Imagine TAB NZ prices a Super Rugby match at 1.45 for the home side and 2.75 for the visitors. Those two numbers quietly do three jobs at once: they tell you what every dollar returns if your bet wins, how likely each result is in the bookmaker’s view, and how much margin is baked into the market. Learn to read a price properly and you are reading a return, a probability and a margin all in a single figure.
This guide walks through decimal prices, how they convert to other formats, how to turn any price into an implied chance, where the bookmaker’s margin (the overround) hides, and how the same ideas carry over to tote dividends, handicap lines, exotics and multis.
Key points
- A decimal price is the total return per $1 staked, stake included: $10 at 2.75 returns $27.50.
- Implied chance is 1 ÷ the price, so 1.45 is about 69% and 2.75 about 36%.
- Add every outcome’s chance and the total tops 100%; the excess is the bookmaker’s margin, the overround.
- Fixed odds are locked in when you bet; tote dividends are set by the pool after deductions.
- Since 28 June 2025 TAB NZ has been the only operator allowed to offer online sports and racing betting in New Zealand, minimum age 18.
What a decimal price actually tells you
New Zealand quotes betting prices as decimals, the format also used across Australia, Canada and continental Europe. A decimal price is the total return for every $1 staked, with your stake included. So a price of 2.75 returns $2.75 for each dollar: $1.75 of profit on top of the $1 you risked.
Two short formulas do all the work:
- Return = stake × price. A $10 bet at 2.75 returns $27.50.
- Profit = stake × (price − 1). $10 × 1.75 = $17.50.
Because your stake is built into the number, a decimal price can never fall below 1.00, and any price under 2.00 pays less profit than the amount you put at risk. Our decimal odds guide works through the arithmetic step by step.
Quick facts
| Implied chance of any price | 1 ÷ decimal price |
|---|---|
| Total chance of the 1.45 / 2.75 market | 105.3% (about 5% margin) |
| Return on $10 at 2.75 | $27.50 (stake included) |
| Minimum betting age in NZ | 18 |
| Sole legal online operator | TAB NZ, since 28 June 2025 |
Decimal, fractional and American: one price, three formats
Fractional odds, the traditional British style, show profit relative to stake: 7/4 means $7 of profit for every $4 staked, which equals 2.75 in decimal (divide the fraction out and add 1 for the returned stake). American, or moneyline, odds use 100 as their reference point. A positive figure is the profit on a $100 stake, so +175 is 2.75; a negative figure is the stake needed to win $100, so −125 works out to 100 ÷ 125 + 1 = 1.80. All three systems, and the wider idea of betting odds, describe exactly the same thing in different clothing.
| Decimal | Fractional | American | Implied chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.50 | 1/2 | −200 | 66.7% |
| 1.80 | 4/5 | −125 | 55.6% |
| 2.00 | Evens (1/1) | +100 | 50.0% |
| 2.50 | 6/4 | +150 | 40.0% |
| 3.00 | 2/1 | +200 | 33.3% |
| 5.00 | 4/1 | +400 | 20.0% |
| 11.00 | 10/1 | +1000 | 9.1% |
Turning a price into an implied chance
Divide 1 by the decimal price and you have the probability the market is assigning to that result. 1.45 becomes 1 ÷ 1.45 = 0.690, or about 69%. 2.75 becomes 0.364, or about 36%.
That percentage is not a forecast you can bank on; it is the price expressed another way, margin and all. Its real value is comparison. If you rate the visitors a 45% chance while the price implies only 36%, the price is longer than your own estimate — and that gap is the whole idea behind our value betting guide. The same number also happens to be the strike rate a price needs just to break even.
Why the chances add up to more than 100%
Add the implied chances of every outcome in a market and the total always sits above 100%. In the rugby example, 69.0% + 36.4% = 105.3%. Those extra 5.3 percentage points are the overround — the margin the bookmaker builds into its prices so it profits whatever the result. Strip the margin out and the two teams would sit at roughly 1.53 and 2.90.
A three-way football market priced at 2.10, 3.40 and 3.60 adds up to 47.6% + 29.4% + 27.8% = 104.8%. The wider mathematics of bookmaking is built on exactly this margin, and our guide to how sports betting works in New Zealand explains how TAB NZ sets and moves its prices.
Fixed odds or the tote: two ways a price is set
TAB NZ’s Racing and Sports Betting Rules, in force since 30 April 2024, define fixed odds as odds fixed at the moment the bet is placed. The price on your ticket is the price you are paid, whatever the market does afterwards.
Tote, or totalisator, betting works differently. Every stake goes into a shared pool, and the dividend is worked out from the total wagered and the number of winning tickets once the official result is known, after deductions are taken from the pool. A tote price shown before a race is only an estimate, so the same runner can finish paying above or below its fixed price.
Dead heats fall under the same rulebook: for a fixed-odds bet the return is calculated on the face value divided by the number of runners that dead-heat, so a $10 bet in a two-way dead heat is settled as a $5 bet at the full price. Our TAB racing guide covers the pools in more detail.
Lines, totals and exotic markets
Not every price is on the outright winner. A line, or handicap, market gives one side a points start so both teams are priced close to even money, while a totals market asks only whether the combined score finishes over or under a set number. Under TAB NZ’s rules, single bets are refunded when the scores are level after the line is applied (unless a draw price was offered) or when a total lands exactly on the number. Our betting lines guide works through lines, totals and head-to-head prices.
Exotic markets — first try-scorer, correct score, winning-margin bands and the like — are priced the same way, just with more possible outcomes. Divide 1 by each price and add them up, and you will see how much bigger the margin grows as the number of outcomes rises.
How a multi multiplies the price — and the margin
A multi (accumulator) multiplies the prices of its legs together. Three legs at 1.80, 2.10 and 1.60 give 1.80 × 2.10 × 1.60 = 6.05, so $10 returns $60.48 if all three win. The catch is that the margin multiplies too: if every leg carries a 5% overround, the combined price is only about 86% of the fair figure, which is close to a 16% margin across the whole bet. Our multi bets guide covers the maths of adding legs.
Under TAB NZ’s rules a void leg — say a line bet refunded after a tie — is removed and the multi is recalculated on the legs that remain. A standalone same-game or same-race multi behaves differently: if one of its legs is void, the entire bet is void.
Where you can legally bet on these prices
Since 28 June 2025, when the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 came into force, TAB NZ has been the only operator allowed to offer or promote online racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand, and offshore bookmakers may no longer take bets from NZ residents. The Department of Internal Affairs enforces the law against operators rather than punters, and warns that offshore sites may lack consumer protections and may not pay out. A plain-English summary of the change is set out in Simpson Grierson’s briefing on the offshore betting ban.
The minimum age to bet with TAB NZ is 18. Deposit limits and time-out tools are covered in our TAB NZ overview, and free help is on hand around the clock if betting stops being fun.
Wagering itself is far older than any of this. The gambling entry on Wiki dates the practice back at least to the Paleolithic period, with the earliest six-sided dice found in Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE. What has changed is simply where you can legally place the bet.
Responsible gambling
Please read: This page is general betting information for readers aged 18 and over. It is not betting, financial or legal advice, and it does not encourage anyone to gamble. Since 28 June 2025, TAB NZ has been the only operator allowed to offer online racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand.
If gambling is causing harm for you or someone close to you, free and confidential help is available 24/7 from the Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655 or by free text to 8006. The Problem Gambling Foundation also offers free counselling.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
What does a decimal price of 1.45 mean?
A winning bet returns $1.45 for every $1 staked, stake included, so the profit is 45 cents per dollar. The implied chance is 1 ÷ 1.45, or about 69%.
How do I convert betting odds into a percentage?
Divide 1 by the decimal price and multiply by 100. A price of 4.00 is 25%, 2.50 is 40% and 1.25 is 80%.
Why do the implied chances in a market add up to more than 100%?
The amount above 100% is the overround, the bookmaker’s margin. Prices are set a little shorter than the true chances so the book turns a profit whatever wins.
What happens to a line bet if the result lands exactly on the line?
Under TAB NZ’s betting rules, single bets are refunded when the scores are level after the line has been applied, unless a draw price was offered.
Can I bet with an overseas bookmaker from New Zealand?
No. Since 28 June 2025, TAB NZ has been the only operator permitted to offer online sports and racing betting to people in New Zealand.
