Kinda the same thing but sometimes it is just way more important to think about protection aspect.

Basically super wet board and a vulnerable hand you are ofc betting for value but you need to think about protection so you may bet a higher amount or rather than check raise for example just to go for a straight up bet.

@Jon-PokerVIP , aha, tyvm sir I get it a bit now. It's the wording that got me i think, rather than the concept in general.

Thanks again.

Best way I could put it is....................................betting for value against a range that has good equity against you.

Example...........you hold 78 on a 2,3,7 rainbow. Big part of opponents range is likely to be suited overs.

I kind of look at it like its a cross between a value bet and a semi bluff. You are betting for value in the sense that more times than not, at that exact moment, you probably have the best hand, however, it is fairly unlikely that you will have the best hand by the time you get to the turn or river. Jef147's example is pretty good. You have top pair but you aren't really excited about it. More than likely some overs will come or cards that will bring in more draws. So when you bet, you are perfectly fine with someone folding out suited over's which have a fair amount of equity against you. Additionally, you know that you probably have 5 decent outs. So if they call and another 7 comes or an 8 you have trips or 2 pair and now have a fairly strong made hand and you got decent value from the bet on the flop and can continue from there.

Not sure if that is correct, but just how I look at it

Good answers so far. Expanding on @Jef147 's example, this is why protection is important:

Board: 7s 3d 2c
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 75.682% 75.68% 00.00% 8991 0.00 { 87s }
Hand 1: 24.318% 24.32% 00.00% 2889 0.00 { KQs }

That's a TON of equity for KQ and often, betting for value and protection will deny him that equity which is a pretty huge win for you.

Also, lots of players tend to use protection as an excuse for betting middle strength hands. Try to avoid this. For example, betting A7o on T76fd is a spot where yeah, your hand might be ahead and you'll need a lot of protection, but your hand is weak enough that you shouldn't be looking to build the pot but rather be looking to bluffcatch in lots of spots.

Again @Komododragonjesus did a grat job explaining the term so I'm not going to try to one-up him. Instead, let present a thought that's somewhat relevant to the discussion. Here's the thing - terms like 'betting for protection' or even 'value/bluff' are just abstract constructs that we use to simplify the decision-making process in poker. In reality, it's about range vs. range, but just like you don't have to learn the machine code to be a programmer and it's totally fine to use something a bit more in tune with our own language it's also fine to think about poker in 'value/bluff' terms instead of sitting in front of Flopzilla for hours on end. The only danger is that sometimes simplified terms like 'betting for protection' can act as an excuse to make a poor play so it's best not to overuse them.

Guys thank you so very much for making the effort to help out with this, it's been a bug in my head for ages. I can get held back by the stupidist of things.

Anyway, super answers in simple language so thank you all, I can now stick to the praticalities of trying to use the stuff without confusion now!