Odds

If a player is 10/1, this means that if the player wins you get £10 for every £1 you bet, plus your original stake back. If a player is 'odds-on' then the odds are expressed as 1/10. This means that you for every £10 you bet you get £1 back if you win, plus your original stake.
 

Betting to Win

You place your bet on a player to win at 10/1. If the player obliges, then you are in the money.
 

Betting on a Place Finish

What counts as a place and the proportion of the odds you receive varies from one bookmaker to the next. Place finishes can vary from the first three to the first six places in a tournament and it is the same proportion of odds whether the player finishes 2nd or 6th. Say you place £1 on a player to finish in a 'place' at 20/1. If the player does this, you win a proportion of the 20/1 odds, plus your original stake back. If the proportion is a quarter (0.25), your place odds are 0.25 x 20 = 5/1 and you would win £5 for every £1 you bet.
 

Betting Each Way

This is a combination of Betting to Win and Betting on a Place Finish. You pay the same stake for each part of the bet. For example, £1 each way for a player winning at 10/1 would mean you get £10 for the win plus £2.50 for the place. If the player does not win but finishes in a place you lose the win bet, but win on the place bet.
 

Match Bet

Bet on whether one player will beat or tie another over a strokeplay tournament.
 

Two Ball Bet

Bet on whether one player will outscore another player over one round.
 

Three Ball Bet

Bet whether one player will outscore another two nominated players over one round.
 

Group Betting

The bookmaker selects a group of players, gives them odds of beating the rest in the group and you have to pick the winner.
 

Combination Bet

As it sounds, a Combination Bet involves combining more than one of the above bets. You must win all the bets in the combination to win. The value of the payout is equal to all the individual odds multiplied together. For example if you bet Player A to win at 10/1 and Player B to beat Player C in a Match Bet at 4/1 then the overall odds would be 40/1 if both bets came through.
 

Spread Betting

Spread Betting operates like a stock market where you 'Buy' and 'Sell' against a predicted outcome in an event. The bookmaker quotes a prediction, or 'Spread' on the final outcome for a player in a particular event. You then place your bet according to your view of this prediction. If you think the player will perform better than the prediction then you 'Buy' or 'Back' the bet. If you think the player will perform worse than the prediction then you 'Sell' or 'Oppose' the bet. You will win, or lose, the difference between the prediction and the final result multiplied by your stake. Therefore your potential win, or loss, is unlimited.

Spread Betting is applied to most of the types of bets mentioned above. However, unlike other bets, you can also place Spread Bets during the tournament and, like the stock market, the 'prediction' or 'Spread' will vary too. This is not for the fainthearted and you should fully understand what you are doing before flexing your plastic. Some bookmakers offer 'stop loss' schemes, so check carefully with each one before you take your chances.