Sports betting quiz

Fixed-odds betting, or SP betting for Australians, is where the player places a wager against the bookmaker, with odds set by the bookie determining how much they will win if successful.

A bet is odds-on if the probability of it being successful is more likely than not. For these bets, the odds will have a smaller number before a larger one (ie, 1/2 or 1.20). However, as the punter has their stake returned they’ll still make a profit from these bets - though not as much as they would do if the odds were not in their favour.

Lay betting is a bet on an exchange where one player effectively takes the role of a bookie, by placing a bet based on another player NOT being successful in their wager. You’re effectively selling a bet, just like a bookie, only without a major corporation and (more often than not) extensive trading experience. Also called matched betting, arbing, and or double betting.

Decimal odds are expressed with a decimal point. Hence the name. Even something as complicated as sports betting has to be logical.

An accumulator, or acca, if you want to sound knowledgeable, is where the player selects a series of outcomes, all of which must win for the bet to pay out. These tend to have much longer odds - and much less chance of winning.

Again, it’s all logical - it’s a bet on whether an odd or even number of points, goals or whatever other scoring system is in place is accumulated during a match.

If a fixed odds bookmaker is a betting shop, then a betting exchange is a farmer’s market for bets. It’s similar to a stock exchange, in that customers can either ‘back’ an outcome (betting on a result) or ‘lay’ an outcome (a bet against that result).

A recreational bettor is what the vast majority of bettors should be - someone who’s having a flutter as a form of entertainment, rather than a way to make money or pay the bills.

This is the amount taken off by the bookie to keep the lights on, as referred to in the previous question. As we say, it’s how the bookmaker makes their money, so don’t feel as if they’re cheating you.

Remember, you’re doing this for entertainment, not to make some quick cash. There is no such thing as a guaranteed winner when it comes to betting (even if an outcome appears to be odds-on), so if you can’t afford a flutter, or if you’ll have to spend money intended for something else to have a bet - don’t.