How Tailthat works

1. 👀

   1. Look around

   The Feed shows what people are picking. The Slate shows today’s games. No account needed.

2. ✍️

   2. Post a pick

   Share who you think will win and why. Your record builds itself as games finish.

3. ↗↘

   3. Tail or fade

   Tail a pick you agree with. Fade one you think is wrong.

That’s it. Everything below is detail for when you want it.

1. Sign up with a username and password. No email needed. You must be 21 or older.
2. Tap Post (the green + at the bottom on a phone, or Post a bet on a computer).
3. Choose the sport, then the game. Only upcoming games are listed.
4. Choose what you’re betting on: a winner, a spread, a total, or a player stat. Not sure which? See kinds of bets below.
5. Add the odds and how many units you’re betting. If you don’t know the odds, -110 is the usual price for spreads and totals.
6. Say why, if you want to. Even one sentence helps people decide whether to tail you.
7. Hit Post. You have five minutes to fix a typo. After that the pick is locked so records stay honest.

You can post more than one bet at once, attach a screenshot of your bet slip (crop out your name and balance first), or save a draft and come back later.

Every bet on Tailthat is written the same short way. Here’s one, piece by piece:

WCBB

The league: women’s college basketball.

South Carolina -3.5

The pick. South Carolina has to win by 4 or more points for this bet to win. (That’s a spread.)

-110

The odds, meaning what it pays: bet $11 to win $10. Win, and you get back $21.

1u

How much: one unit, the poster’s normal bet size.

DraftKings

The sportsbook where the bet was placed.

Moneyline (ML): just pick the winner

The simplest bet. If your team wins, you win. Favorites pay less, underdogs pay more.

Spread: win by enough (or lose by little enough)

The spread evens out a mismatch. The favorite gets a minus number and has to win by more than it. The underdog gets a plus number and can lose by less than it and still win the bet.

The half point (the “hook”) is there so the bet can’t tie. A whole number like -3 can land exactly; that’s a push and you get your money back.

Total (over/under): how much scoring

Forget who wins. Will both teams’ points added together be over or under the number?

Prop: one player or one moment

A bet on something inside the game, usually a player’s stats.

Parlay: several bets as one

Combine two or more bets (“legs”) into one ticket. Every leg has to win, but the payout is much bigger. Fun, and much harder to hit.

Parlay calculator: type each leg’s odds and see what the ticket pays and how often it would hit.

The odds are just the price tag on a bet: how much you put in, and how much you win if it hits.

Every other price works the same way. Just look at the sign:

• Minus sign (-150): the favorite. You bet more than you win. The number is what you bet to win $100. -150 means bet $150 to win $100, or $3 to win $2.
• Plus sign (+150): the underdog. You win more than you bet. The number is what a $100 bet wins. +150 means bet $100 to win $150, or $2 to win $3.
• +100 (“even money”): win exactly what you bet.
• Seeing odds like 1.91 or 10/11? Those are the same prices written the European and UK way. Here’s how to read them, and the calculator takes them too.

Units: why we don’t talk in dollars

A unit is your normal bet size, whatever that is for you: $5, $20, $100. Records on Tailthat are in units so a $5 bettor and a $500 bettor can be compared fairly. “+4.2u this week” means up a bit over four normal bets. You can set what your unit is worth in Settings; it’s optional and only you decide whether to show it.

When a game listed on Tailthat ends, picks on it are graded automatically. For anything else (most player props, games we don’t list) the person who posted it marks the result.

• Won: the bet hit.
• Lost: it didn’t.
• Push: an exact tie with the line, so the money comes back. Counts as neither.
• Void: cancelled, for example a postponed game. Doesn’t count.

Every profile shows a record (wins-losses-pushes), net units, and ROI (return on investment: units won for every unit bet). The Leaders page ranks the week. A good record over a lot of picks means more than a hot week.

Want to bet with friends only? Make a room: a private group with its own feed and an invite link.

Women’s and men’s leagues sit side by side here, with the same tools, the same records, and the same spot on the slate. Turn any of them on or off in Settings.

• NFLNFL football. Sundays, plus Monday and Thursday nights, September to February.
• NBANBA basketball. Pro men’s basketball, October to June.
• WNBAWNBA basketball. Pro women’s basketball, May to October. Off-season right now; its games return with the new season.
• NHLNHL hockey. October to June.
• CBBMen’s college basketball. November to March Madness in April.
• WCBBWomen’s college basketball. November to the women’s March Madness in April, with some of the biggest crowds and TV audiences in college sports.
• CFBCollege football. Late August to the playoff in January.
• MLBMLB baseball. March to the World Series in October. Off-season right now.

Betting on something we don’t list yet, like soccer, tennis, golf, or the PWHL? Post it anyway: choose any sport, pick “Not listed” as the game, and type in the event. You’ll mark the result yourself when it’s done. Tell us what you want added at [email protected].

ATS (against the spread)

How a team does once the spread is counted. A team can lose the game but win ATS. See Trends.

Chalk

The favorite. “Chalky” means a lot of favorites.

Closing line

The final odds right before the game starts. Beating it (CLV, closing line value) is a sign someone bets well.

Dog / underdog

The team expected to lose. Plus odds.

Fade

Bet against someone’s pick, or a crowd’s. On Tailthat it means “I’m taking the other side.”

Favorite

The team expected to win. Minus odds.

Hook

The half point in a line like -3.5.

Juice / vig

The sportsbook’s cut, built into the odds. Why it’s -110 and not -100.

Leg

One bet inside a parlay.

Line

The odds or number on a bet. “The line moved” means it changed.

Live betting

Betting after a game has started.

Lock

A pick someone is very confident in. No pick is actually a lock.

Public / the crowd

What most people are betting. The Crowd page shows how that’s gone.

Push

A tie with the line. Money back.

Sharp

A bettor with a long winning record, or money that moves the line.

Slate

The day’s games.

Tail

Copy someone’s pick. “I’m on it too.”

Unit (u)

Your normal bet size. See units.

$TAG and #tag

$KC or $SC links to a team; #props or #parlay links to a topic. Use them in posts so people can find your pick.

• Tailthat is for people 21 and older, and only where sports betting is legal.
• Nobody here is a guaranteed winner, and nothing posted is advice. Most bettors lose over time.
• Only bet what you’d be fine losing. Set a budget before the games start, not during.
• Never pay anyone for picks. Selling picks isn’t allowed here.
• If betting stops being fun, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER, any time, free and confidential, or visit ncpgambling.org.