The return: the other direction
The stake is rounded on the way in and the return is rounded on the way out, and the two roundings do not have to go the same way. This page compares the same eight settled bets under two rules.
- bets
- 8
- down pays
- 64.04
- nearest pays
- 64.07
- moved
- 3 of 8
A return is the stake multiplied by the price, and the product is a full-precision number that is then rounded to the currency's smallest unit. A round-down rule pays the lower unit and keeps the fraction; a round-to-nearest rule pays the closer unit. On eight invented bets five landed exactly and three moved by one unit, a difference of 0.03 in total.
Two rules, one set of bets
The same eight settled bets are cheaper under one rule than the other, and neither rule is wrong - what matters is which one the operator's published rules state.
| Stake | Price | Exact | Round down | Nearest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10.00 | 1.14 | 11.400000 | 11.40 | 11.40 |
| 7.00 | 1.142857 | 7.999999 | 7.99 | 8.00 |
| 3.00 | 1.333333 | 3.999999 | 3.99 | 4.00 |
| 2.50 | 1.90 | 4.750000 | 4.75 | 4.75 |
| 5.00 | 1.05 | 5.250000 | 5.25 | 5.25 |
| 4.00 | 1.666700 | 6.666800 | 6.66 | 6.67 |
| 20.00 | 1.075 | 21.500000 | 21.50 | 21.50 |
| 1.00 | 2.50 | 2.500000 | 2.50 | 2.50 |
| 8 bets | - | 64.067799 | 64.04 | 64.07 |
Where the three moving bets come from
The three bets that move are not the largest and not the smallest; they are the three whose product does not land on the unit. A price of 8/7 expressed as 1.142857 multiplied by 7.00 gives 7.999999, which is one hundred-thousandth of a unit below 8.00, and a round-down rule pays 7.99. A price of 4/3 slightly truncated, multiplied by 3.00, gives 3.999999, and the same rule pays 3.99. The literal price 1.6667 multiplied by 4.00 gives 6.6668 and pays 6.66. In each case the exact product sits just under a whole unit, and the direction of the rounding decides whether the player receives it.
- Read the settlement rule for the direction: a round-down rule and a round-to-nearest rule differ by up to one unit on every bet that does not land exactly.
- Check whether the operator quotes a truncated price or the exact one; a truncated price creates a fraction before the rounding even starts.
- Expect nothing to move when the product lands exactly, which on sample C was five bets out of eight.
- Do not treat a one-unit difference as an error; it is the rule being applied.
- Add the stake tail and the return tail together before judging the pricing: a bet can lose a fraction on the way in and another on the way out.