Walk into any online sportsbook and open a Premier League match. You will be greeted not by a single betting option, but by dozens — sometimes over a hundred — distinct markets for that one game. Match result, correct score, both teams to score, Asian handicap, first goalscorer, number of corners, cards, and things you did not even know you could bet on. It is simultaneously exciting and overwhelming.
The good news is that most of these markets fall into a handful of logical categories. Master those categories, and you can navigate any football coupon on any platform without hesitation. This guide covers every major market type you will encounter, from the simplest to the more exotic, so you know exactly what you are clicking before you stake a single penny.
Once you understand the basic concepts, you should dive deeper into how specific football betting markets operate to find the best odds.
Match Result (1X2) Market Probabilities
The match result market — often labelled “1X2” — is the oldest and most straightforward way to bet on football. You pick one of three outcomes: home win (1), draw (X), or away win (2). That is it. No complications, no conditions, no partial refunds. If your selection wins after 90 minutes plus stoppage time, you collect. Extra time and penalties do not count unless the market explicitly states otherwise.
The simplicity is appealing, but the three-way nature of football is what makes this market unique compared to most other sports. In basketball or tennis, there is always a winner. Football’s draw option changes the entire dynamic. It means that even when you correctly identify the stronger team, a 0-0 or 1-1 result wipes out your bet. The draw is also where bookmakers frequently hold an edge — casual bettors tend to favour home or away selections, leaving draws slightly overpriced relative to their true probability.
Pricing in the 1X2 market reflects the bookmaker’s assessment of the three outcomes after accounting for their margin. A typical match between two mid-table sides might be priced around 2.40 for a home win, 3.30 for a draw, and 3.00 for an away win. A heavy favourite playing at home could see 1.20 for the home win, 7.00 for a draw, and 15.00 for an away win. The wider the spread between favourite and underdog, the less interesting the match result market tends to be for value seekers.
Double Chance
Double chance is the conservative cousin of 1X2. Instead of picking one outcome, you cover two of the three possibilities in a single bet. The three options are: home win or draw (1X), away win or draw (X2), and home win or away win (12). By covering two outcomes, you dramatically reduce risk — but the odds drop accordingly.
This market shines in matches where you are fairly confident one team will not lose but you are not sure whether they will win outright or settle for a draw. Backing 1X on a home favourite effectively removes the away win scenario from your concerns. The trade-off is that the odds will be significantly lower than the straight 1X2 price — often in the 1.30-1.60 range for strong favourites, which means your profit margin is thin.
Where double chance becomes genuinely useful is in accumulators. By combining several low-risk double chance selections across different matches, you can build a multi-bet with a reasonable overall price while maintaining a higher probability of success than a standard accumulator of match results. It is not glamorous, but profitability rarely is.
Draw No Bet (DNB)
Draw no bet sits between 1X2 and double chance in terms of risk. You back either the home team or the away team to win. If your team wins, you collect at the stated odds. If the match ends in a draw, your stake is refunded in full. If the other team wins, you lose. Think of it as an insurance policy: you are paying for protection against the draw by accepting lower odds than the straight match result price.
DNB is essentially the same as placing an Asian handicap bet at 0.0 (which we will get to shortly), and the pricing reflects that. If the 1X2 home win is 2.10, the DNB price for a home win might be around 1.65. You sacrifice potential return for the safety net.
This market is particularly popular among bettors who like to back slight favourites. When a team is expected to win but the draw is a real possibility — say a top-six side visiting a solid mid-table club — DNB lets you take a position without the nagging anxiety of a last-minute equaliser ruining everything. The refund on a draw is not a win, but it is a lot better than a loss.
Over/Under Goals
Over/under goals is one of the most popular football betting markets worldwide, and for good reason: it removes the need to predict which team wins and focuses entirely on how many goals the match produces. The standard line is 2.5 goals. Bet “over 2.5” and you need three or more goals in the match to win. Bet “under 2.5” and you need two or fewer.
The beauty of this market is its binary nature — there are only two outcomes, so no draw can ruin your day. Bookmakers offer various lines beyond 2.5: you can bet on over/under 0.5, 1.5, 3.5, 4.5, and sometimes higher. Lower lines (over 0.5) are near-certainties and priced accordingly, while higher lines (over 4.5) offer bigger odds but demand a goal fest.
What drives totals markets is match context. Derbies tend to be tight and cagey. Matches between an aggressive attacking side and a leaky defence often produce fireworks. League position matters too — teams fighting relegation or chasing a title play differently than mid-table sides with nothing at stake. Historical head-to-head records for goals and average goals per game in the relevant league are the two most common starting points for analysing this market.
A useful variation is team totals, where you bet on how many goals a specific team will score rather than the combined match total. This lets you target a prolific attack or a stingy defence without worrying about what the other side does. If you believe Liverpool will score but have no opinion on whether their opponents will, a “Liverpool over 1.5 goals” bet isolates your analysis neatly.
Handicap and Asian Handicap
Handicap betting exists to level the playing field when two teams are mismatched. A European handicap (also called a three-way handicap) applies a goal advantage or disadvantage to one team before kick-off. If you back the favourite at -1, they need to win by two or more goals for your bet to land. The underdog at +1 wins if they draw or win outright. If the favourite wins by exactly one, the handicap-adjusted result is a draw — so only a bet on the handicap draw wins in that scenario, not the underdog selection.
Asian handicap refines this concept by eliminating the draw outcome entirely. It uses quarter-goal increments (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, and so on) to create markets where there are only two possible results: a win or a loss (with half-win and half-loss on quarter lines). This is why Asian handicap markets typically offer tighter odds and smaller bookmaker margins — fewer outcomes means less room for the house to build its edge.
The mechanics of quarter-goal lines can confuse newcomers. A -0.25 handicap means half your stake goes on the 0 line (draw results in a refund) and half on the -0.5 line (draw means you lose that half). If the favourite wins, both halves pay out. If they draw, you get half back and lose half. This split-stake approach creates nuanced betting positions that serious punters find invaluable for managing risk and finding value in lopsided matches.
Player and Special Markets
Beyond match-level outcomes, modern bookmakers offer a vast array of player-specific and special markets. Goalscorer markets let you bet on individual players to score at any time during the match, to score first, or to score last. Anytime goalscorer is the most popular option — it pays out regardless of when the goal is scored, making it less reliant on luck than first or last scorer bets.
Cards and corners form another category of specials. You can bet on total bookings in a match, individual players to be carded, total corners, and even which team takes the first or last corner. These niche markets are where sharp bettors sometimes find the most value because bookmakers devote less analytical resource to pricing them accurately. A bettor who tracks referee tendencies or analyses corner statistics can gain a genuine informational edge.
Bet builders (also called same-game multis) have exploded in popularity in recent years. They allow you to combine multiple selections from a single match into one bet — for example, a home win plus over 2.5 goals plus a specific player to score. The odds multiply, creating appealing potential returns, but so does the risk. The key challenge with bet builders is that the combined selections are often correlated. If a match has over 2.5 goals, a goalscorer bet is also more likely to land. Bookmakers adjust for this correlation, but whether they adjust accurately is a question worth asking.
Markets Are Tools, Not Lottery Tickets
Every betting market exists because it answers a slightly different question about a football match. The 1X2 asks who wins. Over/under asks how many goals. Asian handicap asks by how much. Player markets ask who performs. None of these questions has an easy answer, but each one lets you apply a different slice of knowledge or analysis.
The bettors who do well over time are not the ones who stick exclusively to one market. They are the ones who match their strongest opinions to the market that best captures those opinions. If you think a match will be tight and low-scoring, the 1X2 might not help you — but under 2.5 goals or draw no bet might. Knowing the full menu is the first step. Ordering wisely is the skill that follows.
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