Sports Betting Terms and Expressions: A Glossary of Sports Betting

To be successful in sports betting, it’s best to understand the terminology that is used. This glossary will provide definitions and explanations of common betting terms used in the industry. We’ll start with the letter A and work our way through the alphabet.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Betting Glossary

Here is our list of the most important terms and phrases you need to know if you wish to be successful at betting.

Accumulator

An accumulator bet, or an acca bet, is a single bet made up of four or more selections. In order to win the bet, you need all of the individual bets to come through. When engaging in this sort of betting, you should always calculate the accumulator bet first to see if it’s worth the risk.

Acca Insurance

Acca insurance is a type of bet only available for accumulator bets. This insurance gives you security in case a single bet from your slip ends up costing you the profit. Depending on the betting place you’re playing at, you may get your money back or a free bet bonus.

Against the Spread

Spread, in betting terms, refers to the handicap given to the team that is expected to lose.

A handicap is assigned by bookies in an attempt to level the playing field. When you’re betting against the spread, it means that your team has to win with a difference in points that is stated by the bookmakers, or to “cover the spread”.

American Odds

An American odds bet is a type of bet where the odds are centred around $100. For example, if the odds are +200 and your bet is successful, you stand to win $200 for a wager of $100. If the odds are -110 that means you’d need to bet $110 to win $100.

Ante-Post

In greyhound racing and horse racing betting terms, an ante-post is one of the more popular bets. This type of bet is placed on a racing event before the course’s betting market has opened, before all of the contestants are confirmed, and usually a day before the race. The odds for these bets are typically high because there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the event. Odds also vary widely among the bookies.

Banker

A banker bet is a bet that is considered very likely to win. This term is usually used in parlay betting when you are adding extra bets onto your ticket in order to increase the potential payout.

Betting Exchange

A betting exchange is a platform where bettors can bet against each other instead of against the bookmaker. This way of betting allows for better odds because there is no middleman taking a cut.

BTTS

When first getting started in sports wagering, you may wonder what BTTS means in betting. This football-specific abbreviation for “both teams score” is used when placing a wager that each of the two teams will score at least one goal.

Circled Game

A circled game is a game with limited betting action. These bets are offered only as a singular bet and can not be a part of a parlay option. They are extended for matches considered to be high risk.

Chalk

Chalk is a term used to describe a clear favourite in a betting market. Favourites are usually written in chalk on blackboards at bookmakers, thus the term.

Closing Line

A closing line is a sports betting term that refers to the final set of odds offered on an event before it starts. Those odds can be different from those previously available for the same event.

Draw No Bet

With Draw No Bet, gamblers can only wager on a home or away win instead of the draw option. If your pick wins, your wager will win. If the game is a tie, your stake will be returned, meaning you will not win or lose.

Double Chance

In a three-way bet, you can bet on the home team winning, the away team winning, or a draw. In betting terminology, a double chance bet means you get to pick two out of these three possibilities. If either prediction comes true, you win.

Handicap

A handicap is a type of bet used when one team is believed to have a clear advantage over the other. In an attempt to even out the odds, bookies will include a handicap in their odds to make the betting fairer.

Hedge

A hedge is a strategy to lower risk and guarantee profits for a certain wager. A hedge is placed in order to offset the risk of the initial bet. This is often done when a betor is feeling very confident about a team but wants to protect their investment.

In-Play Betting

In the world of betting, the meaning of in-play betting is not far removed from its name. When you want to place a bet on a match or a race that has already started, you can do so by placing an in-play bet. It allows bettors to take advantage of changing circumstances and get better odds.

Lay

Lay is a type of bet you place on an event that you don’t think will happen. For example, you could place a bet that a horse is not going to win the race. If your prediction is right and the horse doesn’t win, you’d win by backing a loser. A lay bet is the opposite of a back bet.

Liability​​

Liability is the maximum amount of money you stand to lose in the event of a lost bet.

Odds

The most common of all sports betting terms, odds are the chance of something happening, expressed as a number. The higher the odds, the more likely an event is to happen. For example, odds of 100 mean there is a 100% chance it will happen, while odds of 50 mean there is a 50% chance it will happen.

Odds-On

Odds refer to the proportion of stakes made by participants in a wager or bet. Let’s say a bookmaker gives four to one odds. That would mean the bookmaker had staked four times as much as the bettors.

Offshore Betting

Offshore betting refers to placing your bets with a bookmaker based in another country. This is usually done as a way to get better odds or avoid taxes.

Outright Bet

An outright bet, also known as a moneyline bet, is a bet placed on the winner of an entire event before it has even started. For example, betting on the next MVP would be considered an outright bet. In sports betting terms, this type of bet is also known as a futures bet.

Overround

The total of all odds on the result of one event is the overround. It is the built-in advantage that bookmakers have over punters. For example, if the true odds of an event happening are 100%, the bookmaker might offer odds of 90%. This means that they will be on top even if the event happens 50% of the time, which is how bookmakers make their profit.

Parlay

Parlay is another among the popular betting terms meaning a combination bet, synonymous with an accu bet. It’s a single bet that consists of multiple wagers in different events.

Point Spread

A point spread is a type of bet where the bookmaker tries to even out the odds by giving one team a handicap. This is done to make it fairer for bettors and to encourage betting on both sides.

​​Push

​​Push is when the result of a bet is exactly the same as the bookmaker’s prediction. This usually results in the bet being void and punters getting their money back.

Quote

The quote is another betting term for odds. It is the chance of something happening, expressed as a number. The higher the quote, the less likely it is to happen.

Round Robin

A type of bet that consists of multiple parlays is called a round robin. This bet combines three or more selections of different events into one single bet.

Spread Betting

Spread betting refers to betting on the spread between two teams or individuals. The spread is the difference between those two odds. When the spread is negative, let’s say minus eight, and you bet on the team with the minus sign, you’ll win if that team wins or loses by less than eight points.

Stake

A stake is a betting and gambling term for the amount of money put into a bet. It’s also known as a wager or bet size.

Surebet

Surebet is a bet guaranteed to win. It takes advantage of different bookmakers’ odds to create a situation where you cannot lose.

Underdog

An underdog is a team or an individual that is expected to lose.

Vigorish

Vigorish (or vig) is the commission that bookmakers charge for their services. It is also known in gambling terms as the juice, the margin, or the cut.

Void Bet

A void bet occurs when a bookmaker returns the stake on a bet to the customer because the bet has been declared void. This can happen for a number of reasons, but usually, it’s because the event that the bet was placed on has been cancelled or postponed. It can also occur if one of the participants in the event withdraws before the start.

Wager

A wager is another of the betting terms in the UK used for a bet. It is the amount of money that you put into a bet.

Weight of Money

Weight of money (WoM) is a term used to describe how much money has been placed on each side of a bet. The more money that is placed on one side, the higher the odds will be. This is because bookmakers adjust the odds to reflect the amount of money that has been invested.

Final Thoughts

Betting terminology can be very confusing to newcomers to the world of gambling. However, it is worth taking the time to learn some of the key terms, as that knowledge can help you make more informed choices when placing bets.

FAQ

What does draw no bet mean?

A no draw bet is a type of bet where there is no possibility of a draw happening. This means that if the game you are betting on ends in a draw, you’ll automatically get your money back.

What is a moneyline bet?

A moneyline bet is one of the simplest bets you can make. It is a bet on which team will win the game.

What does +200 mean in betting terms?

When an American sportsbook gives bet odds of +200, it means that if you wager $100 and your team wins, you will receive a $200 payout.