trading name, domain or account number. Enter the trading name of the brand, confirm the account number matches, confirm the licence holder is the entity behind the brand, and confirm the licence categories include remote general betting standard (real events) for sports betting. The register is the only place that confirms a licence, and the licence numbers on the table above are the format the register uses.

How is the return on a bet worked out from the stake and the odds?

Multiply the stake by the decimal odds. On a £10 bet at decimal odds of 3.00, the return is £30 — that figure is the stake plus the winnings. The net profit, the £20 above the original £10, is the stake multiplied by the odds minus 1. For a combination bet the odds of each leg multiply into one price, and the return is the stake multiplied by the combined price. A £5 accumulator with three legs at 2.00, 3.00 and 4.00 has combined odds of 24.00, and a winning bet returns £120.

What is the bookmaker’s margin and how does it show in the odds?

The margin is the cut the bookmaker takes from every market, built into the prices. Convert the decimal odds to implied probabilities by dividing 1 by each price, add the probabilities, and subtract 1. On a two-way market priced at 1.90 and 1.90, the calculation gives an overround of 5.26% and a margin of 5.0%. The punter who bets on this market loses 5 pence of every pound staked, on average, before any consideration of which side wins. Lower margins cost the punter less; higher margins cost more.

How do fractional odds such as 5/1 convert to decimal odds such as 6.00?

Divide the first number by the second and add 1. Fractional odds of 5/1 give 5 ÷ 1 + 1 = 6.00 in decimal form. Fractional odds of 11/4 give 11 ÷ 4 + 1 = 3.75. Fractional odds of evens (1/1) give 1 ÷ 1 + 1 = 2.00. The decimal form is the price the bookmaker settles at, and the conversion is exact: a £10 bet at 5/1 returns £60 in the same way as a £10 bet at 6.00 decimal.

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