What does Over 2.5 betting mean in football? What are Accumulators? Heck, what does Double Chance mean?
In this post, we will be looking at some of the most popular football betting terms and meanings, how they work and real life examples to make them very easy to understand.
In this post, we will take a look at:
When I started betting on football over 10 years ago, I had a hard time understanding what some of these terms meant, it took me a while to get a grip of the football betting lingo. So this post aims to cover the top lingos that gets thrown around, so that you are well informed.
This is perhaps the most popular football betting market.
1X2 betting, also known as Full time betting or 3 Way betting is a betting that involves betting on 1 out of the 3 possible outcomes in a football match.
In a football match, there can only be 3 outcomes; its either the Home Team Wins, or the Match ends in a Draw or The Away Team Losses.
In 1X2, The 1 is for home team win, the X for a draw and the 2 for a away team win.
The odds shown on a bookie’s website for this market indicates their perception of the chances of each outcome occurring.
Okay, here’s an example.
I have just pulled up Bet365.com and found a random match.
The Match is Atletico Mineiro v Chapecoense in Brazil Serie A.
As you can see in the Full Time Result section below, I can place a bet on the Home Team (Atletico Mineiro) winning the match or the game ending in a Draw or I can place a bet that Chapecoense will win the match.
It is clear from the odds that Atletico Mineiro is the favourite for this match because the odds on them winning is very low compared to their opponent.
If I place a £50 stake on Atletico Mineiro winning, my return will be £61, so my profit will be £12. (This means I will be placing a bet on “1”)
On the other hand, I can choose to place a bet that the match will end up in a draw. (This means I will be placing a bet on “X”)
As you can see below, the bookies are not expecting this match to end in a draw based on how high the odds are.
If I place a bet on the match ending in a Tie (or draw) , my return will be £275, so my profit will be £225 (This means I will be placing a bet on “X”)
Placing draw bets can be profitable due to how juicy the odds are but they are not the easiest results to predict.
Finally, I can choose to place a bet that the opponent “Chapecoense” will win the match.
As you can see from the screenshot below, the bookies are not expecting them to win this match, so they have given them high odds.
If I place a £50 stake on Chapecoense winning, my return will be £550, so my profit will be £500. (This means I will be placing a bet on “2”)
As you can see, this looks like a very juicy bet to place BUT that is what the Bookies want, they want you to place bets based on what your potential returns might be, instead of placing bets with smart and well-informed decisions.
So, there you go, this is 1X2 betting in football explained simply.
The Over/Under betting market is one of the most popular betting market that covers the total number of goals, corners or cards in a match for both teams.
Unlike the 1X2 bets, the Over/Under betting is concerned with the number of times something will happen in a match and the winner or looser of the match does not affect your bet.
The Over/Under market is often in the 0.5 increments. So, it starts from 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, e.t.c
As mentioned above, the Over/Under market can be used in Goals, Corners and Cards market. The same rules applies for all.
Let’s take the Over/Under Goals market as an example.
Over 2.5 goals in a match means that 3 or more goals are required to win the bet, and 0, 1 or 2 goal means the bet loses.
The over 2.5 goals market applies to 90-minute matches (plus additional time)
For example, an over 2.5 goals bet will win if a match finishes 2-1, 3-1, 3-2, 4-2, and so on.
But, the bet will lose if a match finishes 0-0 or 1-0, 1-1 to either team.
The same applies to under 2.5 goals, 3 or more goals and you lose, but 0, 1 and 2 goal means you win.
Also, the under 2.5 goals betting market covers 90-minute games plus additional time.
For example, an Under 2.5 goals bet will win if a match finishes 1-0, 1-1 or 2-0 for either team.
But, the bet will lose if a match finishes 2-1 or 3-1, 3-0, 4-1 etc to either team.
The Over/Under market is not only for the goals market, it is also available for the corner and card market.
Because football is a low scoring sport, there is always a higher chance of corners than goals, so this means the Over/Under markets for corners are always higher.
In Over/Under corner markets, it can start from Over/Under 3 up to Over/Under 17 or more depending on the team.
See example below of the Over/Under corner market for Tristan Suarez vs San Martin de San Juan.
If you place a bet on Over 9 corners for example, this means your bet will win if the match ends with 10 corners and above.
Some bookies will use whole numbers like 9 and some will use 9.5, but regardless of how its written, the bet wins when the match ends with 10 corners or more.
If you bet Under 9 corners, it means your bet will win if the game ends with 8 corners or less but your bet looses if the match has 9 corners and above.
It can be quite confusing but its a very straightforward thing once you get it.
For the Card market, the same thing applies.
Some bookies will have Card markets for some high profile or popular matches and you will be able to place a bet on the Over/Under markets.
Card markets are not popular because Bookies only provide such markets when the teams are somewhat high profile.
Yes they can be very profitable.
I personally mostly only bet in the Over/Under market because the outcome of the winner or looser of the match does not affect the bet.
This is one of the easiest market to bet on and predict if you have the right stats and data in front of you.
If you are not sure who the winner of a fixture will be, you can simply just bet on the amount of goals you think the match will have. You can bet Over/Under 0.5 goals, or 1.5 goals or 2.5 goals or whatever you like without worrying about who ends up winning the match.
An accumulator bet also known as ACCA is a bet made up of multiple selections that are combined in one bet slip. All of the selections need to come in for the bet to win.
This is one of the bets I used to play as a newbie sports bettor because of how high the potential returns look.
But the risk is also very high because if one of the selections in the betslip looses, the whole bet looses.
The accumulator pays higher than if you were to place single selections because of the greater risk, with multiple outcomes needing to be successful for your bet to guarantee a return. The odds are bundled up together to create greater value for the bettor but if one of your match selections loses, then your accumulator bet loses in its entirety, hence the increased risk.
I just signed into the Bet365 and created a quick playful accumulator example, see the screenshot below.
As you can see from the above screenshot, that is a very long acca and the returns seems so enticing.
£100 to bring in a potential return of £80,240? That’s crazy but of course, the chances of that coming in is 1 in a million.
I can’t count the number of times where I’ve heard people say “I would have won BIG, its just one game that ruined my betslip”
Sweeping in that big payout from a long Acca is the dream of most football punters and there are countless stories of people making a fortune from very small stakes.
For example, the woman below in the UK (who does not even watch football like the average bettor, lol) won half a million pounds from a £1 stake.
You can find stories like this all over the internet and ofcourse you will also find the “almost won” stories of people who almost won a fortune but whose betslip was ruined by one loss.
Just like this guy below who almost won half a mill and needed just 1 goal for his £3 accumulator bet to payout a fortune.
You get the gist, accumulators can be fun and the rewards can be very very very juicy but the risk is also high due to the unlikelihood of all games winning. The rule of thumb when accumulating is to bet with a low stake compared to your other bets.
As stated earlier, an accumulator is a bet that consists of four selections or more. Those with two or three selections are known as a double or treble respectively. There can be up to 20 selections in an accumulator with most online bookmakers.
| Number of Selections. | Type of Accumulator (acca) |
| 2 | Double |
| 3 | Treble |
| 4 | Four-fold accumulator |
| 5 | Five-fold accumulator |
| 6 | Six-fold accumulator |
| 7 | Seven-fold accumulator |
| 8 | Eight-fold accumulator |
Accumulator bets are certainly one of the best forms of betting if you like to lengthen the odds rather than stake money on the individual events at shorter odds.
This strategy can certainly give the bettor the chance of a big return for small stakes but it should always be remembered that the increased number of variables makes it difficult to win an accumulator.
Before selecting the accumulator, you should make sure you have researched every selection to give yourself the best chance of winning as the chance of losing is very high. This is where an each-way accumulator might be a better option, especially if your selections are not the favourites as it means you can still see a return if your picks place.
Accumulators can definitely be worth it, but should always be backed with caution and small stakes as the wins are less frequent but are likely to be larger than the average single bet.
Just like the name suggests, double chance betting is a type of football betting where instead of betting on 1 out of the 3 possible outcomes of a football match, you double your possibility of winning by backing 2 out of the 3 options.
With traditional 1X2 (3-way football betting), you have a 33.3% shot at getting a winning wager, by backing a Home Team win (1), Away Team win (2) or a Draw (X) but with Double Chance (also known as 12) you have the flexibility to cover two possible outcomes (from a total of 3) with one stake.
This makes your possibility to win jump from 33% to 66%.
Right out the gate, you can imagine that the odds for Double chance bets are always lower than the traditional 1X2 or 3 way bets.
On most Bookies, double chance bets are also called “1X” “X2” or “12”
In order to win a double chance bet you must cover one of these selections:
Your bet is a winner if the home team wins or draws the match.
Your bet is a winner if the away team wins or draws the match.
Your bet is a winner if the home team or the away team wins the match.
Quick example, this match Tristan Suarez v San Martin de San Juan from the Argentina Nacional B league.
The match looks like a very tight match with both teams having equal chances to win, instead of backing any of them to win or lose, you can bet on either of them wining using Double Chance betting.
On the other hand, you can place bet on 1X (Home win or Draw) or X2 (Away Team win or Draw)
Double chance betting increases your chance of winning from 33% to 66%. The question now is “is that worth it to you?”
It comes down to personal preference because the odds on Double chance bets are always lower and shorter, but if you use Acca betting whereby you accumulate it with other bets for a higher odds, double chance betting can be worth it.
Its a safe betting strategy and with the right plan, it can be worth it in the long run.
In football betting, Draw No Bet is a betting market that removes the outcome of a draw on 3-way market, allowing bettors to bet on either a Home or Away win.
In simpler terms, draw no bet market means you are backing a team to win. If they win, you win. If they lose, you lose…but if they draw, your stake is refunded back to you.
In comparison, If you bet on the 3-way market rather than the Draw No Bet and the match ends in a draw, your bet would lose.
As a consequence of removing the option of a draw, odds on Draw No Bet markets will be shorter than that on the 3-way market.
Betting on a Draw No Bet market is very simple.
Using the same example of the match between Tristan Suarez vs San Martin de San Juan from the Argentina Nacional B league.
The odds on the 1X2 have Tristan Suarez to win the game at 2.80, however, the odds on the Draw No Bet are displayed below:
If you placed a £100 bet on Tristan Suarez on the Draw No Bet market at odds of 1.83 your profit would be:
| Result | Profit |
| If Tristan Suarez Wins | £83.33 |
| If Draw | £0 (£100 stake returned) |
| If San Martin de San Juan Wins | – £100 |
The Draw No Bet is a way for football bettors and traders to reduce the probability of a losing bet and can be used to:
So, yes the Draw No Bet market can be worth it because of the security of getting your stake back if a match ends in a draw compared to loosing it in the traditional 1X2 (3-way bet).
Hope you’ve been able to learn something from this post, if there are other football betting terms you do not understand, be sure to drop a comment below and we will include it in the post.
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