Football Betting Glossary
Action - slang for stake or the amount to be bet. Generally used when referring
to whether a sportsbook or betting house has the ability to accept a bet of a particular
size.
E-wallet Services - financial service providers that allow for online accounts that
allow for the movement of money between traditional financial payment methods like
credit cards and bank accounts to online merchants. Many e-wallets specialize in
being able to provide mobile financial transaction solutions with merchants such
as online sportsbooks.
Handicap - the process whereby sportsbooks assign an artificial target or point of
differentiation in order to equalize both the odds pricing and the handle for a particular
sporting event. Popular handicaps include point spreads and totals (also known as
over/under). In general, when a game has been handicapped by using a total or point
spread, the odds pricing for both opponents will be equal if not very similar.
Handle - refers to the total amount bet on a game.
Juice - refers to the fee that sportsbooks build into their odds pricing in order
to make money. Example: A football game, $5,000,000 is wagered on each side for a
total handle of a point spread wager for a total handle of $10,000,000. The odds
to bet the point spread on either team is at 1.90. At 1.90, this means the people
that won their bets, have their stakes returned plus 0.90 times their stake in profit.
In this case the winners get $4,500,000 in profit, and the $500,000 remaining from
the total handle on the game becomes revenue (not profit) for the sportsbook. In
this case, the sportsbook is taking 5% juice as $500,000 is 5% of the $10,000,000
bet on the game. Juice can vary by sportsbook from 2% to 10% depending on the business
model of the given sportsbook. Sportsbooks with lower juice tend to offer less in
terms of bonuses and things like free mobile applications.
Moneyline - also spelled Money Line, refers to the ability to bet on an outcome with
no points handicap, purely on the winner. Unlike the handicapped bet types where
odds pricing is very close or even, with Moneyline wagers, the odds pricing itself
becomes the point of differentiation. Heavy favourites will have very low odds pricing,
such as 1.20 or 1.40 and underdogs can have extremely high odds pricing in excess
of 4.00 and higher.
Odds Pricing - refers to a sportsbook’s assignment of how much they will pay out
for a winning bet result.
Odds formats - refers to the different ways that odds are expressed in numerical
format, Decimal, Fractional and American formats. Decimal is most popular in Canada
such as 1.87 or 1.91 as it is used by the Provincial Sports Lottery games. Fractional
would display as 10/11 or 4/5 and is popular in Europe. American format is a bit
different. The number for the favourite always refers to how much the bettor needs
to stake in order to win $100 in profit with their stake returned. So -150 means
you’d need to bet $150 to win $100 in profit. -500 means you’d need to bet $500
to win $100.
Outright Betting - refers to something also referred to as ‘Futures’ or ‘Antepost’
betting. These are bets that are resolved much further into the future than that
of a single game. For example Outright Winner NFL bets would revolve around Super
Bowl winner odds. For outright bets on the CFL, bettors would be most concerned
with Grey Cup Winner odds.
Point Spread - refers to the handicap whereby one team must overcome an imaginary
points deficit in order to be considered the winner. Should the favoured team fail
to overcome this deficit, the underdog will be considered the winner for the purposes
of the wager.
Prop Betting - fully known as proposition betting, this refers to betting on particular
events within each football game or by players within each game. The possibilities
are nearly limitless. Available wager include things like, the coin toss, first
team to score, first team to kick a field goal, how many touchdowns will player ‘X’
score, who will complete more passes; player ‘X’ or ‘player ‘Y.’ Each sportsbook
approaches their prop betting offerings in a unique way. If you enjoy prop betting,
don’t assume all sportsbooks are the same as some offer a very limited selection,
while others take a lot of time to ensure they offer an interesting group of team
and player props for each game. You can read more about each of my listed sportsbooks’
approaches on my review page.
Provincial Sports Lottery Games - these include games like Proline and Sport Select
where players must bet on parlays or combination bets as opposed to single game bets.
Every time you add a game to your parlay, your chances for success go down.
Public Teams - these are the most popular pro and college football teams, or in other
words they tend to have national or international followings outside of their immediate
area. In having a large number of fans, public teams can often force a point spread
to move considerably as the sportsbooks makes an effort to equalize the handle and
get more money bet on the other team, especially if that team has little if any following.
An example of this might be Dallas against Carolina or New England against Jacksonville.
Sportsbook - Establishment that accepts wagers on sporting events. Some sportsbooks
exist as bricks and mortar locations in Casinos such as in Las Vegas, Atlantic City,
or in licensed Canadian casinos. In Europe, sportsbooks are also known as betting
shops and can be found commonly in typical retail locations along commercial streets.
Online sportsbooks also accept sporting wagers but the entire process from registering,
to betting, to depositing and withdrawing money is done online through a computer
or through a mobile device like a tablet or smartphone.
Stake - the amount of money risked on a particular wager.
Total - also known as the over/under, a handicapped type of bet found in football
wagering whereby the sportsbook sets a number for the total number of points that
will be scored by the two teams over the course of a game. Bettors bet that the
total points scored will be over this mark, or under it. This “total” may fluctuate
from the point of publication to game time in order to balance the handle on the
game in question.
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