Entering the sports betting realm can be exhausting if you do not know much about it. Therefore, it is always suggested that you get inside the gambling space only after making conscious efforts to understand more about the field. The starting step that you can take is to learn the basic things of the realm and try to familiarise yourself with the jargon present in it. Here we have collected the various sports betting terms that you may stumble across once you come inside the sports betting world. We have compiled them together so that you can just go through them and understand the most basic things.
A Glossary For Sports Betting
A glossary is what everyone looks for when they are entering a new realm. It can be useful to everyone, especially the newbies. You can use this one as a beginner’s guide to ease and smoothen your navigation in the sports betting space. We recommend that you bookmark this page so that you can quickly come back to it when you have a doubt. Make sure that you just read through this glossary. There is no need to learn all these definitions by heart. In the beginning, it may seem difficult when you have to get the hang of all these words. However, you really do not have to worry about that. Once you start playing the games and all, you will start acquainting yourself with all these words and more. Until then this can be your guide and your mentor in this journey.
Wager
Wager can be said as the sports betting term that everyone is familiar with. Placing a wager means that you are betting on a particular outcome of the game occurring and it involves staking money. A wager is a bet placed by a gambler expecting to win a payout.
Vigorish
Vigorish is a term on the oddsmakers’ side in the casino. It is the amount that goes to the oddsmaker for every bet that you place irrespective of whether you win or lose it. Even if you win a bet, you will not get the whole amount back, right? This certain amount is charged from every bet and it goes towards the house. It is often referred to by the term ‘sports betting vig’ and it also goes by ‘juice’.
Units
Unit is a standard measurement used when you talk about betting amounts, strategies, and more. For example, when you are describing a certain betting strategy, you will not quote the exact amount used for the betting. Rather, you would say something like ‘increase a unit of the bet when you win’ or ‘decrease two units when you lose’. Here the ‘unit’ is based on the base amount of the particular strategy.
Underdog
The underdog is the team in a match that has the lowest odds of winning the game. Sportsbooks often estimate one team as the underdog and another as the favourite in a match considering various factors. Underdogs are usually represented by a plus sign (+) near the wagering amount.
Tipster
‘Tipster’ is easy to understand. It is someone who provides useful tips on gambling or about the team involved in a certain sports event. This can be an individual person, a service or even an organisation that provides you with tips or suggestions regarding the match that is about to happen.
Teaser
The teaser is a type of sports bet which lets you tease the betting lines. When you place a teaser, it allows you to make adjustments to the betting lines, both the total spreads and the point spreads. You can actually bring together more than one bet and later the betting lines.
Spread betting
Spread betting is something different from the typical form of betting. The most common bet placed by most is regarding the winner of the game. You will predict who will become the winner of a game. It can either be the first team or the second team. However, that’s not what you bet in spread betting. You get to predict whether the actual result of the game will be higher or lower than the odds predicted by the oddsmaker.
Sharp
A sharp in sports betting has a close connection to the literal meaning of the word. It is used to refer to someone who is a pro in gambling. It is someone who has an in-depth knowledge of betting and probably years of experience and expertise, as well.
Staking
Who does not know what staking is, right? A stake is the amount that you use to place a bet. When you win a bet, you get your stake back, not the full amount. And, when you lose your bet, you lose your entire stake.
ROI
ROI is the acronym for Return On Investment. This term is used to denote the probable amount that you will get back from the wager if you end up winning the game. Bettors always calculate the ROI of the game before they enter a wager.
Recreational bettor
This term itself stands for its meaning. It is someone who sees betting only as a recreational activity. An individual who is into betting for fun and entertainment and someone who does not take the game too seriously. They may only enter the betting realm occasionally.
Run line bet
Run line is a kind of bet that you will exclusively find in baseball. Some bettors explain run lines as something similar to point spread that you may find in other events. However, the run line can not be defined as the exact baseball replica of the point spread. In baseball, the run line has a fixed value.
Quarter bet
A quarter bet can be described as a short bet that you can place in sports such as Football, Basketball, and so on. It is a bet that you can place based on a particular quarter of the game, you can predict that an x event will happen in a certain quarter of the game or there will be an ‘x’ number of goals scored in a quarter.
Point spread bet
The point spread is a kind of bet that allows the sportsbooks to even out the huge difference in winning odds between two teams. You will be able to see the underdogs and favourites here assigned with expected points of winning. Underdogs will be represented with plus signs and favourites with minus points.
Puck line
You can find a puck line betting in ice hockey. It can be defined as similar to the point spreading in other sports events. It is like assigning certain points to a specific team and that team has to cover that spread assigned to them.
Parlay bet
Parlay betting is preferred by professional gamblers in sportsbooks. It combines more than one bet and these combined bets are placed in the online casino as a single bet. Each of the bets in the parlay bet has individual odds of winning and you have to win at least two of them in case there are four total bets.
Power rankings
Power rankings are what most of the bettors use when they place a bet in a sportsbook. Gambling experts and analysts collect and track the data and performance of each of the individual players in a team and of the whole team. Then they proceed to rank them based on their strength, power points, wins, scores, and more.
Push bet
A push bet is where you end up either winning or losing the bet. If you have entered a push bet, then if the game ends in a draw, then the bet becomes invalid. A push bet is a bet that allows you to place a bet on either a team winning or losing. There is no value for the tie outcome. Therefore, if the game ends in a draw, it means that your betting amount will be returned to you like that but did not take place.
Proposition bet
Proposition bets are one of the most exciting sports bets where you do not exactly place a bet on the sports event. In this bet, you will be placing bets on the other events that may take place during the sports events. For example, many of the sports events have other events and performances that are supposed to take place during the half break. You got to place a bet on all these. It also goes by the name of a prop bet.
Payout
A payout may be the most loved sports betting term. Actually, it is not a term confined to the sports betting realm; rather, you can also find it in other online casino games. When you win the bet that you placed, you may get back your original stake plus the winning amount, if any. This is referred to as the payout in an online casino.
Price
Price is the amount that you can win based on the amount of money that you have placed in a particular bet. You can look at the price to know more about the chances related to a certain wager.
Outright betting
Outright betting is when you predict the final outcome of the match. For example, if there is a league or tournament going on you bet on the team who will take home the trophy. The other individual bets of the game are not included in the outright betting
Odds
‘Odds’, is perhaps the most used word in all types of betting. It is the likelihood of a particular team winning the game or a particular outcome happening in the game. For example, when you hear someone say, ‘Team B has less odds of winning the game’, it means that Team B has less chance of winning the game.
Over/under betting
Over or under-betting is also referred to as the total bet. This is one of the most typically placed bets in sports betting markets. In this set, you directly predict whether the outcome of the game will be higher or lower than the odds set by the sportsbook. Often, the bookmaker may alter or handicap the real odds of the game, and real winning odds that each team has in the game. This is done to even out all kinds of huge differences in the winning odds between the favourites and the underdogs and it also helps the sportsbook to stay in business. If you feel that the real odds are something else, you can place this bet.
Odds-on favorite
An odds-on favourite is the team in a match that has the highest odds of winning the game. This can be determined by analysing various factors of the game and also about the team and its players. Many times the bookmaker estimates a team as the odds on favourite in the game. This bookmaker can be an individual person or the sportsbook itself.
Novelty betting
A novelty bet can be described as a bet that one may place at non-sporting events. It is all like a typical bet that you place, except that it is not placed on any sports events. A novelty bet is the kind of bet that you place on the outcome of an election, or of an award or anything like that.
NAP
A NAP can be defined as the best bet of the match. It can be a suggestion from the tipster or the most confident bet that someone places following this. A tipster only gives out a NAP only after conducting in-depth research and analyzing. When there is a NAP, most of the gamblers give it attention.
Moneyline bet
When you place a moneyline bet it means you are placing a direct bet on the team that would win the match. The point spread of the game does not matter here. As usual, there will be a favourite and underdog and you just have to predict who wins the match.
March Madness
March Madness is a basketball ‘madness’ taking place in the month of March. It is the Division I basketball tournament for men, at the end of which a national champion will be born. This event is formally referred to as NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and it begins in the month of March and ends in April. A total of 68 basketball teams from different colleges participate in this knockout tournament
Line
A line is just another term used to describe the betting odds of a game. It can be looked at as the ratio between the bettor and the oddsmaker. You look at the lines of the game provided by the bookmaker to know more about the chances that each team has in the game for winning.
Longshot bet
Longshot is a bet that has low odds of happening. When you place a long short bet, you have to know that the majority of the odds are against this bet. However, if you win the longshot bet, you will end up winning a potentially high payout. A longshot bet can be defined as a bet that you place on a game outcome that may not happen at all.
Limit
A limit is the highest threshold that both a bettor and the sportsbook can go up to. Limits at the sportsbooks will be predetermined. It will be the highest limit that the casino will allow you to go in terms of betting amount. Bettors also have limits. This limit is set by no one else but the bettor solely. All the pro bettors have a bankroll strategy before they start the game, they will have the highest amount that they can spend in gambling and it is also advised that you stick to this limit.
Live betting
Live betting is when you can place a bet on the game while it is taking place. Usually, the bets will be placed on a team prior to it happening, right? You will place the bet, and wait for the game to end so that you can know whether you have won the game. However, that’s not how live betting works. You can watch the game and place bets by seeing the live events taking place in the game. It is also referred to as in-play betting.
Laying points
When you enter the sports betting realm, there will be an underdog and a favourite, right? In laying points you will add points to your favourite. It clearly means that you are highly favouring the favourites of the match. The added laid-out points to the team mean that the favourites will win by a greater amount than the original point spread.
Lock bet
A lock is a bet where you lock your win. A lock bet can be defined as a bet which has the highest odds of winning. It will make you the winner most of the time. It is almost like a guaranteed win.
Juice
Juice is the amount that the sportsbook makes from each of the bets that you place. It does not matter whether you win or lose the bet, the sportsbook is always making money. Even if you win a bet, you may not get the whole of the original stake amount back, right? You may have already noticed this. This small portion getting cut goes to the house.
In play betting
In-play betting is a type of bet that you place on a game that is underway. It is also referred to as live betting. The game will be out there happening live and you can place bets. The bets can be placed on the final outcome of the game or the quarters or halves. Or even on what is going to happen in the next minute of the game.
Hedge
You can perform a hedge to increase your odds of winning. A hedge can be defined as a strategy commonly used in sports betting. Imagine you placed a bet on a team before the game starts, and it becomes evident to you that your bet is not going in the match. Therefore, you can place an opposite bet to the original bet that you placed to guarantee a win.
Hook
A hook exists in sports betting to neutralise the draw in the outcome of a game. By a hook, .5 (½) points will be added to the total bet or the point spread. Therefore, it eliminates the tie outcome in a game.
Handicap
Handicapping is one of the winning odds of the game to even out the huge disparity in their odds. If the favourites have way more odds of winning than the underdogs, then certain points will be deducted from the odds of the first. At the same time, points will be added to the underdog. The one who does this is referred to as a handicapper. It can be an individual or a sports casino.
Home field advantage
A team is said to have a home-field advantage when they are playing their opponents from their home field. This team is said to have an advantage because they know their home field very well as they have the majority of support from the audience.
Fixed odds
Fixed odds as the term represents are fixed after placing. It is best that you have to place before the start of the game. After getting accepted there is no way for you to change it. However, many factors may change the odds of the outcome of the game, by the time it ends.
Favourite
A favourite is the team that has the most odds of winning the game. The bookmaker may have picked a team as the favourite based on extensive research and more. The various factors that affect being the favourite include the previous performances, the historical data, the present form, and the coordination of the team. It is displayed by a minus sign, (-), the negative odds.
Futures bet
Future bets are sports bets that are placed way before the start of a game. That is when you place the bet you will be predicting the future of the game. There are future bets which let you place bets prior to 24 hours of the game as well as prior to months or years.
Field bet
In sports betting, a field bet can be described as a collection of all the possible outcomes that are not explicitly listed in the current bet. It means that you have an opportunity to bet on someone who is not on the list winning the game.
Fractional odds
Fractional odds are a kind of expression. It is not really popular in the US but more in the European nations. In this way of odds, the odds are expressed in a fraction including two numbers.
Fade bet
Fading is a kind of betting where you bet against the public. It is the same reason why it is referred to as fading by the public. To place a fading bet you need to understand what the majority of the players are betting on and you simply bet against them.
Edge
Having an edge in the game will help the punter place a bet with increased odds of winning. It is having a price of knowledge on something about the game which is unknown to most of the others. For example, if you know that a certain horse has faced an injury, you can have an edge in the race by not betting on that horse.
Exposure
Exposure can be defined as the total amount of money that you will lose if you do not win the bet that you placed. If you place a bet and lose it, you will lose the entire net amount. To look at exposure from the perspective of a sportsbook, it is the total amount of money that they will lose in case of losing the bet. For example, the sportsbook will receive the stake amount plus more if they win. However, if the winner ends up winning the bet, the casino will only receive a lower percentage of the total bet placed by the bettor.
Exotic bet
Exotic bets are not the typical bets that you find at the casino. Like its name, it suggests a type of bet that is exotic, foreign, and special. The terms and conditions of an exotic bet and the options available in an exotic bet will be different from what you see in normal bets. Horse racing is where you can commonly see many of the exotic bets. Superfecta bets and trifecta bets are all examples of exotic bets.
Each way betting
Each way betting is a kind of betting commonly seen in horse races, where you get the opportunity to have more chances of winning the game. Each way betting includes placing two bets in a single game, in each of the ways. You can bet on the particular horse which will win the race and you can also bet on the particular position that the horse will end up winning in the race. You only have to win either of these two bets, to win the money. If you win two of the bets, it simply means that you get more money.
Even money bet
Even money betting is one of the most simple types of betting for beginners to learn about. In this bet, you will get back the exact amount of money that you wagered, if you end up winning the game. It is also referred to as 50 – 50 betting.
Draw
A draw is when two of the teams in a match end up having the same score, like when both teams score 3. At the end of the game, if both teams have scored nothing, then it is also considered a draw (0 – 0). There are sportsbooks where you can bet on the draw of a game. Some bets allow you to bet that either the game will end with Team X winning or the game ending in a draw. At the same time, bets like push bets make the draw of the game an invalid bet and return your bet amount.
Decimal odds
Decimal odds are a kind of betting odds based on which you decide who will win the game and more. This type of odd calculation is more familiar to gamblers in European nations. It represents the odds of the game by the amount that you will get back by deeming the base amount as a unit of 1.
Drift
Drifting in the sports betting niche means that the odds of betting are changing. When the odds of a team or horse change from that of at the start of the game, it is drifting. You may have heard bettors saying they lost the bet due to drifting of the odds.
Commission
A commission can be described as the amount that the house makes out of the bet. For each bet that you place, whether you win or lose it, a certain percentage of the bet amount goes to the casino or the sportsbook. This is referred to as the commission that the sportsbook has in the game.
Chalk
A chalk is a term in sports betting used to refer to a team that has more chances of winning the game. It is an alternative term used to refer to the favourites in a match. If you hear Team X is the chalk of the match, it means it is the most expected team to win the game.
Cover the spread
A team can be considered to have covered the spread when the chalk of the two teams wins at the end. It means that the chalk has covered the spread and has won the game. It means that the chalk has covered the spread bet that you had placed on them.
Bookmaker
An individual who decides the odds of winning for each of the teams in a game is referred to as the bookmaker. You see odds along the betting lines in each of the sports events, right? It is the bookmark that determines these. A bookmaker needs to be an individual, it can also be the online casino or the sportsbook where you are playing the games.
Bankroll
Bankroll of the game can be defined as the total money that you have kept aside for staking in the game. The bankroll should be an amount that you have well thought about, your bankroll should be an amount that you can afford to potentially lose in the game.
Bet
A bet can be described as the wager that you place in a sportsbook or an online casino. The wager which involves an amount of money and you place in a sports betting site is a bet. There are different types of bets out there inclusive of all the games and exclusive to certain games.
Bankroll management
Bankroll management is the method by which you handle your whole bankroll and determine the amount that you will go for each bet of the game. Having a proper bankroll management strategy is suggested. Also, you are to not deviate from your bankroll management strategy at the last moment of the game.
Buy points
Buying points is a method by which you can alter the lines of odds. By buying points you can get additional points for the underdog. Or, you can also choose to give away the points you already have as his favourite.
Betting strategy
Betting strategy is the strategy used by the better when they place bets in different games. The betting strategy of the game can change from sport to sport. There are many globally popular and commonly used betting strategies for the games out there. Many of the betting strategies help you to reduce the best amounts and moves of the game prior to the game starts.
Alternative betting lines
Alternative betting lines in a sportsbook are different from the typical ones. It is the ones deviating from the mainstream betting lines where you usually place total bets and point spread bets.
Asian Handicap
We have already read about certain bets that consider a draw outcome of the game as invalid and return the betting amount where neither the bettor nor the sportsbook can win the game. Asian handicap is a kind of sports betting market where the draw entirely gets removed from the result of the game. The market handicaps the betting line to do this.
Arbitrage bet
Arbitrage is considered one of the most promising bets out there. It is where you place bets on both the outcome of the game. Note that, this bet can only be placed in games where there are only 1 in 2 chances for the outcome of the game. You can find an online casino that lets you place an arbitrage. Typically, you will need to place bets at 2 different casinos. At the most prominent casino, you can bet on the winning team which has the highest odds of winning. And at the second casino, you can bet on the team having the least chance of winning.
Accumulator
An accumulator bet can be described as a combination bet. You get to combine more than one bet and place them all as a single bet. It can be referred to as similar to the parlay bet which we described earlier.
Ante-post
Ante-post market is a sports betting market in horse racing. It is where you can place a bet on the horse sway before the match starts. Typically, people place bets on horses just before the match starts. However, in the ante post you can enter the bet 24 hours prior to the match.
Across the board bet
Across the board betting is a kind of sports bet in the horse race betting market. In this, you literally place three different bets. You bet on the winning horse, he places the horse who will win in the race, and also the show. The stake of the bet is divided between each of three of the conditions.
Against the spread bet
Against the spread betting is commonly known as ATS betting. This is where you bet against the spread by the oddsmaker. Each sportsbook provides you with a spread of the game before the game starts. However, if you think that the real odds a team has for winning are different from this spread, you can place a bet deviating from the spread provided by the sportsbook.
American odds
American odds are a way of describing the odds of a certain event. It is kind of odds among the three different kinds of odds with the others being Decimal odds and Fractional odds. American odds are the most commonly placed odds among American gamblers. You can find the positive and negative bets when you look at the American odds.
The Bottom Line
We have included the most popular terms in sports betting in the above glossary. They are arranged in a reverse alphabetical order. You can scroll through this to get yourself familiar with the different terms out there. Even if you thoroughly read all these. At times you may feel confused. Because the same bet or strategy may have more than one term it is referred to. Or, you may even find some bets similar or feel that you can not make out the difference between them.
We suggest that you learn things at your own place. Maybe you can start by betting on your favourite sports. You will know a lot of facts about the sports that you like. You can look at what others are doing and what the odds at the casino are. However, make sure that you never take the odds and bet lines presented by the casino too seriously. Sportsbooks are known for altering the real odds that the game has in general or each team has. That’s where your research skills come in handy.
Read More: Martingale Betting System Explained
