# Odds API for Positive EV Betting
URL: https://sockodds.com/use-cases/positive-ev-betting-api/

> Positive EV betting API with no-vig fairOdds and every AU book's price side by side, so you can surface +EV bets without building your own devig pipeline.

Positive EV betting API with no-vig fairOdds and every AU book's price side by side, so you can surface +EV bets without building your own devig pipeline.

SockOdds ships no-vig `fairOdds` alongside every bookmaker's posted price on Base and above, so a positive EV tool can compare each Australian book's odds to a true-probability benchmark out of the box. A single event object returns 21 Australian books, the Betfair Exchange, Pinnacle and the prediction markets, plus `fairOdds`, `fairSpread` and `fairOverUnder`, with no devig pipeline to build or maintain.

## Why use SockOdds to find +EV bets

- **No-vig fair odds ship with every market.** Each `oddID` carries `fairOdds`, `fairSpread` and `fairOverUnder`, and `fairOddsAvailable` says whether enough sharp data existed to compute them.
- **Every book's price sits side by side in byBookmaker.** 21 Australian books plus Betfair Exchange, Kalshi, Polymarket, ProphetX. You scan for the one book pricing a side cheaper than fair.
- **Player props, team props and alt lines are first-class.** +EV is easiest to find in less-efficient markets, and they carry the same fields.
- **Line movement is one retained event away.** Finished events stay in the feed; snapshot the prices you flag and measure them against the last price seen before kick-off.
- **Honest flags.** A price with `available: false` or on a stale event is never a real edge; the feed tells you.

## How a +EV bet finder works with our data

In a +EV finder the comparison loop is trivial; the fair-value benchmark behind it is the hard part. SockOdds derives it from the exchange and sharp-book consensus and returns it as `fairOdds` (see [how consensus odds are calculated](https://sockodds.com/docs/info/consensus-odds/)).

### Compare each book's price to fairOdds

Convert `fairOdds` to an implied probability, then each `byBookmaker` entry (use `decimal`: probability = 1/decimal). When a book's implied probability is lower than fair, that price pays more than it should — a positive-EV bet.

### Cover props and alt lines, not just mains

Head-to-head on big games is efficient; the edge lives in props and alternate lines, which carry the same fields.

### Track the closing price

Store the price you flagged, refetch the event after kick-off (finished events are retained), and compare against the last `lastUpdatedAt` price. Opening and closing snapshots are not stored by the feed yet, so snapshot yourself.

## Example request

```bash
curl "https://api.sockodds.com/v2/events/?leagueID=EPL&oddsAvailable=true&oddID=points-home-game-ml3way-home&limit=1" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"
```

Here `fairOdds` and each book's price are side by side; a book whose implied probability sits below the fair one is +EV:

```json
{
  "data": [
    {
      "eventID": "epl_2026-09-13_arsenal_vs_chelsea",
      "odds": {
        "points-home-game-ml3way-home": {
          "oddID": "points-home-game-ml3way-home",
          "fairOdds": "-148",
          "bookOdds": "-155",
          "byBookmaker": {
            "pinnacle": {
              "odds": "-150",
              "decimal": 1.67,
              "available": true
            },
            "sportsbet": {
              "odds": "-135",
              "decimal": 1.74,
              "available": true
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
```

Fair −148 implies a true probability near 59.7%; Sportsbet at 1.74 implies 57.5%. Because the book's implied probability is lower than fair, the Sportsbet price is +EV.

## SockOdds vs building your own devig pipeline

| Capability | SockOdds | building your own devig pipeline |
| --- | --- | --- |
| No-vig fair odds | `fairOdds`/`fairSpread`/`fairOverUnder` per market | Choose and tune a devig method yourself |
| Bookmaker coverage | 21 AU books + Pinnacle, Betfair Exchange, prediction markets | Only the books you maintain scrapers for |
| Player props & alt lines | Same shape as main markets | A separate parsing job per market type |
| Update speed | ~2 minutes | Bounded by your polling and scraper reliability |
| Closing prices | Retained events; snapshot yourself | Snapshot and store every line yourself |
| Maintenance | Vendor absorbs source changes | You own every scraper break |
| Control | Fixed consensus methodology | Full control over sources and weighting |

## Frequently asked questions

### What is a positive EV betting API?

A feed that gives you both each bookmaker's posted price and a true-probability benchmark, so software can flag bets where a book pays more than the outcome is worth.

### How do you calculate no-vig / fair odds?

From the exchange and sharp-book consensus where those price the market, with the margin removed; `fairOddsAvailable` says when that was possible.

### How do I find +EV bets from the data?

Convert fairOdds to a probability, convert each book's decimal to 1/decimal, flag any book whose implied probability is lower than fair.

### Which sportsbooks are included?

21 Australian books plus Betfair Exchange, Kalshi, Polymarket, ProphetX.

### How fresh is the odds data?

Every ~2 minutes on every plan.

### Can I track closing-line value (CLV)?

Snapshot the prices you flag; finished events are retained so you can refetch the last price. Open/close snapshots are not stored by the feed yet.

## Related use cases

- [Odds API for Arbitrage Betting](https://sockodds.com/use-cases/arbitrage-betting-api/): An arbitrage betting API that returns every Australian book's price per market through byBookmaker, so you can scan every bookmaker and alt line for arbs and middles..
- [Odds Comparison & Line Shopping API](https://sockodds.com/use-cases/odds-comparison-api/): Compare bookmaker odds with one API call.
- [Odds Data API for Sports Betting Models & Backtesting](https://sockodds.com/use-cases/sports-betting-machine-learning/): Sports betting machine learning data API with retained events, no-vig fair odds labels, and results for training and backtesting models on AFL, NRL and more..
- [Pricing](https://sockodds.com/pricing/): plans priced on request rate and scope, including a free Lite tier with no card.

## Start building today

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