Monthly Archives: February 2015

Understanding Fixed Odds Betting in Casino Games

When it comes to playing at online casinos it is always advisable to understand the odds and payout rates involved in the casino game you intend to play. Ideally, before placing a bet you should analyse your odds of winning at a particular game or betting option within the game, and decide whether or not it’s something you’re willing to risk or play.

If you’ve done any research into analysing betting odds, you’ve probably come across the term “fixed odd betting games“, a term which is often misunderstood by new players. Here we’ll look at what fixed odd betting and casino games really entail.

Fixed Odds Betting

As the name implies, fixed odd casino bets or casino games are games and wagering options that will always offer the same odds, no matter what. So, for example, a single bet in the game of Roulette will always offer 35 to 1 odds. While the majority of online casino games offer fixed odds, there are however games whose variations do not.

A prime example of a game with variable odds is that of blackjack. This may seem confusing as when you win the payout is always same (comparable to your betting value of course), however the odds are variable based on how skilfully you play the game. So it is important not to confuse payouts and odds, because odds can change but payouts generally stay the same.

Types of Fixed Odds Betting Systems

When it comes to fixed odds betting systems, there are four main types, namely:

  • Fractional Odds: These are the games offered by bookmakers in the UK. As the name implies, the odds in these games is expressed as a fraction. So for example, your team is offered 5/1 or Five-to-One odds, which means that you’ll be able to win £100 on a £20 wager, and if you win, will end up with a total of £120. Games or betting options that offer fractional odds of 1:1 are referred to as “even money” games.
  • Decimal Odds Systems: A casino or sportsbook that offers games with decimal values is said to offer decimal odds betting. These systems are generally more common in Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and this system is therefore referred to as “European Odds”. Decimal Odds systems offer the same payouts as their Fractional odds counterparts, but just differ in terms of their definition. To illustrate by way of our example, if you place a £100 wager on a game that offers 1.20 odds you will get $120 upon winning the bet, making this type of fixed odds betting easy to understand.
  • Moneyline Odds: These odds are generally offered by US based casinos and bookmakers, and as such are regularly referred to as American odds. They offer just two possible options on an outcome, either positive or negative, so these bets are made on the straight-up result of a game without taking the system of points spread into account.
  • Even Odds: These refer to fixed odds expressed as either +100 or -100.

Popular Fixed Odds Casino Games

If you’re looking to play a fixed odds casino game, the following are popular options:

  • American & European Roulette both offer fixed odds.
  • Certain Craps bets such as the Pass/Come and Don’t Pass/Don’t Come options have fixed odds.
  • Keno – these games has different odds values but they are all fixed.
  • Bingo – This game always offers the same odds no matter where you play.

Understanding Expected Loss in Online Casino Games

If you’ve done any research on casino game strategy, in all probability you will have come across the term “Expected Loss“. This term can be quite misleading as it’s not the amount that you should expect to lose at a casino, but rather it is the mathematical average loss. What’s the difference?

Let’s take a look by way of an example:

The casino’s house edge or advantage is the average profit that it makes per wager made. As you’ll already know, this figure differs from one game to the next. In the game of Roulette, the house edge is generally 5.26%. This means that your “expected loss” on a $10 bet is $10 x 5.26% which when rounding up gives you $0.53 on each bet you place.

That said though, you can’t lose precisely $0.53. If you wager on either red or black, you’ll either win an additional $10 or lose the entire amount. This means that you don’t really expect to lose $0.53 on every bet you make, but rather that over time this will be the mathematical average loss on every $10 wager if you played the game on an on-going basis.

As you may already be aware, the more you play, the more likely it is that your actual loss will approach the expected loss. So if you play 100 round of roulette at $10 a spin and bet on black every time, you will on average win 475 times and lose 525 times. So you’ll win around $950 (475 wins plus your original bet) when you risked $1000, which means that after the game you will have lost $50, which equates to 5% – pretty close to the projected expected loss of 5.26%.

When comparing the risk of various casino games, expected loss can be a great tool to use and will depend on three main aspects:

  1. The value of your betting (the amount you wager per round)
  2. Game play speed (how many rounds you play per hour)
  3. The House Advantage (the average casino profit per wager)

You can then apply these factors within the following formula to determine the risk of the game/s you are playing:

Wager x House Advantage x Number of Hands x Time spent playing = Expected Loss

So if you’ve played blackjack according to sound basic strategy at $10 an hour for 3 hours, this would be calculated as follows:

$10 x 0.5% x 90 hands/hr x 3 hrs. = $3

Table Game Speed

Obviously, the speed of game play at a land based casino will be determined by the dealer’s style and the number of people playing. At online casinos, the rate of play is governed by the casino’s software settings, although these can be adapted to your preferences within the settings in your player dashboard, which is advantageous as you can slow games down which means that your money can last longer – although your patience may not.

Slots speed

When it comes to playing slots, you are in control and the speed of game play will depend on the rate at which you push the spin button. When it comes to returns on slots, online casino are way more forthcoming with their payout rates than their land based counterparts, so unless you’re willing to do some serious research on brick and mortar slot machines, figuring out the rate of play is easier at online casinos which is why playing popular slots online is the way to go for many players.

Why We Like William Hill Casino Club so much

William Hill Casino Club is a Playtech powered online casino that has topped our list of favourites and recommended places to play for a number of years now. But what you may ask makes this online casino so special or different from any other Playtech powered property? After all, aren’t they all just the same thing with a different façade?

These are the questions players ask us time and again, so we’ve decided to elaborate on why we like William Hill Casino so much. And to answer the question – aren’t all casinos just the same thing with different facades? No, there is more to them than meets the eye and this is why William Hill excels where others fail.

Yes it has the same high quality software and functionality as all other Playtech casinos, and a very similar games offering, but the thing that sets it apart from the rest it’s its distinguished reputation which has been over 80 years in the making, built on all-round service excellence.

This means that when you play at William Hill Casino Club you are getting more than just a Playtech powered casino, you are getting the benefit of decades of sportsbook and casino operator experience. It also means that they’ve thought of everything and your experience will be seamless from start to finish so that you can play with complete peace of mind and simply enjoy the experience.

Whereas some Playtech affiliate casinos have had a checkered past, at William Hill everything is above board, they are licensed in the UK and regulated by the reputable Gibraltar Gaming Commission, which ensures a safe environment for players.

It’s amazing how things change when you don’t have to worry about the safety and security of your personal information or funding your player account and knowing that if in the rare event that you do have any issues, or simply have any questions you need answered, a well-trained, professional yet friendly complement of casino support staff are just a click, e-mail or phone call away.

While it’s often the case that an online casino operator will focus on one aspect of its offering, for example, releasing more new games than its competitors or giving away a larger match deposit welcome bonus or free spins offer, to the detriment of everything else. William Hill manages to maintain a solid balance and harmony throughout its offering. It regularly adds new games to its already impressive portfolio, it has a solid sign-up bonus offering with decent Terms and Conditions as well as a full, but not pointless promotional line-up and all payments generally arrive on time and as expected.

What more could you ask for from an online casino? And that’s why William Hill Casino has been and remains one of our favourite and most recommended places to play.