Both Teams to Score (BTTS) is another one of the more popular football betting markets. Similarly to accumulator betting, the market is definitely very fashionable at the moment with punters jumping at the chance to utilise statistics.
What you will find from this market is the fact that, unlike most betting markets, you don’t need to worry about the end result of the game.
As football, especially in the top leagues, becomes increasingly competitive due to the money that has been invested over the last decade or so, there are far fewer games where one team is a dead cert favourite, making these alternative betting markets obvious targets for bettors wanting an easier time of it.
What is BTTS?
The concept of this betting market is very simple; you need to choose a game where each team scores at least one goal each. If this happens then your bet wins, nothing else matters. The result of the match is irrelevant; for this bet to be successful we simply need goals.
There is an alternative to this bet however, and this comes in the form of Both Teams to Score No. It’s the exact opposite of the ‘Yes’ bet in that you wager on the probability that one or both of the teams will fail to score a goal. Again, the final result is irrelevant, you just need a clean sheet from one team to be successful in your bet.
Both Teams to Score Strategy
When betting on the BTTS market, just like any other market, it’s important that you do your research before making your selections. This market will require you to alter the patterns that you look for compared to say a Win Draw Win market, and we have highlighted some pointers below to get you started.
Strong attacking teams
We need goals for this type of bet to come in, and for this to happen we need teams that are good going forward. We want to be picking free-flowing teams that are willing to sacrifice defense for attack.
The age old attitude of “if you score 3 goals, we will score 4” is the type of team that you want to target, but you also need teams that have a proven track record of doing it.
So teams with great forward facing players; wingers that score double figures each season, strikers with a good average of goals per game, etc.
Weak defense
The quality of defense for each team would be poor for this kind of bet in an ideal world. There are few teams that won’t create at least one chance during a game, even against the best teams in the world, and even if you stick an average strike force against a poor defense, it’s more often than not going to lead to goals.
If you had to pick one characteristic over the other – i.e strong offence or weak defense – then you are best off going for the strong offence. There will be occasions where you see a bet for 2 teams that are good going forward but are also strong at the back. Tricky one.
As a general rule you would opt for the opt for Both Teams to Score over the No bet, as a good offence will stick one past a strong defence more often than a team will keep a clean sheet.
Mid table games are best
What we have found is that targeting games between mid-table teams or evenly matched teams is usually best for these kinds of bets.
The mid table team is usually going to be there for a reason – they win as many games as they lose. It may sound simple but to win games you need to score and if you are losing games that means that you are conceding too many. These teams might have some great key players but they are mixed in with some very average ones too, so the games can get scrappy.
They are likely mid-table because of this lack of consistency, so it’s worth checking these fixtures first.
Avoid the firm favourites
When you see a top of the table team clash against a team at the bottom of the table, these are games that you should probably avoid.
The lack of goals scored usually plays a huge part in why a team is bottom of the league in the first place, and whilst it’s highly likely the top of the table team will score at least once, for this bet we need both teams to put at least one away.
You can incorporate these games into the Both Teams to Score No bet however, and they are perfect for this bet type. Ideally you would have two teams poor on the offence for a No bet, but having just the one verses a very good defensive team should suffice.
Target specific leagues
Whilst you want to research each game individually, it’s important not to simply shoot for the same league each time – mix it up a little bit. We can base these bets on goal scoring stats that are easy to find, meaning that the in-depth knowledge for each team league isn’t necessary in the same way it might be if we were betting on the Win-Draw-Win market.
Let’s take the Premier League for example, which we would guess the majority of you would be wagering on most weeks. In the 2013-14 Premier League season, only 45.52% of the games saw both teams score. Now, compare that to the English Football League 1 where we would guess that the majority of you don’t yet bet, and they saw 53.8% of games with goals at both ends. It’s a significant difference of around 8% and that should highlight the importance of tracking down high scoring leagues, before then determining which games in those leagues are going to produce the goals.
You could move even further afield with this sort of data and look at European leagues for example. In 2013-14 the Bundesliga had a massive 58.16% of games where both teams scored, which was the highest out of any of the top European Leagues.
We aren’t saying that you should bet only on these high scoring league, as even though the Premier League came out low in comparison, there will still be games within it that promise a high probability of BTTS. But, you can start to get an idea of which leagues you could target and in turn, save time and increase your return.
Note: We realise that the 2013-14 season isn’t exactly up to date, we use it only to make the point. You can keep track of the latest statistics at dozens of sites online these days, so there is very little excuse not to utilise this information.
Look at recent form and head-to-heads
Some of the most precious data for the BTTS is the recent form and the head-to-heads. The recent form will allow you to quickly determine if the team have been scoring goals. You can see if they are strong at the back or particularly good going forward, but most importantly, you can pick up trends for how recent games have panned out. Teams with low scoring games are usually ones that you would want to avoid. Conversely, teams with high scoring games are ones that you want to target.
Head to head data is a little more shady as it can stretch back a long time, especially with European and international competitions, but it can still be important if it’s current. The first thing you need to check is how recent the data for the previous result is. If the last time the teams played each other was over 5 years ago then the squad will have changed dramatically in that time, so it’s not worth taking on board. But anything within that timeframe and ideally over the last season or two should give you a much better idea of how the game might fair.
For example, back when Newcastle United and Liverpool had their run of famous 4-3 results and consecutive high scoring games in the 90’s, the BTTS bet would have almost been a certainty. However, these days the gulf in class between the two teams is larger than ever and it would now be a bet to avoid.