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Private company

Odds BK

Logo: https://www.odd.no/, Non-free logo, via Wikipedia4

Norwegian association football club

Odds Ballklubb, commonly known as Odd, is a Norwegian professional football club from Skien. Originally the football section of a multi-sports club, it was founded in 1894, nine years after the club's founding. Most sports other than football and gymnastics were discontinued, and the club became dedicated primarily to football.2 It employed 66 people in 2026.1 It is part of IF Odd.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Mar 31, 1894Founded1
  • HeadquartersSkien, Norway1
  • Websitewww.odd.no
  • Legal formforening/lag/innretning1
  • Kind of organizationAssociation football club1
  • LEI549300I7ORWY2MPXU2953
  • StatusActive3
  • LEI statusIssued and current3
  • Registered addressOdds plass 3, 3722 Skien, Norway3
  • Registered withThe Brønnøysund Register Centre, 945 650 8853

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Odds Ballklubb, commonly known as Odd, is a Norwegian professional football club from Skien. Originally the football section of a multi-sports club, it was founded in 1894, nine years after the club's founding. Most sports other than football and gymnastics were discontinued, and the club became dedicated primarily to football. Odd plays in the Norwegian First Division, the second tier of the Norwegian football league system, and holds the record of winning the Norwegian Football Cup the most times with twelve wins, the last coming in 2000. The club was known as Odd Grenland between 1994 and 2012. Founded in 1894, Odd is the oldest football club in Norway. As of 13 May 2017 the club was granted a membership in Club of Pioneers. It then became the first Nordic football club to be granted this membership.2

Corporate structure

Odds BK sits at the top of its group. 1 entity, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Odds BK Skien, Norway
    • Skagerak Arena Owned · Skien, Norway

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What Odds BK reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

  • Skagerak Arena

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.1

The story

IF Odd was founded in 1885, and is thus one of the older sports clubs in Norway still in existence. The name derives from Viktor Rydberg's novel Seierssverdet, where one of the main characters was a Norwegian athlete called Orvar Odd.

In the beginning, IF Odd was mainly focused on gymnastics and also had a department for Nordic skiing and track and field. A department for football, named Odds BK, was founded on 31 March 1894. This initiative was the club's second effort to do so, some time after English workers at nearby Skotfoss brought the game of football to Skien, and the city decided to buy a football. Odd is counted as Norway's oldest football team still in existence.

Odd started a cooperation with the local club Pors in 1994 and changed their names to Odd Grenland and Pors Grenland in an effort to represent the district of Grenland. In conjunction with the name change, a public limited company named Grenland Fotball was founded. Pors Grenland withdrew from the cooperation in December 2009, and in January 2013 Odd Grenland decided to change its name back to Odds BK because they wanted to be a club for the entire county of Telemark.

Odd won the Norwegian Football Cup in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1913, 1915, 1919, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1931, and 2000, more than any other team in Norway. In the late 20th century, the men's team struggled in the lower divisions for many years but made it back to the Tippeligaen in 1999 and stayed there until they were relegated in 2007. The team had survived relegation twice; first in 2005 after a dreadful start to the campaign, then in 2006 when the team only survived relegation by beating Bryne in the relegation play-offs. In 2007 the team was relegated to the 1. divisjon after being beaten by Bodø/Glimt in the relegation play-offs. In 2008, with three games still to play, Odd secured the promotion back to the Tippeligaen after winning 4–0 at home against Hødd.

On 25 September 2011, Odd player Jone Samuelsen scored what is claimed to be the longest headed goal ever scored in a match, in a match against Tromsø, when he headed the ball from within his own half of the pitch into Tromsø's open goal, the goalkeeper having come forward for a late corner in the match. Norwegian police were invited to measure the distance and calculated the length to be 58.13 metres.

From Wikipedia’s article on Odds BK, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

  • IF Odd

Also owns

  • Skagerak Arena

From Wikidata.1

Employees over time

  • 2026661

Timeline

  1. Mar 31, 1894Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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