As legal sports betting expands in the United States, more bettors are entering the marketplace. For many, however, the number of unfamiliar terms and phrases can make it difficult to navigate the process. To help, we have compiled a list of 12 things every sports bettors should know before making their first wager.

Moneylines

A bet on a team’s moneyline is the simplest way to place a sports wager. If you bet $100 on the team with the best odds, and they win, you will receive your original wager back plus any profit, based on the odds offered by the sportsbook. Oddsmakers assign a number to each team in the game and then predict how many points both teams will score. If a sportsbook’s Over/Under line is 5.5, for example, a bet on the Over will win if both teams score more than 5.5 points and a bet on the Under will win if both teams score less than 5.5 points.

Our brains are trained to think of “minus” as negative and “plus” as positive, but in sports betting the opposite is true. The minus (-) sign always indicates the favorite, while the plus (+) signs indicates the underdog. This is why you’ll often see a team with a +7 point underdog against another with a -7 point favorite; the underdog has more chance of winning the game, thus earning a higher payout for a bet on them. Odds for different sports can vary between sportsbooks, as they are designed to attract different clienteles with unique handicapping styles. This variance is what creates the opportunity for bettors to shop lines, looking for the most favorable numbers on a given wager.