When looking for the betting odds on a particular national team to win the World Cup, one is actually looking for the odds on that team ‘to win outright’.  OddsJet compares FIFA World Cup winner odds from several reputable sportsbook companies.  This allows OddsJet to display the best odds for every national team to win the World Cup outright so bettors may maximize their potential returns.

FIFA World Cup Futures and Ante Post markets explained     

FIFA World Cup outright winner betting is by far the most popular World Cup futures betting market.  Futures markets, also called Ante Post markets, are those that involve a wager that is placed well in advance of the result and where the result is usually determined over the course of an entire tournament or competition, rather than a single match.  In general, the highest paying odds for outright and futures betting markets will come before the tournament starts.  As the World Cup Finals progress and teams are eliminated, the odds will tighten and pay less for those teams still in position to lift the trophy.

Examples of World Cup outright winner odds expressed in American, Decimal and Fractional formats

For American odds format, there are two sets of expressions to remember, but both involve the figure of $100. First, negative numbers express how much one needs to wager in order to win a profit of $100.  This only happens when the odds are below even-money.  This will happen rarely given how many teams will be in contention to win.  You might see a negative figure should there be a heavy favorite very late in the competition.  For example, in the semi-final stage, you might see odds of -130.  This means you would have to stake $130 in order to win $100.  However, before the tournament, the outright winner outcome will still be relatively uncertain.  Thus the American odds will display positive figures because all the team odds will be above even-money.  When this is the case, the odds express how much potential profit would be returned on a $100 wager.  For example, when you see odds of +450 on a team like Germany to win outright, you would need to stake $100 in order to potentially receive a profit of $450, yielding a total possible return of $550.

With Decimal odds format, know that the odds express the full amount that would be returned on your successful wager including the stake amount.  For this, simply multiply the Decimal odds by the stake. For example, if Spain is listed at 3.95 to win outright, a $100 bet would return a total of $395 including your stake, so the profit would be $295. 

For Fractional format, the odds express the amount of potential profit that will be returned on a wager.  For example, with a wager of $100 and odds of 3/1 on Argentina to win outright (said 3 to 1), one could see a profit of $300 (3 divided by 1, multiplied by $100) plus the stake amount for a total return of $400.