Sports Betting 101: Guide Hub & Betting Glossary
Written By Blaise Bourgeois | Last Updated at October 29, 2025
Our sports betting glossary is here to tell you all of the key terms you need to know. Essential for making sense of what’s on offer at our recommended online sportsbooks.
Here you’ll get a speedy overview of how to bet, how sports betting works and what strategies to use, and then we’ll jump into the main course of those betting terms. As such, you should be able to enjoy betting on the big game without being totally confused by all of that jargon.
A quick guide for how to bet on sports
Let’s imagine that you’ve never bet on sports but want to get involved. Here’s what you need to do:
- Click on any of the links for the online sportsbooks listed in the banners of this page to be taken to their site from your browser
- Create your customer account by filling in the registration form with your personal details
- Verify your identity by submitting the required photo ID
- Make an opening deposit with one of the accepted payment methods
- Navigate to the sporting event that you want to bet on
- Click on your preferred odds to have them added to your bet slip
- Enter your betting stake and submit your bet
If you’ve won, then the fastest payout betting sites will let you withdraw your winnings within 24 hours
Sports betting 101
Betting on sports is basically where you make a prediction and then back up that prediction with your own money. If your prediction is correct, you will win back your money along with returns that are determined by the betting odds. If your prediction is wrong, you will simply lose your money.
The betting odds will usually be displayed in an American format as follows:
★ Example: +200 - Positive odds are for the underdog, so here it would mean that you have to wager $100 to profit $200.
★ Example: -200 - Negative odds are for the favorite, and this would mean that you’d have to wager $200 to profit $100.
Simple strategies for sports betting
- Set a budget: Doing so will help you bet without your bets and avoid the temptation of chasing after your losses.
- Use your expertise: Only bet on those sports, teams and players that you know inside-out.
- Try different betting markets: After all, betting on things like player props can add a fun dimension to any big game.
- Bet live: This is where you bet after the game has begun and it offers a great way to find more variance in the odds.
- Cash out early: Here you will be settling your bet early so as to cling onto the win regardless of what happens later in the game.
Our sports betting glossary
So without further ado, here the key terms that you need to know to truly enjoy betting on sports:
Accumulator - Involves a series of bets in one wager. Each of the bets must win in order for the wager to win. If one leg of an accumulator loses the wager loses.
Action: Having a bet on the game.
Alternate lines - Some sportsbooks may offer different (or alternate) point spreads that pay different odds for the same game. These provide bettors more options to wager on certain games.
Alternative live: Bets beyond the main spread and totals bets.
Arbitrage - This betting strategy involves placing a wager on all possible outcomes of an event so that that there’s a guaranteed profit regardless of the winner.
Asian Handicap - An alternative way to bet soccer where the better team is “handicapped” to be the favorite. This form of betting was started in Asia.
Backdoor cover: Where a team unexpectedly covers the spread at the end of the game.
Bad beat: Suddenly losing what looked like a winning bet at the end of the game.
Bankroll: How much you have to bet with.
Bonus - Sportsbooks offer a financial bonus to customers for a variety of reasons. A signup bonus is the most popular way to incentivize bettors to use a certain sportsbook.
Cash out: To settle your bet early.
Chalk: The favorite.
Circle Game - A game is circled by a sportsbook because betting limits are lower than usual. This most often happens when there’s a questionable injury before a game.
Closing Line - This is simply where the point spread is when the game begins.
Closing Line Value - This term is used by bettors to measure the value of the line they wagered before the line that was the last available before a game begins.
Contrarian - Betting against the trends of the mainstream popular opinions. Bettors usually place contrarian wagers when there is value on the opposite opinion.
Cover: The result on a point-spread bet.
Dead Heat - Another way to say that there is a tie in a finishing position. Sportsbooks have different rules on how to pay in the event of a tie or dead heat in an event.
Dime: A $1,000 bet.
Dog: The team expected to lose.
Early Cash Out - A way for bettors to settle a wager for a certain dollar amount before the event is over. This is a way to lock in a profit at a smaller value than the wager would ultimately pay.
Edge: When a sportsbook has got its odds wrong.
Even money: Where the odds are 50/50.
Exacta - Choosing horses to finish first and second in a race. Offered rarely for other competitive sports.
Exotic Wager - These are non-traditional sports bets. Exotic wagers aren’t point spread, moneyline, or futures bets on a certain event. This kind of wager is often listed as a prop bet in a sportsbook.
Expected Value - This is a calculation used by a bettor to determine whether a wager should win or lose over time. Positive expected value (EV) bets over time is a good way to become a winning sports bettor.
Exposure - The amount of money a sportsbook potentially could lose for a specific event. For example, sportsbooks might have a lot of exposure (money at risk) on one team winning a championship versus another.
Fade: To bet against a team, player or public.
Favorite: The expected winner.
Futures: A long-term bet such as the next Super Bowl winner.
Grand Salami: How many points will be scored in all games in a league.
Handle: The amount of money taken by a sportsbook.
Hedging: Hedging is a strategy of placing bets on opposing markets to ensure you get a profit.
High-roller: Someone who bets with large stakes.
Hold: Also known as vig or juice, it is what a sportsbook charges for taking your bets.
Hook - Another way to say half of a point. For example, a team may be a 3.5 point underdog. That could be called “three and a hook.”
Limit: The maximum bet or winnings set by the sportsbook.
Lines: Betting odds
Line movement: How the odds change in the run-up to the big game.
Listed Pitcher - This is a baseball bet that is active only if the pitcher listed as the starter throws the first pitch of a game.
Live Betting - Placing a wager on a game or event while it’s taking place. This is also known as In Play wagering.
Lock: What looks like a certain win.
Matched Bet - When a bettor uses free wagers from a sportsbook operator to increase potential profit.
Margin - This is a wager where a bettor selects a team to win or lose by a specific number of points regardless of the point spread.
Middle/Middling - Middling a sports bet is playing different sides of the same game. This gives a bettor multiple chances to win wagers on the same game.
Money line: Where you bet on which team or player wins the game.
Nickel: A $500 bet
Novelty Bet - Placing a wager on a non-sports event with a sportsbook.
Odds-on Favorite - When a team or person is heavily favored to win a game or event. They often have very low odds paying much less than the amount wagered.
Off the board: When a sportsbook is no longer accepting that bet.
Over/under: Also known as a ‘totals bet’, here you bet whether a statistic will be higher or lower than that set by the sportsbook.
Parlay: A bet containing lots of other bets and all have to win for you to win the parlay.
Pick’em: A game with no clear favorite.
Player Props - A player prop bet is a wager on an individual player to do something during a game.
Point spread: How many points the favorite is expected to beat the underdog by.
Power Ranking - (AKA Power Rating) - Creating a ranking score for each team so that a bettor, handicapper, or sportsbook can create a point spread.
Prop bet: Any bet unrelated to the end game result.
Puck line: The equivalent of a point spread for hockey.
Push - When a point spread wager lands exactly on the line offered by the sportsbook. The bettor receives their money back if they push.
Reduced Juice - When a sportsbook lowers the vig on a game. For example, a sportsbook might offer -105 for a game instead of -110.
Reverse Line Movement - When a line (or point spread) moves differently than the money wagered on the game or event.
ROI - ROI is an acronym for Return On Investment.
Round Robin - A wager that involves making multiple parlay bets at the same time.
Run live: The equivalent of a point spread for baseball.
Same game parlay: A bet made up of different bets on the same game and all must win for you to win your same game parlay.
Square - A casual and recreational sports bettor.
Steam - This is when odds change because of the money wagered on a game or participant.
Straight Up - When a team wins or loses an event. The point spread isn’t involved with the winner or loser.
Teaser: Where the bettor has to pick multiple winners but they can also adjust the points spread in their favor.
Tissue Price - The initial odds offered by a sportsbook. This price is usually considered to be the fairest price on a wager.
Totals - Totals are the numbers that bettors will choose the over or under on points (or runs, goals, etc,) scored.
True Odds - True odds are the actual odds of an event happening. In sports betting this is the most accurate point spread or moneyline.
Wager: Placing a bet
Wire-to-Wire - This is a wager that a team will lead at every quarter or for a specific number of quarters. Wire-to-wire bets are the most popular in basketball.
Our Dedicated Betting Guides
Pros and cons of reading out sports betting guides
Pros
- Understand how sportsbooks work
- Discover new ways to bet
- Bet with more confidence
- Avoid making rookie mistakes
Cons
- Can be time-consuming
Conclusion - Check back for updates to our sports betting glossary
We’ve shown you that even something as simple as sports betting can be made much more complicated by some fairly unfamiliar jargon. Thankfully our glossary has hopefully made some of those terms a little more understandable and this should help you bet with a little extra confidence too.
Naturally, we’ll make sure that this glossary gets updated with any new betting terms that come on the scene. But for now, consider clicking on any of the links for the sportsbooks featured in the banners of this page, sign up and put your newfound betting knowledge to good use.
