Many betting markets are available on each football game (especially online), offering a myriad of wagering possibilities. Here we look at the most popular forms of football betting and what they mean. If you want to know how to bet on football, understanding these terms will help you greatly.
Full time result
The simplest bet of all. In the full-time market there are only three possibilities; home win, away win or draw. This, along with most football bets, only incorporates ’90 minutes play’, i.e. if you are betting in a cup game and the game goes to extra time, only the result after normal time is called will apply to the bet.
If you wish to back the home side and they are 5/4, then should you be successful a £10 bet would mean a total return of £22.50 including your stake.
Double chance
With this bet, you are covering two possible full-time results. Again there are three possible bets available; home win/draw, draw/away win and finally home win/away win. Usually, betting on the favourite and the draw at the same time, meaning either result is fine, will yield a very small profit.
Correct score
This bet does what it says on the tin. Simply predict the correct score of the game exactly, i.e. Barcelona 2-0 Real Madrid.
Half-time/full-time
Here you are predicting both the result at half-time and the final result. So, imagine a game between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Betting on Barcelona/Barcelona means they will need to be leading at both half-time and full-time.
Betting on Real Madrid/Barcelona means Real would have to lead at half-time, but with Barcelona winning by full-time. There are 9 possibilities:
- Barcelona/Barcelona
- Barcelona/Draw
- Barcelona/Real Madrid
- Draw/Barcelona
- Draw/Draw
- Draw/Real Madrid
- Real/Madrid/Barcelona
- Real Madrid/Draw
- Real Madrid/Real Madrid
Goals over/under
The bookmaker will offer a figure, say 2.5, meaning you will decide whether there will be more or fewer goals in the game (in total) than this figure.
Both teams to score
A very popular bet these days. In a given game, the bookmaker will offer two possible bets, a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as to whether both teams will score in the game. How many goals are scored is not an issue.
A popular ‘double’ is the ‘result & BTTS’ market, i.e. taking the odds on a certain team to win but both teams to score.
For example, should Barcelona to win be 5/4 and BTTS ‘yes’ be 4/5 and you wish to place a £10 bet on this, the winning calculation would be:
£10 x 5 / 4 + £10 = £22.50 x 4 / 5 + £22.50 = £40.50
So, should Barcelona win the game say 2-1 or 3-2 for example, both bets are successful and a £10 stake would return £40.50.
Goalscorers
Various markets are offered on who will score first in the game (individual player), who will score last or even whether a player will score at any time. You can also double this up with the match result correct score, i.e. Lionel Messi to score first and Barcelona to win 2-1.
Asian handicap
This is a form of football betting in which the bookmaker handicaps teams according to their form, so a stronger side should win by more goals for a gambler betting on them to win.
The system originated in Indonesia but is incredibly popular in the UK these days. Handicaps typically range from 0.5 goals to several goals, depending on the relevant strengths of the teams playing each other.
Asian Handicap betting reduces the possible number of outcomes from three (home, away, draw) to two by eliminating the draw altogether.
The two remaining options each have a near 50% chance of success according to whoever has handicapped the game, though the point being that a punter may take a strong view on the game and think that the handicap is wrong.
For example, in a game where the home side is a very strong favourite, say 1/4 in the betting, you may believe that this is wrong and that the away side will make it a close game.
The away side may be available to back at odds of around 2.3/1 with a handicap of +1, meaning that you are giving the home side a goal. This way, if the game is a draw or your team loses by only 1 goal your bet is successful.
Multiples and full cover bets
As well as all of the above options on individual games, still the most popular form of betting in football is multiples, or basic accumulators. An accumulator works by simply picking more than one team to win, though all bets must win for this to be successful.
Winnings simply roll over onto the next selection until the bet is completed. For example, a 5-fold accumulator with the following odds would pay £210 to a £10 stake:
- Team A – 1/3
- Team B – 5/4
- Team C – 1/1
- Team D – 11/10
- Team E – 4/6
Full Cover bets are slightly different in that you can use them to cover all available multiples when betting on more than one team. The difference with a full cover bet is that it makes allowances for one or more legs of a multiple bet being unsuccessful. Here are the most popular full cover bets:
Trixie
A Trixie is a bet with three selections. This means there are four individual bets based on the number of combinations available; three doubles and one treble in this case. Should one of the selections lose but the other two win, the gambler will be paid out on the ‘double’ consisting of those two selections.
Yankee
This time you will have made 4 selections, the combination being 11 different bets consisting of 6 doubles, 4 trebles and an accumulator containing all 4 selections. There is no double in this bet, which many punters forget.
Super Yankee
5 selections containing 26 bets, this time it’s 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 fourfold accumulators and a fivefold accumulator. Already we are at the point where our unit stake must be kept under control; even a £1 unit stake here would cost £26 in total.
Heinz
This one needs 6 selections and is so named because of the ‘57 varieties’ in the bet. The combination is; 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 fourfolds, 6 fivefolds and of course a sixfold.
Super Heinz
The Super Heinz has 7 selections containing 120 bets in total. The following make up the bets: 21 doubles, 35 trebles, 35 fourfolds, 21 fivefolds, 7 sixfolds and finally the single sevenfold straight accumulator.
Goliath
This time we have 8 selections made up of 247 bets including 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 fourfolds, 56 fivefolds, 28 sixfolds, 8 sevenfolds and of course the eightfold. Even a 20p unit stake here would cost £49.40 in total.