Standings Table Abbreviations Explained: W, D, L, GP, GD, Pts and More

Every sports standings table squeezes a season into a grid of two- and three-letter codes: GP, W, D, L, GF, GA, GD and Pts. Once you know what each column header means, a table stops being a wall of numbers and becomes a quick story of who is winning, who is losing and why one team sits above another. This page is a plain-English glossary of the abbreviations you will see across football, rugby, cricket, netball, basketball and hockey, with one-line meanings and notes on how the labels change from one sport to the next.

One rule applies everywhere: the same letter can mean different things in different competitions, so always check the table’s own key or legend if a column looks unfamiliar.

Standings abbreviations glossary (quick reference table)

Here is a scannable key to the column headers you are most likely to meet. Use it to decode a table at a glance; the sections below explain the important ones in more detail.

What do GP, W, D and L mean?

GP, W, D and L are the four columns that record what has happened in every match played so far. They are the backbone of almost every standings table, whatever the sport.

GP (also P, Pld, M, MP) — Played

GP stands for “games played” — the number of matches a team has completed. You will also see it written as P, Pld, M or MP. This column matters because teams do not always play the same number of games at a given point in the season, so a team can sit lower in the table yet have games in hand (fewer played). Watch out for one trap: in some tables “P” is used for Points rather than Played, so always confirm against the other headers in the same row.

W — Won

W is the count of matches a team has won. Wins are usually worth the most points, so this is the single biggest driver of a team’s position.

D — Drawn (or T — Tied)

D stands for a drawn match — one that finished level, with the scores tied at the end of play. Football, rugby and hockey tables use D. Limited-overs cricket tables tend to use T for a tie instead, and a multi-day cricket match that ends level is also called a draw. A draw normally earns both teams a smaller share of points than a win.

L — Lost

L is the number of matches lost. In most sports a loss earns zero points, though there are exceptions — ice hockey awards a point for losing in overtime (see OTL below), and rugby union can award a losing bonus point for a narrow defeat.

What do GF, GA and GD mean?

GF, GA and GD describe scoring: how many goals a team has scored, how many it has conceded, and the gap between the two. They are how tables separate teams that have won the same number of matches.

GF (For) and GA (Against)

GF stands for “goals for” — the total a team has scored across all its matches — and GA stands for “goals against”, the total it has conceded. In sports that score points rather than goals you will see the generic forms F and A, or PF (points for) and PA (points against). High GF suggests a strong attack; low GA suggests a strong defence.

GD — Goal Difference

GD means goal difference, and it is simply goals for minus goals against (GF − GA). A team that has scored 30 and conceded 18 has a goal difference of +12; a team that has scored 15 and conceded 25 has −10. Goal difference is one of the most common tiebreakers in football: when two teams finish level on points, the one with the better (higher) goal difference is usually ranked above the other. The rugby-code equivalent is PD, points difference (points for minus points against).

What does Pts mean, and how are points awarded?

Pts means points — the total a team has earned, and the number the whole table is sorted on. It is sometimes shortened to Pt or, confusingly, to P. The team with the most points sits top; everything else in the table exists mainly to break ties when points are equal.

How many points a result is worth depends entirely on the sport and competition. There is no single universal system, which is why the same “W” can be worth two points in one sport and four in another.

Because the point values differ, you cannot compare raw point totals across sports — 30 points means something very different in football, rugby and the NRL. Always read points in the context of that competition’s own system.

Bonus points in rugby: B, BP, TB and LB

Rugby union tables add bonus-point columns that reward how a team plays, not just whether it wins. This is why a rugby table has columns you will never see in football.

• TB / TBP (try bonus): one extra point for scoring a set number of tries in a match. At the Rugby World Cup and many leagues the threshold is four or more tries, won or lost.
• LB / LBP (losing bonus): one extra point for losing narrowly — by seven points or fewer in the World Cup system.
• B / BP (bonus points): the total bonus points a team has banked from try and losing bonuses combined.

The thresholds vary by competition. Super Rugby, for example, awards a try bonus for scoring three more tries than the opponent, and France’s Top 14 uses its own rules. Treat the exact numbers above as the common case and confirm them against the competition you are watching.

Sport-specific columns you will meet

Beyond the shared columns, many sports add a column or two of their own, usually a tiebreaker. Knowing these stops a table from looking cryptic.

Cricket: NRR and NR

NRR stands for net run rate, cricket’s main tiebreaker in limited-overs leagues: it measures how quickly a team scores its runs versus how quickly it concedes them, so a team that wins more convincingly ranks higher when points are level. NR means “no result” — a match abandoned without a winner, often because of rain. A no-result match typically earns each side one point and leaves the rest of the standings unchanged.

AFL and netball: percentage (%)

In Australian rules football the percentage column is the primary tiebreaker, calculated as points for divided by points against, multiplied by 100 — so 120% means a team has scored 20% more than it has conceded. Netball tables use the same idea under the label goal percentage (goals scored ÷ goals conceded × 100) to separate teams level on points.

Ice hockey: OTL

OTL means an overtime (or shootout) loss. Hockey is unusual in that a team losing in overtime still collects one point, while the winner takes two and a team losing in regulation gets none. That extra column is why a single hockey game can put three points on the board between the two teams.

Basketball and baseball: GB and Pct

GB stands for “games behind” — how many games a team trails the leader in its division or conference, with the leader shown as a dash or zero. Pct (or PCT) is winning percentage: wins divided by games played. Because the NBA has no draws, win percentage alone describes a team’s record.

Why the labels vary — and how to be sure

The safest habit is to read the table’s own legend before trusting any abbreviation. Different sports, broadcasters and websites make different choices: one site writes GP, another writes Pld or just P; one uses D for draw, another uses T for tie; “P” means Played in one table and Points in the next. None of them is wrong — they are regional and editorial conventions.

When a column header is unclear, three checks almost always resolve it:

• Look for a key, legend or tooltip near the table — most official sites provide one.
• Compare the suspect column with the ones you do recognise; if the numbers only ever go up and the team on top has the highest value, it is almost certainly the points column.
• Check whether the figure could be a difference (it can be negative) or a total (never negative) — that quickly tells GD/PD apart from GF/PF.

Common mistakes when reading abbreviations

Most misreadings come from assuming one sport’s convention applies everywhere. These are the traps worth knowing.

• Confusing P for Played with P for Points. Check the neighbouring headers; Points is the last column and the one the table is sorted by.
• Assuming a win is always three points. Football uses three, but rugby union uses four, rugby league and hockey use two, and cricket leagues use their own values.
• Reading GD as goals scored. GD is a difference and can be negative; GF is a running total that only rises.
• Ignoring bonus-point columns in rugby. A team can climb the table on bonus points without winning extra matches, so the W column alone will not explain its position.
• Treating games played as equal. Teams further down the table may have games in hand; compare the Played column before judging form.
• Expecting the same tiebreaker everywhere. Football leans on goal difference, cricket on net run rate, AFL on percentage, the NRL on points difference.

Vanliga frågor (FAQ)

What does GP W D L mean in a league table?

GP is games played, W is matches won, D is matches drawn (tied), and L is matches lost. Together they summarise every result a team has had so far. Wins are worth the most points, draws fewer, and losses usually none, which is how these four columns decide a team’s total points.

What does GD mean in a table?

GD means goal difference: goals scored minus goals conceded (GF − GA). A positive number means a team has scored more than it has let in; a negative number means the opposite. In football it is a common tiebreaker, so when two teams have the same points the one with the higher goal difference is ranked above.

What is the difference between Pts and P?

Pts always means points — the total a team is ranked on. P is ambiguous: in many tables it means Played (matches played), but some tables use P as a short form of Points. When you see a lone P, check it against the other headers; the column the table is sorted by, highest at the top, is the points column.

What do GF and GA stand for?

GF stands for goals for (goals scored) and GA for goals against (goals conceded). In sports that score points rather than goals you will instead see F and A, or PF (points for) and PA (points against). Subtracting GA from GF gives goal difference (GD).

Why are the abbreviations different in rugby and cricket?

Each sport evolved its own scoring and tiebreakers, so its tables carry different columns. Rugby adds bonus-point columns (TB, LB, BP) and uses points difference (PD); cricket adds net run rate (NRR) and no-result (NR) columns. The core columns — played, won, lost and points — stay broadly the same, but the extra columns reflect each sport’s rules, which is why reading the table’s legend always helps.