Once you can read a price, the next thing a betting site throws at you is choice. A single Premier League match can list two hundred markets, and the bet slip offers to combine any of them. This guide explains the bet types a beginner will actually use, how each one pays out, and where the extra risk hides. If you are not yet comfortable with what odds mean, start with how sports betting works and come back.
Singles: one selection, one result
A single is the simplest bet there is. You back one outcome in one market, and the bet wins or loses on that outcome alone. Stake multiplied by decimal odds is your total return.
Back the home side in the example card above with £10 at 2.10 and you receive £21.00 if it wins: your £10 back plus £11 profit. Back the draw at 3.40 and the same stake returns £34.00. Nothing else affects the result.
Singles are where most experienced bettors keep most of their money, for a reason that becomes obvious later in this article: every extra selection you bolt onto a bet multiplies the bookmaker's margin as well as your potential payout.
Match result markets
The default market on any fixture is the match winner. In sports where a draw is possible it is a three-way market, usually labelled 1X2: home win, draw, away win. In sports that cannot end level it is a two-way market, often called the moneyline. Both were covered in detail in part one, so here is the short version: the shortest price is the favourite, the longest price is the underdog, and in a three-way market backing either side leaves you exposed to the draw.
A common variation is double chance, which covers two of the three outcomes in one bet. Home or draw, away or draw, or home or away. The price is much shorter than either outcome alone, because you now only lose one way. Double chance is a useful bridge for beginners who like a team but fear the draw.
Draw no bet does something similar with a different mechanism. You back one side to win; if the match is drawn your stake is refunded rather than lost. The price sits between the outright win price and the double chance price.
Handicaps: levelling an uneven match
When one side is a heavy favourite the match winner market becomes dull. A 1.15 price offers almost no return, and the underdog at 15.00 rarely wins. A handicap fixes this by giving one side a virtual head start before the match begins, then settling the bet on the adjusted score.
Back the favourite at -1.5 goals and it must win by two or more. A 1-0 win loses your bet.
Back the underdog at +1.5 goals and it can lose by one, draw or win, and your bet still pays. Only a defeat by two or more loses.
The half-goal is deliberate. A match cannot finish with a half-goal margin, so the bet can never tie and must settle as a win or a loss. Handicaps with whole numbers do exist, and there the tie is a real outcome: back a side at -1 and a one-goal win is a push, meaning your stake is returned.
In American sports the same idea is called the point spread. Backing a basketball team at -6.5 means it must win by seven or more. The maths is identical, only the vocabulary changes.
Asian handicaps
You will also meet Asian handicaps, which come in quarter-goal steps such as -0.75 or +0.25. A quarter-goal handicap splits your stake across two neighbouring lines. Back a team at -0.75 with £20 and you effectively have £10 at -0.5 and £10 at -1. If the team wins by exactly one, the -0.5 half wins and the -1 half is refunded. Asian handicaps remove the draw entirely and give finer control over the price, which is why they are popular with serious football bettors, but they take practice to read. A beginner loses nothing by sticking to half-goal lines until the mechanism feels natural.
Totals: how much scoring, not who wins
A totals bet ignores the result completely and asks whether the combined score will be over or under a line set by the bookmaker. In football the standard line is 2.5 goals.
Over 2.5 wins if the match has three or more goals.
Under 2.5 wins if the match has two or fewer.
Again the half means there is no tie. Bookmakers offer several lines on the same match, such as 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5, and the price on each reflects how likely the bookmaker thinks that many goals are. Totals exist for almost every sport: points in basketball, games in a tennis match, corners in football, runs in cricket. They are a favourite of bettors who understand a team's style better than its result, because a defensive side can be very predictable on goals while remaining unpredictable on the win.
Both teams to score and other props
Both teams to score, usually shortened to BTTS, is a yes or no market on whether each side finds the net at least once. It pairs naturally with totals and is one of the most popular football bets in Britain.
Beyond that sit hundreds of proposition bets, or props: first goalscorer, number of corners, a player to receive a card, the exact score, the half-time result. Props are entertaining and the prices look generous. They are also where bookmaker margins are highest, because the markets are thin and the bookmaker prices them with a wide safety cushion. Treat them as fun money, not as your main bet.
Accumulators: multiplying the odds, and the risk
An accumulator, also called an acca, a multi or a parlay, combines two or more selections into one bet. The odds multiply together and every selection must win for the bet to pay.
Selections | Each at | Combined odds | £10 returns | Chance all win* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1.50 | 1.50 | £15.00 | 66.7% |
2 | 1.50 | 2.25 | £22.50 | 44.4% |
3 | 1.50 | 3.38 | £33.75 | 29.6% |
4 | 1.50 | 5.06 | £50.63 | 19.8% |
6 | 1.50 | 11.39 | £113.91 | 8.8% |
8 | 1.50 | 25.63 | £256.29 | 3.9% |
*Using the implied probability of each price. The true chance is lower still, because each price already carries a margin.
Two things happen as you add legs. The headline return climbs quickly, which is why accumulators are marketed so heavily. And the chance of collecting falls just as quickly. An eight-fold of comfortable favourites, each of them two-to-one on to win, lands less than one time in twenty-five.
The quieter problem is the margin. Each price in an accumulator carries the bookmaker's cushion, and multiplying prices multiplies cushions. A 5 percent margin on each leg becomes roughly 22 percent across four legs and 34 percent across eight. That compounding is the single biggest reason accumulators are the most profitable product a bookmaker sells, and it is explored properly in the guide to margin and value.
System bets
System bets soften the all-or-nothing nature of an accumulator by covering combinations. A Trixie takes three selections and places four bets: three doubles and a treble. A Yankee takes four selections and places eleven bets. You pay for each line, so a £1 Yankee costs £11, but you collect something if only two selections win. They are a legitimate tool, but read the total stake carefully before confirming; the slip shows the stake per line, not always the total.
Each-way bets
Horse racing and golf use each-way betting. Your stake is split in two: half goes on the selection to win, half on it to place, meaning to finish in the top few positions. The place part pays at a fraction of the win odds, typically a quarter or a fifth, and the number of places paid depends on the field size. A £5 each-way bet costs £10. If your horse finishes second, the win half loses and the place half pays. Each-way is the standard way to back outsiders in big fields.
Choosing the right bet type
A few rules of thumb serve beginners well:
Have an opinion about the result? A single on the match winner or a double chance.
Think the favourite will win comfortably? A handicap on the favourite, priced better than the plain win.
Confident about the style of the game but not the winner? Totals or both teams to score.
Want a small stake to have a big potential payout? An accumulator, with the understanding that it is entertainment priced accordingly.
Backing an outsider in a large field? Each-way.
Whatever the bet type, the price still matters more than the pick, and the stake still needs to fit a plan. Those two ideas get their own guides: margin and value and bankroll management.
Glossary
Single: one selection, settled on its own.
Double chance: one bet covering two of the three outcomes in a 1X2 market.
Draw no bet: back a side to win; a draw refunds the stake.
Handicap or spread: a virtual head start applied to one side before settlement.
Push: a handicap bet that lands exactly on the line; the stake is returned.
Totals or over/under: a bet on the combined score against a line.
BTTS: both teams to score.
Accumulator: several selections multiplied into one bet; all must win.
System bet: a set of accumulators covering combinations of your selections.
Each-way: half the stake on the win, half on a place finish.
More in this series
This is part 2 of a six-part beginner's guide to sports betting.
How Sports Betting Works: Odds, Markets and Payouts Explained
Bet Types Explained: Singles, Accumulators, Handicaps and Totals
Bookmaker Margin and Value: Why the Price Matters More Than the Pick
