Waste no time cutting the odds! (5,6,6)

I believe the answer is:

every second counts

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'waste no' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'time cutting the odds' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'time' could be 'second' (I've seen this before) and 'second' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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