Marathonbet explains… Margins

**We’re 0% margin* – here’s how it works…**

You may already know Marathonbet as a low margin bookmaker, but what does a 0% margin really mean?

A sportsbook margin (or sometimes referred to as commission) is what bookmakers take on a betting market.

**0% margin* means that the bookmaker takes no ‘commission’ on the corresponding markets, making the odds offered more favourable for the customer.**

You can find the latest matches on which Marathonbet are offering 0% margin in a separate category under the corresponding sport or by clicking the 0% margin banners on the website.

Let’s take a simple coin toss as an example…

The likelihood of a coin falling on heads or tails is the same, so a 50% chance of heads and 50% chance of tails. This equates to an even money chance, 1/1 in fractions or 2.00 in decimals.

If Customer A places £10 on Heads and Customer B places £10 on Tails, one customer will win £10, one will lose £10 and the bookmaker will break even, thus making this a 100% market.

So, in this example, there is no built-in profit margin for the bookmaker if stakes are split equally. Whether the coin falls on heads or tails, the bookmaker breaks even.

However, all bookmakers create markets at over 100% which then creates the bookmakers’ margin. The higher the margin on a particular market, the lower the overall amount paid back on successful bets.

So, if we take the coin toss but now the prices offered are 9/10 (1.90) heads & 9/10 (1.90) tails. This creates a percentage of 105.26% and if the bookmaker takes £10 on each, they will now be paying £19 and keeping £1 profit.

**0% Margins* Explained**

So how does this relate to betting on the Match Result (1X2) market, for example, on which we are offering a 0% margin?

Let us say Man Utd are playing at home to Liverpool.

The prices offered for this match are:

4.20 (16/5) Man Utd

3.80 (14/5) Draw

2.00 (1/1) Liverpool

To calculate the margin, divide 100 (the break level margin) by the decimal prices, thus…

100/4.20 = 23.809

100/3.80 = 26.316

100/2.00 = 50.000

23.809 + 26.316 + 50.000 = 100.125%

In this example, this is the closest a bookmaker can get to 0% whilst retaining a percentage of at least 100.

Change this to the less generous prices offered by a different bookmaker on the same match and you can see the difference:

4.00 (3/1) Man Utd

3.60 (13/5) Draw

1.90 (9/10) Liverpool

100/4.00 = 25.000

100/3.60 = 27.778

100/1.90 = 52.632

25.000 + 27.778 + 52.631 = 105.409%

All bookmakers create markets at over 100% thus creating the bookmakers’ margin

The higher the margin on a particular market, the lower the overall amount paid back to customers on successful bets.

Low margins, better rewards

When a bookmaker offers the lowest margin, if stakes are split evenly across all selections, they will be paying more back to winning customers

This does not mean that the price on every selection with the bookmaker betting to the lowest margin will be bigger than elsewhere, but over a period of time your returns are much likely to be higher with a low-margin bookmaker.

Transfer the same logic to a winning multiple bet, and the low margins would increase the winnings exponentially depending on the amount of winning selections.

For example, you place the following bet:

£10 four-fold with us at our 0% margins:

£10 x 2.00 x 2.00 x 2.00 x 2.00 = £160.00

You place the same four-fold with a bookmaker betting to 5.26% margins:

£10 x 1.90 x 1.90 x 1.90 x 1.90 = £130.32

Why settle for lower winnings elsewhere?

Look out for Marathonbet’s 0% margin* offers and make sure you are consistently getting the best value.