How To Read The Daily Slate "Charts"

My guess is some of you are confused by these Daily Slate charts that I do. I thought I'd break down the numbers a bit.

First, you will see the team being listed, then a number with a plus or a minus next to it. Those are the money line odds a team has at the time I put together the entry.

Should you see a plus in front of the number, divide by 100 and you'll get a team's Decimal Odds. I'll explain the importance of that figure as we go.

However, a favored team will have, in most instances, a negative sign in front of the number. To compute those Decimal Odds, divide 100 into the number.

For instance, for -200, divide 100 into 200 and you should get .5.

In order to get the EV rating, you will also need a team's win probability as a cross reference. The ESPN pages on every game is a good place to get data from, currently.

I do not factor in how good or bad a team is at a given point in time. That's because it's already been factored in.

So say Team A is +120 with a 45 percent win chance. My best advice is to put this into a spreadsheet like Google Sheets.

Multiply 45 times 1.2 to get 54.

If the bet loses, you can only lose the unit you bet. A team with a 45 percent win odds will also lose 55 times in 100 trials, and of course 55 times 1 is 55.

You take 54, subtract 55, and divide by 100 to get the EV "rating" of -0.01. This makes for a bet with negative value.

Using the above example, let's say Team B is -145 on the money line somewhere.

First, divide 100 into 145 to get .690.

Multiply 55 times .690 to get 37.95.

Subtract 45 from that and you should be at -7.05. Divide by 100 to get at the EV rating of -0.07.

Team A would hold the better value, but each team has negative value. You should probably avoid this game.

So that's pretty much how I do this.