Learn English – Should I write “said someone” or “said by someone”

In your first example, the use of had been is to put the events further in the past.

In your second example, had been passivises the sentence. It's a way of removing the agent from the sentence. Consider the following examples.

• He said she had been to a doctor.
• He said the doctor had been consulted.

When used in this way, the

odds

is another way of describing the probability of success. Instead of a coin flip being 50% heads / 50% tails, the odds are 1:1.

It is a way of quoting probabilities mainly used by people who gamble.

Musk is using it to say the one still does something eventhough the probability of success is not in one's favor.