GLOSSARY

Betting terminology glossary

Common terms across odds, bet types and settlement, explained plainly — the same words we use across TipStaq itself.

Betting terminology glossary

Accumulator (parlay): A single bet combining multiple selections, where every leg must win for the bet to pay out. Odds multiply across legs, so the payout is bigger — but so is the risk, since one loss voids the whole bet.
Asian Handicap: A goal handicap applied to one team before kickoff (e.g. -0.75), designed to reduce the draw as an outcome or eliminate it entirely. Quarter lines (like -0.75) can split the stake across two whole-number handicaps.
Bankroll: The total amount of money you've set aside specifically for betting, separate from day-to-day finances. Stakes are sized as a percentage of the bankroll (units), not as fixed cash amounts, so it survives a losing run.
Bet Builder: A single bet combining multiple markets from the same match (e.g. both teams to score + over 2.5 goals) into one price, offered by the bookmaker as a single-event accumulator.
Both Teams to Score (BTTS): A market on whether both teams will score at least one goal each during the match, regardless of the final result.
Closing odds: The odds available for a market right before the event starts. Comparing the odds a tip was posted at against the closing odds is one way to judge whether a tip found value ahead of the market.
Correct Score: A market on predicting the exact final score of a match. High odds, low hit rate — a small stake, high-variance market.
Decimal odds: Odds expressed as a single number (e.g. 2.50) that shows total return per unit staked, including the stake itself. A 2.50 winning bet on 1 unit returns 2.50 units — 1.50 profit plus the original stake.
Draw No Bet: A market on match winner where a draw voids the bet and returns the stake — removing the draw as a losing outcome, in exchange for lower odds than a standard 1X2 market.
Drawdown: The drop from a bankroll's peak value down to its lowest point during a losing run, before it recovers. Maximum drawdown is the worst such drop on record — a key risk signal alongside ROI.
Fractional odds: Odds expressed as a fraction (e.g. 6/4), common in UK bookmakers, showing profit relative to stake. 6/4 means 6 units profit for every 4 staked, on top of the stake back.
Half win / Half loss: A settlement outcome on Asian Handicap and similar split-line markets, where a quarter line splits the stake across two whole handicaps — one half wins, one half loses (or pushes), for a partial profit or loss.
Hit rate (win rate): The share of settled picks that won, as a percentage. On its own it's incomplete — a high hit rate on short odds can still lose money, and a lower hit rate on longer odds can still profit. Read alongside ROI and average odds.
Implied probability: The chance of an outcome that a given set of odds represents, expressed as a percentage — decimal odds converted as 1 / odds. Comparing your own estimate of a probability against the implied probability is how a value bet is identified.
Over/Under (Total goals): A market on whether the total number of goals in a match will be over or under a set line (e.g. Over 2.5 goals), independent of which team scores them.
Push: A settlement outcome where the stake is returned in full — the bet neither wins nor loses. Common on handicap and totals markets that land exactly on the line (e.g. a 2.0 goal line with exactly 2 goals scored).
ROI (return on investment): Total profit divided by total units staked, as a percentage, across a set of settled picks. The single clearest measure of whether following a tipster's picks would have made or lost money — unlike hit rate, it accounts for odds.
Sample size: The number of settled picks behind a record. A short winning streak can happen by chance; the more decided picks a ROI or hit-rate figure is built on, the more it reflects real skill rather than variance.
Settlement: The process of marking a pick's final result (won, lost, void, push, etc.) once its event has finished, and recording the resulting profit or loss. A pick's ROI only counts once it's settled.
Single: A bet on one selection only, as opposed to an accumulator combining several. The most straightforward bet type, and the easiest to track and evaluate on its own.
Stake: The amount risked on a single bet, usually expressed in units rather than a fixed currency amount, so it scales with the size of the bankroll.
System bet: A bet combining multiple selections into several smaller accumulators instead of one all-or-nothing combination (e.g. a Yankee: 4 selections as 11 bets), so some legs can lose while the bet still returns a profit.
Unit: A fixed share of a bankroll (often 1-5%) used as the standard stake size, so bet sizing scales with bankroll instead of being a random cash amount. Profit and loss are tracked in units (e.g. "+3.2u"), which makes results comparable across different bankroll sizes.
Value bet: A bet where the true probability of an outcome is judged to be higher than the odds' implied probability suggests — the core idea behind long-term profitable betting, as opposed to just picking likely winners.
Void: A settlement outcome where the stake is returned because the bet could not stand — e.g. a player didn't start, or an event was postponed. Distinct from a push, which happens when a live market genuinely lands on the line.

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