If you’re new to sports betting, you’ll probably need a heads up on some of the sports betting terms. Shoot, even if you’ve been doing some basic sports betting, you probably have a few questions but just don’t want to admit to not knowing what a “teaser” is. We read multiple sportsbook reviews to find safe and trustworthy betting sites. Well we’re here to help, so here’s a run down of some common sports betting terms and definitions; as well as some that you may not know (in alphabetical order):
- Action – A sports betting wager, or bet, of any type.
- Angles – Using key factors of stats from previous events in order to predict the outcome of a future game.
- ATS – “Against the spread”, taking points instead of betting the spread and laying points.
- Bet – To risk money or have “action” on a sport
- Book – Somewhere to place bets, that accepts action
- Bookie – Someone who accepts sports bets
- Buying Points – To pay an additional price in order to receive a half point or more in favor of your bet
- Chalk – The favorite
- Chalk Player – Someone who typically bets on the favorite
- Cover – A pointspread win, “They covered the spread”.
- Dog – The team in sports betting, who is perceived to be most likely to lose, “The Pacers were Dogs against the Bulls”
- Even Money – When the odds are 1/1, no juice is laid
- Favorite – The team who’s expected to win the game.
- Half Time Bet – To wager on a game’s halftime line
- Laying the points -To bet the team who’s favored, and give points, “I bet the Lakers laying 10 to the Hornets”
- Line – The current odds or spread on a game
- Odds – The likelihood of the projected outcome happening, in numbers form
- Parlay – To bet more than 1 team, you’d get higher odds but all teams most win (or cover) for you to win your bet
- Prop Bet – To bet on something special, other than what you could normally bet. Example: Who will win American Idol?
- Push– When the game ends with no winner or loser in a bet.
- Round Robin – In sports betting this a group of three or more teams in 2-team parlays.
- Straight-up – Betting on a team to just win the game, the odds will not be as good.
- Teaser – A teaser is a special type of parlay in sports betting when you adjust the point spread or total of each game. The price of moving the point spread is lowering pay out odds winning wagers.
- Total – Betting on the total points, or goals etc. in a game.
Now to be honest, there’s even more sports betting terms than just these listed above. But if you’re online doing some sports betting, these terms will cover everything you need to know. More importantly though, next time your buddy is trying to get some action from you on a game; just tell him you want to do a round robin with him or her, with a few of the teams ATS and you want to buy some points…that’ll throw your friend a nice curve ball! (Although it may confuse you and me just as much) Now remember though, if you do the bulk of your sports betting online- you won’t have to stress too much about not knowing what some of these sports betting terms mean right away, because you can always come back here and check to be sure. Best of luck with all your sports betting – online or in Las Vegas!