The betting glossary
14 concepts that decide whether a bet is worth making — each explained with real math, no hype, and a link to where it runs live.
Basics
The vocabulary every price on the board is written in.
Plus and minus numbers built around $100 — the default language of US sportsbooks, and the format this site renders everywhere.
One multiplier for your total return — the format exchanges and sharp bettors prefer, and the easiest for parlay math.
Legs that multiply together and all have to win. The payout grows fast — and so does the margin you are paying.
Betting the other side to shrink the range of outcomes — buying certainty, and always paying something for it.
A bet on a player or game event — strikeouts, hits, total bases — instead of the final score. Where pricing is loosest and research pays best.
A standardized stake size that makes every record comparable — the only honest way to keep score across bankrolls.
Pricing & Edge
How a price becomes a probability, and a probability becomes a decision.
The average profit a bet returns per dollar over endless repetitions — the only number that decides whether a bet is worth making.
Every price is a breakeven win rate in disguise. Converting odds to implied probability is step one of reading any market.
Strip the bookmaker’s margin out of a two-way market to recover the fair probabilities hiding underneath the prices.
The bookmaker’s built-in margin — why both sides of a market lose to the middle, and what it costs you per bet.
The price that exactly matches a probability, with zero margin. Every +EV decision on earth starts from this number.
Market Behavior
Why prices move, and what their movement does — and does not — tell you.
Did you beat the closing price? Over time, that answer predicts your results better than your wins and losses do.
Prices move when money and information arrive. Read moves in probability points, and never confuse a move with a prediction.
A sudden, synchronized price move across every book at once — usually one respected source hitting the market simultaneously.
See the concepts live
Every term here runs on tonight’s numbers. The board prices every prop against fair, trends tracks the streaks the market watches, and the record keeps score in units — losses at full weight.