Betting guides
What the bet
actually is.
Moneyline, point spread, run line, puck line, over/under, player props — what each one is, how the price is read, and what has to happen for it to settle. No jargon assumed and no advice to place one.
These pages define words. They are not advice to place a bet. We name no bookmaker and take no commission from one. Looking for how your package works instead? That is the help centre.
Betting guides
Help centreBetting · vocabulary only
- 01Where to bet — and why we will not tell you
- 02How to read odds
- 03Spread / handicap
- 04Parlay / accumulator — and why we sell none
- 05What a moneyline is
- 06What a spread is
- 07What a total is — over and under
- 08What a run line is
- 09What a puck line is
- 10What a player prop is
- 11How American odds work
- 12How decimal odds work, and how to convert
- 13What implied probability is
- 14What the vig is
- 15What a half point costs you
- 16What key numbers are in the NFL
- 17What "against the spread" means
- 18What a closing line is
- 19What closing line value is
- 20Why a line moves
- 21What steam is
- 22What a unit is, and why stakes are quoted that way
- 23What the commitment hash is
- 24What the commitment hash does not prove
- 25How to verify a settled pick yourself
- 26Why the salt is only published after settlement
- 27Why we publish losing days
- 28Why there is no win rate, and no ROI
- 29How the day's pick is chosen
- 30Why the release time is not fixed — and what is
- 31What happens if we are wrong about a settlement
- 32How to read the public record
- 33Why we are not a bookmaker
- 34What you are actually buying
- 35Betting responsibly, and where to get help
- 36Age limits
- 37The puck line is always 1.5, and that one number decides everything
- 38Why NFL spreads get stuck on 3 and 7
- 39The MLB total moves before the lineup card is public
- 40What a back-to-back actually does to an NBA total
- 41The closing line is the only scoreboard that is hard to fake
- 42A 42-point college football spread is not a prediction of a 42-point win
Markets · what each bet actually is
- 43How the moneyline works in the NFL
- 44How a player prop works in the NFL
- 45How an alternate line works in the NFL
- 46How the moneyline works in college football
- 47How the spread works in the NBA
- 48How the moneyline works in college basketball
- 49How the moneyline works in baseball
- 50How the moneyline works in hockey
- 51How the total works in Major League Soccer
Situations · what moves a number
- 52What a line that moved means in the NFL
- 53What a line that moved means in college basketball
- 54What a line that moved means in baseball
- 55What a steam move means in the NFL
- 56What a steam move means in the NBA
- 57What a steam move means in college basketball
- 58What reverse line movement means in college football
- 59What an injury report means in college football
- 60What an injury report means in the NBA
- 61What an injury report means in college basketball
- 62What rest and fatigue mean in the NBA
- 63What rest and fatigue mean in college basketball
- 64What rest and fatigue mean in the WNBA
- 65What rest and fatigue mean in hockey
- 66What rest and fatigue mean in Major League Soccer
- 67What a back-to-back means in the NBA
- 68What travel and time zones mean in the NBA
- 69What travel and time zones mean in the WNBA
- 70What weather means in the NFL
- 71What weather means in college football
- 72What weather means in baseball
- 73What weather means in Major League Soccer
- 74What altitude means in baseball
- 75What altitude means in the NBA
- 76What a divisional game means in college football
- 77What a divisional game means in the NBA
- 78What a divisional game means in hockey
- 79What a revenge game means in college football
- 80What a revenge game means in hockey
- 81What a primetime game means in college football
- 82What blowout risk means in college football
- 83What blowout risk means in college basketball
- 84What blowout risk means in the NBA
- 85What a backup quarterback means in college football
- 86What a bullpen game means in baseball
- 87What a goalie confirmation means in hockey
- 88What a lineup card means in baseball
- 89What a lineup card means in Major League Soccer
- 90What a short week means in college football
- 91What foul trouble means in the NBA
- 92What foul trouble means in the WNBA
- 93What load management means in the NBA
- 94What the shootout means in hockey
- 95What overtime means in the NBA
- 96What overtime means in college football
- 97What the officials mean in the NBA
- 98What the officials mean in college basketball
- 99What the officials mean in Major League Soccer
- 100What motivation and seeding mean in college basketball
- 101What motivation and seeding mean in Major League Soccer
- 102What a coaching change means in the NBA
- 103What a coaching change means in hockey
- 104What a coaching change means in Major League Soccer
- 105What home advantage means in Major League Soccer
- 106What a neutral site means in college football
- 107What a neutral site means in college basketball
- 108What a neutral site means in Major League Soccer
- 109What early-season pricing means in the NBA
- 110What early-season pricing means in hockey
- 111What early-season pricing means in college basketball
- 112What early-season pricing means in college football
- 113What early-season pricing means in Major League Soccer
- 114What late-season pricing means in the NBA
- 115What late-season pricing means in hockey
- 116What late-season pricing means in college basketball
- 117What late-season pricing means in the WNBA
- 118What a so-called trap game means in college football
- 119What a so-called trap game means in the NBA
- 120A line that moved and the spread in the NFL
- 121A line that moved and the total in college football
- 122A line that moved and the moneyline in the NBA
- 123A steam move and the total in the NFL
- 124A steam move and the spread in college football
- 125Reverse line movement and the moneyline in the NFL
- 126Reverse line movement and the spread in college basketball
- 127An injury report and a player prop in college football
- 128An injury report and the spread in the NBA
- 129An injury report and the total in the WNBA
- 130Rest and fatigue and the total in the NBA
- 131Rest and fatigue and a player prop in the WNBA
- 132A back-to-back and a player prop in the NBA
- 133A back-to-back and the total in hockey
- 134Travel and time zones and the spread in Major League Soccer
- 135Weather and a player prop in baseball
- 136Weather and the total in Major League Soccer
- 137Altitude and the total in baseball
- 138Blowout risk and a first-half line in college football
- 139Blowout risk and the total in college basketball
- 140Blowout risk and a player prop in the NFL
- 141A bullpen game and the run line in baseball
- 142A goalie confirmation and the moneyline in hockey
- 143A lineup card and a player prop in Major League Soccer
- 144Foul trouble and a player prop in college basketball
- 145The shootout and the puck line in hockey
- 146Overtime and the spread in the WNBA
- 147Motivation and seeding and the moneyline in college basketball
- 148Home advantage and the moneyline in Major League Soccer
- 149Early-season pricing and the moneyline in baseball
- 150Late-season pricing and the moneyline in the WNBA
Terms · the vocabulary, defined
- 151What juice is
- 152What the hold is
- 153What a sharp is
- 154What a square is
- 155What handle is
- 156What a limit is
- 157What the hook is
- 158What buying a half point is
- 159What a correlated parlay is
- 160What flat staking is
- 161What chasing is
- 162What variance is
- 163What regression to the mean is
- 164What sample size is
- 165What survivorship bias is
- 166What an edge is
- 167What return on investment is
- 168What a strike rate is
- 169What the break-even rate is
- 170What plus money is
- 171What chalk is
- 172What a pick'em is
- 173What laying points is
- 174What taking points is
- 175What covering the spread is
- 176What an against-the-spread record is
- 177What first five innings is
- 178What a three-way moneyline is
- 179What an Asian handicap is
- 180What both teams to score is
- 181What card and corner markets is
- 182What feed latency is
- 183What a win-total market is
- 184What an anytime scorer is
- 185What a first scorer is
- 186What an alternate line is
- 187What a derivative market is
- 188What a team total is
- 189What exact-score markets is
- 190What the opening line is
- 191What a look-ahead line is
- 192What a body-clock angle is
- 193What garbage time is
- 194What a backdoor cover is
- 195What home advantage is
- 196What a neutral site is
- 197What the listed-pitcher rule is
- 198What betting 'action' is
- 199What did not participate is
- 200What a promotion is
- 201What bet insurance is
- 202What geolocation is
- 510What the minimum price line on a Whop pick means
- 518Closing line value and pick services
- 528How the hash and the salt work in a Whop post
Rules · how a sport decides your bet
- 203Does NFL overtime count towards the total?
- 204What a tie does to an NFL bet
- 205A cancelled or forfeited NFL game
- 206When an NFL game changes stadium
- 207How a safety settles a total
- 208Two-point conversions and the key numbers
- 209The kneel-down and your total
- 210Onside kicks after the rule change
- 211A rain-shortened baseball game
- 212A suspended baseball game resumed the next day
- 213Extra innings and the runner on second
- 214Seven-inning doubleheaders
- 215A late scratch of a listed pitcher
- 216How a shootout goal counts
- 217Sixty-minute lines versus full-game lines
- 218Empty-net goals and the puck line
- 219Overtime in a basketball total
- 220Late fouling and the total
- 221Garbage time and player props
- 222College basketball is halves, not quarters
- 223Five fouls, not six
- 224Ninety minutes means ninety minutes
- 225An abandoned soccer match
- 226VAR and settled markets
- 227Stoppage time is nobody's number
- 228The run line when the home team walks off
- 229First five innings, and rain
- 230Whether overtime counts in a player prop
- 231A late scratch in basketball
- 232A late scratch in hockey
- 233An ejection, and the prop that was still open
- 234A push inside a teaser
- 235Overtime in a college basketball total
- 236Overtime in a WNBA total
- 237Own goals and the anytime scorer market
- 238A first-half bet when the game is abandoned at half-time
- 239A bowl opt-out and the prop you already took
- 240A college game that is never played
- 241A college game moved to another campus
- 551How a dead heat pays: the stake-reduction rule with numbers
- 552A tie at the cutoff of a first-five golf market: the dead-heat fraction
- 553Dead heat, push and void: three ways a bet fails to pay in full
Mistakes · the expensive ones, with the reason
- 242Judging a service by its strike rate
- 243Trusting a record you have no way to audit
- 244Reading three games as a trend
- 245Believing something is due
- 246Not seeing the margin compound
- 247Backing favourites for the feeling of winning
- 248Taking overs because sport is more fun that way
- 249Betting at a single bookmaker
- 250Letting stakes follow confidence
- 251Raising stakes to recover a loss
- 252Cashing out as a strategy
- 253Betting live against a delayed feed
- 254Betting a story instead of a mechanism
- 255Reading ticket percentages as if they were money
- 256Building a model that explains the past perfectly
- 257Not recording the number you actually got
- 258Not having a bankroll at all
- 259Chasing bonuses without reading the terms
- 260Getting the kick-off time wrong
- 261Buying points without checking what they cost
- 262Ignoring what the game state does to a prop
- 263Doubling down to justify an earlier bet
- 264Believing a guarantee about outcomes
- 265Raising stakes after a winning run
- 266Over-correcting for one absent name
- 267Assuming a whole number is a considered one
- 268Assuming two books disagree when they do not
- 269Betting on the team you support
- 513Red flags in betting communities, and how to read them
- 514How pick sellers fake records: screenshots, edits and deleted posts
Maths · the arithmetic behind a price
- 270The 52.4% that decides everything
- 271Converting a negative price to a probability
- 272Converting a positive price to a probability
- 273The overround, and why prices never add to 100
- 274De-vigging: getting the market's real opinion out of a price
- 275Expected value, and what it does not tell you
- 276Measuring closing line value
- 277Why a parlay's margin compounds
- 278What a half point is actually worth
- 279Why a six-point teaser is a bet about two numbers
- 280When a middle is worth trying
- 281Why arbitrage is smaller than it sounds
- 282Why correlated legs are restricted
- 283De-vigging a three-way market
- 284Why beating the close is not the same as making money
- 285Why bankroll growth is multiplicative, not additive
- 286Risk of ruin
- 287How long a losing run is normal
- 288How many bets before a record means anything
- 289Probability is not the same thing as odds
- 290What a better price is actually worth over a season
- 291Why units make records comparable
- 292ROI, yield, and why neither means much alone
- 293Drawdown, the number nobody publishes
- 294The Kelly criterion, and why almost nobody should use it whole
- 295Why fractional Kelly is the version people actually use
- 296Why patience is mathematical rather than moral
- 297What a fair price is, and why nobody knows one
- 298Why some markets are priced far worse than others
- 498The break-even win rate at every common price
- 499How to work out a hedge stake
- 530How much to bet with Kelly at +150: the stake, step by step
- 531What happens to Kelly when your probability estimate is wrong
- 532Kelly with several bets on at once: why you cannot add up the stakes
- 533How an arbitrage bet is calculated: the 100% test and the stakes
- 534Arbitrage on a three-way market: splitting stakes across win, draw and loss
- 535What a rounded stake, a voided leg or a moved price does to an arbitrage
- 538Break-even win rate for a parlay: the whole ticket and each leg
- 539Break-even with pushes: how a push changes the win rate you need
- 540What price do you need if you win 55% of the time?
- 546Teaser break-even: the win rate each leg needs at common prices
- 547Which NFL spreads cross both 3 and 7 on a six-point teaser
- 548CLV in cents or in probability points: converting between the two
- 549Averaging CLV across bets: simple mean, stake-weighted and how many bets
- 550Closing line value against a no-vig close: a worked example
Bookmakers · how the other side works
- 299Which books set a price and which copy it
- 300Why a book moves a number
- 301The myth of the perfectly balanced book
- 302Reading a limit as information
- 303Getting limited
- 304Why bonus terms are so specific
- 305Why a withdrawal stalls
- 306What appears on your bank statement
- 307Why markets vanish close to kick-off
- 308Early prices, and why they are worse than they look
- 309Why a line stops moving
- 310Why live markets suspend
- 311Why void rules differ between books
- 312A palpable error
- 313Maximum payout limits
- 314Closing an account
Reading a line · piece by piece
- 315Reading a full line, piece by piece
- 316What the minus and plus signs actually mark
- 317Which way a move points
- 318When the price moves and the number does not
- 319Comparing two books properly
- 320The price attached to a total
- 321What a consensus line is and is not
- 322Open and close are the two numbers worth recording
- 323Why halves and quarters lag the main line
- 324Reading an alternate-line ladder
- 325Reading a team total against the game total
- 326Reading a three-way price
- 327Reading a quarter-goal handicap
- 328Spotting an unbalanced price
The sports · what is true in each one
- 329Why 3 is the most important number in football
- 330The second spike, at seven
- 331What a quarterback is worth on a spread
- 332Wind is the only weather that reliably moves a number
- 333Seventeen games is almost nothing
- 334The clock stops, so comebacks are genuinely live
- 335How to read an NFL injury report
- 336Pace in football is about plays, not speed
- 337The starting pitcher is most of the total
- 338Park factors are permanent, not situational
- 339The third time through the order
- 340Why the home team does not bat in the ninth
- 341Wind in a small park
- 342A hundred and sixty-two games, and the best team loses sixty
- 343Why −1.5 is harder than the price makes it look
- 344A used bullpen
- 345The plate umpire and the strike zone
- 346Day games, night games and the day after
- 347Why a lineup card moves a number
- 348Doubleheaders
- 349Pace decides more of a basketball total than quality does
- 350Load management is the only genuinely unpriced input
- 351Eighty-two games makes NBA ratings the sharpest in American sport
- 352Rotations decide props more than ability does
- 353Blowouts delete the props that looked best
- 354Overtime sits on a number priced for forty-eight minutes
- 355Home advantage in basketball, and why it is not three points
- 356Three time zones and an early tip
- 357Officiating crews and the total
- 358The goalie is the market
- 359A quarter of games are decided by one goal
- 360Three-on-three overtime
- 361A back-to-back in hockey is a personnel question
- 362The narrowest quality gap in North American sport
- 363Why hockey totals barely move
- 364Power plays and small samples
- 365The clock stops on first downs
- 366College overtime starts each team in field-goal range
- 367Backup quality varies more here than in any other league
- 368Games bought rather than earned
- 369Bowl games are frequently a different sport
- 370Three hundred and sixty teams, of whom perhaps forty are good
- 371Thirty seconds, not twenty-four
- 372Five fouls, on a much shallower roster
- 373Ratings built on circular schedules
- 374The largest home advantage in American sport
- 375The draw is a result, not a tiebreak
- 376The most extreme travel in this set of leagues
- 377An hour before kick-off
- 378Two or three goals decides everything
- 379Stoppage time got substantially longer
- 380Roster rules deliberately compress quality
- 381Forty games
- 382Ten-minute quarters
- 383Twelve-deep rosters
- 384Commercial travel on a compressed calendar
- 522The NBA main pick on Whop: what to check on a basketball day
- 523The NHL main pick on Whop: what to check on a hockey day
- 524The NFL main pick on Whop: what to check on a football day
- 525The college football main pick on Whop: what to check on a Saturday
- 526The MLB main pick on Whop: what to check on a baseball day
Process · bankroll, records and stopping
- 385Defining a bankroll, and why nothing works without one
- 386Choosing a unit size
- 387What to write down for every bet
- 388Reviewing without over-reacting to noise
- 389Keeping betting money in its own account
- 390A stop written down in advance
- 391Limiting time, not only money
- 392Specialising rather than covering everything
- 393Not betting every day
- 394Checking prices before forming an opinion
- 395Writing the reason down before betting
- 396Judging decisions rather than results
- 397Noticing when decisions get worse
- 398Taking money out periodically
- 399Refusing the idea of a recovery bet
- 400What a realistic edge looks like
- 502What happens right after you buy on Whop
- 515Evaluating a picks track record before you pay
- 516Units and stake sizing when you follow a pick service
- 517Bankroll rules for following one pick a day
- 521Why the Whop post comes after the site's buyers have the pick
- 541How big a bankroll does a $25 unit need? Unit size from bankroll
- 542Flat units or a percentage of bankroll: the same run of results both ways
- 543Units to risk or units to win: how -150 and +150 differ in a record
- 554A betting spreadsheet: the columns to keep and the formulas that fill them
- 555ROI, yield and units: how to calculate them from your own bet log
- 556Logging parlays, voids and bonus bets in one betting spreadsheet
Verification · what can actually be checked
- 401Why publishing a hash before kick-off matters
- 402Why a salt is necessary and not a detail
- 403Verifying a commitment yourself
- 404What makes a record checkable
- 405The deletion problem
- 406A guarantee about billing versus one about results
- 407Why a serious service might not publish a win rate
- 408How to read a published sample
- 409Who decides whether a pick won
- 410Refund and replacement are different promises
- 411What a testimonial can and cannot show
- 412What it means when a service recommends a bookmaker
- 413Why past results genuinely do not predict future ones
- 414Four questions to ask any service before paying
- 497How to check a tipster's record before you trust it
- 503Whop or a Discord pick group: what changes for a buyer
- 504Whop or a Telegram pick channel: what a buyer can check
- 506How to spot a faked capper record on Whop
- 507How to verify a BetsBeats pick posted on Whop
- 509Why losing days stay in The record on Whop
- 519What "sealed before kickoff" protects you from
Getting started · a bet from zero
- 415What a bet actually is: stake, price, return, profit
- 416Reading a bet slip line by line
- 417What 'risk' and 'to win' mean, and why they differ
- 418Fractional odds, explained from zero
- 419Converting between the three formats
- 420Favourite and underdog: what the labels actually encode
- 421What a unit is, and why anybody bothers
- 422Settlement: when a bet is graded, and by whom
- 423A push, and what happens to your money
- 424A void, and how it differs from a push
- 425Cash out: what the button is actually offering you
- 426Live betting: what changes once it starts
- 427Minimum and maximum stakes, and why they vary
- 428Deposits and withdrawals: what actually happens to the money
- 429Account verification, and why it is asked for
- 430Retail and mobile: what differs
- 431What a 'book' is, and how it makes money
- 500What the BetsBeats community on Whop is
- 501How to join BetsBeats on Whop, free or paid
- 508Reading a settled ticket posted in The record
- 520Lounge etiquette in a pick community: what belongs and what does not
- 529What members get and what the free record gives
Bet types · what each ticket really is
- 432Round robin: what you are actually placing
- 433Teaser: a parlay of moved lines
- 434Pleaser: the teaser run backwards
- 435If-bets: bets that only exist conditionally
- 436Reverse bets: if-bets run in both directions
- 437Player props: markets that settle on one person
- 438Team props: one side's behaviour, not the result
- 439Game props and novelty markets
- 440Futures and outrights: one winner from a field
- 441Division, conference and qualification markets
- 442Alternate spreads: the same bet at a different number
- 443Alternate totals: moving the number, not the market
- 444Buying points, and the sell side nobody uses
- 445First-half and second-half markets
- 446Quarter and period markets
- 447Team totals and the ladder behind them
- 448Race-to-X markets
- 449Method-of-victory and margin markets
- 450Draw no bet, and what it is made of
- 451Double chance: two outcomes on one ticket
- 452Asian handicaps: whole, half and quarter lines
- 453Same-game parlays: a price you cannot decompose
- 454Cash-out offers and what the underlying market says
- 455Each-way and place markets
- 536How many parlays are in a round robin by 2s, 3s and 4s
- 537What a round robin pays: returns by number of winning legs
The money · accounts, promotions, payments
- 456A free bet is not free money, and the difference is one stake
- 457Rollover: what a wagering requirement actually asks of you
- 458Odds boosts: how to tell a real one from a repriced one
- 459Why one deposit lands instantly and another takes days
- 460Why a withdrawal has to go back the way the deposit came
- 461What paying in another currency actually costs
- 462Tax on betting: the question is where you live, not how you bet
- 463A betting exchange is a different business from a bookmaker
- 464Laying a bet: what you are selling and what it costs you
- 465Exchange commission: what it is charged on and when
- 466The setting that decides what happens when the price moves as you bet
- 467Stake limits are per market, not per account
- 468Abandoned, postponed and rescheduled: three different outcomes
- 469Pool betting: a price that does not exist until the event starts
- 470Two things called spread betting, and only one is a point spread
- 471Taking a future off before it settles
- 472Running one bankroll across several accounts
- 473Account security, in the specific ways a betting account fails
- 474Deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion: what each one actually does
- 475What a gambling transaction looks like to everybody who can see it
- 476What happens to money left in an account nobody uses
- 505Free and paid pick communities: what each one is for
- 511Day, week or month on Whop: choosing a membership length
- 512Cancelling and refunds for BetsBeats on Whop
- 527Is paying for picks worth it? Questions to answer first
- 544Is a $50 bonus bet worth $50? What it is worth at different prices
- 545Locking in a bonus bet: the hedge stake and the conversion rate
Licences · what a regulator's register says
- 477The public register, and what it is evidence of
- 478Checking whether a betting site is licensed, without taking anybody's word
- 479What a register cannot tell you, and what people read into it anyway
- 480Active: what it does and does not guarantee
- 481Surrendered: the operator handed the licence back
- 482Revoked, and revoked for non-payment: two different endings
- 483Lapsed and suspended: the two temporary-looking ones
- 484Pending: a permission that has not started yet
- 485Remote, non-remote, and the third one nobody explains
- 486Ancillary remote: the licence for taking a bet by telephone
- 487General betting standard and general betting limited
- 488Betting host: the licence for running somebody else's book
- 489Betting intermediary: the exchange licence
- 490Pool betting: the licence for a bet with no fixed price
- 491White label: when the site you are on is not the company you are betting with
- 492An inactive domain, and what it means that the register still lists it
- 493Trading names: why the company on the register is not the name on the site
- 494A licence is a permission in one place, and only one place
- 495What a licence actually buys the customer
- 496Why this site checks licences and still names no bookmaker