The Both Teams to Score (BTTS) market is one of the fastest growing football betting options around. Available both online and via mobile betting, BTTS is a quick and easy market for customers to understand and enjoy, offering plenty of excitement and good value too.
Punters are not required to predict anything so difficult as match results, instead, it is just the likelihood of goals that are predicted. This provides a large amount of excitement as the result of the match becomes irrelevant and every goal – for either side – can be celebrated. On the surface of it BTTS is a pretty straightforward concept, yet when we delve deeper it is clear that strategy and betting tips can be key to maximising returns.
How does BTTS Work?
The BTTS betting market is simple; choose a game where you believe both teams will score at least once. This is all that matters, the match result is irrelevant. All that is needed for the bet to be successful is that both teams in your selected match put one past the keeper. Alternatively, both teams not to score can also be backed; for a bet to be successful in this form at least one team must not score.
It’s a fun bet that requires limited research and it will either win early on or keep the punters interest peaked until the final whistle, so in terms of entertainment value it’s a real winner. There are also several offshoots of this market as you can see in the image above.
Most commonly, the BTTS option is used as part of an accumulator. Betting sites allow customers to choose multiple selections to increase the odds and thus potentially payout more winnings. The greater the number of games included in the accumulator, the greater the betting odds. However, it must be born in mind that with this comes a greater risk of the coupon failing; it only takes one game to not include both teams scoring for the whole accumulator to fail.
All the predictions within the coupon must be correct in order for the bet to be successful.
BTTS Strategy
If you’re not familiar with betting on both teams to score it could be worth trying it out with small stakes or even with free bets at first, to become familiar with the market before risking larger sums. However, some good pointers to get going with are:
- Research – Look at previous results between the two teams in question. If they have a history of 0-0 draws then maybe avoid backing BTTS. Alternatively, some sides can’t seem to avoid being involved in crackers; Arsenal and Spurs are a good example of this in recent years, with goal draws being extremely common.
- Form – Look at the form of both teams throughout the season. Both the number of goals scored and those conceded is key. Ideally for this market, you want both teams to score freely whilst also having a leaky defensive record.
- Bide Your Time – Place bets as close to kick off as possible, this allows you to consider team news. If a star striker is injured the chances of that team scoring will fall and may change your willingness to back BTTS. On the other hand, the opposite can be said with the absence of a key defender or goalkeeper.
- Knowledge – Try and watch teams on a regular basis, results don’t always indicate performance. Teams may have been unlucky in the past few weeks. A greater knowledge of each team’s advantages and disadvantages allows for a more informed BTTS bet and may give you the edge over the bookie who could be relying on results alone.
Goals Galore & the Origins of the BTTS Market
Goals Galore was created by UK bookmaker, Betfred, marking the beginnings of the BTTS revolution. Other betting sites were keen to develop this, with the outcome being the rapid growth of both teams to score betting.
Goals Galore differs to BTTS in the sense that it offers a list of games on a weekly basis from which bettors can make selections. These games usually have lower betting odds for both teams to score and thus a greater chance of both teams scoring. Betfred provides three lists to choose from in Goals Galore: Long List, Bonus List, and Super Six coupons. The Long List is self-explanatory, with a huge list of 50+ games taking place, usually over a weekend, offering odds of 3/1 on three correct BTTS predictions and up to 1350/1 for 15 correct predictions.
The Bonus List gives a smaller choice of games and offers a higher payout, although this reflects the fact that the games on it are less likely to see both teams score; Super Six coupons take this a step further with only six games to choose from but with even greater odds – 6/1 for getting three correct and up to 50/1 for all six, which compares very favourably to 16/1 on the standard list and 25/1 on the Bonus List.
Customers can choose however many games they want on each list, and naturally the greater the number of games chosen, the greater the betting odds.
Goals Galore also differs from more general both teams to score betting, as BTTS allows customers to bet against both teams scoring, whereas Goals Galore does not. Another advantage of BTTS over Betfred’s product is that Goals Galore requires at least three games to be selected whereas standard both teams to score bets can be placed on singles upwards.
Payouts also vary. Goals Galore has fixed odds on each of its lists whereas with other bookies the overall odds are calculated according to the odds for each individual game. Although Betfred’s odds are supposedly enhanced, our research suggests that some other bookies often have better odds on their standard BTTS markets.
Each bookmaker has coupons similar to the Goals Galore format. Often you can find these via the football betting tab on each bookmaker’s website and then clicking on the “BTTS coupon” tab.