1. Sports Gambling Terms And Phrases
2. Sports Betting Terms And Phrases
3. Sports Gambling Statistics
4. What Is Another Word For Gambling

Sports Betting terms can be confusing on your first sportsbook visit. Learn the meaning to many common sports betting terms you will find at sports books. Responsible Gambling. SportsBetting.com is restricted to people 21 years old and over; Is Gambling a Problem? Call 1-800-522-4700.

Here is a list of common sports betting terms that can help you understand the industry better, be a better sports bettor, and just generally feel more comfortable when discussing the subject.

Glossary of Sports Betting Terms. There’s a fair amount of slang and jargon used in sports betting. It is really useful to understand what these words and phrases mean, so we have compiled this sports betting glossary to help. You don’t necessarily need to learn all these terms, but you may like to use this glossary as a reference tool for. Unit/s: Amount bet on a game. Win Totals: A future wager that allows bettors to handicap the number of victories and losses of a team during the course of a regular season. Underdog: The team in a sports betting matchup that is not expected to win. The act of placing a bet or having an active wager on a sporting event. “I have action on.

Sports betting is growing by the day, especially in the United States where it’s becoming legal in more and more states. As the industry continues to grow, so does its popularity, but no one wants to be left feeling like they’re on the outside, right? Review these sports betting terms so you know what you’re talking about and can understand industry jargon.

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Action: A wager or bet of any kind.

Against the Spread (ATS): Taking action on one side of a point spread, but either taking points or laying points.

Backdoor Cover: When a side of a bet scores points late in a competition to cover the point spread.

Bad Beat: When you lose a wager you believe you should have won, you often refer to it as a “bad beat.” Oftentimes, a bad beat occurs when your side was expected to win the contest but ultimately lost.

Bankroll: The funds you have available to wager with.

Betting Line (or Line): The betting odds or point spread.

Bookmaker: A creator of betting lines and odds, often at a sportsbook.

Bookie: A person who accepts wagers.

Book: As a noun, “book” is short for “sportsbook – an establishment that accepts wagers. As a verb, to book means to place or accept a wager.

Buying Points: When a sports bettor pays an additional price to alter the betting line and adjust the odds, it is called “buying points.”

Chalk: Another term for the favorite or side of a bet that the public is favoring.

Circle Game: A game or competition with restricted (lower) betting limits.

Closing Line (or Close): The final point spread or betting line before a game or competition begins.

Consensus: The volume of bets that the public is on for a side of a game or competition, often listed as a percentage.

Contrarian: Going against the grain of public sentiment, a pick made that is opposite of the majority opinion.

Cover: Beating the point spread. When a side beats the point spread, it has “covered” the bet.

Dime: Slang for a one-thousand dollar ($1,000) wager.

Dog: Short for “underdog,” it is the side of a bet that is not favored.

Edge: An advantage.

Even Money: When the odds of a bet are the same as the wager, 1-to-1, and there is no vigorish (vig).

Exotic: A wager other than a straight bet or parlay, often called a “proposition bet” or “prop.”

Favorite: The side of a bet that is the likely winning side.

Futures Bet (or Future): A wager on a future sporting event. Most commonly, it is a bet placed on the outcome of an event in the current or upcoming season, such as placing a wager before the season or early on in the season for which team will win the Super Bowl in the NFL.

Grand Salami: An over/under total on the combined NHL goals for an entire day of games.

Handicapper: A person who tries to predict the odds and outcomes of an event.

Handle: The amount of money taken by a sportsbook or sports betting operator. Handle can be broken down per event, series of events, a specific time period, or in total.

Hedge: To place a bet opposing a wager you already have in place so that you are lowering your exposure or risk.

Hook: In point-spread betting, the hook is the extra half point attached to the spread, very commonly seen in football betting.

In-Play Betting: Another term for live betting, in-play betting is wagering that takes place while a game or event is running. Due to the fluid nature of the game or event, in-play betting lines adjust on the fly.

Juice: Another term for the “vig” or “rake,” which is the money a sportsbook or sports betting operator takes on a wager.

Key Number: A common point differential when it comes to scoring margins. Key numbers are most commonly referenced in football betting in regards to multiples of three or seven.

Laying Points: When a bettor is giving points to the other side. Betting the favorite.

Limit: The most amount of money a sportsbook or sports betting operator will take as a wager on an event.

Lock: A term used to describe when a bettor views a pick as a guaranteed victory.

Long shot: A big underdog to win.

Middle: An outcome that falls between two bets on different sides of the same event, allowing the bettor to win both wagers.

Money line or moneyline: The odds or price of betting an event straight up, without the use of a point spread. When betting the money line (or moneyline), the favorite will be designated with a minus sign next to the number. The higher the number, the greater the odds the favorite has to win, but the lower the payout. The underdog will be designated with a plus sign next to the number. The higher the number, the lower the odds the underdog has to pull off an upset, but the larger the payout will be should the upset occur.

Nickel: A $500 bet.

Oddsmaker: The person or persons who set the odds on an event.

Off the Board: When a sportsbook or sports betting operating removes a wager from its offering and is no longer taking bets on the event. Oftentimes, an operator will take a bet off the book when deciding to change the odds. Leaving the bet up could expose the oddsmaker to increased risk.

Opening Line (or Open): The initial point spread or betting line on a game or competition.

Over/Under: The line set on a specific total that bettors can pick to go over or under. Over/under lines are most commonly made on the point totals of games, but can also be used on teams, players, and other prop bets.

Parlay: A wager that includes multiple bets within one greater bet. To win, a bettor must hit all the individual bets.

Pick’em: When a game or event has no side that is favored over the other.

Point Spread: The point spread is how teams or sides are handicapped against one another. It’s the number of points one side is giving or receiving to the other. For more on point spread betting, click here.

Prop Bet (or Proposition Bet): A prop bet, short for proposition bet, is a type of side bet that is placed on something not determined by the final outcome of a game, such as a specific statistic for a given player.

Public: Another term for volume of bets being placed.

Puck Line: Hockey’s version of the point spread, although rarely anything different than -1.5 or +1.5. Instead of altering the points given, bookmakers will adjust the odds on these lines.

Push: A tie.

Quarter: A $25 bet.

Return On Investment: A measurement on a wager’s or bettor’s performance giving in the ratio of net profit and cost of investment.

Reverse Line Movement: When a line moves opposite of the betting percentages, or opposite the public.

Round Robin: A wager that allows a bettor to place multiple parlay wagers within a single bet.

Run Line: Baseball’s version of the point spread.

Runner: A person who places a wager for another person.

Sharp: A professional sports bettor or a bettor deemed to have an enhanced advantage.

Square: A casual, hobby sports bettor. Not a professional and considered to be just a member of the general public.

Sportsbook: An establishment that accepts wagers.

Sports Gambling Terms And Phrases

Steam: Term used to describe a fast-moving line.

Straight Bet: A bet that is made without using a point spread. In other words, another way to classify a money line bet.

Take the Points: The opposite of laying the points, taking the points means a bettor is receiving points from the other side. Betting the underdog.

Teaser: A bet that allows the bettor to adjust the point spread by adding or subtracting points. The adjustment comes at a cost, though, as the bettor will be faced with a lower return determined by the amount of the adjustment.

Total: The combined number of points, runs, or goals from an event.

Tout: A person who sells his or her picks and sports betting knowledge to others.

Underdog: The side of a wager that is the unlikely winning side.

Unit: The amount a bettor deems to be one wager’s worth. Bettors often bet in terms of units, with the number of units bet on an event determined by the bettor’s confidence in the wager.

Vigorish (or Vig): Another term for the “juice” or “rake,” which is the money a sportsbook or sports betting operator takes on a wager.

Wager: A bet.

Wise Guy: Another term for a sharp bettor used to describe a professional bettor or someone deemed to have an enhanced advantage.

That’s it for now. Bookmark this page or check page often, as we’ll continue to add more sports betting terms to this list.

Sports Betting Terms And Phrases

On Monday, when your friends are regaling you with their stories of wagering on feats of athleticism, you needn’t sit there like a wallflower, smiling and nodding. You should have at least a functioning vocabulary of gambling terms so that you can criticize your friend’s decisions in hindsight. That’s not something you want to miss out on. Some of these may be familiar, some may be new, but having a working knowledge of this list is a great stride towards a gambling addiction. No more smiling and nodding. Get in the game.

9. Parlay
An umbrella bet that relies on winning all of several smaller bets. If I parlay Golden State and San Antonio (assume they’re both favorites), that means I’m betting on Golden State in their game to cover the spread and San Antonio to cover the spread in their game. If they both cover, then you win the parlay and get a larger payout than if you would have just bet on one game. However, if either team fails to cover, the bet is lost. The odds of winning your bet are worse, so the payout goes up. You can parlay as many bets together as you would like, but the more you parlay, the less likely you are to win your bet. You can also parlay spread bets with over/under bets or prop bets.

Sports Gambling Statistics

8. The Spread
The expected margin of victory of the favorite over the underdog. If the spread is 9, and St. Louis is favored over Tampa Bay, then the expectation is that St. Louis will beat Tampa Bay by 9 points. Your spread bet will be based on that expectation. You can bet on Tampa Bay, which means that you expect Tampa to lose by less than 9 or win outright (Tampa +9), or you can bet on St. Louis to win by more than 9 (St. Louis -9). If St. Louis wins by exactly 9, then the bet is a push (a gamblers word for a tie) and you get your money back.

7. Over/Under
This one’s pretty easy. Whereas the spread concerns the bettor with who will win or lose and by how much, the over/under simply serves as the expectation of how many points both teams will score. An over/under of 65 means that expectations are the sum of both teams’ final scores to be 65. You can bet the under, meaning you expect the actual total to be less than the expectation, or the over, which means you expect it to be more than the expectation. It’s perhaps the simplest type of wager in sports.

What Is Another Word For Gambling

6. Tease
A tease is a type of parlay, but the payout is less because the bettor gets more favorable betting terms. For instance, if you tease Seattle to cover against Oakland with the over, then the line would get reduced (say from 5 points to 1) and the over would get reduced by 4 points as well, say from 53 to 49. This makes winning the individual bets easier, but it doesn’t pay as well because of the favorable terms.

5. Money Line
This is the bet you make if you just want to pick the winner and loser, regardless of the point differential. Of course, when New England is playing Cleveland, the outcome isn’t exactly 50/50, so there still needs to be an adjustment. And that adjustment comes in the form of the payout. If NE is favored -160, that means you need to bet 160 bucks to win 100. If CLE is the underdog at +145, that means that you bet 100 on Cleveland to win 145. Is it needlessly confusing? Yup. But good luck trying to change it.
4. Prop Bet
A prop (proposition) bet is any bet that’s not on the final score, but on a particular aspect of the game. A prop bet could be anything from the number of three point shots Kobe Bryant attempts in a game to how many combined onside kick attempts both teams will have. Prop bets can also be more conventional, like odds on whether or not LT will break 100 yards rushing in a game. These are rarely put on the screen in sports books, but rather listed on fliers near the cage.
3. Buying Points
Buying points entails paying cash up front to get a more favorable line for the team you wish to bet on, regardless of whether they are the favorite or the underdog. The amount a point costs varies from the size of your bet and the nature of the line, so no hard and fast rules exist.

2. Hedging
Hedging generally means betting both sides of a line (not at the same time) so that you can lock in a smaller victory, but remove all (or some) risk. For example, lets say you’re betting on the Master’s, and you pick Tiger to win the tourney. Then on day three, he gets a huge lead, and you can now bet the field at better odds with the same amount of money. Either way, you will make more than your original bet and your risk will be eliminated or mitigated. However, by hedging you will make less than your original bet would have paid had you not hedged.
1. Taking the Points
This refers to betting on the underdog of a match when betting the spread. If the spread on Buffalo vs. Philly is Buffalo -7 (Buffalo favored by 7 points), then by taking the points, you are betting that Philly will lose by less than 7 (or win). Simply put, taking the points means betting on the underdog.