Every field has its language, and sports betting's is denser than most. Skip the vocab and the rest of the academy reads like noise. This is the working glossary — the terms that show up in every other lesson, defined the way Sharp uses them.
Money
- Stake — the amount you're risking on a bet.
- Vig (or juice) — the book's cut, baked into the odds. A "-110/-110" market on two sides means the book holds about 4.5% on every dollar wagered, regardless of who wins.
- Hold — same concept, measured at the market level: the percentage the book expects to keep from a fully-balanced market.
- Payout — what you collect if you win, including your stake back. A +200 bet that risks $100 pays out $300 ($200 profit + your $100 back).
Lines
- Moneyline — odds on who wins, straight up. Positive number (+150) = the underdog, payout per $100 risked. Negative number (-200) = the favorite, amount you risk to win $100.
- Spread (or point spread) — handicap added to one side to make the bet roughly 50/50. "Lakers -6.5" means the Lakers must win by 7 or more.
- Total (or over/under) — combined points scored. You bet over or under the number.
- Prop — a bet on something inside the game that isn't who wins: a player's points, a quarter's total, the first scorer.
- Live odds — odds that update in-game as the score and clock change.
Edge
- Fair odds — what the odds should be based on the true probability of the outcome. You don't actually know these — you estimate them.
- No-vig odds — the book's odds with the vig stripped out, leaving a fair reference price.
- Devig — the act of converting a market's posted odds into no-vig odds.
- Edge (or EV%) — how much better the offered price is than fair. "+3% EV" means you expect to make 3 cents per dollar staked over the long run, on this kind of bet.
- Steam — when a line moves sharply because sharp money has hit it. A "steam move" is a signal the market just got smarter.
Performance
- CLV (Closing Line Value) — the difference between the line you bet and the line that closed. The single best predictor of long-term profit.
- ROI — return on investment, your profit divided by total amount staked. Different from win rate — a 53% bettor can have a higher ROI than a 60% bettor depending on prices.
- Units — a fixed bet size, usually 1% of bankroll. "Up 4 units this week" abstracts away the dollar amount and lets you compare across periods.
- Drawdown — the gap between your peak bankroll and the current bankroll during a losing stretch. Even great bettors have ugly drawdowns.
- Variance — randomness. The reason a 55% bettor can lose 10 in a row and still be on edge.
Risk
- Kelly criterion — the math-optimal formula for how much to stake given your edge.
- Fractional Kelly — staking a fraction (typically ½ or ¼) of what full Kelly says, because full Kelly is brutal in practice.
- Bankroll — the total money you've earmarked for betting. Not your savings, not your salary — a segregated pool.