Betting Glossary

Is there any chance you entered a sportsbook’s website but found yourself bombarded with all those new unknown words? Well, as someone who has never placed a bet, you quickly wake up to the fact that there is a vocabulary exclusive to betting, one that must be well-understood before accessing a bookmaker.

The more you wager, the more phrases you will want to grasp, as sports betting terms can be perplexing. For your convenience, we have equipped you with a comprehensive betting glossary, along with a brief definition, as per the Bookmakers.bet expert team.

Betting Glossary for Basic Sports Terms

The first thing you are advised to know as a novice is how to recognise some basic phraseology the moment you see it. Definitions for betting terms like bookmaker, cash-out, or even what is a bet, are at your disposition. Below are the entry-level terms:

All In: When you bet your entire bankroll on one betslip.

Bankroll: The total amount of money available for sports betting.

Bet: A prediction of a result with a risk associated with its success or failure.

Betslip: Every piece of information related to a wager you put is kept in this. All of your choices' returns are supposed to be calculated automatically here.

Betting Exchange: A website platform which allows punters to back and lay bets against each other. The exchange's profit comes from taking a small commission from the winner.

Bookmaker: A registered company that offers odds and accepts bets on the result of sporting or other events (also known as sportsbook or bookie).

Cash Out: A feature that enables you to withdraw winnings from a bet before the market closes. There are also partial and automated cash-out options, where you can withdraw only a portion of your wager or have your wager automatically cashed out when the offer reaches a specified amount.

Co-Favourite: A joint-favourite at an event with more than two competitors, where at least two are offered with similar odds.

Deposits: The process you must do to fund your account when you want to start playing.

Favourite: The selection in an event with the lower odds. Also known as jolly.

Free Bet: A bet you can place without putting up your own money. Your winnings will almost surely not include the initial stake and may also be subject to extra terms like wagering requirements.

Live betting: The act of betting on a game or event as it is happening. In-Play Wagering is another name for this.

Live streaming: The feature that enables you to watch the match you want on a sportsbook’s website live.

Mobile betting: Any wagering carried out on a mobile phone through an app or a mobile desktop version of the website.

Outsider: A team or competitor considered the underdog.

Payment methods: The way you use to deposit or withdraw money from your betting account. They usually are cards, e-wallets or crypto wallets. For more details read our Crypto Gambling Glossary.

Payout: The sum of money you will get if your wager wins. This covers both the bet and the reward. Another term for that is return.

Picks: A tipster's selected bets.

Pre-match betting: Also known as fixed-odds betting, it describes a bet you place before an event begins at fixed odds that will not change in your betslip.

Punter: Also called bettor or simply player. A person who places bets.

ROI: Abbreviation for Return of Investment. A number deriving from the division of profit and the total stake. Here you can also learn what is yield in betting.

Stake: The amount of money you lay on a particular bet.

Terms & Conditions: An online resource that outlines the regulations for a particular topic, promotion, or even the website as a whole. They are an important component of any bookmaker's quality and should be carefully examined by all bettors.

Tipster: A person who offers his betting predictions.

Underdog: A competitor or team that is unlikely to win.

Value Bet: A bet that is considered to have a better chance of winning than the odds offered.

Vigorish: Also called VIG. The percentage a bookmaker charges for accepting a punter's bet. VIG is embedded in the odds offered. You can work out with it using our Vigorish Calculator.

Win: A single or multiple bet that makes a profit.

Withdrawals: The act of retrieving funds from your betting account, usually after making winnings.

Sports betting glossary for bet types

Now that you have found out some basic terms you should learn before getting into online wagering, it is high time we specify the bet types you will come across and some words associated with them.

Accumulator: A multiple bet, where you have to win all the selections made to gain profit. The risk is high and so is the payout.

Canadian: A five-selection multiple bet, placed on doubles, trebles, four-folds and a five-fold.

Double: A multiple bet with two selections.

Exotic: A slang word meaning any other bet besides the ordinary ones, straights or parlays.

Fold: The number of selections in an accumulator bet. A four-fold consists of four different events.

Goliath: A multiple bet including 8 different selections. The bet includes 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, 8 seven-folds and one eight-fold.

Heinz: A multiple bet of six selections. The bet includes 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, 6 five-folds and an accumulator.

Lucky 15: A multiple bet consisting of four selections. The bet includes singles, doubles, trebles and a four-fold.

Lucky 31: A multiple bet consisting of five selections. The bet includes singles, doubles, trebles, four-folds and a five-fold.

Lucky 63: A multiple bet consisting of six selections. The bet includes singles, doubles, trebles, four-folds, five-folds and a six-fold.

Pari-Mutuel: The name of the only betting system existing in France.

Parlay: Another term for an accumulator bet.

Patent: A multiple bet including three selections. grouped in 3 doubles, a treble and a single on each selection.

Permutations/Perms: The maximum number of bets that can be formed from a number of selections.

Request a Bet: You can now ask for a specific bet from many bookmakers. If they decide to accept it, they will offer you odds, which you can examine once you accept.

Reverse Bet: A bet sequence that allows you to wager with “reverse action”. If your first bet wins, you may move on to the second one, and so on. This is the reason it is also called the “If Bet”.

Single: The easier betting type, including only one selection.

Super Heinz: A seven-selection multiple bet. It includes 21 doubles, 35 trebles, 35 four-folds, 21 five-folds, 7 six-folds and an accumulator.

Super Yankee: The same bet type as a Canadian (five selections).

Treble: A multiple bet consisting of 3 selections.

Trixie: A three-selection multiple bet that includes 3 doubles and a treble.

Up-and-Down: A bet on two selections, that is placed as two single bets.

Yankee: A multiple bet of four selections, including 11 bets, involving 6 doubles, 4 trebles and an accumulator.

Main Betting Terms for Sports Markets

Having provided everything you need about the betting types you can place, let’s move on to the plenty of markets you can search around to incorporate in your wager. Underneath, you can find clarification on terms like Asian Handicap or Moneyline.

Ante-Post/Outright Betting: All bets placed before the start of an event (usually a competition or league).

Asian Handicap: A type of bet popular in Asia, where the favorite is given a handicap, and the underdog a head start respectively, to make the bet more balanced. Here you can find more details about handicap meaning in bet.

Correct Score: One of many football (soccer) betting types, where you try to predict the correct score of a match between more than 20 different outcomes.

Double Chance: Placing a single bet on two outcomes of an event, usually a football match (e.g. 1X, 12).

Double Result: A betting result depending on the outcome of two different game periods (usually half-time and full-time in football matches).

Each-way: A market that splits your bet into a "win" and "place" bet. Very popular in golf.

First Goalscorer: A bet placed on a player to score the first goal in the match.

First-half bet: A bet placed on any halftime market of a sports tie.

Half-time result: A bet that involves the Punter correctly predicting the result of a match at half time.

Market: A specific category with odds related to each other (e.g. Match Result, Over/Under, Both Teams to Score).

Match Result: Another name for the popular 1X2 or 3-way betting.

Moneyline: A simple bet on the winner of an event (mostly used in sports popular in the US).

Number Spread: How many goals or points will be scored in a match.

Over: Betting on a higher number of goals or points than the bookmaker offered line. For example, betting on over 2,5 goals means you expect at least three goals. It is always one part of what is over and under in betting.

Selection: The different choices you have in a specific market.

Special Bet: Every betting type besides the usual ones like 1X2 or Over/Under (e.g. Team to score a penalty).

Under: Betting on a lower number of goals or points than the handicap offered by the bookmaker.

40 extra betting terms explained

Last but not least, we provide you with some extra vocabulary you will definitely find helpful even after you start playing more sharply. This includes the explanation of some betting strategies and systems, as well as some jargon bettors use.

Against the Spread: Popular in spread betting, you try to find which team will cover the spread and not win the match.

All Out: The whopping effort of a team to score in the last minutes or a horse at the last meters of the race.

Angles: Another term for the analysis a bettor does, trying to predict a match result from past data.

Arber: A punter who is seeking even the slightest sure profit. This is usually done by taking advantage of the different odds on various online bookies and placing bets on all outcomes.

Arbitrage: The procedure of an arber, gaining profit by backing all aspects.

Bags: An abbreviation of Bookmakers’ Afternoon Greyhound Service, usually written in lowercase letters.

Banker: A bet considered surely a winner.

Chalk player: A bettor who almost always backs favourites.

Chasing: A bet placed for the purpose of recovering lost money. Usually done so immediately after a loss.

Circled Game: A well-balanced game, where both teams have equal chances of winning, and the betting activity is limited.

Covering the spread: The same as betting against the point spread and winning. For more info read our article about how does spread betting work.

Dog player: A bettor who backs the underdog of an event.

Drifter: When odds are increasing on a team or horse, as bettors are massively backing the opponent.

Ducking: When the bookmakers offers shorter odds on a team or a horse to avoid big liabilities.

Dutching: Betting on more than one selection on an event (but not all of them) to make equal profit regardless of the winner.

Edge: A punter’s advantage in a bet.

Exposure: The maximum amount of money a sports book can afford to lose in a game.

Form: A team’s performance according to the latest data.

Handicapper: A punter who studies, rates and bets on sporting events.

Hedging: When you back the opposite outcome in an event you have already wagered on to decrease or minimize the risk.

Hook: The half goal or point added on football or basketball betting lines to exclude the draw.

IBAS: The Independent Arbitration Betting Service, which solves betting disputes between punters and bookmakers.

Lay: This term is used in betting exchanges, where players act as bookmakers. By laying bets, they offer betting options to backing bettors.

Layers Liability: The exact amount of money a layer or a bookie can afford to lose if the selection wins.

Lengthen: When bookmakers offer better odds on a possible outcome in order to increase activity.

Lock: A slang word about a minimum risk bet.

Longshot: A risky bet, having slim chances of being confirmed.

LSP: Abbreviation of Level Stakes Profit. Calculating the profit you would make if all your stakes had been flat.

Martingale: A betting strategy that requires doubling the stake after every loss.

No action: Another term describing “push”, when your stake is refunded after a bet.

Over-round: The profit a bookmaker will gain from a certain event.

Overlay: When the odds of a selection surpass what is considered normal.

Photo Finish: The procedure of determining the results of a race when the distance between the first two or more finishing competitors is really close.

Runner: A person who places a bet on behalf of another, an intermediate.

Scout: A punter who wagers occasionally and only on valuable bets.

Sharp: A punter who make a living by betting.

SP: Abbreviation for Starting Price. The final price of a selection before an event starts.

Steamer: A bet that has become very popular among players.

Underlay: When the odds do not depict the real implied probability and are in the bookie’s favour.

Walkover: A void bet because one of the competitors is forced to retire.

Betting Glossary for Odds

Another specification in this article has to do with odds terminology, a fundamental category of sports betting. Substantially, they reflect the amount of return you can make on a prediction, so you should be able to interpret everything regarding them.

Enhanced odds: When the bookmaker offers better odds than the initial (i.e., a higher return) on particular markets, as a promotion. In some cases, you get to pick the markets whose odds will be boosted.

Implied probability: How likely the bookmaker believes the bet will materialise is shown by the implied probability. It is directly associated with the creation of odds.

Line: The odds or point spread offered at a sports event.

Odds: A number showing the profit you will get if you bet on the specific outcome. Odds may come in different types. Price is another word for it.

Odds Against: A price that is greater than Evens (1/1 or 2.00). Common in UK bookies.

Odds On: A price that is lower than Evens (1/1 or 2.00).

Point spread: The goal or points advantage a bookmaker gives to a team before the match starts.

Spread Betting: A betting type where the bookmaker gives a team a point or goal advantage (handicap) before the match. The total profit or loss depends on the final point or goal difference compared to the handicap.

Now that you have the betting glossary at hand, do not hesitate to get into searching for the proper bookmaker to start your activity with.