General
AP – Advantage Play. This is when you do not lay your bet because the value of the bet is so good in the long term these bets will give a good profit
ARB – Arbitrage bet. An ARB is when the odds on your selection are higher on the betting site than they are at the exchange. This means when you bet and lay, you will already be in profit. However, be aware that ARBs are one of the fastest ways to lose promotion entitlement on a site
BOOM – Any positive outcome to your matched betting efforts and you can post a ‘BOOM’ on the forum
‘Bot Topping Up’ – This can happen when the exchange doesn’t have enough liquidity to take your lay bet, but an automated bot on the exchange is refilling the liquidity to accept bets.
Chelts – Cheltenham Festival. An annual horse racing festival in March with all the top jump horses running in the biggest races of the year. A matched bettors best week with loads of offers to take advantage of!
EV – Expected Value or Estimated Value. This is how much you are expecting to get returned from a certain offer
FB – Free Bet. Free bet typically earned from completing an offer
FS – Free Spins. This is on casino sections and casino websites and refers to free spins received on the slots machines. Occasionally received for free, more often received from completing the wagering for a particular offer
KYC – Know Your Customer. This is when setting up and verifying some accounts
LB – Lay Bet. This is the bet you place with the exchange to balance with your qualifying bet
LC – Live chat. Almost all online bookmakers and casinos have this as an easy route to speak to their customer services
MB – Matched Betting. Pretty self-explanatory or sometimes you will see it as MBing
Mug Bet. When you place a bet without any attached offer to give the appearance of a normal punter
PA – Outplayed. The guys who will help you find and complete offers
PALP – Palpable Error. This is when it is very clear the bookmaker’s odds are in error. They can claim a palpable error and void a bet
Price Boost – When a bookmaker enhances the price of a selection/s
QB – Qualifying Bet. This is the bet you place with a bookmaker in order to qualify for a promotion
QL – Qualifying Loss. This is the small amount of money you lose when placing your qualifying bet and lay bet. The closer the odds are on the betting site and the exchange, the lower the qualifying loss
OP – Opening Post. The first forum post in a thread
RF – Risk-Free. This is an offer that has no risk attached (as long as you do it correctly!)
RTP – Return To Player. This is a term used on slots for the % of money returned to the customer. E.g. If a certain slot has 95% RTP and you play with £100, the average return would be £95
Sharbing – Like Arbitrage, but using a betting shop to place the bets instead of online, i.e. ‘Shop arbing’
SNR/SR – Stake Not Returned / Stake Returned. Stake not returned typically refers to a free bet and means that you do not receive a stake back along with your win money if you win, because with a free bet effectively, you haven’t had to put a real money stake forward. Stake returned means you receive your stake back along with your winnings if your selection wins
SR – Stake restricted. SR can also mean stake restricted depending on the context. If you have been banned from promotions on a certain site (gubbed) you will very likely be restricted also in the size of normal bets you can place
Variance/Volatility – Terms used to describe slots on casino websites. High variance slots and high volatility slot are more likely to stray from calculated expected value
WR – Wagering Requirement. How many times you need to wager an amount to convert a bonus to withdrawable cash
Football Related
2UP – 2 goals up, used for the Bet365 and Paddy early payout offers
4MM – Four means more (offer run by William Hill)
ACCA – An accumulator bet (a bet with more than one selection in the same bet)
AGS – Anytime Goal Scorer
BTTS – Both Teams To Score
CS – Correct Score
DD/HH – Double Delight/Hatrick Heaven (an offer run by Betfred)
FGS – First Goal Scorer
FT – Full Time
HT – Half Time
HT/FT – Half Time/Full Time
LGS – Last Goal Scorer
PUP – Pick Your Punt ( an offer run by Betfred)
RAB – Request-A-Bet ( an offer run by Skybet)
WOP – What odds Paddy (an offer run by PaddyPower)
WWGI – Win, Win, Get In (an offer run by Coral)
Main Bookmakers
365 – Bet365
888 – 888Sport
BF – Betfair
BFEX – Betfair Exchange
BFSB – Betfair Sportsbook
BV – BetVictor
HILLS – William Hill
LADS – Ladbrokes
MB – Matchbook
PP – Paddy Power
SN – SportNation
SM – Smarkets
WH – William Hill
Check out my review of Outplayed or to give matched betting a try head over for the free trial.