Betfair has two main sports betting products. First up is the fixed odds sportsbook, which is more like a traditional bookie, and second they have their exchange which involves punters betting against each other with Betfair operating as the middleman. Changing the odds formats is a little different for each of these platforms so we’ll look at them individually.
Betfair Sportsbook: Changing to Decimal Odds
The default odds format in the sportsbook is fractional. Those of you who don’t have calculators in your brains will probably want to change this to decimal so that it mirrors the exchange and makes comparison easier, otherwise you’ll end up trying to compare 14/5 against 3.75.
Doing so is pretty easy though, you’re just going to need to head all the way to the bottom of the page:
Here you’ll find a drop down box that will probably read ‘Fractional’ – if it doesn’t, you’re already on decimal odds.
To change the odds simply select ‘Decimal’ from the drop down. The site will remember your selection the next time you visit, but if you ever want to change it back just repeat these steps and select ‘Fractional’.
As far as we’re aware there is no option for American odds at Betfair.
Betfair Exchange: Can You Change to Fractional Odds?
Betfair are arguably better known for their betting exchange. And whilst it isn’t the only one out there, it’s definitely the biggest – and yes this does make a difference when it comes to liquidity.
By default the exchange uses decimal format odds:
There’s a very good reason for this. Decimal odds are much easier to work with, especially when using small incremental steps such as going from 1.89 to 1.9 as in the example above.
If you didn’t use decimal odds then instead of something as simple as 4.3 and 4.4, you’d be looking at 33/10 and 12/5.
For this reason you cannot change the odds format of the exchange.