Betting Terminology Explained

Betting has its own lingo, which while initially may seem a little daunting is actually extremely straightforward. Here are some of the key terms, specifically filtered for when it comes to cycling.

We'll update this list periodically so it may make sense to bookmark it.

• Punter - A bettor. Potentially you.
• Long Odds - The rider is unlikely to win the race so the betting house has given correspondingly good odds and a bigger reward if the rider does win. You'll get some extremely long odds in cycling due to the nature of the sport. There are so many riders per race and many riders have such a small chance of winnings. It's not uncommon to see payouts of 501:1 (meaning you'll win $501 if you bet $1). This is unheard of in other sport bets. Hence why it's common to do a lot of small E/W [link] bets on certain riders you might think will place.
• Short Odds - The opposite of long odds. The rider is likely to win the race (think MVDP at Milan San Remo) so the reward and corresponding odds are smaller for the rider. In this day and age you'll generally see short odds for Remco, Roglic, Pogacar, Vingegaard, and Wout. It's worth noting the usual odds for these big-name players [link] and taking advantage of when the odds are out of wack and can be termed "value"
• Value - Generally used to describe odds that are misplaced in the eyes of the beholder. Punter X may say Rider X is "value" if rider X has long odds on a race that Punter X thinks they should win. Punter X may think the betting house has mistakenly provided those favourable odds. Which sometimes they do! There's a lot of riders in the peloton. Value odds may change to become less "value" as more punters pile in and the betting house re-adjusts what they offer.
• TX - Where X is a stand in for some number. This indicates the odds that the rider will place in the top X. Generally, most betting houses will offer T3 odds for riders, but for major races, and some esoteric betting houses may also offer T4, T6, or T10 odds.
• 1%'d - Given that betting markets make their money being the middlemen between punters, if they notice bettors in certain smaller markets who are above average at their picks and also lay down large sums at times, they may flag their accounts and force them into being only allowed to place stakes at 1% the size of the market max stake. Since cycling is such a small market it's worth taking note of this.
• Lay - a simple synonym of "placing a bet". For example you may here someone say that they've "layed down on Landa to keep it interesting" indicating they've placed a bet on Landa to maintain their sanity in watching, what oft happens in cycling, a very boring stage.
• H2H (Head-to-Head) - A type of option offered by betting houses that pits two riders of similar calibre or position in the General Classification (GC) against one another. There will be two odds offered by the market beside the two riders' names. The odds are indicative are whether rider A will beat rider B. You can read more on how to bet on head to heads here.