What each bookmaker charges
Every price a bookmaker publishes has their cut built into it. Add up what the odds in a market imply, and the amount over 100% is what they keep. It is the closest thing betting has to a price tag, and almost nobody prints it.
Below is that figure for 38 matches across Premier League, UEFA Champions League, taken from the operators' own Nigerian sites and from an odds feed covering the European books, sampled every three hours. I have written it as what comes out of a ₦1,000 stake, because a percentage is an abstraction and money is not. Each competition gets its own tables: the same books charge very different amounts on different leagues, and pooling them would rank a book partly by which leagues it covers.
On the Premier League match result the spread runs from ₦15 at 1xBet Nigeria to ₦91 at Betway Nigeria. Same match, same outcome, 76 naira a thousand apart.
Premier League
Match result
| Bookmaker | Per ₦1,000 | Margin | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1xBet Nigeria | ₦15 | 1.55% | 1.5–1.6% |
| SportyBet | ₦29 | 3.00% | 1.9–3.1% |
| MSport | ₦29 | 3.02% | 0.9–3.1% |
| Dafabet feed | ₦38 | 3.92% | 3.6–4.2% |
| Pinnacle feed | ₦40 | 4.15% | 3.1–5.7% |
| Marathonbet feed | ₦41 | 4.30% | 4.0–4.4% |
| BetKing | ₦44 | 4.60% | 3.8–5.4% |
| Betano feed | ₦47 | 4.98% | 4.6–5.2% |
| Betfair feed | ₦56 | 5.90% | 4.3–7.5% |
| Bet365 feed | ₦58 | 6.16% | 4.4–7.8% |
| William Hill feed | ₦67 | 7.14% | 5.3–8.8% |
| BetVictor feed | ₦70 | 7.51% | 7.1–8.0% |
| Betway Nigeria | ₦91 | 9.99% | 5.2–10.8% |
| SBO feed | ₦114 | 12.87% | 12.3–13.2% |
Both teams to score
| Bookmaker | Per ₦1,000 | Margin | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| SportyBet | ₦48 | 5.05% | 4.5–5.4% |
| BetKing | ₦53 | 5.63% | 5.3–5.8% |
| MSport | ₦57 | 6.02% | 5.8–6.2% |
| Betfair feed | ₦57 | 6.06% | 5.7–8.2% |
| Betano feed | ₦66 | 7.06% | 6.5–7.5% |
| William Hill feed | ₦66 | 7.12% | 6.4–7.6% |
| Bet365 feed | ₦67 | 7.18% | 6.7–8.1% |
| 1xBet Nigeria | ₦70 | 7.52% | 7.5–7.6% |
| Marathonbet feed | ₦75 | 8.10% | 8.0–8.2% |
| BetVictor feed | ₦77 | 8.33% | 8.0–9.0% |
| Betway Nigeria | ₦82 | 8.96% | 8.8–9.3% |
Over/under 2.5 goals
| Bookmaker | Per ₦1,000 | Margin | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1xBet Nigeria | ₦15 | 1.54% | 1.5–5.5% |
| Betano feed | ₦38 | 3.93% | 3.6–4.3% |
| SBO feed | ₦40 | 4.20% | 3.6–5.0% |
| Pinnacle feed | ₦41 | 4.28% | 2.7–5.6% |
| Marathonbet feed | ₦45 | 4.75% | 4.5–8.8% |
| SportyBet | ₦47 | 4.99% | 3.9–5.5% |
| MSport | ₦48 | 4.99% | 3.9–5.1% |
| Bet365 feed | ₦51 | 5.33% | 4.7–5.7% |
| BetKing | ₦54 | 5.71% | 5.4–5.9% |
| Betfair feed | ₦75 | 8.14% | 6.0–8.4% |
| BetVictor feed | ₦83 | 9.01% | 8.7–9.2% |
| Betway Nigeria | ₦83 | 9.07% | 8.9–9.2% |
UEFA Champions League
Match result
| Bookmaker | Per ₦1,000 | Margin | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1xBet Nigeria | ₦15 | 1.56% | 1.5–1.6% |
| MSport | ₦29 | 2.96% | 2.8–3.3% |
| SportyBet | ₦39 | 4.02% | 3.8–4.3% |
| BetKing | ₦58 | 6.17% | 5.7–6.5% |
| Betway Nigeria | ₦92 | 10.15% | 9.8–10.5% |
Both teams to score
| Bookmaker | Per ₦1,000 | Margin | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| SportyBet | ₦49 | 5.12% | 4.8–5.6% |
| MSport | ₦57 | 6.04% | 5.8–6.3% |
| BetKing | ₦57 | 6.06% | 5.8–6.4% |
| 1xBet Nigeria | ₦70 | 7.53% | 7.5–7.6% |
| Betway Nigeria | ₦82 | 8.97% | 8.7–9.2% |
Over/under 2.5 goals
| Bookmaker | Per ₦1,000 | Margin | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSport | ₦47 | 4.98% | 4.7–5.3% |
| 1xBet Nigeria | ₦55 | 5.80% | 1.5–7.3% |
| SportyBet | ₦57 | 6.04% | 5.8–6.4% |
| BetKing | ₦57 | 6.06% | 5.6–6.4% |
| Betway Nigeria | ₦82 | 8.98% | 8.7–9.4% |
What the table shows once you read across it
A book can be cheapest on one market and ordinary on the next. 1xBet is the clearest case: on the Premier League it is thinnest of anyone on the match result, at ₦15 a thousand, then number 8 of 11 on both teams to score at ₦70 — about 5 times its own headline figure. The number most people compare is the one most worth advertising, and it is priced accordingly. It is worth checking the market you actually bet rather than the one a comparison page leads with, this one included. For the best price on each outcome of each match, see where to take each bet.
1xBet does the same thing inside a single market. Of the goal lines it prices on a match, one — whichever sits nearest an even bet, usually 2.5, sometimes 3.5 or 4.5 — carries about 1.5%. On nearly every match I recorded, the lines either side of it carried 7.5% to 9%, five or six times as much. That is why its range on the over/under 2.5 table runs from under 2% to nearly 9%: on some matches 2.5 was the cheap line and on others it was a neighbour. On that one line it is the cheapest book here; half a goal either side, it is among the dearest.
Among the operators I read directly, the gap is wide enough to matter over a season rather than a weekend. On the Premier League, staking ₦1,000 a week for a year at Betway Nigeria instead of 1xBet Nigeria costs roughly ₦4,000 in margin alone, before a single bet is settled either way.
How this was measured
- Where the prices come from. SportyBet, BetKing, MSport, Betway and 1xBet are read from their own Nigerian sites. The rest arrive through an odds feed and are marked feed, because that feed does not say which of an operator's markets it carries.
- Not every book prices every league. Betway Nigeria lists no NPFL matches at all, so it is absent from those tables rather than missing by accident. The European books in the feed carry the Premier League only.
- Median, not average. Each figure is the middle value across the matches that book priced, with the spread beside it. One badly priced game should not decide a ranking. A book appearing on fewer than 3 matches is left out entirely.
- Whole markets only. A market counts only when every outcome in it was published. Two prices out of three always look cheaper than three.
The same figures as one number per bookmaker, with a chart to download: the bookmaker margin index.
What else a bet costs
On an accumulator the margin is paid once for every leg, so it multiplies. What that comes to at each of these bookmakers, and how often a "sure 2 odds" double really comes in: sure 2 odds, measured.
Margin is what the bookmaker charges, not everything a bet costs you. Deposit fees and the Lagos deduction on winnings come on top: see deposit charges and the Lagos betting tax.