For some reason sports betting, and especially online sports betting has lot of terms and phrases that might be kind of confusing for the beginner bettors. Because of that we decided to create the sports betting terms and phrases glossary on playcasino.org

Common sports betting terms:

AHC = AHC stands for Asian Handicap. In the Asian handicap bets the teams are given or deducted goals before the match starts. So for an example if you bet on a team that A that has a AHC of -1.5 goals they will have to win the game with at least 2 goals for you to win the best. On the other hand if you bet on a team that has an AHC of +1.5 goals your team can lose by one goal and you would still win the bet (in that case you would also win the bet if your team ties or wins the game). The most common AHCs that you will find are -0.5, +0.5 and -1 and +1 goal. In general the Asian Handicap bets have better payout percentage than the 1x2 bets and thus majority of the professional sports bettors prefer asian handicaps over 1x2 bets.

HT/FT = Half Time / Full Time. HT/FT is a betting option in which your goal is to predict what is the result on the half time and what is the final result of the game. So for an example if you think that the game will be on tie (for an example 0-0) at the half time but after full time the home team has won (for an example 1-0) your HT/FT bet would be X/1. The most common HT/FT sports bet made by people is 1/1 meaning that they think that the home team will lead at the half time and will also end up winning the game. Some bookmakers also offer HT only betting, as the name suggest in that betting format you simply need to guess or know what the result will be at the half time and the full time result wont matter for the sake of your bet.

O/U = Over/under. In Over/under betting your goal is to predict if in the game there will be less or more goals scored than the o/u betting line is. In football (soccer) matches the most common over/under line is 2.5 goals. Meaning that if you think in the game there will be at most 2 goals scored you pick the under 2.5 goals. If you think that there will be 3 or more goals scored you pick the over 2.5 goals. In ice hockey matches the most common O/U lines are 4.5 and 5.5 goals. Some bookmakers also offer so called team over / under bets in which your goal is simply to guess if the specific team (for an example in ManU – Liverpool game Liverpool) scores. At some bookies the O/U bets are also known as totals or total betting.

+EV = Plus expected value. The term is used when someone thinks that the bet offers positive expected value. For an example if you think that team A will win the game 50% of the time and they are given odds of 2.2 you can say that the bet offers positive expected value. If you are wondering if the bet has positive expected value simply take your percentage estimation (assuming you make them) and multiple it with the odds given. If the result of this calculation is over 100 the bet offers positive expected value. So for an example if your estimation is 10% and the odds for the bet are 12 you simply calculate 10 * 12 and as the result in this case is 120 the bet indeed is +EV. On the other hand if your estimation would be 5% and the odds the same 12 the bet would be –EV or in other words negative expected value as 5*12 is 60. If you are serious about sports betting and trying to make money in the long run from betting sports you should only do bets that offer positive expected value.

1x2 = home-draw-tie betting. The 1x2 betting is the most legendary and still the most common betting option. In it your goal is simply to guess if the game ends in home win (=1) tie (=X) or away win (=2). 1x2 betting is offered by 99.99% of the online bookmakers.

Correct score betting = Guess the correct score at the end of the game. For an example if you think that ManU-Liverpool game will end 1-1 your correct score bet would simply be 1-1. Practically all the online bookies offer correct score betting. At selected bookies you can also do half time correct score betting.

First goal scorer betting = As the name suggests you simply have to guess who scores the first goal in the game. Some bookies return your bet if the game ends 0-0, however majority don’t.

Odds = odds are the multiplier given to your bet. So for an example if you bet 50€ on a team that has odds of 1.3 you will win 65€, and when your bet amount is deducted from the win your will get 15€ profit (50*1.3-50=15) if your team wins. Majority of bookies offer odds in several format: European (decimal odds as in the example), hong kong odds and UK odds.

First deposit bonus = Bonus money that you get with your first deposit. The competition between the online bookmakers is extremely tough as each of them is fighting for their market share. For that reason many of bookmakers now offer first deposit bonus to their customers when they make the first real money deposit to their sports betting site. For an example if the bookie is advertising 100% up to 100€ first deposit bonus it means that they will double your first deposit bonus up to 200€. (100€*2=200€) It is important to note that most of the time the first deposit bonus offers are not instant. But rather you will have to make certain number of bets or wager certain pre-given amount of money before the bookmaker actually gives you the first deposit bonus. You can find every bookmaker’s first deposit bonus terms and conditions from their homepage. Selected bookies also offer reload bonuses and other deposit bonus offers.

Betting bankroll = Especially the professional and serious sports bettors have a special betting bankroll set aside that is simply for betting. Most of the casual sports bettors have no need or reason for having a special betting bankroll and can simply do the sports bets with rest of their money as long as they remember not to bet more than they can afford to lose. The reason why the professional sports bettors have a betting bankroll is that it makes it easier for them to handle the swings that come with betting (many of the bettors don’t even consider their betting bankroll to be real money before they withdraw it to their bank account.

Rogue bookie & blacklisted bookmaker = It simply means that people should consider twice before doing sports betting at that bookmaker. If you are not sure if the bookie that you are about to choose is rogue or blacklisted simply do a quick google search with the name of the site and the words: problems, rogue, blacklisted, cashout.

Betting limits = The amount of money the bookmaker allows customer to bet on the game. Some of the bookmakers show the maximum bet amount straight on their website and at some you will get notified if you are trying to bet too much on the game. Some bookies have gotten questionable reputation for limit the bets of winning players. In fact there is rumours around that certain bookmakers took this measure as far as limit the biggest winning players bets to 5€ per bet – which obviously lead to those players leaving the bookmaker and finding a new one. Bookmakers use the betting limits simply because they are trying to run a profitable business and often if the bookie decides to limit your bets there isn’t much you can do about it and for an example contacting their customer service is most of the time useless.

Fixed match or fixed game = the phrase suggest that the game in question isn’t fair and instead some of the people participating in the game are going to affect the result of the game in unfair manner. If you spend some time reading the sports betting forums you will come quite often across rumours that say that certain game is fixed. However it is important to note that majority of the time these rumours are based on nothing and the game is fair. However there have been numerous fixed games even in the last years and thus it would be silly to ignore the rumours.

We hope you enjoyed the sports betting phrases glossary and found it useful.