The ultimate guide to football betting terms: A-C

The gambling sector can offer a dizzying range of terms. Whenever a new system of betting is introduced, it presumes you will be comfortable with the many words commonly thrown around by expert punters and sportsbook owners. Therefore, to make full use of our guides on betting systems, we thought a list of definitions of some of the words used would help.

This multipart guide will help introduce some of the more common terms. You might also be interested in our beginners guide to football betting.

Accumulator

This is also sometimes known as an ACCA. This bet allows you to bet on lots of match outcomes. If you successfully predict more than one outcome, then your winnings are going to be substantial. The more outcomes you select, the better your return. Predicting the correct result of 3, 4 or 5 matches at a time is tough – but you certainly get a solid return for the risk.

American Odds

US odds are displayed assuming you would bet 100 in whatever currency you are gambling. Evens is 100 if positive odds. If betting negative odds, it is how much it would take to win 100. Evens, or 2.0, would be 100. 1/ 2 or 1.5 would be 200.

Asian Handicap

This is a way of overcoming an obvious winner in a point or goal spread bet. If Man Utd are playing Grimsby Town, then Grimsby Town is going to need a head start to make a bet worthwhile. This is also a great way of avoiding your bet being nullified by a draw with the bookie! Read more about Asian handicaps.

Best Price Promises

The “Best Price” range of offers, also known as a Best Price Promise or the Best Price Guarantee, is your trust that you are going to get the best value on that bet for that match with that team. It might be marked with a simple “BP” on the site.

Betting Exchange

A betting exchange is different from a sportsbook. With a sportsbook, you are competing with the bookmaker, seeking to find those places where they offer odds that are more generous than they should be. A betting exchange pitches one punter against another punter, and the site takes a commission. The site is like a dating agency for those gamblers who are layers and set the odds, and backers, those who take up the bets.

Binary Betting

A way of betting that with odds displayed somewhere from 0 to 100. 100 says the event will happen and 0 means it won’t. You can then find somewhere on this scale to place your bet, and the more confident you are on the outcome, the better your return.

Buy Points

Accepting lower odds so you can bet on a wider spread of points. The opposite would be a sell point, where you decrease the point spread advantage and in return, the bookmaker will increase the odds.

Chalk

This is another term for the favourite. You might also hear it referred to as the jolly. This is the option considered most likely to win. You will see this; clearly, the odds will be reduced. Experienced gamblers will avoid those considered most likely to win, as it is challenging to make a profit on such bets. You would have to win more often to make this strategy work.

Co-favourite

A co-favourite means that there is more than one team fancied to win. This would be available in a cup run or a league bet over a season. You will see this signalled by all teams considered favourite to win being given the same odds.

Correct Score

For those with a lot of confidence, the correct score bet requires you to predict the exact outcome of a match. This means even if you pick the winner if they win 2-0 and not 1-0, you don’t win your bet. The good news is that the odds offered on correct score bets tend to be a lot more generous. You can also make a combination bet, backing the win as well as the score. This could help you break even, even if you get the score wrong.

Cover the spread

If you took up a handicap bet and still backed the favourite, then you want that favourite to cover the spread. It means if you decided Man Utd would take Grimsby 4-0, then you would win if you set a point spread of 4 goals. You would likely get pretty decent odds here, even though Man. Utd would be the heavy favourites, as they would have to score four times before you win.

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