FC Cincinnati Odds & Betting

FC Cincinnati Odds and Betting

There’s no denying that soccer has steadily become more popular in the United States, and nothing typifies this more than the fact that there are now states with multiple teams in the MLS. Ohio is home to two of them, the Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati.

We’ve got you covered if you’re looking to enhance the experience of watching your favorite soccer team by learning more about FC Cincinnati odds and betting. We present all you need to know about betting on FC Cincinnati, how to interpret FC Cincinnati’s soccer odds, and win money on them.

FC Cincinnati History

Before we get into the odds, it’s important to understand the team’s stature. FC Cincinnati are a Major League Soccer (MLS) side, but their story didn’t begin there. It started on August 12, 2015, as a United Soccer League (USL) Championship side. 

After a few years in the USL, the big day finally came on May 29, 2018, when the club was awarded an MLS expansion bid to become the 26th franchise in the league. The talks had started in 2016 and finally paid off. The club couldn’t play an MLS game for a year but ended the USL era by winning the 2019 USL Supporters’ Shield. This was the club’s first trophy and a fitting way to end their time in the USL.

FC Cincinnati’s biggest rivals are Columbus Crew, also from Ohio. The rivalry kick-started as the Hell is Real Derby after a US Open Cup game between the two sides in 2017, which FC Cincinnati won 1-0. Despite its short history, the club sacked six managers since becoming an MLS side, including former legendary Dutch player Jaap Stam.

Betting On FC Cincinnati

It will still be seen as early days for FC Cincinnati until at least the 2024-25 season, when the club hits their five-year mark in the top soccer division in the country. This is important to keep in mind - FC Cincinnati odds and betting will seem lucrative on many occasions, but the reason for that is that they will be underdogs more often than not. We love an underdog bet as much as the next betting enthusiast, but discipline is key when it comes to wagering. 

FC Cincinnati Odds and Betting Formats

Keep the previous section in mind, and you’ll understand what we meant when we said the odds might appear lucrative every time you’re betting on FC Cincinnati. 

American odds, also called moneyline odds, are what will typically show up when you’re betting on FC Cincinnati. 

These whole numbers either have a negative or positive sign before them and generally indicate which team is favored and which one is an underdog. Typically, one team has negative number odds, and one has positive. 

The former indicates a favored team, and a latter indicates a less favored or underdog team. FC Cincinnati are more likely to be the ones with the positive (aka longer) odds at this stage in their life as an MLS team. 

American odds show you how much of an investment it would take for you to win $100 betting on the team with a negative number (shorter) odds, and on the flip side, how much you would make if you bet $100 on the team with the longer odds. 

For example, if Columbus Crew (-150) were taking on FC Cincinnati (+300) in the Hell Is Real Derby, you would have to bet $150 on the Crew to get a $100 reward, and those proportions would hold true no matter what your betting amount is.

 On the other hand, a $100 bet on FC Cincinnati would give you a $300 reward (or a total of $400 in payout, including your stake) if they went on to win. 

Decimal odds are presented as they sound, in the form of decimals. They have a direct correlation with every other odds format, and you can convert between these formats using an odds converter tool from any reputable website. From the example above, Columbus Crew’s -150 translates to 1.67 in the decimal format, and FC Cincinnati’s betting odds of +300 translate to 4.00. Decimal odds allow you to calculate your payout easily. 

All you’ve to do to arrive at the payout sum is to multiply your staked amount by the presented odds. So, if you successfully bet $100 on FC Cincinnati, your payout would be $100 x 4 = $400. Remember that payout does not mean the same thing as a reward - you can arrive at the reward earned by subtracting your stake from the final payout. So, in this case, the reward would be $400 - $100 = $300.

Fractional odds are presented as a ratio of reward to stake. For example, betting odds of 2/3 on FC Cincinnati would give you two dollars for every three invested - or a stake of $150 would give you a reward of $100. Like American odds, this format also only represents the winnings you would make; to get the total payout, you would have to add the stake to the winnings.

Types Of Betting for FC Cincinnati

Understanding the various odds formats above allows you to dive straight into creating your bet slip for FC Cincinnati games. Here are the most popular types of bets you can place on FC Cincinnati. 

Match Result or Three-Way Moneyline Bet

The most common type of soccer bets is the match winner. Since soccer has a tie result during league games, these moneyline bets are sometimes also three-pronged and called three-way moneyline bets.

In MLS league stage games, you’ll have FC Cincinnati odds for wins, losses, or ties throughout the season. The draw may not always be an option in the MLS playoffs, which is a knockout round. If it is, it will likely be for the scoreline after 90 minutes and will not involve extra time or penalties. 

Both teams to score (BTTS)

This is a fairly intuitive bet to understand. As the name suggests, you will be betting on whether or not both teams will score. Some sportsbooks provide this market alongside the market for who will win the game, but primarily, the result of the game doesn’t matter. A more rewarding market to look out for in combination with this is the total goals scored market; if you think both teams will score, and you have a fair idea how many goals they may score, you can potentially multiply your rewards. 

Spread

The spread - also called goal line or handicap - is a popular way to bet on soccer games and a great way to even the scales between two teams with differing abilities. If FC Cincinnati are strong favorites to win a match, for example, the reward on them winning might not be very lucrative. If, however, you throw the margin of victory into the picture, you could create more of a risk and hence a larger reward. 

Example of a spread bet

Let’s consider that FC Cincinnati are playing against Inter Miami, and are favorites to win. The moneyline odds and the spread are as follows:

Team

Moneyline odds

Spread

FC Cincinnati

-154

-1.5 (+187)

Inter Miami 

+400

+1.5 (+125)

You’ll notice that adding a spread has made the potential rewards more even. But what exactly does the spread mean? In this case, Cincinnati, the favorites, would have to not just win for your bet to be successful, but would have to do it by a margin of at least two goals. 

If that is too complex to process, there’s a simpler equation: this spread makes it so that the score line of the match would begin with Cincinnati on 0 and Miami on 1.5. Essentially, Cincinnati would have to overcome this handicap and still be winners for your bet to be successful, i.e. they’d have to win by a two-goal margin. For instance, a final score of 3-1 in Cincinnati’s favor would make the effective score 3-2.5, and your bet would be successful.

If Cincinnati had a +1.5 spread, then the score would be flipped at the start, with Miami starting on 0 and Cincinnati starting on 1.5 - in that case, all Cincinnati would have to do to win you the bet would be to either win the game or not lose by more than a goal. So if Cincinnati were to lose by a 1-0 margin in the actual game, the effective score after the handicap would be 1-1.5, which means Cincinnati would win the bet because of the handicap.

Player to Score

This market allows you to back a player - or a few - to score goals in a match. Before - or during - a match, bookmakers will give you a list of every player that is available on the field and provide odds on each one of them scoring, including the goalkeeper. As you can probably guess, the odds of a goalkeeper scoring will be way longer than the odds of the center forward scoring! 

Defenders are likely to be on the goalkeeper’s end of the spectrum, while midfielders will offer tempting in-between type of odds. This market is sometimes combined with the result of the match as well. It might look something like this: Brandon Vazquez to score and FC Cincinnati to win (+250).

FC Cincinnati Prop Bets

Prop bets are short for proposition bets, which are so called because they are generally bets placed on questions or propositions. For instance, consider the previous section where we discussed Player To Score bets. You wagered on Vazquez to score and for Cincinnati to win the match; in a prop bet, the bet would be more granular and unrelated to the match result. Props are bets that would seek answers to questions like, will Vazquez be the first scorer? Will he score in the 15-30 minute period? And so on. 

Apply this to yellow cards, red cards, halves in which teams will score, time of the first goal in a match, and so on. Prop bets are the heartbeat of live betting. Think about the questions placed earlier - aren’t you likely to hear those across the table at a sports bar when catching a game with your friends?

FC Cincinnati Parlays

A parlay is a tiered wager involving multiple outcomes that must all go right for the overall bet to win. Combining multiple bets - especially multiple short bets - is a great way to raise the odds and is something of an expert-level bet. If you think Vazquez will score AND Cincinnati will win AND that they’ll keep a clean sheet, you can create a same-game parlay and put one stake on all three of those happening, rather than risking more money to place bets on them individually.

FC Cincinnati MLS Outrights And Futures

This market opens in pre-season and stays open until the end. The outrights market is the market where you pick the winner of the MLS Cup and constantly fluctuate based on the various teams’ forms throughout the season. As an FC Cincinnati supporter, you could also bet on the Eastern Conference winner market, the MLS playoff qualifications market, and the golden boot award market.