Need to know betting terminology or have betting terms explained? We are here to help. Sports betting has its very own language: a complex lexicon of gambling words, slang and betting lingo. Before you place a wager, it is important those betting terms are explained to you because knowing, for instance, football betting terms or bookie lingo in Canada can be the difference between success and failure.
It is understandable that when you come to sports betting for the first time, it can feel a bit intimidating to hear new words and terms, but at Wetten.com, we will help you understand the sports betting vocabulary. So keep reading to have betting terms explained in simple ways.
Gambling terms explained
At Wetten.com we are the betting experts and we offer predictions, tips and advice but we also want you to understand exactly the kind of bets you can make and are making before you place your bet. So we’ll have betting terms explained so that you can make a winning bet.Maybe you want to know how
accumulators
work or what an
Asian handicap is?
Maybe you simply want to know about a specific sport,
how football betting works
for instance. Whatever it is, at Wetten.com we can help. You already know we provide the best betting tips, predictions and advice across a host of sports and markets but we also want to ensure you are informed, up to speed and confident you know exactly what your wager means – whether that be in-play or simply online.
Betting terminology in Canada
Terminology for sports betting in Canada may appear, like many places in the world, nuanced and complex. But it doesn’t have to be. If you take the time to get those sports betting terms explained in Canada, then you will feel like you have a better handle on the sports betting culture.At Wetten.com we are going to walk you through how betting terminology in Canada and bookie lingo in Canada works to make sure that whether you are betting on football, or have questions like how bookmakers make money or
whether it’s even legal to bet
where you live, you are given the answers. We all know that success in betting comes from a combination of homework and good fortune, but you also need to be able to spot value and you can’t do that until you understand how to speak the language of betting. So keep reading to have popular betting terms explained.
Did you know?
- Sports betting dates back to the Greeks, more than 2,000 years ago. The ancient Olympic Games were the first sporting events to be bet on and that interest and excitement spread to Rome, where wagers were even placed on the success or failure of the gladiators in the Coliseum.
Sports betting terms explained Canada punters can rely on
The sport of football is the most-watched and bet-on of any in the world. Football also has plenty of its own types of bets and understanding those is vital before you start making your first steps. The majority of football betting terms are self-explanatory but there are a few which are a little harder to decipher. The simple win, lose or draw, the handicap, first goal-scorer, score at any time, the accumulator, both teams to score during the match – these are just some of the options you will find when you assess your options for betting on football. In recent years, in-play betting has become a huge trend and that has brought with it, its own new terms and words. Below we have listed some of the most used football betting terminology and betting lingo and tried to and explain them in an easy-to-understand way.
- Match result: the basic win, lose or draw bet. One match, two teams, what will the result be?
- Draw no bet: Sometimes you will see this betting term in Canada, and it means that if you the match ends in a draw, you will get the money you gambled, back.
- First goal-scorer: Again, this one isn’t too hard to work out. Which player will score the first goal?
- BTTS: Part of the sports betting vocabulary, BTTS or both teams to score, simply means you are betting that whatever the result at full-time, both teams will find the back of the net at some stage. You will often combine this bet with a match result bet, for example, Liverpool to win and BTTS.
- Correct score: Longer odds than the match result, because you also need to guess the exact score and it shows how having betting terms explained can help you find higher value bets.
- Accumulator: Very popular in football, one overall bet that is made up of lots of others. For example, you might have Liverpool to win, Manchester United to lose, Arsenal to win and Nottingham Forest to win. If all those results come off, without setbacks, you will win the money.
- Handicap Betting: This is where bookmakers give the less favoured team points to try and ensure that a potentially one-sided match is actually quite close and is hopefully more exciting from a betting standpoint. An example would be if Liverpool were playing Huddersfield, the bookmakers might give Huddersfield a +2.5 handicap, meaning Liverpool need to win by 3 goals or more for you to win if you have backed them. You might also come across Asian handicapping, which is a less-common variation. The
Asian handicap explained
simply takes account of the possibility of a draw, whereas standard handicapping (sometimes called European handicapping) does not.
- Over/Under: A popular bet with
online
wagers particularly, over/under relates to whether you think the bookmaker has under or overestimated the number of goals, corners, fouls, yellow cards etc in any given game. The bookies will always set their figure for all these categories and then it is up to you to decide whether you think the true number will be under or over that figure.
- Cards: Most bookmakers will have this type of bet in their sports betting vocabulary or their bookie lingo in Canada. It gives you the chance to bet on how many cards will be shown during a football match. Let’s say it is Manchester United v Manchester City. You might see 0-2 cards at 2/1, 3-6 cards at 5/6 and 6-10 cards at 9-1. If it is a match between teams from the same city, the odds of more cards being shown may shorten.
- Corners: We can’t talk about soccer betting terminology without mentioning corners. Very much like the above but relates to corner kicks and how many will be awarded during the match in question. You can also bet over/under a set number of corners a bookmaker might set.
- Specials: When it comes to football, specials can relate to all sorts of different bets. It might be the time of the last goal, it might be whether an own goal could be scored, it could even relate to the award of penalties or whether one of the teams will keep a clean sheet.
- Winning margin: Easy to understand, but you not only have to predict which team will win the match, you also have to get the exact margin of victory correct if you are going to make a winning bet.
- Futures bets: A classic bit of betting terminology, which relates to a bet you are making about an event in the future, often months in advance. It might be a tournament winner bet, perhaps on the World Cup, the Champions League or the Copa America. It could relate to promotion or relegation which won’t be decided until the end of the season.
- Top scorer: a good example of a futures bet, top scorer is usually related to which player will score the most goals over the course of a season or at a major tournament.
- Sacked manager: Bookmakers in football will always have this market open. Which head coach or manager will lose their job next? It isn’t often that they are wrong with their
betting odds.
- Transfers: bookies take bets on players moving clubs, opening markets when demand is there. Odds fuel rumours, rumours fuel odds. Tricky to get right.
Key facts
- In 2018, the supreme court in the United States overruled a federal law that previously prevented gambling on sports outside of the state of Nevada. Now any state that wishes to can legalise sports betting, although since the law passed only a few have actually gone ahead and legalised it.
ATS meaning betting
The ATS meaning in betting is easily explained: ATS is an acronym for ‘against the spread’. But let’s have these betting terms explained a little further. If you are watching an NFL match and the New England Patriots are playing the Washington Redskins in the opening game of the season, the Patriots would likely start the match as +15.5 favourites; in other words, they are expected to win by that margin. That was is known as ‘the spread’ in betting terminology. Now, if the Redskins lose the match but by two touchdowns – 14 points – they’ve done better than the spread expected. They would have beaten the spread or gone against the spread (ATS). They would then be seen as 1-0 ATS for the season. That term is used to look at how well a team is doing versus predictions. If a team is 10-0 ATS, they may not have won all their matches, but they’re defying expectations and that’s a good sign.
We have learnt a little more about ATS meaning in betting and what BTTS means, among other tricky words in the range of betting terminology. But live betting or in-play betting has even more confusing terms that are important to grasp before you join the millions of people who are betting in play. When it comes to having betting terms explained in Canada let’s start with in-play betting itself. What does it mean? In-play betting is betting once an event has begun and before it ends. Once a match or race has started, in-play markets come to life. It is particularly popular with people who lay bets or bet against outcomes as the match or race develops. These help people limit losses if they have originally backed an outcome that is not going to happen. It can also help people cash out before they lose an outcome they have backed.
Sports betting vocabulary
We can’t talk about betting terminology without mentioning lay betting. To understand how to lay a bet, let’s use the example of a coin toss. You and a friend bet a dollar on the toss of a coin. You choose heads, he goes tails. Whoever wins the bet gets two dollars. By choosing heads you are effectively betting against, or laying, tails. In a 1500m race, there are going to be more than two runners, but you can bet against the favourite if you think his odds are too short. If any other athlete wins you will win your bet. It also works in-play. Be careful when using exchanges such as Betfair because if you are laying other people’s bets, you will be liable for the amount you could lose if the bet goes against you. Some bookmakers have a ‘what if’ function that allows you to see the sum you will be liable for if you lose.
Having betting terms explained will enhance your understanding of the betting industry. Aside from football, horse racing is perhaps the most complex sport to bet on. The most basic and straightforward wager might be simply on a horse to win a race. But there are many more.
- The Each Way Bet: a bet that backs a horse to both win a race and finish in the top 3, 4, 5 or even 6 places depending on the bookmakers and or the race. With an each way bet, your stake is split between the win and the place. Both wagers have equal value.
- Three-way betting: Also known as 1×2 betting, it refers to backing or laying a win for team A, a draw or a win for team B. It is different to the ATS meaning betting but is extremely popular among punters.
Horse Racing betting terminology
Getting gambling terms explained will really help your knowledge of horse racing. Here are a few more:
- Ante-post betting: this means placing a bet a long time in advance of the event itself. So, if a horse is an ante-post favourite for next year’s Derby it is likely that could change as you get closer to the race.
- Closing line: This is the moment after which a market is closed, and you cannot place a bet.
- Void bet: In some unforeseen occasions a bet can be void and if that happens you will get your stake back. The cancellation of a major race, or a horse being withdrawn before the race, would void your bet. You will usually be able to read the occasions when a bookmaker will void a bet on the website of your bookmaker or if you are visiting a bookmaker in person, in their shop.
- All-weather: some horse races take place on synthetic, man-made surfaces, especially when the weather is bad during the winter.
- Burlington Bertie: A classic piece of bookie terminology and jargon, Burlington Bertie refers to a horse with odds of 100-30. It is what is known in the UK as rhyming slang.
- Off the Bit / On the Bit: A bit is the metal piece of the bridle that sits in a horse’s mouth. Some owners and jockeys prefer to have it in because it gives them a measure of control on the horse during the race while others prefer not to. It is useful to understand a horse’s form on the bit and off, before betting.
Sports betting terms and definitions: conclusion
As you now know, sports betting is a language all of its own. Having sports betting terms explained in Canada is critical to you enjoying and succeeding with the wagers you place. Once you educate yourself on the betting terminology and the lingo, you will be part of the conversation and you will enjoy the entire experience all the more, because of it.Do your homework, make sure you have betting terms explained, and your odds of success when you come to bet on horse racing, football or any other sport, will be hugely boosted. Of course, you will still need a little good fortune and be able to spot the value in the market.
At Wetten.com, we will help you find a bookmaker who covers every sports betting market for you to wager on, from American football and soccer to rugby, tennis, snooker and greyhound racing. These sites will even provide odds and predictions for e-sports and MMA.But when you are betting on any of these fantastic sports, it is vital you understand exactly what you are doing. That’s why we will always provide you with the help in having betting terms explained to ensure you not only enjoy but benefit from your wagers. Whether you want to have
Asian handicap betting explained
or master 1×2 betting, register with our team at Wetten.com and get ready to turn your love of sport into winning bets. So stick with us to understand betting terminology.
