If you’re a football fan that likes to have a flutter then you’ll no doubt know how hard it can be to correctly predict the outcome of a match. There are so many moving parts that being able to nail the Correct Score in a game at pretty much any level can be all but impossible. As a result, it isn’t uncommon for punters to want to find other bets that they can place that might have a slightly better chance of coming to fruition. One such possible bet is that of the Total Goals market, which comes in different forms but is essentially asking the same question: how many goals do you think will be scored in a specific game?
Thinking About the Over / Under
Arguably the easiest thing to think about in the world of Total Goals betting is the Over / Under. This simply asks you to try to predict whether the total number of goals scored in a selected match will be over or under a chosen figure. Here is an example of how it might look:
| Over / Under What? | Over Odds | Under Odds |
|---|---|---|
| 0.5 Goals | 1/80 | 10/1 |
| 1.5 Goals | 1/6 | 7/2 |
| 2.5 Goals | 6/10 | 6/5 |
| 3.5 Goals | 8/5 | 4/9 |
| 4.5 Goals | 21/5 | 1/8 |
| 5.5 Goals | 8/1 | 1/33 |
| 6.5 Goals | 16/1 | Unavailable |
| 7.5 Goals | 33/1 | Unavailable |
| 8.5 Goals | 66/1 | Unavailable |
As you can see, the lower the number of goals, the lower the odds will be on the Over and the higher they will be on the Under. As the number of goals in question gets bigger, the Over odds increase and the Under odds decrease to the point that there isn’t even a market, given the bookmakers are fairly sure that there will be fewer goals scored in the course of a match. The reason it is .5 goals is in order to avoid the situation where the exact number of goals are scored and a load of bets have to be pushed. Instead, it makes it binary and means that a bet will either be won or lost depending on what you said.
You can often combine an Over / Under bet with another market, such as Match Odds and Over / Under or Both Teams to Score and Over / Under. Obviously this will give you longer odds but it will also reduce the chance of your bet being a winning one because you need to be correct about all aspects of the wager.
Total Goals Betting Exact
The most difficult form of betting on the number of goals being scored is when you look at the exact number of times that the ball will hit the back of the net. It is a slightly different wager to the Correct Score bet, given the fact that you can get the Correct Score wrong but still be correct when it comes to the Total Goals scored market. That is to say, you might think that the Correct Score will be 4-1, which means that there will be five foals scored in total. If you were to bet the Total Goals Exact market and place your wager on five, it means that you’ll be paid out if the match finishes any of the following results:
- 3-2
- 2-3
- 4-1
- 1-4
- 5-0
- 0-5
Obviously the fact that it is a little bit more flexible means that the odds that you’ll get for the Total Goals Exact market will be lower than if you were betting on the Correct Score. That being said, it still isn’t an easy bet to win. Here is an example of some of the odds you might see if you were to bet on the Total Goals Exact market:
| Total Goals Exact | Odds |
|---|---|
| 0 | 12/1 |
| 1 | 5/1 |
| 2 | 3/1 |
| 3 | 3/1 |
| 4 | 9/2 |
| 5 | 8/1 |
| 6 | 16/1 |
| 7 | 18/1 |
Ultimately, bookmakers will have a sense of how matches are likely to go, so they will judge the odds accordingly. If it is likely to be a game with a few goals, the odds on there being exactly zero goals scored will be quite high. That being said, most games don’t have as many goals as well all likely to think, so you’ll also get long odds on there being loads of goals scored.