A

Accumulator (Acca)  – a bet with 4 or more legs where all selections must win to return the accumulated odds. Also known as acca’s, accumulators are a popular bet as they can produce a big win to a small stake. See Golf Betting Form's Acca Calculator designed for ties

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Acca Insurance – a promotion where the stake is refunded (normally as a free bet) if one selection doesn’t win in an Accumulator. Maximum stake and minimum odds (for legs and overall odds) usually apply.

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All-weather Racing – UK horse racing for flat races contested on an artificial surface.  The All-weather surface is normally made of a mixture of sand and synthetic fibres giving good drainage and tolerant to low temperatures.

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American Odds – the odds format commonly used by North American bookmakers.  Prices are pre-fixed by [+] or [-], the [+] signifies the amount you would profit for a $100 stake, the [-] the amount you would need to return $100 profit. For example, odds of +300 would return $400 ($300 plus your $100 stake) or the equivalent of 3/1 (fractional odds) or 4.0 (decimal odds)  For odds of -200, you would need to stake $200 for a $100 win or the equivalent of 1/2 (fractional) or 1.50 (decimal)

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Ante-post – a betting market where the field hasn’t been confirmed but likely competitors can be backed. Popular ante-post markets include the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Epsom Derby where prices are available up to a year beforehand.

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Arbitrage (Arb) – a betting strategy which ensures a profit, whatever the result, by backing all sides of a bet at favourable odds. To profit, the backed odds must be under-round (below 100%) – for example two 5/4 shots in a match-up.

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Asian Handicap – a football market that gives one team a goal(s) lead. Asian handicaps both balance out the odds and eliminates the draw. Asian Handicap goal leads are usually given to the underdog in halves (ie 1 1/2) to eliminate the draw.

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B

Back Bet – a term used in Exchange betting to back a selection to win. Exchanges will display the back odds along with the amount available to back, any amount greater than available to back will go unmatched and available to lay.

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Banker – a selection, normally a very short price, which is perceived as a certainty - often included in accumulators. Popular in football where teams, especially dominant European teams such as Man City, Bayern Munich, PSG & Barcelona are included in accumulators.

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Bar – shorthand to exclude the outsiders when quoting odds in a market. Often used in an event with a number of participants such as horse races. For example in a horse race; Evs Enable,7/2 Crystal Ocean, 7/1 Anthony Van Dyck, 10/1 bar.

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Best Price – the biggest odds offered from a range of bookmakers. Seen as essential for punters to have the best chance of making a profit.

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Best Price percentage – the over-rounds when applied to the Best Price from a range of bookmakers – often used by an Odds Comparison site. Arguably the best way of deriving true odds (or probabilities) as in most competitive markets the best price percentage gets close to 100%.

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Betslip – traditionally the paper slip that a bet would be written on, more commonly now a separate window/bet basket on a bookmaker website. The move from paper to electronic betslips can have advantages (can’t lose slip, less ambiguity) and disadvantages (easier to put the wrong bet on)

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Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG) – a horse racing promotion which guarantees that if a selection's SP (starting price) is bigger than the price taken when the bet is placed, the greater odds are paid. An essential promotion as it insures against a shorter price whilst benefiting if the odds lengthen. Usually applies to day of the race markets and sometimes on Ante-post markets for big races.

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Betting Without (W/O) – a market which excludes one or more selections from a market – normally a prohibitively short price. Often used during periods of dominant teams and players to make the betting market more competitive – ‘without Tiger Woods’ market was popular during his period of dominance.

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Black Type – used in horse breeding and sales to signify a horse’s past results in top level races. Classics, Group & Listed race results carry Black Type form.

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Board Prices – odds available at a racecourse by on-course bookmakers.

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Book – a bookmaker’s tally of bets on an event which allows them to ‘make a book’ and manage liabilities and odds. Once a physical ledger of bets now in electronic form which allows a bookmaker to get a far better idea of liabilities.

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Both Teams to Score (BTTS) – a popular football market on whether both teams will score in a match.

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Breeders’ Cup – The United States leading flat-horse meeting staged annually – run on both Turf and Dirt (All-weather) surfaces. Races include the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

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Bumper Race – a National Hunt race which is run as a flat race. Normally over 2 miles, bumpers acclimatise young horses to race conditions before they progress onto hurdle or steeplechases.

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Buy Price – a term used in Spread Betting for the price to buy in the spreads. Where a spread price is quoted, for example 10-12, the buy is predicting above the spread of 12.

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C

Canadian – a permutation bet covering five selections often used on horse racing bets. Also known as a Super Yankee, a Canadian consists of 5 selections of 26 bets: 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 four-fold  and a five-fold acca.

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Cash-out – an option which allows a punter to close out a bet to take a profit (or loss) on a bet they’ve made which hasn’t finished. Online bookmaking has made cashing out easier but is effectively the same as Hedging a bet.

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Cheltenham Festival – the leading Jumps meeting in the UK. Staged in March, the festival is seen as the culmination of the National Hunt season and includes the Cheltenham Gold Cup.  Check our Free Bets page for Bookmaker's Latest promotions for new customers on the Cheltenham Festival.

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Claimer – a horse race where the participants can be bought or claimed before a race. Horses are broadly of a similar ability as the claim is normally the same value for each horse.

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Classics – the blue riband flat horse races in the UK. The UK has five classic races; 1000 Guineas, 2000 Guineas, The Epsom Derby, The Epsom Oaks and the St Leger – all but the St Leger are restricted to three-year-olds.

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Co-favourite – three or more favourites in an event. Sometimes two favourites may be called co-favs and is interchangeable with joint-favourites.

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Commission (Exchange) – a percentage of profits taken by a Betting Exchange from winning bets. Betfair’s standard commission is 5% which translates to the exchange price multiplied by 0.95 to get the odds of reward.

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Conditions Horse Races – where the weight carried by a horse is determined by set conditions such as sex and age. Because weight carried is not determined by ability, Conditions Races tend to be less competitive than Handicaps.

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Correct Score – a bet on the final score of a match – most commonly used for football. Unless stated, Correct Score markets apply to the result at full-time (90mins) - which can be confused with the result after extra-time in knock-out matches.

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Coupon – traditionally an A4 sheet of midweek or weekend match odds but now usually an online term for football matches categorised together - for example Premier League, Champions League, Sunday's Football, UK Football etc.