Odds and prices
What are gambling odds in sports?
Sports odds are a price the book sets on an outcome it cannot count. They carry the book's estimate of the chance, plus a margin, and both parts move.
That is the difference from a casino game. Nobody knows the true probability of a hockey game, so the number is a negotiation between the book's model and the money coming in.
Where a number comes from
The book starts with a model output, shades it for things the model handles badly, then adds a margin so both sides of the market total more than a hundred percent.
Then it opens the market and watches. If money piles onto one side the price shortens, not because the book changed its mind about the sport but because it would rather balance the book than be right.
Why the margin varies so much
Big two-way markets carry the thinnest margins because that is where the competition is. Across the books we track, the hold on a headline market sits down near 4%, and the same book will price a novelty market or a long parlay several times wider.
Live markets are wider again, because the book is repricing every few seconds with incomplete information and it charges for the privilege.
Reading it on the app
A moving number is the interesting part of a sportsbook screen. Most apps show the direction with a small arrow or a flash of colour, and some let you pin a market so it sits at the top of the tab.
Nothing on this site predicts a result. What we write about is how the market is priced and what the price is telling you about the risk you are taking, which is the part that stays true regardless of who wins.