Core Wagering

Action means betting activity. Either the total money wagered on a market, or whether a specific bet stands. A bet that has action is live; one that does not has been voided.

A bankroll is the money set aside specifically for gambling, kept separate from money you need for anything else. Its purpose is to make the size of any individual bet a deliberate decision rather than a reaction.

Bankroll management is the practice of sizing every bet as a fixed fraction of your total gambling funds, so that no losing run can wipe you out and no winning run tempts you into bets you would not normally place.

A bet is an agreement to risk money on an outcome, at agreed odds, settled when the outcome is known. It is the basic unit of gambling and the thing every other term on this site ultimately describes.

A bookmaker is a business that sets odds, accepts bets and pays out winners, profiting from the margin built into its prices rather than from predicting results correctly.

Churn has two meanings in gambling. For operators it is the rate at which customers stop playing. For players it describes the same money being wagered repeatedly, generating turnover far larger than the original deposit.

Expected value is the average outcome of a bet if it could be repeated indefinitely. Positive EV means the bet gains money over time; negative EV means it loses. Almost every bet available in a casino is negative EV by design.

GGR is total amount wagered minus total winnings paid out. The operator's revenue before costs. It is the figure most gambling taxes and licence fees are calculated on.

Handle is the total amount wagered with a sportsbook or casino over a period, before any winnings are paid out. It is the industry's headline volume figure and is much larger than actual revenue.

Hold percentage is the share of total money wagered that an operator actually keeps after paying out winners. It is the realised version of the theoretical house edge, and in sports betting it is usually higher than the theoretical margin suggests.

The house edge is the percentage of every bet the operator expects to keep over the long run. A 2.7% house edge on European roulette means that for every £100 staked, the casino expects to retain £2.70. Permanently, and regardless of how any individual session goes.

Margin is the percentage of total turnover a bookmaker expects to retain, derived from the overround. A 5% margin means the book expects to keep £5 of every £100 staked across a market.

NGR is gross gaming revenue minus the cost of bonuses, free bets and promotional credits. It is the figure that reflects what an operator genuinely earned from a player after the cost of attracting them.

Overround is the amount by which a bookmaker's implied probabilities exceed 100%. A book totalling 105% has a 5% overround, which is the bookmaker's built-in profit margin.

A payout is the total amount returned to you when a bet wins, normally including your original stake. It is distinct from profit, which is the payout minus what you staked.

Punter is British and Irish slang for a person who bets. It carries no technical meaning and is used neutrally across the industry, from casual bettors to professionals.

RTP is the percentage of all money staked on a game that it pays back to players over the very long run. A 96% RTP slot returns £96 for every £100 wagered across millions of spins, not across your session.

Rollover is another name for a wagering requirement. The number of times a bonus must be staked before it can be withdrawn. In lottery contexts the same word means something entirely different: an unwon jackpot carried into the next draw.

The stake is the amount of money placed on a single bet. It is the figure at risk if the bet loses, and the figure that returns to you alongside any profit if it wins.

Turnover is the total amount wagered over a period, counting every bet including those funded by winnings. It is not the same as money lost. A £100 deposit can easily generate several thousand in turnover.

Vigorish is the bookmaker's commission, built into the odds rather than charged separately. Standard American spread betting at -110 on both sides carries about 4.5% vig. You risk $110 to win $100 on a roughly even proposition.

Volatility describes how unevenly a game delivers its returns. High volatility means long dry spells punctuated by large wins; low volatility means frequent small wins. It is completely independent of RTP, and it is usually the more useful number to know.

A wager is money risked on an uncertain outcome in exchange for a potential return. It is the formal word for a bet, and in gambling terms and conditions it is almost always the word that matters, because bonus rules are written around wagering rather than depositing.