What Are the Most Popular Betting Slang Terms?
Gambling is a subculture with so many slang terms, it can often feel like a foreign language. If you’re looking to get you fluent in betting jargon, here are key terms you need to know:
Action
Action simply refers to having any type of bet. It doesn’t matter if it's a moneyline, spread, or futures bet.It's all sports action!!
Bad beat
A bad beat is when your bet was a strong favourite to win, but something unexpected happened and it ended in a loss. For example, let’s say you bet on the Los Angeles Lakers to beat the Miami Heat. Then, deep in the fourth quarter, the Lakers are up by 10, but LeBron James gets injured and suddenly the Heat start draining threes and mount a last-minute comeback.
Beard
A beard is a person or group of people placing a sports bet under another person’s name.
Buck or Dollar
This is slang for betting $100 on a game or event.
Buying the Half
Buying the half refers to paying the sportsbook a fee to lower the point spread by half a point, which gives your team a better chance of covering. This is typically a custom bet one would have to negotiate with the sportsbook.
Bull’s Eye
The Bull's Eye, or Bullseye is the center target in darts. If a player lands a dart in the bull’s eye, they’re awarded 50 points. In betting slang, this translates to $50.
Chalk
A chalk refers to a strong favourite. The term originally came from horse racing when the odds would be written on a chalkboard. Favourites became known as chalks because as people would bet on them, the sportsbook would have to constantly update the odds, causing a smear on the chalkboard.
Chalk Eater
A chalk eater is someone who regularly bets on strong favourites. It’s considered a slightly derogatory term because it’s considered a losing strategy, something professionals wouldn’t do. Chalk eaters tend to be recreational bettors.
Cover
To cover means to make a winning spread bet. In spread betting, the favourite has to win by a certain number of points, while the underdog must win or only lose by a certain number of points. If you picked a winner, then the team covered the points spread.
Cock and Hen
In Cockney rhyming slang the term has to rhyme with the original word, so cock and hen means betting $10.
Dime
This is slang for betting $1,000 on a sporting event.
Dog
A dog refers to an underdog; this is a bet which is predicted to lose. Any moneyline bet with + odds is a dog. For example, if you bet on the Philadelphia Eagles to beat the Kansas Chiefs at +200, you’re picking the dog. Professional sports bettors tend to look for small to medium underdogs, as they offer the best value.
Edge
Edge refers to a sports bettor’s competitive advantage over a sportsbook. For example, a professional sports bettor may be able to handicap NBA totals more effectively than a sportsbook, and have a 2% edge every time they bet. So, for every $100 they wager, their expected return is $2.
Exotic
An exotic is a horse racing wager that involves betting on more than one horse. Common exotic bets are Exacta, Trifecta, and Superfecta.
Grand Salami
Grand salami is a type of over/under bet where you bet on the total number of runs or goals that will be scored in all hockey or baseball games for a single day. So, if there are 10 baseball games being played today, you need to predict how many runs all teams will score.
Handle
The handle is the total amount of money bet at a sportsbook for a specific period of time. It’s often used to gauge the size of the sports betting market. For example, if Las Vegas accepted $100 million worth of bets in April, then for the month, the handle is $100 million.
Hook
The hook is the number after the decimal point in the spread. For example, if the point spread is -4.5, the hook is 0.5.
Juice
Juice is the commission that a sportsbook charges for taking a bet. The average juice is 4% to 5%. The commission is typically baked into the odds and can be found by adding up all implied probabilities and subtracting the result by 100. For example, if the Giants are playing the Jets and both teams are paying -110 to win, the juice is 4.76%.
Jolly
A jolly is a favourite who is expected to win. The term is popular in the UK.
Layoff
Layoff refers to hedging and is used to reduce risk. For example, a sports bettor may hedge their primary bet on Tiger Woods to win the Masters by betting on George Rahm and Scottie Scheffler to also win. Sportsbooks may layoff action if they’ve taken too much action on one particular side of a market by placing an opposing bet at another sportsbook.
Longshot
A longshot is a bet that is very unlikely to win, comes with high odds, and is risky. The concept of longshot differs between markets. For example, a tennis player paying +500 may be considered a longshot, but a horse typically won’t be a longshot unless it’s paying +1400 or more.
Middle
A middle is a type of points spread bet where you bet on one team, and after the spread moves, you place an additional wager on the opposing team. The middle is the difference in change of spread. For example, if the Texans open as a -7 favourite over the Jets, and then the market shifts, and they become a -10 favourite, the middle is a 3-point difference. With a middle bet, it’s possible to win both wagers on the same game. For example, if you bet on the Texans at -7 and the Jets at +10, both bets pay out if the Texans win by 8 or 9 points.
Monkey
A monkey is a $500 wager and is a popular term in the United Kingdom. The exact origins of the term are unknown, but British soldiers returning home from India may have introduced it, as the Indian rupee banknote had a picture of a monkey on it.
NAP
The NAP refers to the best bet of the day according to a particular tipster. If a well-regarded tipster brings up their NAP, you should listen. The term is short for Napoleon and comes from a card game where players need to shout Napoleon when they’ve won.
Nickel
A nickel is a $500 wager. If someone says they bet a big nickel, they’ve got some deep pockets because they’ve just bet $5,000. The term is used by bettors and sportsbooks to describe action.
Off the board
Off the board is when a sportsbook refuses to take bets on a particular sporting event. The term comes from the days when all odds and games were displayed on a board. If the game or market has been taken off the board, you can no longer bet on it.
Past-post
Past-post or late bet refers to placing a wager after the sportsbook has stopped taking bets. Past-posting is prohibited and the sportsbook will nullify the bet and refuse to payout if you’re caught. Bettors will often attempt to take advantage of time delays and place a bet while already knowing the outcome. This is why security will often look for bettors at live sporting events like tennis matches, trying to place bets faster than the sportsbook can update its markets.
Pony
The term pony refers to a $25 bet. This slang word originated in the UK and spread across the Commonwealth. It’s mostly used for horse racing bets but can also be used to refer to sports bets.
Pick ‘em
A pick ‘em is an extremely close sporting event where both athletes or teams have equal chances of winning. You can put on a blindfold and choose either team and still have a great shot at picking a winner.
Punter
A punter is a bettor or gambler. This term is particularly popular in the UK and Australia and can even be used to refer to a customer.
Push
A push occurs when there is a tie, and your stake is returned. During a push, you neither win nor lose any money. Pushes often occur in spread bets when a team wins or loses by the exact spread line. For example, if you bet $100 on the New York Giants to beat the Dallas Cowboys at -7 and the Giants win 20-7, that is a push as your bet didn’t lose or win. In that scenario, the sportsbook would return your $100.
Runner
A runner is the same as a beard and is a person who places a sports bet for someone else. Runners are often paid a fee and are used when a sports bettor is banned from wagering or is in a location where sports betting is illegal.
Sawbuck
A sawbuck is a $10 bet, while a double sawbuck is a $20 bet. The term comes from America and can also be used to refer to $10 in general. It is based on the fact that the $10 bill features the Roman numeral X, which looks like a wooden sawbuck.
Sharp
Sharp is an experienced and successful sports bettor with a long-term winning record. They are very methodical when it comes to betting and take an analytical approach, basing their decisions on statistics rather than intuition or emotion.
Steam
Steam is a significant movement in the odds for a sporting event after a large amount of smart money has been bet. Professional bettors will often place large bets across multiple sportsbooks at the same time, and the market will go into panic as sportsbooks rush to change the odds. Recreational bettors who follow steam tend to place bets after significant odds shifts, hoping to mimic the movements of the smart money.
Square
A square refers to an inexperienced or recreational sports bettor. Squares are the opposite of sharps. These bettors aren’t too concerned with the odds and often let their heart guide their betting decisions.
Take the points
The points refers to the number of points a team is deducted or receives in the spread market. If you take the points, you’re betting on the underdog, which is the team with positive points. For example, if you bet on the Detroit Lions at +6 against the San Diego Chargers, you’re taking the points. For your bet to pay out, the Lions need to win the game or lose by 5 points or less.
Take the price
The price refers to the odds for a particular market. When you take the price, you’re placing a moneyline bet on the underdog. For example, if you bet on the Washington Wizards to beat the Boston Celtics at +200, you’re taking the price.
Ton
A ton is a UK term which refers to placing a $100 bet on any game or race. It’s now widely used in the UK and Commonwealth countries.
Vig
Vig is shortened for vigorish and refers to the commission charged by a sportsbook. Vig is the exact same term as juice and was originally a Yiddish slang word.
Wire-to-wire
This is a type of bet where you predict a team will lead the game after every single quarter. This is a popular NBA bet. For example, if you bet on the Denver Nuggets in a wire-to-wire bet against the Philadelphia 76ers and the score is 25-23 in the first quarter, 56-48 in the 2nd, 78-73 in the 3rd, and 122-109 in the 4th, you win.
Zigzag
Zigzag is a sports betting strategy in which you bet on a team that just lost to win their next game. This strategy relies on the concept of mean reversion where sportsbooks will overreact to a team’s loss and consider them underdogs in their next game. However, the sports bettor believes the loss was just due to variance, and the team will likely return to their typical form in the next match.