Bitcoin Betting Glossary: Terms Every Crypto Wagerer Should Know
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How This Glossary Is Organised
Nine years writing in this space has taught me that the worst glossaries pretend a term means one thing when it actually means three depending on context. This one doesn’t. I’ve grouped the vocabulary into four buckets — wallet terms, sportsbook terms, hybrid terms that live in both worlds, and regulatory terms — and where a word genuinely shifts meaning across contexts, I’ve said so.
The distinctions matter because crypto betting sits at an intersection. A word like “settlement” means one thing on a bet slip and something different on a blockchain, and bettors who don’t notice the difference end up reading support messages that confuse them. A word like “KYC” seems obvious until you realise it has at least four distinct intensity levels, each of which is called KYC with no qualification.
One structural note. This glossary is deliberately not a tutorial. For each term I’m giving you a working definition in 2-4 sentences, not a complete explainer. If a concept matters enough to deserve the full treatment, I’ll point you to the article in the SATOWAGER series that covers it. Vocabulary first, understanding second — that’s the reading order that works for most people.
The commentary that Vitali Matsukevich of SOFTSWISS offered about crypto payments captures why this vocabulary keeps expanding. Integrating crypto payments, in his framing, lets iGaming businesses operate globally, delivering greater speed and convenience. That speed and global reach bring new operational concepts into a field that used to be simpler, and each new concept deserves its own word. Hence the glossary.
Wallet and On-Chain Terms
Address. The alphanumeric string that receives a cryptocurrency transaction. BTC mainnet addresses start with “1,” “3,” or “bc1.” Ethereum addresses start with “0x” followed by 40 hex characters. The address is public information; the private key that controls it is not.
Seed phrase. The 12-24 word list that encodes your wallet’s master private key. Losing it means losing your funds permanently. Having someone else see it means they now control your funds. Seed phrases should be written on paper or metal, stored offline, and never photographed, typed into connected devices, or shared with anyone including support agents.
Private key. The cryptographic secret that authorises transactions from an address. Derived from the seed phrase in hierarchical wallets. Possession of the private key equals possession of the funds controlled by the corresponding address.
Self-custody. Holding your own private keys rather than entrusting them to a third party. A self-custody wallet is one where only you can authorise transactions. Opposed to custodial arrangements where an exchange or sportsbook holds the keys on your behalf.
Hardware wallet. A physical device that generates and stores private keys in a secure chip, signing transactions without ever exposing the key to the connected computer. Provides significantly stronger security than software wallets at a modest cost and a small usability overhead.
Mempool. The pool of unconfirmed transactions waiting to be included in the next block. Mempool congestion increases the fee required to be mined quickly.
Confirmation. A block that has been mined after the block containing your transaction. Six confirmations is the traditional “confirmed” threshold for large transactions; sportsbooks vary between 1 and 6 confirmations for crediting deposits.
UTXO. Unspent Transaction Output. Bitcoin doesn’t track account balances directly — it tracks discrete chunks of bitcoin (UTXOs) that can be spent. Every transaction consumes one or more UTXOs and creates new ones. Your “wallet balance” is the sum of the UTXOs the wallet knows it can spend.
Lightning Network. A second-layer payment protocol built on top of Bitcoin that enables near-instant, low-fee transactions. The network’s public channel capacity has grown to roughly 5,000 BTC across around 16,000 nodes and 75,000 active channels.
Layer 2. A general term for protocols that sit on top of a base blockchain, handling transactions off-chain and settling back to the base layer periodically. Lightning is an L2 on Bitcoin; Arbitrum, Optimism and Polygon are L2s on Ethereum.
Sportsbook and Market Terms
Spread. The expected margin of victory a bookmaker assigns to the favourite. A team “-7” must win by more than 7 points to cover the spread.
Moneyline. A bet on which team wins outright, without reference to margin. Priced at odds reflecting each team’s perceived probability of winning.
Totals. A bet on whether the combined score of both teams will be above (over) or below (under) a stated number. Same bet on a match-total also called the “over/under.”
Parlay. A multi-leg bet that requires every leg to win. The payoff multiplies across legs, but each leg must hit. Same-game parlays apply this concept to multiple markets on a single match.
Prop. Short for proposition bet. A bet on a specific in-game outcome that isn’t tied to the match result — player points scored, team to score first, total corners, time of first goal.
Alt-line. An alternative version of a standard market, re-priced at different thresholds. Spread alts, total alts, and player-prop alts let you structure bets at custom probability levels.
Vig (vigorish). The bookmaker’s margin built into the odds. On a two-way market where both sides are priced at -110 American, the vig is approximately 4.5 per cent. The broader math of vig and hold calculations is in the piece on reading the house edge and vig on crypto sportsbooks.
Hold. The sportsbook’s expected net profit per unit wagered, expressed as a percentage. Related to vig but specifically accounts for the balance of action on each side.
Overround. The sum of implied probabilities on a market minus 100 per cent. A two-way market priced with 5 per cent overround has implied probabilities summing to 105 per cent.
Cash-out. The sportsbook’s offer to buy out an open bet at a current-market-adjusted price, before the event has concluded. Cash-out offers typically include the book’s main vig plus an additional 5-15 per cent cash-out margin.
Implied probability. The probability that a given set of odds implies for the outcome. For decimal odds d, implied probability is 1/d. For American odds, it’s different for positive and negative lines.
Rollover. The wagering requirement attached to a bonus. A “5× rollover” bonus must be wagered five times before it converts to withdrawable cash. Rollover terms often specify minimum qualifying odds and eligible market types.
Limits. The maximum stake a book will accept on a specific market. Limits vary by market, by tier, by bettor-specific exposure, and over the course of a match as risk conditions change.
Terms That Sit in Both Worlds
Settlement. In on-chain terms, the finalisation of a transaction on the blockchain. In sportsbook terms, the resolution of a bet — determining the result and crediting the winnings (or not). A bettor who’s asked support “when will my bet settle” is usually asking about the sportsbook meaning; a bettor asking about deposit settlement is usually asking about the blockchain meaning.
Escrow. In on-chain terms, a smart contract that holds funds until conditions are met. In sportsbook terms, funds held by the book pending verification, compliance review, or dispute resolution. A centralised crypto sportsbook’s “balance” is effectively an off-chain escrow from the bettor’s perspective, even though it isn’t labelled that way.
Liquidity. In on-chain terms, the depth of market available at a given price on an exchange or DEX. In sportsbook terms, the ability of the book to accept large stakes without moving the line significantly. DEX sportsbooks bridge both meanings — pool-based DEX books have on-chain liquidity pools that simultaneously determine market depth and the book’s ability to accept action.
Hedge. In on-chain terms, taking an opposing position to offset risk on an existing position. In sportsbook terms, placing a bet on the opposite outcome to lock in partial profit or minimise loss. The underlying logic is identical across contexts.
Slippage. In on-chain terms, the difference between expected and executed transaction price, typically caused by market movement during transaction confirmation. In sportsbook terms, odds movement between the moment you click and the moment the book accepts. Both are friction costs on the stated price.
Book. In traditional sportsbook terms, the operator. In DeFi terms, the order book showing active buy and sell orders. Context usually disambiguates — “my book” means your sportsbook, “the book” at a DEX means the order book.
Oracle. In on-chain terms, a service that provides external data to a smart contract — such as match results, price feeds, or event outcomes. In some sportsbook contexts, the term extends to the data feed providing live match information to the sportsbook’s pricing system. The formal definition is stronger on-chain, where oracles have cryptographic commitments; off-chain “oracle” is more loosely used.
Tokenised. Representing a non-token asset (like loyalty points, voting rights, or redemption claims) as a blockchain token. A “tokenised loyalty program” issues tokens for accumulated play; the tokens may or may not have market value beyond the sportsbook’s own ecosystem.
KYC. Know Your Customer. In crypto and sportsbook contexts alike, the process of verifying the real-world identity of the account holder. KYC intensity ranges from no verification on anonymous accounts to full documented identity plus source-of-funds attestation on whale accounts.
Regulatory and Compliance Terms
LOK. Landsverordening op de Kansspelen, the Curaçao National Ordinance on Games of Chance that entered into force on 24 December 2024. The reform ended the master-sub-licence system that had governed Curaçao online gambling for decades and established direct licensing from the Curaçao Gaming Control Board. See the piece on Curaçao licensing under LOK for the full treatment.
AML. Anti-Money Laundering. The set of procedures operators implement to detect and prevent money laundering through their platforms. AML tooling typically includes transaction monitoring, suspicious-activity reporting, and coordination with financial intelligence units in relevant jurisdictions.
Source-of-funds. A compliance requirement for higher-value accounts to demonstrate the legitimate origin of their betting bankroll. Acceptable documentation typically includes payslips, bank statements showing income, crypto exchange records showing asset purchases, or business-income records.
Enhanced Due Diligence. The highest tier of KYC investigation, applied to accounts with substantial activity or specific risk markers. Enhanced due diligence can include third-party identity verification, politically-exposed-person screening, sanctions-list checks, and video interviews.
Terms of Service. The contract between the sportsbook and the bettor. Terms of service govern everything from bet settlement to account closure to jurisdictional restrictions to VPN policy. Reading the specific terms before depositing is worth more than almost any other piece of due diligence.
Self-exclusion. A responsible-gambling mechanism by which a user requests the sportsbook lock them out of the platform for a specified period. Self-exclusion is most effective on regulated-jurisdiction operators with cross-platform registers; crypto sportsbooks often lack the shared infrastructure that makes fiat-industry self-exclusion effective.
UIGEA. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, the US federal law that targets the payment processing of illegal online gambling operations. UIGEA is the basis for most federal enforcement against offshore operators serving US customers.
FinCEN. The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which regulates money-service businesses including many crypto exchanges and payment processors operating in or serving the US market.
MiCA. The EU Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, which came into effect in 2024-2025 and governs crypto-asset service providers operating in the European Union. Largely carves out fully decentralised finance from its direct scope, though operators and UI providers around DeFi are generally still in scope.
Why do crypto sportsbooks invent their own vocabulary?
Partly because the crypto-native audience has its own terminology, and partly because some product features on crypto sportsbooks don’t exist on fiat sportsbooks — things like tokenised loyalty, on-chain settlement, Lightning withdrawals. New concepts need new words. Less generously, some marketing teams invent terminology to make standard offerings sound unique. Being able to translate operator-specific vocabulary back to industry-standard concepts is a useful skill when comparing books.
Is ‘hold’ the same thing as ‘vig’?
Closely related but not identical. Vig (or vigorish) is the bookmaker’s margin built into the odds on a specific market — the overround divided by the sum of implied probabilities. Hold is the bookmaker’s realised margin per unit wagered, which accounts for how the action balances across the market. Vig is the book’s theoretical margin; hold is closer to what the book actually keeps. In practice the terms are used loosely and often interchangeably, though statistical discussions of sportsbook economics usually prefer ‘hold.'
Does ‘provably fair’ actually have a formal definition?
Informally, yes — a provably fair system is one where the player can verify that the operator didn’t tamper with the outcome after bets were placed, typically using a commit-reveal cryptographic scheme. Formally, there’s no single industry-standard definition, no regulatory specification, no certification body for provably fair as a category. Individual implementations may be audited, but ‘provably fair’ as a marketing claim lacks the regulatory weight of something like an eCogra certification.