What is Chalk?
The favorite — the obvious pick, the side everyone is on, the team the line and the public agree about.
Betting chalk is the path of least resistance. Heavy favorites win more often but pay less, and at very high prices (−500 or more) the book's vig eats almost all of the implied edge. Chalk teasers and chalk parlays are popular because each leg feels safe; the combined math is usually anything but.
Related terms
The team or side priced to lose — pays plus-money on the moneyline, gets points on the spread.
The sportsbook's built-in margin — the gap between the sum of implied probabilities across all outcomes and 100%.
A single bet that combines two or more legs into one ticket — all legs must win for the parlay to pay.
See chalk applied to a real slate
NotaSportsGuru runs the math behind every published leg — Parlay of the Day, player props, match lines — with the model’s expected value and edge on every line.