Sports betting has been popular around the world since the earliest days of athletic competition. Archeologists and historians have found evidence that even the Romans were betting on the outcomes of chariot races and gladiator fights. With over 2,000 years of history behind it, it’s no surprise that sports betting has built up its own culture, traditions and jargon.
Up until 2019, most Americans did not have access to legal sports betting opportunities outside of on-site horse race betting. With changes to gambling laws, that has started to change and online sports betting is sweeping the country.
Learning all about sports betting can be overwhelming — it’s like learning an entirely new language. When you have money riding on the outcomes, you want to be sure that you’re placing the right bets in the right places.
In this glossary, we’ll educate new bettors about the key terms that every bettor should know. We’ll even throw in some tips here and there so that your betting experience can get off to the best start possible.
The basics
Sportsbook – A sportsbook is a business where people can place bets on a range of sports. They offer odds that have been set by the bookmaker. Different sportsbooks may choose to focus on certain sports or on specific types of bets.
Sportsbooks can be retail, online or both. Choosing a sportsbook is an important step and one major factor to consider is which states it can operate in. Pointsbet, for example, can legally operate in 14 states, but many of the smaller sportsbooks have much smaller areas of operation.
Market – A market is a specific category or variety of bet that is offered on a game or other sporting event.
Live betting – Live bets are bets that are placed while the game is in progress. Live betting is fairly new in the US and not every sport or sportsbook allows live betting. It is also known as in-play betting.
Types of bets
Moneyline – Moneyline bets are the basic bet that everyone is familiar with. A moneyline bet is a wager on which team will win a single game or match. Multiples of moneyline bets are also common, such as a double or treble where two or three moneyline bets are placed on separate games.
Spread – When you bet the spread, you bet on how much a game will be won by rather than who will win. The bookmaker sets the number of points that they expect the favorite to win by and the spread bet odds are based around those numbers.
Over/under – An over/under bet is a bet made on how many total points will be scored in a game. The number of points expected is set by the bookmaker and the bettor can bet ‘over’ if they think the total will be higher or ‘under’ if they think fewer points will be scored overall. Over/under bets are perfect for people who hate picking one team to bet on.
Parlay – Parlay bets are complex bets made up of a series of single bets. For a parlay bet to pay out, every single bet that makes it up must also pay out. This makes them a very risky bet, but like many big risks, it also means they can be a high reward bet. A parlay bet is also known as an accumulator bet in some countries.
If you enjoy parlay bets but don’t entirely trust your luck, many sports books will offer parlay insurance as a promotion, where a single bet within your parlay can be replaced if it doesn’t pay out.
Prop – A prop bet is a bet placed on anything that isn’t directly related to the result of the game. Game props are on events that happen during the game, such as what the largest lead will be. Team props are bets on a team’s actions and the most popular one is which team will score first. Player props are on player actions and are a favorite of stats fanatics.
Novelty props are the most fun. These are bets on things like what color shoes a player will wear or on the outcome of the coin toss. If you’re a music lover as well as a sports fan, an example of a popular novelty prop bet is on who will be the half-time act during the Super Bowl. If recent years are anything to go by, a pop princess like Taylor Swift would probably have short odds.
Hedge bets, hedging – A hedge bet is when you bet on both sides to maximize your chances of winning. Of course, one of your bets won’t pay out, but hedge bets make it more likely that you’ll still walk away with something. Unsurprisingly, it’s where the expression “hedge your bets” comes from.
Futures – Futures bets are long-term bets. They are usually placed on the final result of a season or tournament, such as which team will win the Super Bowl or the World Cup. Rookie of the Year is an example of a leading futures bet that doesn’t have to do with the season’s results.
Placing futures bets early on in the season can help you secure the best odds, but it is also harder to predict what will happen, so it makes the bet riskier overall. This is because you can’t predict things such as player injuries, which are fairly common at elite levels.
Across the board – Across the board bets are specifically for horse racing. This is a bet on a single horse to either win, place or show.
Multiplier bets – Multiplier bets combine a variety of bets into a single wager. These can become very complicated. Among the most popular are the Trixie, which involves three doubles and a treble on three different teams/players, the Yankee, which involves six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold accumulator made on four teams/players, the Round Robin, a Trixie with three up-down bets added to it, and the Heinz, which is 57 separate bets across six teams/players and named after the ketchup company.
Multiplier bets are most commonly found in horse race betting but are becoming more popular in general sports betting thanks to online sportsbooks making them easier to construct.
Types of odds
Odds notation – Odds can be written in three different formats that all mean the same thing. Decimal odds show the odds as a decimal and winnings are calculated as decimal x stake. These are most common in Europe.
Fractional odds are slightly more complicated and are represented as a fraction. When the fraction is larger than one, then the bet is on a favorite and the payout will be smaller than if the numbers were reversed. For example, if the stakes were the same then a winning bet at 1/6 would pay out less than a winning bet with 6/1 odds. These are also known as British odds notation.
American odds are also called moneyline odds, which can be a bit confusing since moneyline is also a type of bet. These odds are represented by a number with a plus or minus in front of it.
To demonstrate, the same bet can be written as 4.0 (decimal), 3/1 (fractional) and +300 and all mean that the bookmakers have placed a 25% chance on the outcome. If this is confusing, you’ll be happy to know that most sportsbooks have built-in odds convertors.
Long – Long odds mean there is less chance of the outcome. Long odds return more on your initial wager.
Short – Short odds mean there is a better chance of the outcome. Short odds pay out less on your initial wager.
Miscellaneous terms
The terms below don’t fit into any clearly defined category, but they will help you sound like you know what you’re talking about when discussing sports betting with your friends and colleagues.
Action – Any kind of wager.
Bad beat – When what looks like a winning bet turns into a losing one. A bad beat usually happens when points are scored in the final minutes of a game.
Bankroll – Your betting budget.
Bookie – Slang term for bookmaker or sportsbook.
Chalk – Slang for favorite.
Dime – A single bet worth $1,000.
Handicap – When the odds are too uneven, bookmakers can add a handicap to make the betting field more level.
Juice – Juice is the fee that a sportsbook charges to accept a bet. It is usually already built into the price of the bet and not added on later. Some sportsbooks will offer reduced juice as part of a promotion or on certain odds. Juice is also referred to as vigorish or simply ‘vig’.
Odds shopper – A bettor who reviews the odds offered at different sportsbooks to find the best ones.
Square – A novice bettor.
Wise guy – The person you want to know. A wise guy is a sharp bettor, often a professional, who knows everything there is to know about the sports they bet on and how to place winning bets.
