Odds studied in advance (6)
I believe the answer is:
spread
'advance' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'odds studied' is the wordplay.
'odds' becomes 'sp' (betting abbreviation for starting price).
'studied' becomes 'read' (I've seen this before).
'sp'+'read'='SPREAD'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for spread that I've seen before include "Parsed (anag.)" , "Scatter - padres (anag)" , "Courses" , "Scatter or distribute more thinly" , "Unfold - scatter" .)