Knowledge Base
Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the terminology used across Football Compass.
- Accumulator
- A type of parlay where multiple bets are combined; winnings from each winning selection roll over to the next.
- Arbitrage
- The practice of exploiting differences in odds across bookmakers to secure a risk-free profit.
- Asian Handicap
- A spread betting style that gives a virtual advantage or disadvantage to a team, eliminating the draw as an option.
- Bankroll Management
- The practice of deciding how much money to wager and how to protect your funds from big losses.
- Bet Builder
- An online tool that allows you to create a custom bet by combining different markets from the same match.
- Both Teams to Score
- A bet on whether each side will score at least one goal during the match.
- Cash Out
- A feature that lets you settle a bet before the match ends, locking in a profit or limiting a loss.
- Closing Line Value
- The difference between the odds you took when placing a bet and the final odds at the start of the event, indicating the quality of your timing.
- Double Chance
- A bet that covers two of the three possible match outcomes (win/draw, draw/lose, win/lose) in one wager.
- First Goalscorer
- A wager on which player will score the first goal in the match.
- Juice
- The commission that a book takes on a bet, often built into the odds.
- Line Movement
- Changes in odds or spreads that happen over time as more bets are placed or new information becomes available.
- Live Betting
- Placing bets on events while they are happening, with odds that update in real time.
- Moneyline
- A bet on which team will win the match, with odds expressed as a positive or negative number.
- Odds
- The number that tells you how much you can win relative to your stake, reflecting the chance the book thinks an outcome will happen.
- Over/Under
- A bet on whether the total number of goals (or points) in a match will be more or less than a set line.
- Parlay
- A single bet that links two or more selections; all must win for the bet to pay out, offering higher odds than separate bets.
- Public Money
- The portion of bets placed by casual players, often used to gauge market sentiment.
- Stake
- The amount of money you put on a bet.
- Steam
- Rapid, widespread shifting of odds caused by heavy betting action on one side of a market.
- Surebet
- A situation where you can bet on all possible outcomes of an event and guarantee a profit regardless of the result.
- Unit
- A standard measure used to size bets, usually representing a small percentage of your total bankroll.
- Value Bet
- A wager where the odds offered are higher than the true probability of the outcome, giving you an edge over the book.
- Vig
- Short for "vigorish", another term for the book’s built-in commission on each wager.