What are the most important betting terms for a beginner?

Start with six: stake, decimal odds, implied probability, bankroll, unit and overround. Together they tell you what a bet costs, what it pays, how likely the bookie thinks it is, and how much of every price is the bookie's cut. Everything else in this betting glossary builds on those.

Why do UK and US bettors use different words for the same bet?

The two betting cultures grew up apart. The UK has accumulators, handicaps, bookmakers and fractional odds. The US has parlays, point spreads, sportsbooks and American odds. The bets underneath are almost always identical, so each entry here gives both names and says where you'll meet them.

What's the difference between odds, probability and value?

Odds are the price a bookmaker offers. Implied probability is that price turned into a percentage. Value is what you get when your own honest estimate of the chance is higher than the implied one. Most losing bettors only ever look at the first of the three.

Do I need to know all these terms before I place a bet?

No. You need to understand the bet in front of you: what has to happen for it to win, what it pays, and what you lose if it doesn't. Look terms up as you meet them. If a market still confuses you after reading its entry, skip that market.

60 terms

Betting glossary: every betting term explained in plain English

By The Dude, Editor of TheBettingDudeLast reviewed September 21, 2026

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What do all these betting terms actually mean?

Betting has its own language, and half of it seems designed to make you feel like an outsider. Acca. Juice. Steam. Draw no bet. Then you open an American site and everything has a different name.

This betting glossary is my attempt to fix that. It has 60 terms, each on its own page and each built the same way:

A one-sentence definition first. If that’s all you read, you still got the answer.
A worked example with real numbers, so you can see what the bet pays and what it costs.
A “watch out” note on most entries, because nearly every market has a catch that the bookie won’t point out.
The UK and US names, where they differ.

I mostly use decimal odds, the easiest to do sums with, and American odds for US-only bets. If you think in fractions or moneylines, keep the odds converter open in another tab.

Nothing here will make you a winning bettor. But you can’t judge a tipster, a prediction app or a bookie’s price until you speak the language. New to all of it? Start with what sports betting is and come back when a word trips you up.

0–9

1X2: 1X2 is the standard three-way match result market in football, where 1 stands for a home win, X for a draw and 2 for an away win at the end of normal time.

A

Accumulator (Acca): An accumulator, or acca, is a single bet that combines several selections, multiplies their odds together and pays out only if every one of those selections wins.
American Odds: American odds are the plus-and-minus format used by US sportsbooks, where a negative number shows how much you must stake to win $100 and a positive number shows how much a $100 stake wins.
Ante-Post: Ante-post betting means placing a bet well before an event starts, usually before the final field is confirmed, in exchange for bigger odds and the danger of losing your stake if your selection never takes part.
Arbitrage (Arbing): Arbitrage betting, or arbing, means backing every possible outcome of an event at different bookmakers whose odds disagree, so that on paper the combined implied probability falls below 100%.
Asian Handicap: An Asian handicap is a football bet that gives one team a goal head start or deficit, such as +0.5 or -1.25, removing the draw so there are only two sides to back.

B

Banker: A banker is the selection a bettor considers most likely to win, and in a system bet it is the pick included in every combination, so the whole bet fails if the banker loses.
Bankroll: A bankroll is the fixed pot of money a bettor sets aside purely for betting, kept separate from everyday finances and used as the base for deciding how much to stake on each bet.
Bet Builder: A bet builder is a bookmaker feature that lets you combine several selections from the same match, such as the winner, total goals and a goalscorer, into one bet at a single combined price.
Betting Exchange: A betting exchange is a marketplace where bettors bet against each other rather than against a bookmaker, with the exchange matching the two sides and charging a commission on net winnings.
Bookmaker (Bookie, Sportsbook): A bookmaker is a company or person that sets odds on events, accepts bets at those odds and pays out the winners, earning money from a margin built into every price.
BTTS (Both Teams to Score): BTTS stands for both teams to score, a football bet with two options: Yes wins if each team scores at least one goal, and No wins if either team fails to score.

C

Cash Out: Cash out is a bookmaker feature that lets you settle a bet before the event finishes, taking a payout based on the current odds instead of waiting for the final result.
Closing Line Value (CLV): Closing line value, or CLV, measures how the odds you took compare with the final odds offered just before the event starts, with better-than-closing prices suggesting you found value.
Correct Score: A correct score bet is a wager on the exact final score of a match, such as 2-1 to the home team, which pays high odds because the precise result is hard to predict.

D

Dead Heat: A dead heat is a tie between two or more selections for the same finishing position, settled by dividing your stake by the number of tied selections and paying that portion at full odds.
Decimal Odds: Decimal odds are a single number, such as 2.50, showing the total amount returned for every one unit staked, including the stake itself, so stake multiplied by odds equals your payout.
Double Chance: A double chance bet covers two of the three possible results in a match with a single stake, such as home win or draw, so you lose only if the third result happens.
Draw No Bet (DNB): Draw no bet is a football market where you back one team to win and your stake is refunded if the match ends in a draw, so you lose only if your team loses.
Dutching: Dutching is a staking method where you back two or more selections in the same event and size each stake so that your profit is identical whichever of them wins.

E

Each-Way (E/W): An each-way bet is two equal bets on one selection, the first on it to win and the second on it to finish in the places, paid at a fraction of the win odds.
Edge: An edge is the advantage one side of a bet holds over the other, measured as the percentage by which the true probability of an outcome beats the probability implied by the odds.
Expected Value (EV): Expected value, or EV, is the average amount you would win or lose per bet if the same bet were placed many times, calculated from the odds and the true probability of winning.

F

Favourite (Favorite): The favourite is the team, player or runner with the lowest odds in a market, meaning the bookmaker and the betting public consider it the most likely winner of the event.
Fractional Odds: Fractional odds are the traditional British format, written like 5/2, where the first number is the profit you win for staking the second number, with your stake returned on top.

H

Handicap: Handicap betting applies a virtual head start or deficit, such as -1 goal, to one side before the event, and your bet is settled on the final score after that adjustment is added.
Hedging: Hedging is placing a second bet on the opposite outcome of a bet you already hold, in order to reduce your possible loss or secure a profit whatever the final result.

I

Implied Probability: Implied probability is the chance of an outcome that a set of betting odds suggests, expressed as a percentage and found by dividing one by the decimal odds.
In-Play Betting (Live Betting): In-play betting, called live betting in the US, means placing bets on an event after it has started, at odds that change continuously as the score, the clock and the action develop.

J

Juice (Vig, Vigorish): Juice, also called vig or vigorish, is the commission a sportsbook builds into its odds, most visibly in the standard -110 price where you must stake $110 to win $100.

K

Kelly Criterion: The Kelly criterion is a staking formula that tells you what percentage of your bankroll to bet, based on the odds and your estimated edge, in order to maximise long-term bankroll growth.

L

Lay Bet: A lay bet is a bet against an outcome, placed on a betting exchange, where you take the bookmaker's role by accepting another bettor's stake and paying out if their selection wins.
Line Movement: Line movement is any change in the odds, point spread or total for an event between the moment a bookmaker first posts it and the moment the event begins.
Longshot: A longshot is a selection offered at high odds because the market gives it only a small chance of winning, so a successful bet pays many times the amount staked.

M

Matched Betting: Matched betting is the practice of using a bookmaker's free bet on a selection while laying the same selection on a betting exchange, so that the two bets largely offset each other.
Moneyline: A moneyline bet is the American name for a straightforward bet on which team or player will win an event, with no point spread involved and the payout set by the odds alone.

N

NAP: A NAP is the selection a tipster rates as their strongest bet of the day, a term from British horse racing that takes its name from the card game Napoleon.

O

Odds-On: Odds-on describes any price shorter than evens, meaning below 2.00 in decimal odds or a minus number in American odds, where the potential profit is smaller than the amount you stake.
Outright (Futures): An outright bet is a wager on the overall winner of a whole competition, such as a league, tournament or season award, and is known as a futures bet in the US.
Over/Under: Over/under is a bet on whether the total number of goals, points or other countable events in a game will finish above or below a line set by the bookmaker.
Overround: Overround is the amount by which the implied probabilities of all outcomes in a betting market add up to more than 100%, and it represents the bookmaker's built-in profit margin.

P

Parlay: A parlay is the American term for a single bet that links two or more selections together, rolling the winnings from each onto the next, and that pays only if every selection wins.
Point Spread: A point spread is a handicap used mainly in American football and basketball, where the favourite must win by more than a set number of points for a bet on it to succeed.
Prop Bet (Proposition Bet): A prop bet, short for proposition bet, is a wager on a specific event within a game, such as a player's points or a team's corner count, that isn't tied directly to the final result.
Push: A push is a bet that ends in a tie against the line, such as a favourite at -7 winning by exactly seven points, so the bet is cancelled and your stake is returned.

R

ROI (Return on Investment): ROI, or return on investment, is a bettor's net profit divided by the total amount staked, shown as a percentage, and it measures how efficiently bets have turned stakes into profit.

S

Same Game Parlay (SGP): A same game parlay, or SGP, is a parlay whose legs all come from a single game, such as the winner, the points total and a player prop, priced to account for how those outcomes are linked.
Sharp: A sharp is a skilled, disciplined bettor who wins over the long term, bets for value instead of entertainment, and is respected enough that bookmakers move their odds in response to their bets.
Stake: A stake is the amount of money you risk on a single bet, which is lost if the bet loses and returned along with your winnings if the bet wins.
Steam Move: A steam move is a sudden, rapid shift in the odds or line on one side of a market that happens across many bookmakers at almost the same time, usually triggered by heavy professional money.
System Bet: A system bet is a group of smaller combination bets, such as all the possible doubles from three selections, that lets you collect a return even when some of your selections lose.

T

Teaser: A teaser is a type of parlay, used in American football and basketball, that lets you shift the point spread or total on every leg in your favour in return for a reduced payout.
Tipster: A tipster is a person or service that publishes betting selections, called tips or picks, for others to follow, either for free or in exchange for a subscription fee.
Totals: Totals betting is the American term for wagering on whether the combined score of both teams in a game will finish over or under a number posted by the sportsbook.

U

Underdog: The underdog is the team or player that the odds rate as less likely to win an event, which is why a winning bet on the underdog pays more than one on the favourite.
Unit: A unit is a bettor's standard stake size, typically around one percent of their bankroll, used to measure bets and results in a way that doesn't depend on how much money anyone has.

V

Value Bet: A value bet is a bet where the odds on offer are higher than the true probability of the outcome justifies, giving the bettor a positive expected return over the long run.
Void Bet: A void bet is a bet that the bookmaker cancels and treats as if it had never been placed, returning your full stake because the event or market couldn't be settled normally.

X

xG (Expected Goals): xG, short for expected goals, is a football statistic that gives every shot a value between 0 and 1 based on how often similar chances are scored, then adds those values up.

Y

Yield: Yield is a bettor's total profit divided by the total amount staked, expressed as a percentage, showing how much is won or lost on average for every unit of money wagered.

Betting glossary FAQ

What are the most important betting terms for a beginner?
Start with six: stake, decimal odds, implied probability, bankroll, unit and overround. Together they tell you what a bet costs, what it pays, how likely the bookie thinks it is, and how much of every price is the bookie's cut. Everything else in this betting glossary builds on those.
Why do UK and US bettors use different words for the same bet?
The two betting cultures grew up apart. The UK has accumulators, handicaps, bookmakers and fractional odds. The US has parlays, point spreads, sportsbooks and American odds. The bets underneath are almost always identical, so each entry here gives both names and says where you'll meet them.
What's the difference between odds, probability and value?
Odds are the price a bookmaker offers. Implied probability is that price turned into a percentage. Value is what you get when your own honest estimate of the chance is higher than the implied one. Most losing bettors only ever look at the first of the three.
Do I need to know all these terms before I place a bet?
No. You need to understand the bet in front of you: what has to happen for it to win, what it pays, and what you lose if it doesn't. Look terms up as you meet them. If a market still confuses you after reading its entry, skip that market.