Odds Boost Value

An odds boost can entice with a short-lived market improvement, but is it still better than the rest of the free spread?

The resulting implied probability is what decides whether a boosted price is worth taking. For example, the conversion of a +150 market line is 40%. Boosting that to +200 would imply a 33.3% win probability.

How odds boosts raise the price

Many sportsbooks support odds boosts on moneyline, point spread or totals bets on select events. The exact promotions differ by operator but will often raise the payout on undersized favorites or overdue streaks. As with most bonuses, they are time-limited and sportsbook-specific.

On sports betting websites, odds boosts are usually flagged on big events and their promotions pages. However, they do not need tokens or codes and can be a standing market line during the promotion period. Sportsbooks may also give an overall boost to odds without tokens as a profit boost or odds boost.

Converting boosts to implied probabilities

Once a sportsbook has installed that odds boost, you can compare it against the best available odds across the line. This involves converting the American odds into an implied probability:

• For underdog positive American odds, the calculation is 100 / (odds + 100)
• For favorite negative American odds, the calculation is odds / (odds + 100), ignoring the minus sign.

For example, the best odds available on Team A could be +150. With this formula, the implied probability to compare the odds boost against is 100 / (150 + 100) = 40%.

If the boost lifts that price to +200, the implied probability becomes 100/(200 + 100) = 33.3%. The boosted price asks you to be right less often for the same return, so the lower the implied probability, the better the boost. If the boosted number still implies a higher probability than the best price elsewhere in the market, the boost is a repackaged short price and not value.

What an odds boost can apply to

Sportsbooks can run the odds boost on moneyline, point spread or total lines, and are typically event or sport-specific. Although this is not always the case, an event boost would be applied to both the moneyline and the totals line for Example Game A, or all events in Example Sport A, with some exclusions.

An odds boost is different from a profit boost token, which raises the payout in a given percentage. A typical profit boost token is given on a deposit and can then be used by the player to add a fixed percentage boost on any sport or selection. Like the odds boost, there are always limits and exceptions.

Two limits decide what a boost is actually worth to you: the maximum stake it accepts, which is often far below what you would normally bet, and the markets it excludes. A large percentage on a $25 cap is a small amount of money, and it is worth nothing at all if the boosted price is still shorter than the same market at another book.