Convert a Whole Market, Then Read the Margin in Every Format
The same price reads 1.91, -110, 10/11 ~, 0.910, +0.9100 and -1.099, one format after another.
Type the prices of one market, for example a Pinnacle line, in any of six formats and this odds converter returns each outcome in all six, with the margin and the margin-free probabilities.
Decimal, American, fractional, Hong Kong, Malay and Indonesian all pass through Hong Kong odds, which are the decimal price minus 1. A mixed entry such as +110, Hong Kong 2.4 and Indonesian +2.6 is therefore read as the same three-way market as 2.10, 3.40 and 3.60. The margin-free figures rest on one convention, proportional removal, and a Malay -0.9091 is a long price, a reading that trips many people.
- Source
- Pinnacle help centre and API documentation; Buchdahl paper on football closing odds
- Version
- Help article updated 2026-06-26; paper from 2017
- Limit
- Proportional margin removal is a convention
Can you convert a whole market in one pass?
Most converters take one price and hand back five other spellings of it. A market asks for more, because the margin lives in the sum of the prices and a single price cannot show it. This page takes two or three outcomes, each typed in its own format, and keeps the exact value you entered. The fields start with 2.10, 3.40 and 3.60, a three-way market; leave the third field empty for a two-way one. The best odds hub covers reading prices in general, and this tool is the narrower job of moving one market between spellings.
Every price in the starting fields is an invented example until you replace it. Decimal accepts a comma or a point, a fraction takes 6/4 or 6-4, and American, Malay and Indonesian expect an explicit plus or minus sign.
One market, six formats, margin-free
Pick a format for each outcome, type its price, and read the margin and the margin-free prices below.
Reads only the prices typed above. The figures stay in your browser, and rounded displays are not fed back into the calculation.
What does the result say about 2.10, 3.40 and 3.60?
The three prices imply 47.62%, 29.41% and 27.78%. They add up to 104.81%, a margin of 4.81%, and the page on margins and margin-free prices derives that sum step by step, so the formula is not repeated here. Proportional removal then gives 45.43%, 28.06% and 26.50%, which are margin-free prices of 2.201, 3.563 and 3.773. The favourite's 2.201 reads +120 in American and 6/5 ~ in fractional.
Every outcome carries the same 4.81% in relative terms, which is the signature of the proportional method and leaves open where a book actually hides its margin.
Two-way markets show the rounding trap early. 1.91 against 1.91 has a margin of 4.71%, while -110 against -110 comes to 4.76%, because -110 is exactly 1.909 in decimal, slightly below 1.91, and the American display rounds both to the same -110.
Six formats, and the rule behind each
Decimal: the total return per unit
Decimal shows what comes back for each unit staked, stake included. At 1.91 a stake of 1 returns 1.91, and 0.91 of that is the gain. The converter wants a value above 1.00.
American: a unit of 100
From 2.00 upwards the price is the decimal price minus 1, times 100, so 2.37 is +137. Below 2.00 it is minus 100 divided by the decimal price minus 1, so 1.91 is -109.89 and shows as -110. At exactly 2.00 the output is +100, and both +100 and -100 are accepted as input. A value strictly between -100 and +100 is refused.
Fractional: a display of the gain ratio
A fraction is the gain over the stake, so 6/4 is 1.50 in Hong Kong and 2.50 in decimal. The converter shows the nearest common fraction and adds a tilde when it is only close: 1.91 is exactly 91/100 and shows as 10/11 ~.
Hong Kong: decimal minus 1
Hong Kong is the gain on a stake of 1. A price of 0.91 is decimal 1.91, and 1.00 is even money. A Hong Kong price of 0 is refused.
Malay: Hong Kong, then inverted above 1
When the Hong Kong price is 1 or less, Malay equals it, so 0.91 gives +0.9100. Above 1 it becomes minus 1 divided by Hong Kong, so 2.10, which is Hong Kong 1.10, gives -0.9091. A negative Malay price is the amount you risk to gain 1.
Indonesian: Hong Kong, then inverted below 1
When the Hong Kong price is 1 or more, Indonesian equals it, so 2.10 gives +1.100. Below 1 it becomes minus 1 divided by Hong Kong, so 1.91 gives -1.099. It behaves like American with a unit of 1 (1 instead of 100).
Why does the Malay sign run opposite to the American one?
Line the two up. Decimal 2.10: American +110, Malay -0.9091. Decimal 1.91: American -110, Malay +0.9100. At 2.00 both Malay and Indonesian read 1.00. Indonesian keeps the American sign, since in both a plus means the gain on the amount risked.
Your eyes will fight this: a minus sign reads as a short price, and in Malay it marks a long one. Before you trust a converted figure, run it back to decimal and ask whether it sits above 2.00. At even money Malay and Indonesian both read 1.00; a Malay price of 0 is rejected because the rule cannot produce it.
What do Pinnacle's own odds converter and help pages cover?
According to the text of its page, Pinnacle's own margin calculator also takes every outcome of a market; this converter adds Hong Kong, Malay and Indonesian in and out, margin-free prices converted back into each format, and the sign rules. On formats, three official sources give three counts, each for a different scope. Pinnacle's help centre, in an article updated 2026-06-26, says the site offers two formats, Decimal and American, switched from a drop-down menu at the top of any page. Its odds converter page (undated) says it converts Decimal, American and Fractional odds. The public API documentation, also undated, lists five: American, Decimal, Hong Kong, Indonesian and Malay.
An interface, a tool and an API are different products, so the counts do not contradict each other. Which formats appear on a broker's screen is something to check on that screen. The converter does not reproduce any operator's display, so a given account may show something else.
What does removing the margin assume?
Proportional removal (the multiplicative or equal-margin method) gives, on 1.91 against 1.91, 50.00% for each side and margin-free prices of 2.000. Other conventions exist, among them additive, power, odds ratio and Shin's method, each with its own idea of where the margin sits. The additive one can return a negative probability when a market has many outcomes, and with two outcomes it matches Shin's.
Proportional removal assumes the margin is spread in proportion to the probabilities, and published research suggests that is too simple. Joseph Buchdahl (football-data.co.uk, 2017) used Pinnacle closing odds for 136,876 football matches from 2007 to 2016. Removing the margin equally across outcomes left a theoretical yield of -0.56%, against +0.1% for a method that loads more margin on longer prices. He attributed the gap to the favourite-longshot bias, and he does not claim to know which model is best.
Treat a margin-free price as an estimate built on a convention; no book lists it, so it is not a price you can bet. If you measure a bet against a closing price, the removal method moves the yardstick; the page on closing line value is where that comparison belongs.
Which prices does the converter refuse?
Refusals are the cases with no price behind them: decimal at 1.00 or below, American strictly between -100 and +100, Malay at 0 or outside the range from -1 to +1, Indonesian strictly between -1 and +1, Hong Kong at 0, and a fraction with a zero in it. Decimal 1.001 is accepted and converts to American -100000. That is a choice made by this tool for very short prices and tells you nothing about which prices any operator lists.
A market with more than three outcomes is out of scope. So is an Asian handicap line that can refund the stake, because a sum of inverses no longer measures what such a line costs; how Asian handicap lines settle covers that case.
Copy the original price, not the rounded one
American prices show as whole numbers, decimal, Hong Kong and Indonesian to three decimals, and Malay to four significant digits. Pinnacle's converter page says it quotes decimal odds to three places. The tool keeps the exact value you typed, but a person copying a displayed figure loses precision. Across 2,900 decimal prices from 1.01 to 30.00, a Malay price rounded to three decimals failed to return the original price 2,303 times, against none at four significant digits. Fractions failed 1,014 times. A fraction is a label, not a value.
The third decimal matters: 1.909 against 1.91 turns a stake of 100 into 190.90 instead of 191.00 (a gap of 0.10 in return). Fractions have their own habit, since 6/4 and 3/2 are the same price and the converter returns 3/2.
When a price on another screen looks different from one you converted, compare the exact decimal first. To set the same event across two routes, the price parity check compares two prices; to add up the best price of each outcome across several books, arbitrage betting shows the arithmetic.
Only prices you type are used and no operator's odds are shown; betting is for adults only (18+).