A
AP (Antipost)
These are the odds that are typically displayed up to a couple of weeks before the race. You’ll usually get better odds than at the SP, however, beware, if your horse pulls out, you’ll usually lose your stake.
Accumulator / Acca
Accumulators are where you place a series of bets, which multiply the odds of each bet, so can quickly end up getting very high odds. However, the downside is that usually every bet in your accumulator has to win in order for you to win your bet.
Arbitrage / Arb
Arbitrage takes advantage of different odds that bookmakers are offering, which leads to a situation where you will make a profit regardless of the outcome of the result.
Usually this happens when the exchange lay odds are lower than the bookmaker back odds.
For example, Bookmaker A gives back odds of a horse to win at 10.0, however, the exchange offers odds of 9.5 for the horse not to win, meaning if you back and lay you will make a small profit regardless.
Asian Handicap
An Asian handicap is used in scenarios when there is a particular favourite for an event, and the handicap is used to balance the bet. For example, a strong favourite may be given a -1 goal defecit at the start of the game, that they need to overcome in order for you to win bet.
B
Back Bet
A back bet is the more traditional bet that most punters will be familiar with, where you are placing a bet that the event will win. For example, you bet that Arsenal will beat Liverpool and if this outcome is correct, then you will win the bet. This is the opposite to a lay bet, where you bet that the event won’t happen.
Betting Exchange
A betting exchange is essentially a market place where sporting events are listed, and you get to choose your odds for the event. If someone else is happy to take the bet, then the bet is matched using betting software and the betting exchange will take a small commission for the bet.
A betting exchange gives you the opportunity to act as the punter and place back bets, or as the bookmaker and place lay bets.Popular betting exchanges are smarkets.com, betfair.com, betdaqcom and matchbook.com
Bookmaker / Bookie
A bookmaker can either be an individual person (more likely at the horse races) or a company such as William Hill, who accept back bets from the general public usually on sports events.
Book
The book is the total of all of the probabilities for a certain event. Usually this would add up to 100% but the bookmaker will often over-round this over 100% in order to make their money.
BTTSS
imply, this means ‘Both Teams to Score’ in a certain event and is a popular market in football games
C
Cash Out
Cashing out a bet allows you to either take early profit if your bet is winning or reduce your losses if your bet is losing before the end of the event.
Commission
Commission is taken by the betting exchanges on all bets settled in the marketplace. These are typically between 1 to 5% of the total value of the bet.
D
Double
This is where you place a bet on 2 different events, and only win if both events happen.
Dutching
Dutching is a technique where the punter backs on all possible outcomes of an event. This may sound weird that you back a team to win, draw and lose, however, sometimes the difference in odds between bookmakers means that you will make a small win, regardless of the result.
Decimal Odds
There are 2 main systems for displaying the odds or the return you will get from your bet.
- Fractional odds are displayed as : 2/1, 11/4, 7/2 etc
- Decimal odds are displayed such as 2.0, 3.0, 6.5 etc
If we take decimal odds of 2.5 as an example, this means that if you place a £10 bet on a horse and it wins, then you will get £25 back from the Bookmakers. This will be you £10 original stake plus £15 profit.
Deposit
If you’re signing up for a new bookmakers account then you will usually be asked to place an initial monetary deposit from your bank into the bookmaker’s account. In many cases this will then unlock a bonus for you.
Draw No Bet (DNB)
Draw No Bet, is a market that many bookmakers will offer on certain events and is used by punters as a kind of insurance policy in case your team doesn’t win.Put simply draw no bet means that if your team wins then you win the bet (albeit at reduced odds), but if the result is a draw then your bet will be returned to you.
E
Each Way Bet
An each way bet is a typical bet for a horse race, usually placed when backing an outsider.
The bet consists of 2 bets:
- A bet that the horse will win
- A bet that the horse will be placed in the race (Usually meaning they come 1st, 2nd or 3rd depending on the size of the field)
Lets take an example, where you placed a £10 each way bet on a horse with fractional odds of 20/1, which is paying ¼ odds for the place market.
This means you have outlaid a total of £20 (£10 for the win bet and £10 for the place bet)If the horse comes second then:
- The £10 win part of the bet is lost
- The £10 place bet is calculated by dividing the odds by 20 by 4 = 5/1 x £10 = £60 returns
Early Price (EP)
This is a price that is displayed earlier in the day and will generally be better odds. If your horse doesn’t run, then you won’t be refunded
Enhanced Odds
Occasionally a bookmaker will increase or boost the odds of a given outcome to entice more customers to bet on the event. Usually the enhanced odds will only be available for a short period of time and for a limited stake.
Evens
F
Family / Partner Friendly Bookmakers
Most bookmakers will not allow more than one account per household, to prevent multiple accounting, however, a handful of family friendly bookmakers allow this, although often they will restrict you from sign up offers and promotions.
Favourite
This is the competitor that has the shortest odds and is therefore deemed by the Bookmaker as having the highest chance of winning
Fractional Odds
Fractional odds are one way of displaying the price of a horse or competitor in a given event and is the standard way of displaying prices in the UK.
Odds are displayed as eg ‘5/1’ or ‘Five to One’, which means that for every pound that you bet, you will receive £5 pounds and your original stake back if you win the bet.
Free Bet
A free bet is the bread and butter for a matched bettor and something that you’ll like to see in your account, because this means you can convert this into real money. Free bets are used by bookmakers to encourage punters to bet on certain events.
For example, there are often offers of ‘Free Bet if your horse comes second’.Your free bet will be credited to your account and you will need to redeem that bet within a limited timeframe.
Usually the terms of a free bet dictate that you will only receive the profit from the bet if it wins and your free bet stake will not be returned (See SNR)
Fold
This is a term used with accumulator bets, which is preceded by a number to determine how many legs the bet is made up of.
For example a Four fold accumulator is made up of 4 legs all of which must win, for you to win the bet
Forecast
This is where you correctly predict the first and second place in an event, which can be straight, reversed or permed.
Form
A horses’ form is its statistics from previous races, which give you an indication of its chances in the race
Full Cover
This indicates all the doubles, trebles and accumulators involved in a given number of selections
G
Goal Line
This is a betting market where you are betting on the number of goals in a game. Typically you can bet on Over or Under a certain amount of goals per game eg you’ll see ‘Over / Under 3.5 goals’
You’ll also find goal line markets for the number of goals scored in each half
Goliath Bet
This is a huge bet made up of 247 individual bets using 8 selections in different events:
- 28 x doubles
- 56 x trebles,
- 70 x 4-folds
- 56 x 5-folds
- 28 x 6-folds
- 8 x 7-folds
- 1 x 8-fold
Gubbed / Gubbing
This is the commonly used matched betting term for when your account has either been closed, stake restricted or limited from playing any further promotions or offers.
The bookmakers will be tracking your every move and looking for patterns that make you stick out as a matched bettor. As soon as they think you are in anyway linked to matched betting your accounts will be gubbed in an instant and you’ll get the dreaded ‘Account Information’ email
H
Handicap
A handicap is a device that bookmakers used in many different sports to try and balance out the likelihood of an event occurring, and make it less one-sided. For example, if a strong favourite is playing a weak team then they will often be given a -1 goal handicap.
Hedge
This is where you try to cover the outcome of one bet with a second bet
Heinz Bet
This is a bet made up of 57 individual bets using 6 selections in different events:
- 15 x doubles
- 20 x trebles,
- 15 x 4-folds
- 6 x 5-folds
- 1 x 6-folds
I
In Play Betting
This refers to the markets that open up when the event has started, for example during a football game or during a tennis match. Typically odds are a lot more volatile during in play sessions, so this can be particularly dangerous for a matched bettor trying to find close matches.
The best advice is to only place bets during paused in the event such as half time or a change of sets in tennis.
Inter Exchange Betting
This refers to placing you lay bets on multiple exchanges
Intra Exchange Betting
Placing all of your bets on the same exchange for a certain event. This has the advantage that you are only charged commission on the net winnings from the event, rather than individual bets on the event.
In the money
This is a term used for the winning horses, which will result in a payout to the punters
In the red
These are odds that are shown in red on a bookmakers board and indicate that the odds are ‘odds on’, which means they are less than evens (2.0)
J
Joint Favourite
This term is reserved for when there are two selections who have the joint shortest odds in the field and are judged to have an equal chance of winning
Jolly
Not such a common term, but this refers to the favourite of a race
L
Lay Bet / Laying
A lay bet is where you are effectively acting as the bookmaker, and accepting someone elses bet. In order for you to win the bet you are betting that the outcome of the event will not happen.
For example, if you place a lay bet on Arsenal winning against West Brom, you will only win your bet if Arsenal lose or draw.
If Arsenal win, you will be liable to pay out the liability ie the ‘back’ bet to the punter.
Lay bets can only be placed in betting exchanges.
Long Shot / Outsider
For outcomes of an event that do not have a high chance of winning and have quite high odds
Long Odds
These are high odds, where the result of the event is not likely to happen
Liability
This is the total amount that you would have to pay out if you do not win your lay bet.
For example, if Arsenal have back and lay odds of 4.0, a back bet of £10 would win £40 if Arsenal won
If you had placed a £10 lay bet on Arsenal winning (ie you bet that they would not win), then you would not just lose your £10 stake, but you would lose your £40 liability, which would be paid out to the punter who placed the back bet…. You are acting as the bookmaker
Live Chat
You’ll see this on every bookmakers site, where you can click a link and send instant messages to a customer services representative. Depending on the time of day there can be quite a bit of a wait, however, this is usually the fastest way to talk directly to bookmakers.
M
Matched Betting
You should know this one, but this is the technique used to extract free bets from bookmakers by placing back and lay bets on an event to incur a minimal loss and invoke a free bet or bonus from the bookmaker.
Matched Bet
If you go to a betting exchange and place a ‘lay’ bet then the bet will only be active or ‘matched’ when the system has found someone to place the ‘back’ bet and ‘match’ the terms of your bet.
Matched Betting Calculator
A matched betting calculator [add link] is a tool that you will use as a matched bettor to calculate your lay stakes and qualiifiying losses when placing a matched bet.
There are a variety of good free Matched Betting Calculators [link] that you can use which I reviewed in an earlier article here
Market
For each event there are a series of different markets that you can bet on.
For example in football matches there is the goal market, where you bet on the number of goals scored, there is the 1 v 2 market, the correct score market, goalscorer market etc
Monkey
A £500 bet
Mug Bet / Mugged Betting
This is a practice that a number of matched bettors use to try and blend in with the crowd and act as if they are a normal punter. If you only bet on events that have special offers associated with them, then you will look suspicious to the bookmakers and will quickly lose your accoutns. The practice of mug betting refers to adding random bets on markets where there are no offers available. Usually you would do this on events where there are low qualifying losses.
Some matched bettors swear by this technique, however, there is no direct evidence to show that this is beneficial, although trying to act as a normal punter is definitely recommended.
Mutuel Pool
This is the sum of the bets on a certain race eg the ‘win pool’
Multiple Accounts / Multiple Accounting
Opening up a number of accounts under different names with the same bookmakers. Some people will try to use friends or relatives accounts, so they can profit more from matched betting.
However, this is taken very seriously by bookmakers who in most cases will freeze your accounts and sometimes your money if they find you holding multiple accounts.
A bookmaker will track you computer IP, your address, you credit card details, your computer address, in fact in order to open up multi accounts with a single bookmaker you’d have to put in a lot of effort such as using VPNs and multiple devices, but there is a strong likelihood of getting caught sooner or later.
N
Non Runner (NR)
If your horse does not take part in the race. Often a horse will refuse to race, has taken a knock in the box, or for a variety of reasons is withdrawn by the trainer.
With a lot of bookmakers if you have placed a bet on a horse and it is a non runner, you will lose your stake.
Nap
Similar to BBOTD, which refers to a commentators or racing tipsters best selection of the day or meeting
O
Odds
The chance or probability that your bet has of winning in the bookmakers opinion.
Odds On
When the odds for your selection are less than evens (2.0) ie the amount that you win is less than the amount that you staked.
Odds Against
When the odds are greater than evens (2.0)
On the Nose
This is when you are betting that the horse will win the race
Outlay
The amount that a punter bets on a certain event
Out of the Money
This is when a horse finishes outside of the paying places in a race (usually worse than third place)
Offers
Bookmakers will often create daily offers to entice punters to place bets. These are usually in the form of either enhanced odds, money back if you lose, free bets if you lose, or bonus winnings.
Overlay / Overlaying
Overlaying is the practice used by matched bettors if they are confident that their lay bet is going to win. For example in an FA Cup game of Man Utd v Bath City, you may be really confident that Man Utd will win the game so you would add more than the recommended stake from the matched betting calculator to your lay bet against Bath City.
If Man Utd win, then you would profit more than usual, however, be careful, if there were a shock and Bath City won or drew, then you would be liable for a big payout.
P
Picks
This usually refers to the selections that a racing tipster or commentator has chosen
Part Matched Bet / Partially Matched Bet
In some occasions, particularly during in play betting, or when odds are particularly volatile there may be a sudden change in odds, and if there is a low liability in the exchange this may mean that your full bet can not be matched.
For example lets say the lay odds of Arsenal winning against Tottenham were 2.0 and you place a £100 bet, but just after you place the bet Arsenal score a goal, the odds will change rapidly and your bet is likely to only be partially matched ie only £50 out of the £100 bet may have been matched.
This gets really complicated when trying to calculate stakes and qualifying losses, but luckily most matched betting calculators now have a feature where you can calculate the stakes for partially matched bets
Profit
In matched betting terminology, the profit should be the amount that you have made from an offer, which would be the total returns after you have used the free bet, minus the qualifying loss and any commissions to the bookmaker exchanges.
For example, you may receive a £25 free bet if your horse finished second.
For this bet you had a qualifying loss of £1.50, and you only managed to extract 80% of value from the free bet (£20) minus possibly £0.15 in commissions, means your overall profit from the offer would have been £18.35
Parimutuel Bet
This form of betting is where the total pot of winnings is divided amongst all of the punters with winning tickets
Patent
This bet is made up of 7 bets used across 3 selections:
- 3 x singles
- 3 x doubles
- 1 x trebles
Permutations / Perms
This Is where you bet on the different combinations of possible bets across your selections. For example, with 4 selections you would have a total of 6 double permutations
Place
The place market or a place bet usually means that your horse finishes in the top 2, 3 or 4 of the race depending on the size of the field.
Pony
£25
Punt
A punt is another term for a bet or wager. In matched betting terms, to punt a bet, means that you are placing a back bet and not placing an equivalent lay bet, so you are actually gambling!
Punter
A term used for someone who places a bet
Palp (Palpable Error)
This occasionally happens when a bookmaker accidentally provides the wrong odds for a bet. For example they may cancel a bet as a palp if they quoted odds of 20.0 instead of 2.0
Q
Qualifying Bet
A qualifying bet is a bet that matched bettors place in order to unlock a free bet. Typically the qualifying bet will result in a small qualifying loss
For example, Ladbrokes have an offer tomorrow on the Arsenal v Man Utd game, where you will get £25 free bet if the game ends in a draw. A matched bettor will first have to put a qualifying bet on this game, and if it’s a draw then they’ll receive the free bet.
R
Reload Offers
These are the staple food for matched bettors and is the term used for the weekly offers that bookmakers put out there to encourage punters to place bets eg Double Winnings, Money Back if second, Free bet if game is drawn.
Once you’ve completed the sign up offers you’ll be making most of your money from these reload offers
Rule 4
Tattersall’s rule 4 comes into play when there is a non runner withdraws from the race card, and the bookmakers reduce the odds of the remaining horses in the race.
For example, if there were 4 horses in a race and you placed a bet at 10/1 earlier in the day, then 1 horse withdrew, your horse will have a better than 10/1 chance of winning the race, so Rule 4 will reduce the odds accordingly.
Rollover
The rollover is often the ruin of many matched betting offers. In some cases a bookmaker will stipulate that in order to receive the bet you must roll it over 2 x. This means that if you won a £50 bet you would have to place a further £100 of bets before you could unlock and withdraw the free bet.
In some cases, especially Casino offers this no longer makes the offer worthwhile. The best tactic if an offer has a high rollover is to try and lose the bet to the exchange in the first place so that no rollover is needed!
S
Single
A bet on a single outcome
Stake Returned (SR) Bet
These free bets aren’t so common anymore but mean that when you place the free bet you receive any winnings that you may make from the bet, as well as the initial stake as well. Bookmakers don’t like this as matched bettors would simply place a bet on an event with low odds to extract the maximum value from the free bet.
Stake Not Returned (SNR) Bet
These are bets where you will not get your original stake back as well as the winnings. For example if you had a £10 (SNR) free bet and placed it at odds of 2.0 you would receive a total of £10 back = £10 x 2 minus your original £10 stake.
Unfortunately, you don’t win the stake back as withdrawable cash!
Scorecast
This is a bet where you bet on the first scorer in the game and the outcome of the match eg Sanchez to score first for Arsenal and Arsenal to win 1 – 0
Spread Betting
Super Yankee
This is a bet made up of 26 individual bets from 5 selections:
- 10 x doubles
- 10 x trebles
- 5 x 4folds
- 1 x 5fold
Sure bet
This is when there is a difference in odds across bookmakers, which means you will make a profit whatever the outcome of the event
SP
Starting price is the price of the horse when the race starts and is often going to be the worst odds you can get
T
Treble
This is where you place 3 different bets and each of them has to win in order for you to win the bet
Trixie
Consists of 4 bets from 3 selections in different events eg three doubles and a treble, of which at least 2 must be successful in order for your bet to wiin
Tic-Tac
This is the complicated sign language that you will see bookmakers using at the race course to indicate changes in odds
Tote
Tricast
This is a bet where you forecast the first 3 finishers in a race in the right order
Timecast
This is where you bet on the first scorer and the exact minute that they will score
Tip
A recommended choice from an ‘expert’
U
Underlay
The opposite of an overlay, this is where you think that the event has a better chance of happening than not happening so you put less on the lay bet than on the back bet to either minimise qualifying losses or make a profit
Unmatched Bet
This is where you try to place a bet on an exchange and no-one will accept that bet from you. For example if you lay a bet at odds of 2.0 there may not be enough liquidity in the back bet market (people wiling to place bets) at that price and therefore the bet will not be accepted. A bet only gets placed when both sides are ‘matched’
V
Virtual Events
Yes, believe it or not but bookmakers now offer simulated or ‘virtual’ events eg football, tennis, racing where you can place bets as normal
W
Wincast
This is where you bet on the first scorer in a match and also the outcome of the game
Wagering Requirement (WR)
These are the specific instructions given out by a bookmaker that you must follow in order to unlock a free bet. This may include restrictions on certain markets and a minimum amount that you must bet in order to get the free bet.
X
Simply this means ‘draw’ in footballing terms eg 1 x 2 market is the win, draw, win market
Y
Yankee
This is a bet made up of a total of 11 bets from 4 selections and includes:
- 6 x doubles
- 4 x trebles
- 1 x 4fold
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