PANALOBET Sabong in English: The Ring Vocabulary Table

A search for sabong in English usually turns up single-word translations with no context attached, which is close to useless once the words start stacking up mid-broadcast. This page works the other way: one table, eleven terms, and what each one actually does inside the ring rather than a dictionary gloss.

Online sabong has been under a nationwide suspension since 2022. President Duterte announced a stop verbally on 3 May 2022, in a taped broadcast, and signed nothing. President Marcos signed Executive Order No. 9 on 28 December 2022, the document that put the suspension in writing, and it has not been reversed.

The vocabulary below describes a ring that has not run legally since that order, treated here as the fixed set of words a reader needs to follow a broadcast, a derby card or a payout explanation elsewhere in this silo. Nothing on this page points toward a bet.

Sabong in English: The Ring Vocabulary Table

Eleven terms recur across almost every sabong broadcast, derby card and payout discussion, and each has a specific job rather than a loose meaning:

Tagalog term	English equivalent	What it names
Meron	“There is” / Side A	One of the two betting sides on a given match
Wala	“There is not” / Side B	The other betting side, opposite meron
Llamado	Favorite	The side carrying the shorter odds before a match starts
Dehado	Underdog	The side carrying the longer odds before a match starts
Kristo	Bet caller	The ring-side person who calls odds and relays bets by hand signal
Ruweda	Wheel / round-robin	A round format where every entry meets every other entry once
Sentensyador	Referee	The official who judges a match’s result inside the pit
Tari	Blade	The blade fitted to a fighting bird’s leg before a match
Sabungero	Cockfighter	A person who raises, enters or handles fighting birds
Plasada	Commission	The cut a kristo or operator takes from settled bets
Parada	Ring-side display	The area where entries are shown to bettors before a match

None of those eleven carries a fixed number on this page — no commission rate, no fee, no limit — because no primary source in this build states one, so the table stops at what each word names rather than what it costs.

One entry in the table works differently from the rest. Ruweda names a round-robin format, where every entry in a group meets every other entry exactly once rather than being eliminated after a single loss. It is a scheduling word, not a betting term, and it sits closer to the tournament structure covered on the sabong derby formats page than to meron, wala or any of the wagering vocabulary above.

Meron and Wala: The Two Betting Sides

Meron and wala exist as a pair; neither term means anything read alone. The words translate loosely to “there is” and “there is not,” but in practice they function as labels, not statements about either bird. Assigning them follows a fixed order, repeated before every match:

1. The kristo names one side of the match meron and the other wala, before calling begins.
2. Bettors call their side back to the kristo by hand signal, adding to the action already on it.
3. The kristo tracks how much sits on each side and works the pit until the call closes.

Llamado and Dehado: Reading the Favorite and the Underdog

Llamado and dehado describe the betting market around a match, not the birds’ physical condition. A sabungero entering a bird does not choose which label it gets — the market sets it, match by match, based on how the ring-side betting settles before the call closes.

Term	What it marks	Set by
Llamado	The side carrying more action and shorter odds	How the ring-side betting has settled, not the bird’s form
Dehado	The other side, carrying less action and longer odds	The same market process, from the opposite direction

Reading a broadcast’s overlay for these two words is usually the fastest way to know which side the crowd favors before a single blow is thrown.

Kristo, Sentensyador and the People Who Run the Ring

Two roles sit behind every match, doing different jobs:

1. Kristo — calls the odds, relays bets between crowd and pit by hand signal, and adjusts the meron/wala split as action comes in.
2. Sentensyador — judges the match itself once it starts, and rules on the result when it ends.

A parada, the display area where sabungero present their entries before a match, is where a kristo and a crowd first size up a bird ahead of the call. None of the three roles is standardised in exact title from one venue to another, but the functions themselves recur across almost every broadcast this silo’s other pages describe.

Tari, Plasada and Parada: The Remaining Vocabulary

Three more terms round out the eleven this page covers, each naming a physical object or a financial mechanic rather than a role:

1. Tari — the blade fitted to a bird’s leg ahead of a match, standard equipment across the format rather than a variable one.
2. Plasada — the commission a kristo or operator takes from settled action, a mechanic named here without a rate attached to it.
3. Parada — the ring-side display area referenced above, where entries are shown before the call.

A reader who follows PANALOBET’s online sabong live streams page will see all eleven terms recur inside a real broadcast’s overlay and commentary, which is the actual test of whether a definition has landed.

Where to Go Next in This Silo

Two related pages cover the tournament structure and the payout math that this vocabulary sits inside:

1. The sabong derby formats page covers entries, rounds and how a derby’s scoring table settles a tie.
2. PANALOBET’s casino terms explained glossary covers every other wagering and cashier term this site defines, away from the ring vocabulary above.