Evs means evens, also called even money. In Australian decimal odds it is $2.00, in fractional odds it is 1/1, and in American odds it is +100. A winning $10 bet at evens returns $20: your $10 stake back plus $10 profit. The price implies a 50% chance, as Football Whispers and Kickoff both set out.
That's the short answer. The more useful one is why a contest that really is 50/50 almost never shows $2.00 on a bookmaker's board, and what an "even-money favourite" on a Spring Carnival race card actually tells you. Every number below is an invented example, not a selection.
Evens in every odds format
Evens is the dividing line between odds-on and odds-against, so it is worth knowing in every format you might see.
| Format | Evens | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Decimal (Australia) | $2.00 | Total return per $1 staked, stake included |
| Fractional (UK) | 1/1, written "evs" or "evens" | Profit of 1 for every 1 staked |
| American (US) | +100 | Profit of $100 on a $100 stake |
| Implied probability | 50% | 1 divided by 2.00 |
If you switch between formats often, our odds converter guide walks through each conversion.
Odds-on, odds-against and where evens sits
- Below $2.00 is odds-on. At $1.50 you stake $10 to win $5 profit. The price implies a better than even chance.
- Exactly $2.00 is evens. Profit equals stake.
- Above $2.00 is odds-against. At $3.00 you stake $10 to win $20 profit.
Odds-on prices need a high strike rate just to break even. Professional punter Mark Rhoden told Racing NSW he sees betting odds-on as "a marginal proposition at best".
What evens tells you about probability
To turn any decimal price into an implied probability, divide 1 by the price. At $2.00 that gives 50%. Our implied probability guide has the full method.
Here's the catch. Implied probability is the bookmaker's price, not the true chance. It has the bookmaker's margin baked in. So a price of $2.00 means "this pays as if it were a 50% chance", not "this is a 50% chance".
Why a 50/50 game is rarely priced at evens
Take a two-way market where both sides are genuinely equal: a coin toss, or an NBA game where the spread has been set so either side is as likely to cover. If the bookmaker priced both sides at $2.00, it would take no margin at all. Instead, the market usually looks something like this:
| Side | Price | Implied probability |
|---|---|---|
| Team A | $1.90 | 52.6% |
| Team B | $1.90 | 52.6% |
| Total | 105.3% |
The total above 100% is the bookmaker's margin, often called the overround or vig. In US markets the standard spread price is -110 on both sides, about $1.91 in decimal. FOX Sports puts the built-in edge on that market at 4.76% and the break-even win rate at 52.38%.
Two things follow:
- The fair price on a true 50/50 is $2.00. Strip the margin out and each side is back to 50%, which converts to evens. Our guide to what vig is shows how to remove it.
- At $1.90 you need to win 52.6% of the time to break even. At $2.00 you need 50%. That gap of about 2.6 percentage points is what the margin costs you on every bet.
Finding evens on an odds screen
Different bookmakers price the same market differently. If one book has Team A at $2.00 and another has Team B at $1.95, taking the best price on each side gives a combined book of 50% + 51.3% = 101.3%. That's far closer to fair than any single bookmaker's 105.3%.
This is the point of comparing prices. An odds screen shows every bookmaker's price on a market side by side, so you can see when one of them is sitting at evens while the rest are at $1.90.
The even-money favourite in racing
Racing markets have many runners, so the margin is spread across the whole field. Australian racing calls the total of every runner's implied probability the market percentage.
Here's an invented eight-runner field:
| Runner | Price | Implied probability |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2.00 | 50.0% |
| 2 | $5.00 | 20.0% |
| 3 | $7.00 | 14.3% |
| 4 | $9.00 | 11.1% |
| 5 | $13.00 | 7.7% |
| 6 | $15.00 | 6.7% |
| 7 | $21.00 | 4.8% |
| 8 | $31.00 | 3.2% |
| Market | 117.7% |
Runner 1 is the even-money favourite. But the whole market adds to 117.7%, not 100%. If you scale every runner down in proportion (50 divided by 117.7), the favourite's fair chance is about 42.5%, which converts to a fair price of about $2.35.
So in this example the even-money favourite is priced as a 50% chance but, on a simple proportional adjustment, rates closer to 42.5%. That's the value of checking the market percentage before reading too much into "evens fav". Proportional scaling is the simplest way to remove a margin, not the only one, and bookmakers don't always spread their margin evenly across a field.
Evens on a betting exchange
On an exchange you can back a price (bet it wins) or lay it (bet it loses). Backing at 2.00 looks like true evens, but exchanges charge commission on your net winnings in a market, and the rate differs by sport and code. iGaming Business reported Betfair raising its NRL market base rate from 6% to 10% in 2020, while its AFL rate was 2.5% at the time.
With an example commission rate of 8%:
- Back $10 at 2.00 and win: $10 profit, less 8% commission ($0.80), leaves $9.20 profit.
- That's the same as backing at an effective price of $1.92.
- At an example 5% rate, the effective price would be $1.95.
So evens on an exchange is not quite evens once commission comes out. Compare the effective price, not the headline one.
When a price at evens is worth a closer look
Evens is just a number. Whether it is a good price depends on how it compares with the fair chance. A quick checklist:
- Convert the price to implied probability (1 divided by 2.00 = 50%).
- Check the market's total. On a two-way market, near 100% is tight and 105% or more is wide. In racing, compare the market percentage against other bookmakers.
- Estimate the fair price by removing the margin from the market, or from the sharpest market you can see.
- Compare. If the fair chance works out above 50%, evens is longer than fair. If it is below 50%, evens is shorter than fair. Either way, it is an estimate, and estimates can be wrong.
- Allow for commission if you're on an exchange.
Our expected value guide covers what to do with that comparison, and why one bet tells you very little.
See where evens sits across the market
If you want to see which bookmakers are at evens and which are at $1.90 on the same market, open the BetBank odds screen and compare the prices side by side before you decide anything.
Betting is for adults 18+ only. Every bet can lose, so set limits and gamble responsibly. If you want a break, BetStop lets you block yourself from all licensed Australian online and phone betting providers for free.