Glossary
Sports glossary: the numbers, explained
Following sport in a spreadsheet means reading a lot of columns. Here's what 23 of the most common terms mean — each with a plain-English answer and a worked example where the number needs one. Handy whether you're new to a sport or just want the table to make sense at a glance.
Reading any table
- How to read a league table
- A league table ranks teams by points; the columns to its right show how those points were earned — games played, wins, draws, losses, goals for and against, and goal difference. Teams are ordered top to bottom by total points (Pts). The standard columns are P (played), W/D/L (won, drawn, lost), GF and GA (goals for and against) and GD (goal difference). When two teams have the same points, a tie-breaker — usually goal difference — decides who ranks higher.
- Example: A team with 10 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses has 34 points (10×3 + 4×1). If they've scored 30 and conceded 18, their goal difference is +12.
- How points work (3-1-0)
- In most football leagues a win is worth 3 points, a draw 1 and a loss 0; the team with the most points at the end of the season wins the title. The three-points-for-a-win system rewards winning over drawing, which is why a team can finish above another with more wins but fewer draws. Other sports use different systems — many use pure win-loss records or bonus points — but the principle is the same: the table is ordered by an accumulated score.
- Form (the W-D-L run)
- Form is a team's recent results shown as a short string of letters — W for a win, D for a draw, L for a loss — usually the last five games, most recent last. Form is a quick read on momentum rather than a season-long measure. A run like WWDWL means: won, won, drew, won, lost. It's a common column in tables and previews because it signals whether a team is trending up or down regardless of their overall position.
- Head-to-head tie-breaker
- A head-to-head tie-breaker settles level teams by looking only at the results of the matches they played against each other, rather than their overall records. When teams finish level on points, competitions apply a defined order of tie-breakers. Some (like the Premier League) use goal difference first; others (like the Champions League group stage and La Liga) use head-to-head results first. Knowing which order a competition uses explains why a team with a worse goal difference can still rank higher.
- FT, HT, AET, ET, Pens
- FT means full time (the match is over), HT half time, ET extra time, AET 'after extra time', and Pens a result decided on penalties. These status labels tell you where a match stands. FT is the final result after 90 minutes; if a knockout tie is level it goes to ET (two 15-minute halves), and a result there is shown AET. If still level, a penalty shootout decides it, shown as Pens with the shootout score in brackets.
Football / soccer
- What is xG (expected goals)?
- Expected goals (xG) rates the quality of each scoring chance from 0 to 1 — the probability an average player would score it — and a team's xG is the sum of those chances. xG estimates how many goals the chances a team created 'should' have produced, independent of whether they went in. It's used to judge whether a result flattered a team: a side that wins 1–0 but is out-xG'd 0.4 to 2.1 rode their luck. A tap-in might be 0.8 xG; a speculative 30-yarder 0.03.
- Example: A team takes five shots worth 0.1, 0.2, 0.05, 0.6 and 0.15 xG. Their total xG for the match is 1.1 — so scoring once would be about par.
- What is goal difference (GD)?
- Goal difference is goals scored minus goals conceded, and it's the most common tie-breaker when teams are level on points — a bigger goal difference ranks higher. GD rewards both scoring a lot and conceding little. Across a season it's a fair proxy for how dominant a team has been. It can be negative: a team that has scored 20 and conceded 28 has a goal difference of −8.
- Example: Scored 48, conceded 22 → goal difference of +26.
- What is a clean sheet?
- A clean sheet is when a team concedes no goals in a match — a common measure of defensive and goalkeeping quality. Keeping a clean sheet means finishing a game having let in zero goals, whatever the result at the other end. Goalkeepers and defenders are often judged on how many they keep across a season; it also guarantees at least a point, since a 0–0 can't be lost.
- What is an assist?
- An assist is credited to the player who makes the final pass or touch before a team-mate scores a goal. Assists reward creation rather than finishing. Only the last contribution before the goal counts, so a defence-splitting pass earns the assist even if the scorer still had work to do. Leading assist charts sit alongside top-scorer charts as the main creative-output measure.
- Aggregate score (two legs)
- In a two-legged knockout tie, the aggregate score adds both matches together, and the team with the higher combined total goes through. European knockouts and many domestic cups are played over two legs, home and away. The winner is decided on the aggregate — the sum of both scores. If a team wins 2–1 at home and loses 1–0 away, the aggregate is 2–2, and the tie goes to extra time or penalties (away goals no longer separate level ties in most competitions).
- Example: First leg 3–1, second leg 0–1 → aggregate 3–2, the first team advances.
Cricket
- What is net run rate (NRR)?
- Net run rate is cricket's main league tie-breaker: a team's runs scored per over minus the runs it concedes per over, across the tournament. NRR rewards winning by big margins — scoring quickly and restricting the opposition. A higher NRR ranks higher when teams are level on points. It's calculated over a whole competition, not a single match, and can be negative if a team is generally outscored per over.
- Example: Score 1,600 runs off 200 overs (8.0 per over) and concede 1,500 off 200 (7.5 per over) → NRR of +0.50.
- How to read a cricket scorecard
- A cricket score like '248/4 (35.2)' means 248 runs for the loss of 4 wickets, scored in 35.2 overs — so 6 wickets are still standing. The first number is runs, the number after the slash is wickets lost (out of 10). The figure in brackets is overs bowled. In a Test, each side bats twice, so you'll see two innings totals per team. 'All out' means 10 wickets have fallen and the innings is over regardless of overs remaining.
- Example: '248/4 (35.2)' → 248 runs, 4 wickets down, 35 overs and 2 balls bowled.
- Run rate & required run rate
- Run rate is runs scored per over; the required run rate is how many runs per over the chasing team still needs to win. Run rate (RR) measures scoring speed — total runs divided by overs faced. When a team is chasing a target, the required run rate (RRR) shows the pace they must keep up with the overs remaining. If the required rate climbs well above the current rate, the chase is slipping away.
- Example: Needing 60 runs from 8 overs is a required run rate of 7.5 an over.
- What is an over?
- An over is a set of six legal deliveries bowled from one end; '35.2 overs' means 35 complete overs plus 2 balls of the next. Overs are cricket's unit of time. A Twenty20 innings is 20 overs a side, a one-day innings 50. The decimal in an over count is balls, not tenths — so 35.2 is 35 overs and 2 balls, and the over completes at 35.6 (which rolls over to 36.0).
- Strike rate (batting)
- A batter's strike rate is runs scored per 100 balls faced — a measure of scoring speed that matters most in the shorter formats. Strike rate = (runs ÷ balls faced) × 100. In T20 cricket a strike rate above 150 is aggressive; in Tests, where survival matters more, a much lower rate is normal. It complements the batting average, which measures how many runs a batter makes before getting out rather than how fast.
- Example: 45 runs from 30 balls is a strike rate of 150.
Basketball (NBA)
- How to read an NBA box score
- An NBA box score lists each player's key totals — points (PTS), rebounds (REB), assists (AST), plus minutes and shooting — so you can see who did what without watching. The core columns are PTS, REB and AST, often quoted together as a stat line (e.g. '28-11-9'). You'll also see MIN (minutes), FG (field goals made/attempted), 3P (three-pointers), FT (free throws), STL (steals), BLK (blocks) and TO (turnovers). A 'triple-double' is double figures in three of those categories.
- Example: A line of 28 PTS, 11 REB, 9 AST is one assist short of a triple-double.
- Plus/minus (+/−)
- Plus/minus is how many points a team outscored the opponent by while a given player was on the court — +12 means the team was 12 points better with them playing. It's a quick team-impact measure that captures contributions a box score misses (defence, spacing, screens). It's noisy over a single game but meaningful over a season. A negative figure means the team was outscored during that player's minutes.
- The NBA play-in tournament
- The play-in is a mini-tournament for the 7th–10th seeds in each conference that decides the final two playoff spots. After the regular season, seeds 7 and 8 play for the 7-seed, while seeds 9 and 10 play an elimination game; the loser of the first and winner of the second then meet for the 8-seed. It keeps more teams' seasons alive and is why the standings 'below the line' still matter late in the year.
American football (NFL)
- Down & distance ('3rd & 7')
- '3rd & 7' means it's third down with 7 yards to go for a new set of downs; an offense gets four downs to gain 10 yards or it turns the ball over. The offense has four attempts (downs) to advance 10 yards. Gain them and the count resets to 1st & 10. The down-and-distance tells you the situation at a glance: 3rd & long usually means a pass is coming; 4th down often means a punt or field-goal attempt rather than risking a turnover on downs.
- Example: 1st & 10 → a 4-yard gain makes it 2nd & 6.
- How NFL playoff seeding works
- Each conference sends seven teams to the playoffs — the four division winners (seeded 1–4 by record) and three wild cards (5–7); the No. 1 seed gets a first-round bye. Division winners are always seeded above wild-card teams, even if a wild card has a better record. The top seed skips the first round (the bye) and every round is played at the higher seed's stadium, which is why late-season games that decide seeding matter almost as much as making the field.
Baseball (MLB)
- How to read a baseball line score
- A baseball line score shows runs by inning for each team, then three totals: R (runs), H (hits) and E (errors). Each inning's runs sit in their own column across the top; the R-H-E block on the right is the summary. A game is nine innings unless it's tied, in which case it goes to extra innings. Reading left to right tells you not just who's winning but how the game has flowed — a big number in one inning is a rally.
- Example: A final of R7 H11 E1 means 7 runs on 11 hits with 1 fielding error.
- Earned run average (ERA)
- ERA is the average number of earned runs a pitcher allows per nine innings — lower is better, and anything under 3.00 is excellent. ERA = (earned runs ÷ innings pitched) × 9. It excludes runs that scored because of fielding errors ('unearned'), so it isolates the pitcher's own performance. It's the headline pitching stat the way a batting average is for hitters.
- Example: 20 earned runs over 60 innings pitched is an ERA of 3.00 (20 ÷ 60 × 9).
- What is a magic number?
- A magic number is the combined total of team wins and rival losses needed to clinch a division or playoff spot — when it hits zero, the team is in. It counts down as the leader wins or the closest chaser loses. A magic number of 4 means any combination of four leader-wins and chaser-losses clinches. It's a standings shorthand you'll see down the stretch of a baseball season to show how close a team is to sealing its place.
See the numbers live
Open the spreadsheet and watch these columns fill with live scores and standings — disguised as work.