Contents
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How to Use This Glossary
Every entry follows the same shape: the term, a one-sentence definition, how it works in practice, and a worked example in pounds where a number is involved. Bonus terms point to the criteria we score them against, and payment terms point to the pages that explain the mechanics in full.
Developer note: render an A-Z jump bar above the first section with anchors to each letter group, plus a search box filtering entries by term name.
Odds and Pricing Terms
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- Fractional odds. The UK default, written as 5/1 or 4/6. The first number is the profit, the second the stake, so 5/1 returns £50 profit on £10 plus your £10 back. Anything where the first number is smaller, such as 4/6, pays less than your stake.
- Decimal odds. The same price expressed as a multiplier including your stake. 5/1 becomes 6.0, and £10 at 6.0 returns £60 in total. Most UK sites let you switch display formats in settings.
- American or moneyline odds. Written as +500 or −150. A plus number is the profit on a $100 stake, a minus number the stake needed to win $100. You will rarely need this on a UK site outside US sports markets.
- Evens. A price of 1/1 or 2.0, where profit equals stake. £10 at evens returns £20.
- Odds-on. Any price shorter than evens, such as 4/6, where profit is less than the stake. £10 at 4/6 returns £16.67.
- Odds-against. Any price longer than evens, where profit exceeds the stake.
- Implied probability. The chance a price represents, calculated as 1 divided by the decimal odds. A price of 4.0 implies 25%, so the bookmaker is pricing that outcome as a one-in-four shot.
- Overround, margin or vig. Add the implied probabilities of every outcome in a market. A fair book totals 100%, and anything above that is the bookmaker’s built-in profit. A typical UK football match-result market runs at 5% to 9% overround, and an exchange under 1%.
- Price. Simply the odds on offer. “Taking a price” means locking in the odds at the moment you bet rather than accepting whatever the starting price turns out to be.
- Drift. A price getting longer because money is going elsewhere. A horse that opens at 3/1 and starts at 6/1 has drifted.
- Shorten, or steam. The opposite: a price contracting under weight of money. Steam usually implies a sudden, sharp move.
- Starting price, or SP. The official price at the off of a horse or greyhound race, set from the on-course market. Betting at SP means you accept whatever that turns out to be.
- Best odds guaranteed, or BOG. A racing concession where, if you take a price and the SP is bigger, you are paid at the bigger one. Back a horse at 4/1 with BOG and it starts at 6/1, and a £10 bet pays £70 rather than £50. Most UK books apply it from morning prices on raceday, and some cap the benefit.
- Early price. The first prices published for a race, usually the morning of, before the market settles. Early prices are where BOG earns its value.
- Rule 4 deduction. When a horse is withdrawn after prices are set and there is no time to re-form the market, winnings on the remaining runners are reduced. The deduction is expressed in pence in the pound and scales with the withdrawn horse’s price: a short-priced withdrawal costs you more. A favourite pulled out at 1/7 attracts an 85p deduction, so every £1 of winnings pays 15p, with your stake returned in full. The maximum is 90p however many horses come out, there is no deduction at all when the withdrawn runner was longer than 14/1, and many bookmakers waive the smallest 5p band.
- Dead heat. Two or more selections tie for a placing. Your stake is divided by the number tied for that place and paid at full odds, with the rest lost. Two horses dead-heating for a win on a £10 bet at 5/1 pays as £5 at 5/1, returning £30 rather than £60.
Bet Types
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- Single. One selection, one bet. The whole stake rides on that outcome.
- Double. Two selections in one bet, both must win, and the odds multiply. £10 on two 2.0 shots returns £40.
- Treble. Three selections, all must win. £10 on three 2.0 shots returns £80.
- Accumulator, or acca. Four or more selections in one bet with all legs required. The accumulator meaning that matters is the maths: odds multiply, so returns grow fast, and one losing leg kills the whole bet. £10 on six 2.0 selections returns £640, and five winners plus one loser returns nothing.
- Each-way, or EW. Two bets in one, half your stake on the win and half on the place, so a £10 each-way bet costs £20. The place part pays at a fraction of the win odds, typically a fifth or a quarter, over a number of places set by the field size.
- Place terms. The fraction and number of places above. A £10 each-way bet at 10/1 with terms of a fifth and three places pays £120 if the horse wins, and £30 if it finishes third: £10 profit at 2/1 plus the £10 place stake, plus the win stake lost.
| Field size | Typical places paid | Place fraction |
|---|---|---|
| 5 to 7 runners | 2 | 1/4 |
| 8 to 11 runners | 3 | 1/5 |
| 12 to 15 runners | 3 | 1/4 |
| 16 or more, handicap | 4 | 1/4 |
- Forecast. Picking first and second in the correct order. A reverse forecast covers both orders as two bets.
- Tricast. Picking first, second and third in the correct order.
- Trixie. Four bets across three selections: three doubles and one treble. Two winners still return something.
- Patent. Seven bets across three selections: three singles, three doubles and one treble.
- Yankee. Eleven bets across four selections: six doubles, four trebles and one fourfold.
- Lucky 15. Fifteen bets across four selections, made up of four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one fourfold. Lucky 31 does the same with five selections, and Lucky 63 with six.
- Heinz. Fifty-seven bets across six selections, from doubles up to the sixfold.
- Canadian, or Super Yankee. Twenty-six bets across five selections, doubles upwards.
- Goliath. Two hundred and forty-seven bets across eight selections, doubles upwards. A £1 unit stake costs £247.
- Handicap. A virtual head start or deficit applied to level a mismatch. A team at −1 must win by two or more for the bet to land.
- Asian handicap. The same idea with half-goal and quarter-goal lines that remove the draw or split your stake across two outcomes.
- Double chance. One bet covering two of the three football results, such as home win or draw. Shorter odds, higher strike rate.
- Draw no bet. A bet on a team to win where a draw returns your stake.
- Over/under, or totals. Betting on the total goals, points or games rather than the winner. Over 2.5 goals wins if three or more are scored.
- Both teams to score, or BTTS. Both sides must find the net, whatever the result.
- Correct score. Predicting the exact final scoreline.
- Bet builder, or same-game multi. Combining several markets from one fixture into a single priced bet, such as a team to win, a named player to score and over 2.5 goals. Selection caps vary by bookmaker, from around ten to twenty-five.
- Cash out. Settling a bet before the event finishes for a price the bookmaker offers based on the current position. You bank a profit or cut a loss, and the offer always carries a margin.
- Partial cash out. Taking part of the bet off and leaving the rest running.
- Lay bet. Backing an outcome not to happen, which only an exchange allows. Laying a team at 3.0 for £10 means you win £10 if they fail and lose £20 if they win.
- Back bet. The ordinary bet, on something to happen.
- Arbitrage. Backing every outcome across different operators at prices that guarantee a small profit whatever happens. Bookmakers restrict accounts that do it.
Bonus and Promotion Terms
These are the words that decide what an offer actually costs you, which is why each entry says so plainly. How we score them sits in the bonus terms criterion on How We Rate.
- Free bet. A token that stakes bookmaker money on your behalf. Almost always the stake is not returned, so a £30 free bet at 2.0 pays £30 rather than £60. Costs you nothing, but it is worth half what the headline suggests.
- Bet-and-get. The standard UK welcome structure: stake a qualifying bet and receive free bets once it settles. Your own money is genuinely at risk on the qualifying bet.
- Matched deposit. The bookmaker adds a percentage of your deposit as bonus funds. Costs you the wagering attached, which is usually the sting.
- Wagering, or rollover, requirement. How many times the bonus must be staked before it converts to withdrawable cash. Wagering requirements meaning in practice: a £50 bonus at 10x needs £500 of turnover, and each turn gives the bookmaker its margin, so the expected cost is real money. Since the cap came in, no UK welcome bonus can exceed ten times the qualifying amount.
- Minimum odds, or qualifying odds. The shortest price a bet can be and still count. A 1/5 threshold is easy, a 2.0 threshold forces you into genuine risk. Costs you the freedom to bet short favourites.
- Qualifying bet. The bet that unlocks the offer. Cash out it and most offers void.
- Stake not returned, or SNR. The default on UK free bets: you keep the profit, not the stake. Costs you the stake portion of every free bet you place.
- Stake returned. The rarer, better version, where the token behaves like cash.
- Expiry. The window to use a free bet, commonly seven days from settlement, sometimes fourteen or thirty. Costs you the whole token if you blink.
- Max win, or max conversion. A cap on what a bonus can pay out, whatever the odds. Costs you the upside on a big-priced winner.
- Excluded payment methods. Deposit routes that disqualify the offer, most often PayPal and other e-wallets. Costs you the entire bonus, silently, before you place the bet.
- Opt-in. Ticking the box that activates a promotion. Costs you the offer if you forget, and no bookmaker credits it retrospectively.
- Odds boost, or price boost. An enhanced price on a selected market, usually capped by stake. Genuine value when the base price was competitive to begin with.
- Acca insurance. A stake refund, usually as a free bet, when one leg of a qualifying accumulator loses. Check the minimum number of legs and the minimum price per leg.
- Cashback. A percentage of losses returned, weekly or monthly, sometimes as cash and sometimes as a token.
- Loyalty or VIP programme. Rewards scaled to how much you stake. Worth reading sceptically, since the fastest route up is usually volume.
- Bonus abuse. The operator’s term for using promotions in ways its terms forbid, such as arbitrage or multiple accounts. Consequences run from voided bets to closure.
- Gubbing, or account restriction. The bettor’s word for being quietly limited: promotions withdrawn, stakes capped to pennies, or the account closed. It is not a licence breach, it is commercial discretion, and consistent winners meet it eventually.
Account, Payment and Verification Terms
- KYC, or know your customer. The identity and age checks a UK operator must complete. Expect to upload a passport or driving licence and proof of address. Do it at sign-up rather than at the first withdrawal, which is where delays come from.
- Source of funds, or affordability check. A request for evidence of income or savings, triggered by deposit patterns. Refusing usually means the account is frozen.
- Self-exclusion. Blocking yourself from an operator for a fixed minimum period, which the operator cannot lift early.
- GamStop. The free national self-exclusion scheme covering every Gambling Commission licensee at once, for six months, one year or five years. Offshore sites are not part of it.
- Deposit limit. A cap you set on what you can pay in daily, weekly or monthly. Increases carry a cooling-off delay; decreases apply immediately.
- Time-out. A short break, from a day to six weeks, after which the account reopens automatically.
- Reality check. An on-screen reminder of how long you have been playing and what you are up or down.
- Cooling-off. The mandatory wait before a raised limit takes effect.
- Pending withdrawal. The period between requesting a payout and the operator releasing it, before your bank or wallet adds its own processing time.
- Reverse withdrawal. Cancelling a pending payout to bet with the money again. Some operators have removed the feature; if yours has it, treat it as a trap.
- E-wallet. PayPal, Skrill, Neteller and similar. Fast on withdrawals, frequently excluded from welcome offers.
- Open Banking, or Pay by Bank. Paying straight from your bank account by app authorisation, with no card details involved.
- Apple Pay and Google Pay. Card payments authorised on your device. Treated as cards for offer eligibility at most operators.
- Paysafecard. A prepaid voucher for deposits only. You cannot withdraw to it, so you need a second method.
- Closed-loop policy. The rule that money goes back the way it came in, wherever possible. Deposit by card and you withdraw to that card. It is an anti-money-laundering requirement, and it is why a Paysafecard deposit needs a nominated bank account for payouts.
- Chargeback. Asking your bank to reverse a gambling payment. Operators treat it as a serious breach and will normally close the account.
Regulation and Safety Terms
- UKGC, the Gambling Commission. The regulator for gambling in Great Britain. A licence from it is the only thing that brings UK dispute rights, GamStop and mandatory safer-gambling tools. How to confirm one is set out in How to Check a UKGC Licence.
- LCCP. The Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice, the rulebook every licensee signs up to, covering everything from marketing to customer funds.
- ADR, alternative dispute resolution. The free independent adjudication a licensee must offer once its own complaints process is exhausted or eight weeks have passed.
- IBAS. The Independent Betting Adjudication Service, the best-known UKGC-approved ADR provider, handling the large majority of gambling disputes in Great Britain at no cost to the bettor.
- Remote licence. The licence category covering online betting, as opposed to a non-remote licence for shops.
- White label. A brand running on somebody else’s platform and often somebody else’s licence. Check that the domain appears on the licensee’s register entry rather than assuming the parent covers it.
- Offshore licence. Any licence outside the Gambling Commission. Tiering matters: the Malta Gaming Authority is a serious regulator with segregated funds and a complaints unit, Curaçao under its current framework has a public register and real enforcement powers, and Anjouan sits lowest with thin published standards. None of them gives UK dispute rights or GamStop.
- Curaçao licence. Now issued directly by the Curaçao Gaming Authority, with the old master and sub-licence model abolished. Verification runs through the authority’s certificate portal, and a site still citing an old sub-licence is outside the current framework.
- MGA. The Malta Gaming Authority. Strong protections, no UK legal cover.
- Non-GamStop site. An operator outside the national self-exclusion scheme, which is a consequence of holding no UK licence rather than a feature. If you have self-excluded, using one to bet around your own exclusion is not something we suggest.
- Segregated funds. Player money held in accounts separate from the company’s own. Segregation alone does not protect you in insolvency.
- Customer funds protection rating. The category a UK operator must publish: not protected with no segregation, not protected with segregation, medium protection, or high protection. Only the last puts your balance in an independently controlled trust.
- RNG. The random number generator behind casino games, tested by an independent lab in regulated markets. Irrelevant to sports betting, where prices rather than randomness set the margin.
- T&Cs apply. The line that appears beside every offer, and the one worth actually reading.
Sports-Specific Terms
- Going. The state of a racecourse, from heavy through soft, good and firm. Some horses run only on one extreme.
- Handicap mark. The weight a horse carries, set by the official handicapper to equalise the field.
- Nap. A tipster’s most confident selection of the day.
- Ante-post. Betting well before an event, at bigger prices but with your stake usually lost if your selection does not run.
- Non-runner no bet, or NRNB. A concession on ante-post markets returning your stake if the selection is withdrawn. It is what makes early Cheltenham and Grand National prices worth taking.
- Photo finish. A result too close to call at the line, settled from the camera.
- Stewards’ enquiry. An official review that can change the finishing order. Bets settle on the amended result, so wait for the “weighed in” call.
- Clean sheet. A team conceding no goals.
- First goalscorer. The first player to score, with stakes usually voided if your player starts on the bench.
- Anytime scorer. Any goal by your player counts, and this settles as a winner even if they score third.
- Half-time/full-time. Predicting the leader at the break and the final result together.
- Asian corners. Over or under a corner count set at a half or quarter line.
- Spread betting. Staking per unit of outcome rather than on a fixed price, where returns and losses both scale with how right or wrong you are. It sits under a different regulator from ordinary betting: sports spread betting firms such as Sporting Index and Spreadex are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for their spread products, while holding a Gambling Commission licence for their fixed-odds books. Losses can exceed your initial stake, which is not true of a fixed-odds bet.
- In-play. Betting after an event has started, with prices moving in real time.
- Micro-betting. In-play markets on the next discrete moment, such as the next corner, point or delivery. Fast turnover and the widest margins on the board.
FAQ
Five units of profit for every one staked. A £10 bet at 5/1 returns £60 in total: £50 profit plus your £10 stake. In decimal odds that price is 6.0.
An accumulator: four or more selections in a single bet where every leg must win. The odds multiply, so £10 on six selections at 2.0 returns £640, and one loser means nothing.
Two equal bets, one on the win and one on the place, so a £10 each-way bet costs £20. The place half pays at a fraction of the win odds over a set number of places.
Fifteen bets from four selections: four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one fourfold. A £1 unit stake costs £15, and a single winner still returns something.
Stake not returned. You keep the profit but not the token’s face value, so a £20 free bet at evens pays £20 rather than £40.