When placing a bet, some people will take a look at the odds to decide how to bet. The odds are determined by the bookmakers and they are both based on their assessment and on how other people are betting. This can be an interesting tactic and it is good to have a think about how you would like the odds to look before you place a specific bet. It can be easy to be distracted by the process of betting or by the sport that you are betting on rather than actually thinking about the risk and what your expectations are with regards to winning.
High Odds
If the odds are high, it means that something has a very low chance of winning or being true. This means that if you bet on something that has high odds, then you are more likely to lose your money. It may therefore seem silly to do this, but if there is a win then you will get a really big reward. High odds horses, for example in a race, could have such high odds that you could get back £1000 if you place a £1 bet. Some people feel that it is worth a try at this and will be happy to take the risk because they think that the win will be worth it. Others will not though.
Low Odds
With low odds you have a much better chance of winning. This means that if you place a bet then you are more likely to get some money back. However, because the chance of winning is so high the odds will be low and this means that you will have a much lower value prize. You may only get your money back or even less than that or just above. Some people would rather win something rather than nothing and are happy with this, but others will only want to place a bet if they think that the jackpot will be a significant sum.
So, whether high or low odds are better very much depends on your perspective. If you are a risk taker, then you might have high odds and then you have a chance of winning a big prize. If you do not like risk then you may rather place a bet on something with low odds so that you have a chance of at least winning something. The important thing is to think about which will apply most to you before placing your bet. Consider whether you are a risk taker and what you will be happy with and then it will help you to be able to make the right decision when you are thinking about how to place your bet. It is also worth considering that some odds will be somewhere in between high and low and so you can take a medium level risk. It could be worth deciding whether this will suit you more, rather than going very high or very low as most of us are not that extreme one way or the other when taking risks.