List of Sports Betting Terms

The following post provides a breakdown of the most popular sports betting terms with definitions.

Sports Betting has a lingo all its own. You need to know the vocabulary and understand the terminology to navigate the odds, spreads, and lines effectively.

Read: Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas Sportsbook Review

Related: How to Show Good Sportsbook Etiquette

This post is broken into two sections (a) Sports Betting and (b) Horse Racing. Here’s a list of all the sports betting terms you need to know.

Sports Betting

• Accumulator – wager combining four or more selections into a single bet requiring all selections to win.

• Arbitrage – strategy for guaranteeing profit by wagering on all possible outcomes. Generally disapproved of by lines-makers.

• Backdoor Cover –  last minute point spread cover in a game.

• Bankroll – total amount of available money in a bettor’s account.

• Betting Unit – amount of a bettor’s standard wager. The actual value of a betting unit varies with each person.

• Chalk – the heavy favorite in an event.

• Circle Game – limited betting action on a particular game. Sportsbooks may circle games based on uncertainty due to injuries, weather, and related variables.

• Closing Line – final point spread prior to an event beginning.

• Contrarian – wagering against the trends of the general betting public.

• First Half – bet on the results of the first half in sports like football and basketball.

• Future – be on a future event, series, award, etc. For example, predicting the winner of next year’s world series, today.

• Halftime Line – point spread set at halftime entirely based on a game’s second half result.

• Laying Points – wagering on the favorite and point spread.

• Money Line – wager on an outright win without regard to the point spread.

• Opening Line – initial odds released for a game.

• Over/Under – wager on a combined point total between two teams.

• Parlay – combining two or more wagers on a single ticket. All teams and totals must cover the point spread to win the bet.

• Player Prop – wager on an individual player’s performance in a particular game.

• Point Spread – number oddsmakers set when two teams compete. For instance, -3 and -7 are examples of popularly used point spreads in football.

• Power Rating – objective rating of the quality of a given team. Sharp bettors use power ratings to rank, rate, and compare teams when betting.

• Reduced Juice – when a sportsbook offers a reduced vig on a game. For example, instead of -110, an example of a reduced juice line is -107.

• Regular Season Wins – futures wager on how many games a team will win in a season.

• Reverse Line Movement – when a majority of bets are placed on one side and line movement goes in the opposite direction in spite of that.

• Round Robin – type of wager that replaces a single parlay with a series of smaller parlays covering all possible combinations. For instance, instead of a single three-team parlay, round robins break that down into three two-team parlays.

• Run Line – baseball term referring to the point spread which is usually set at -1.5 runs.

• Sharp Bettor – opposite of a square. Sharp bettors are professionals and line movers.

• Single Bet (Side) –  wager placed on one selection with a single outcome.

• Square Bettor – losing bettors. The general betting public is considered square.

• Steam Move – unforeseen and significant line movement, usually due to large wagers being made by sharp people or sharp groups at multiple books.

• Straight Bet – wager on a single game with a point spread, total, or money line.

• Taking Points – wagering on the point spread and the underdog.

• Team Props – wager on a team’s individual performance (statistically) in a particular game.

• Teaser – wager on an adjusted point spread (teasing the point spread up or down).

• TKO – commonly used abbreviation in boxing for “technical knockout”.

• Total – wager on the total amount of points scored in the game. For example, the over/under in football is a popular wager for bettors.

• Tout – anyone selling their picks and/or sharing their picks.

• True Odds – actual odds of winning a bet, versus payoff odds, which include an edge for the house. True odds are the closest representation of various likelihoods.

• Underdog – opposite of the favorite, considered unlikely to win.

• Wire to Wire – wager on a team leading all quarters or a specified number of quarters consecutively.

Horse Racing Terms and Wagers

• Across the Board – wager on “win, place, and show”. All three on a single ticket. Horse must finish 1st to collect all three payouts. 2nd place = place and show. 3rd place = show.

• Coupled Runners – two or more horses belonging to one owner or under one trainer in the same race (ex: 1 & 1A).

• Daily Double – wager on two horses (one horse per) for two different races. Must finish 1st in both races to win.

• Exacta Box (quinella) – wager on two horses (one race). Must finish 1st and 2nd (any order) to win.

• Exacta Straight – wager on two horses (one race). Must finish 1st and 2nd (exact order) to win.

• Furlong – eight furlongs equals one mile.

• Maiden Race – exclusively for horses that have not won a graded stakes race.

• Pick 3 – wager on three horses (one horse per) for three races. Must finish 1st in three consecutive races to win.

• Pick 4 – wager on four horses (one horse per) for four races. Must finish 1st in four consecutive races to win.

• Pick 6 – wager on six horses (one horse per) for six races. Must finish 1st in six consecutive races to win.

• Place – wager on horse finishing 1st or 2nd to win.

• Place/Show – wager on one horse to place (2nd) or show (3rd) in a single race (place pays more than show).

• Show – wager on horse finishing 1st, 2nd, or 3rd to win.

• Superfecta – wager on four horses (one race). Must finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (exact order) to win.

• Superfecta Box – wager on four horses (one race). Must finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (any order) to win.

• Super Hi-5 – wager on five horses (one race). Must finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th (exact order) to win.

• Super Hi-5 Box – wager on five horses (one race). Must finish 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th (any order) to win.

• Trifecta – wager on three horses (one race). Must finish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (exact order) to win.

• Trifecta Box – wager on three horses (one race). Must finish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (any order) to win.

• Twin Quinella – wager on two horses (two races). Must finish 1st and 2nd (any order) in both races to win.

• Win – wager on horse finishing 1st to win.

• Win/Place – wager on one horse to win (1st) or place (2nd) in a single race (win pays more than place).

• Win/Place/Show – wager on one horse to win (1st), place (2nd), or show (3rd) in a single race (win pays the most).

• Win/Show – wager on one horse to win (1st) or show (3rd) in a single race (win pays more than show).