A single football match can carry two hundred markets. Most of them are variations on a handful of ideas, and knowing which idea you are betting on matters more than the name the operator gives it. Below is every market type we cover, grouped by what it actually asks you to predict, with the longer explanation linked from each one.
Two things apply to all of them. The margin is not the same across markets: the three-way result on a big match is priced tightly, while exotic markets like exact score or first goalscorer carry several times the cut. And the settlement rules are the operator’s, not the sport’s — what happens to your bet if the match is abandoned, or if your player is an unused substitute, is in the terms and differs between sites.
The result of the match
- Final result (1X2): the home win, the draw or the away win. The most played market and the most tightly priced.
- Double chance: two of the three outcomes in one bet — 1X, X2 or 12. Shorter odds in exchange for covering more ground.
- Correct score: the exact final score. Long odds, wide margin, low strike rate.
- Half-time/full-time: the score at the break and at the end, both right.
- Head to head: which of two teams or athletes finishes ahead, used heavily in racing, golf and tennis.
- Handicap: one side starts with a notional deficit, which turns a mismatch into a two-way market worth pricing.
Goals
- Under and over: whether total goals fall above or below a line, usually 2.5. The most readable market when the result is not.
- Both teams to score: often sold as goal/no goal. Independent of who wins.
- Total goals: the exact number, or a band of numbers, rather than a line.
- Odd or even: the parity of the total. A coin flip dressed as a football market.
- Goal time: the minute or the band of minutes in which a goal arrives.
Players and match events
- Goalscorer: anytime, first or last. Check the rule on unused substitutes before you play it.
- Cards and dismissals: whether a booking or a sending-off happens, or how many. Also sold as a simple card yes or no.
- Penalty yes or no: whether a penalty is awarded in the match.
- Own goal, VAR call: novelty two-way markets on a specific incident. Priced loosely because they are hard to model — which cuts both ways.
- Corners: the total number, or a line, taken by one side or by both.
Combining, and betting early
- Accumulators: several selections in one bet, all of which must land. The odds multiply and so does the chance of losing.
- Combo and special bets: two markets on the same match in a single price, such as double chance plus over 1.5.
- Ante-post: the outright winner of a competition, bet before it starts or while it runs. Worth most while the hierarchy is still unclear.
- Novelty markets: everything outside sport that a licensed operator is allowed to price.
In-play and simulated events
- Live betting: the same markets, repriced while the match runs. Next goal, the rest-of-match result, corners and cards, with suspensions at every significant event.
- Virtual betting: software-generated events drawn by a random number generator. Fixed margin, no form to read — see virtual bookmakers.
- Horse racing: win, each-way and place markets, with their own rules on non-runners and Rule 4 deductions.
Which markets each account carries
Not every operator offers every market, and some deactivate the more exotic ones on lower-profile fixtures. The depth of the market list is one of the things we compare in online bookmakers. If you are starting out, the two guides worth reading first are the sports betting guide and how to bet on football; how prices and margins work is in betting odds explained.