Welcome to our football betting terminology glossary, we understand hundreds of terms are confusing to even the most experienced of punters.
Terms such as acca may be simple to avid football punters but to newbies, they might not understand what it is, allow us to enlighten you and improve your betting knowledge with our betting guides.
Here are some of the most important terms in football betting that you will need to know and understand if you want to succeed.
Accumulator (Acca for short)
The term accumulator is several 4 or more selections on a bet where each selection must win for the bet to be a winner, due to this the payouts can be a lot larger than a standard win bet.
This is one of the most popular football bets due to the high payouts, the more selections on a bet usually the higher the payout.
They are also the least likely bets to come in due to the sheer amount of luck that you will need to get every result correct.
Arbitrage
Something that is not welcomed by many bookmakers as it involves betting on two outcomes of the same fixture with 2 separate bookmakers to secure a profit by exploiting discrepancies in their odds.
These days it’s not as easy to do as it was years ago and takes a lot of money and time to be successful at it.
Banker
A “banker bet” is a result that is almost guaranteed in people’s opinion to come in such as Man City taking on a nonleague side, it should be something you can bank on, often though it’s not the case.
Betting Exchange
Betting exchanges are places where punters trade bets with each other, on exchanges you can back and lay results (if you are not sure what laying is check out our what is laying in betting guide).
At exchanges, you can often get better odds than at a traditional bookmaker but you will have to pay a commission on your winnings so make sure to do your research on whatever exchange you decide on, the most popular would be Betfair.
Betting Markets
Betting markets are bet types such as win, draw, and over 2.5 goals, etc if you are not sure what the different types are we recommend you read our Football Betting Markets Guide.
Backing
Simply just another term for betting on, “Who are you backing?” might be a question you would be asked by a friend before a match for example.
Double
This is backing two results to come in, a single result is a single, and two results are a double, likewise, three results would be a treble, and so on.
Doubles pay better odds as you will need to get two correct results.
Dutching
A more advanced term in our football betting terminology guide which is used in betting means covering all the bases on a certain betting market or maximising your chances of a win.
For example, you want to bet on who will be the champion of the Premier League this season, so you decide not to back 1 team but four, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Tottenham.
By backing the top four teams that are likely to win the league you are maximising your chances of a win.
There can be downsides to this when the winner is not in the top four though and can end up being a costly style of betting.
Evens
If something is described as being evens the odds would be 1/1 or 2.00 on a betting exchange meaning that your payout would be the same as your stake.
For example, placing £5 on a horse that is evens would return you £10 as the win is even to your stake.
Fixed Odds Betting
Fixed odds betting is backing results on odds that are pre-determined and will not change, these can usually be found on the popular coupons in bookmakers that you can use to place football accas.
Your winnings are guaranteed based on the odds that are stated and will not change.
Betting In-Play
In-play betting is simply the ability for you to place a bet on say a football match after it has kicked off.
The markets are usually the same but the odds will change based on what is happening in that football match or horse race.
There can be an advantage to in-play betting such as certain teams are expected to play well but by watching them live you may be able to see that they are underperforming and may be likely to lose.
Money Back Bets
Some bookmakers will offer you a bet where you will have to stake a certain amount let’s say for example £25 cash on a football match result and if your bet loses they will refund your stake.
The only catch is that it is usually refunded as a free bet and not as cash so make sure you read the terms and conditions on these offers before jumping straight in.
Not only used in football betting terminology but also in other sports such as horse racing, tennis, rugby, and more.
Enhanced Odds
This is when bookies may offer higher odds than normal on a certain game, or a certain bet.
For example, Harry Kane is 4/1 in every bookmaker apart from William Hill to score first in his next match, William Hill is offering 8/1 enhanced odds for him to score first.
Many bookmakers do such promotions and it’s always worth shopping around rather than remaining loyal to just one bookie.
Void Bet
A void bet is a bet that is no longer valid this would usually be because that result is no longer possible, in horse racing it would be known as a nonrunner.
If let’s say you place a bet on a football match and it’s postponed until further notice your bet would become void and your initial stake would be refunded.
Place Bet
Place bets are more often used in horse racing and not football, however, if you are betting on a tournament result such as who will win the World Cup you can have a place bet meaning that if your team finishes as a runner up you would still win at reduced odds.
Juice or Over round
The juice is how much bookmakers stand to make from a certain market also known as an over round it is the bookmaker’s edge.
Built into all the odds on offer it enables the bookmakers to make a profit regardless of the outcome.
If an over round was 104% for example the bookmakers will make 4% profit on all bets placed on that market.
Not technically a football betting terminology that you need to know but none less is good to know anyway.
Spread Betting
This is something that we will cover more in-depth very soon but spread betting is betting more on the accuracy of a prediction than the result.
For example, you would place a spread on how many goals would be scored in a match.
Spread betting is not for beginners and can be very costly if you don’t know what you are doing so do your research before you attempt it.
Scorecast
A scorecast bet is where you have to predict both the correct score and the first or anytime goalscorer.
For example, if you bet on Harry Kane to score first and Spurs to win 3-1, both would have to come in for your scorecast bet to be a winner.
Double Chance Bet
This is a bet with much lower odds but that covers two outcomes instead of one an example of this would be backing both a team to win or the draw in a football fixture as long as the opposite team you back doesn’t win your bets a winner.
Handicap Bets
Handicap bets in football are bets placed on a result where the odds are offered on for example a team starting a match with a -1 goal handicap.
Let’s say you bet on Man United to beat Crystal Palace but Man United starts with -1 goal this would mean that you would get higher odds but Man United would need to win by 2 clear goals instead of one to beat their handicap.
Thanks for reading our Football betting terminology glossary we hope you find it useful, please share it on social media with family and friends and help them out too.
Should you not want to learn all this and more you may want to start using football tipsters to increase your profit from your football betting instead.
