The 30 terms that actually matter
Every betting glossary I have ever seen tries to cover everything and ends up useful for nothing. The point of this one is the opposite. There are roughly 30 terms in regular use across UFC betting that any reasonably engaged bettor needs to understand without effort. The rest are decorative — flavour vocabulary that appears in marketing copy but rarely on a slip you would actually place.
What follows is the working set. The terms are grouped by where you encounter them in a typical betting interaction: how prices are structured, what kinds of bets are available, how money moves and gets settled, how the market behaves, and the MMA-specific vocabulary that only matters for combat sports. I have written each definition the way I would explain it to a new bettor sitting next to me at a card — not the way the marketing department phrases it.
See also: wagering guide to put these terms into practice.
Odds and pricing terms
Moneyline is the bet on which fighter wins. The price is expressed as American odds with a plus or minus prefix. A favourite is marked with a minus number — minus 150, for example — meaning you need to risk $150 to win $100. An underdog is marked with a plus number — plus 130 — meaning a $100 stake returns $130 in profit if it wins.
Juice, also called vig or vigorish, is the margin the book charges on every bet. A standard market with both sides at minus 110 carries roughly 5% juice — the book’s expected take regardless of which side wins. Reduced-juice books offer minus 105 or better, lowering the embedded margin.
Hold is the book’s expected profit on a market expressed as a percentage. It is calculated by summing the implied probabilities of both sides and subtracting 100%. A pair of minus-110 lines has implied probabilities of 52.4% each, summing to 104.8%, so the hold is 4.8%. Higher hold means more juice per bet.
No-vig probability is what the market thinks the true probability is, after the juice is stripped out. You calculate it by dividing each side’s implied probability by the sum of both implied probabilities. It is the cleanest way to compare your own probability assessment against the market consensus.
Implied probability is the probability the price represents, assuming the price is fair. For American odds, the formula on a favourite is the negative number divided by the negative number plus 100, expressed as a percentage. For an underdog, it is 100 divided by the positive number plus 100.
Decimal odds, fractional odds and American odds are three formats for the same information. Decimal 2.50 equals fractional 6/4 equals American +150. Most US-facing books default to American format; international books default to decimal. Knowing how to convert between them prevents confusion when switching platforms. The decimal-to-American conversion is straightforward: subtract 1 from the decimal, multiply by 100 if the result is greater than 1, take the negative of 100 divided by the result if it is less than 1.
Bet type terms
Props, short for proposition bets, are bets on specific outcomes within a fight other than who wins. Method of victory, round of finish, distance prop, total rounds — all are props. They carry wider juice than moneylines because the book invests less modelling effort per market and the volume is lower.
Parlay is a multi-leg bet where every leg must win for the slip to pay. Payouts multiply across legs but so does the book’s effective hold. A five-leg parlay at standard juice carries roughly 22% compounded hold.
Same-game parlay, abbreviated SGP, is a parlay where all legs are on the same fight. The book prices the joint probability of the legs hitting together rather than naive multiplication of marginal probabilities, which makes SGP pricing more conservative for the bettor.
Futures are bets on outcomes resolved much later — a champion’s reign length, a fighter’s win count in a calendar year, year-end title-holder odds. Futures lock up bankroll for extended periods, which is a cost the price needs to compensate for. For a complete walk-through of how each American-odds format applies across these bet types, the longer breakdown is worth reading alongside this glossary.
Live, also called in-play, betting is wagering while the fight is in progress. Lines update every 10-20 seconds; the bettor at home faces a broadcast-delay disadvantage relative to the book’s arena-direct feed. The wider hold on live markets reflects the book’s modelling cost and risk.
Money and position terms
Chalk is the favourite — the side the market expects to win. Betting chalk means taking the favourite at minus odds. Chalk is not inherently bad value; it is bad value when the price has been compressed beyond the actual probability of winning by public money piling on.
Dog, short for underdog, is the side priced at plus odds. Betting the dog returns more per stake but with lower probability of winning. The implied probability is below 50%, sometimes well below.
Action is general industry shorthand for an active wager. “I have action on the prelim main” means I have a bet placed. The book also uses “action” to describe the volume flowing on a market at a given time.
Push is when a bet ties — neither wins nor loses. Stake is returned. Pushes are most common on totals where the result lands exactly on the line.
Void is when a bet is cancelled by the book because the event did not happen as expected. Common cases include fight cancellations on weigh-in failure, fighter pulls due to injury during the bout, and same-day card changes. Voided bets return the stake without profit or loss.
Cash out is the early-settlement feature offered on most live and futures markets. The book offers a price below fair settlement value, the bettor accepts to lock in some return, the book pockets the difference as additional juice.
Market behaviour terms
Steam is rapid line movement driven by professional money piling onto one side. A “steam move” might shift a moneyline from minus 130 to minus 160 in under an hour. Casual bettors who see a steam move and follow it usually arrive too late — the price has already absorbed the smart money that drove the move.
Sharp is the industry term for a professional or skilled bettor whose action consistently identifies edges. Sharp money is the volume that moves lines beyond what public sentiment would push them. Books distinguish sharp action from square action and sometimes limit accounts that are flagged as sharp.
Square is the opposite of sharp — a recreational bettor whose action follows public sentiment and is not predictively profitable. Public money is largely square money. Books accept high stake from square accounts because the expected return is positive for the book.
Line shop is the practice of checking multiple books for the best available price on a given bet. The same fight might be minus 145 at one book and minus 155 at another; the bettor placing minus 145 has an immediate edge of roughly 2% over the bettor placing minus 155. Line shopping is one of the few free-edge sources available to retail bettors.
Closing line value, abbreviated CLV, is the difference between the price you took on a bet and the price that bet closed at when the market locked. Positive CLV means you bet at better odds than the eventual closing line, which is the leading indicator that your bet selection is beating the market over time. Most professionals track CLV as the primary indicator of long-run edge.
See also: how to bet on ufc in california — glossary.
MMA-specific terms
Method of victory, abbreviated MOV, is the prop on how the fight ends. The options are KO/TKO for either fighter, submission for either fighter, and decision. MOV markets have wider juice and structural mispricing opportunities not present in moneylines.
Distance prop is the binary bet on whether the fight reaches the final bell. A “fight goes the distance” yes bet pays if the bout is decided by the judges. It is related to but not identical to over/under round totals.
KO is knockout — fight ends because one fighter is rendered unconscious or unable to continue. TKO, technical knockout, is when the referee stops the fight due to one fighter being unable to defend, the corner throws in the towel, or a doctor stoppage occurs. Both settle as the same MOV outcome on most books.
Sub is submission — fight ends because a fighter taps out of a hold, verbally surrenders, or is choked unconscious. Submission props carry their own pricing logic separate from KO props.
Decision is the outcome where the fight reaches the final bell and the result is determined by judges. UFC decisions are scored unanimous, split, or majority. Most books settle decision MOV bets without further distinction across these subtypes, though some offer additional decision props on the specific decision type.
