D

Decimal Odds – the price format commonly used in Continental Europe (sometimes known as European Odds) which shows the odds as the total returns including stake. When translating from fractional odds to decimal simply means adding 1 to the fractional value, 4/1 becomes 5.0, 4/5 becomes 1.80 etc

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Dead Heat – a tie for a position. To calculate winnings for dead heats the stake is split by the number tied, so if two horses dead heat for first, the stake is halved and then settled as usual. For example a £10 stake on a 4/1 winner in a two-way dead-heat would return £25 (£5 stake x 5 (4/1))  Dead-heats for positions are common in golf - check Golf Betting Form's betting calculator for working out returns on place dead-heats.

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Dividend – the returns for a unit stake in Tote betting.  Usually represented as a monetary amount to a unit stake such as £1.

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Double – a common multiple bet which involves two selections connected as one bet.  Both having to win to create the sum return, odds A multiplied by odds B.

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Drifter – a selection whose odds have lengthened in a betting market. Normally perceived as an indication that a selection will underperform.

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Draw No Bet – a bet which returns the stake if the result is a draw.

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Double Chance – a bet which covers two results, for example Home Win & Draw.

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Double Result – a bet on the result at half-time and full-time. Sometimes called HT-FT market, it can be a way of getting improved odds in very one-sided football matches by backing a team to win at half-time and full-time.

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Dutching – a method of staking on a number of selections, in the same betting market, which returns the same amount. Dividing odds by your desired win return lets you calculate stake amounts, for example Evens & 4/1 selections to a £10 win would stake £5 (10/2) and £2 (10/5)

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E

Each-way – a bet where equal stakes are placed on the win and place part of a selection (ie £5 on the win, £5 on the place)  The place return is quoted by the bookmaker for the market, in the case of horse racing place terms are dependent on the race type and number of runners.

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Each-way multiples – a multiple bet where all selections count as both a win and place multiple.  Also used in horse racing permutation bets, the number of selections is double the legs - for example an E/W Yankee (11 bets) is 22 bets. Use Golf Betting Form's Betting Calculators for E/W Doubles & Trebles.

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Edge – a perceived advantage for the punter over the bookmaker. Any long-term profitable strategy will have an edge for the punter.

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Enhanced Odds – promotional odds offers where odds are inflated to attract new customers. Staking limits are applied (normally between £1 and £10) and winnings are usually paid as free bets.

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Exchange Betting  – a betting website that allows punters to back or lay selections in an event similar to a stock exchange. Betfair have the most popular exchange which is important as more activity (liquidity) means betting prices are competitive.  Check Golf Betting Form's guide to Exchange Betting on golf.

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Even Money – a bet which returns double the stake. Even money is the dividing line between win returns being less and greater than the orginal stake.

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Extra Places – common promotion where bookmakers offer more places than standard place terms for Each-way bets. Commonly used in large-field horse racing handicaps such as the Grand National to offer more than the standard four places.

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F

Favourite – the shortest priced selection believed to be the most likely to win. Often a favourite attracts a disproportionate amount of betting money which will often be unprofitable for a bookmaker.

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Field – participants in an event.  Often standardised (golf events of 156) or limited for safety reasons (horse racing)

First/Last Goalscorer – a football market to predict the first or last goalscorer in a match. Popular as the odds are more attractive than the anytime goalscorer price.

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Final Declaration – the finalised field for a horse race. In the UK, Flat racing runners are declared two days before the race and Jump racing runners one day (two days for Sunday racing) - exceptions apply to some graded jump races.

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Fixed Odds – taking the price when a bet is placed in horse racing as opposed to leaving it to return the SP (starting price). When bookmakers offer Best Odds Guaranteed then the price should always be taken, when not it depends if the punter believes the odds will shorten before the race.

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Flat Racing – a race contested on a course with no obstacles. In UK, Flat races range from 5f (around 1km) to 2 ½ miles (around 4km)

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Fold bets – a term used for the number of selections in an accumulator. Normally starts from four-folds (four selections) as double (2-fold) and treble (3-fold) are preferred terms.

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Forecast – a bet predicting the first and second in an event as a straight forecast or reverse forecast. Returns are paid according to the dividend calculated using odds and field size.

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Form – a term which is generally used to describe the performance of player, horse, team etc. Good past results may indicate a selection is in-form, poor results that they are out-of-form.

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Fractional Odds – price format commonly used by UK bookmakers to represent the betting odds in a fractional format; for example £10 at odds of 10/1 returns £110 (ten times the stake plus the stake) The equivalent Decimal Odds are 11.0.

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Free Bets – promotional bets offered by bookmakers which do not include the original stake in returns. Often used to pay promotions for both new and existing customers – a £10 free bet at 4/1 would return £40 as opposed to the usual £50.  Check our Free Bets page for Bookmaker's Latest promotions for new customers.

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Full-time result – result of a match in normal time. Often used to distinguish between the result at 90mins and after extra-time in knock-out matches for up competitions.

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Furlong – a unit of distance used in horse racing (equal to 1/8 of a mile) - for example the Epsom Derby is run over 1 mile 4 furlongs. The word originates in Old English to signify the length of a furrow in one acre, furh (furrow) and lang (long)