The correct score market is one of the highest variance betting markets in the industry. Selecting which team you think you will win the game can be hard enough, but having to select the correct result is almost impossible. Or is it?
The long odds for these types of bets highlight the difficulty involved, often with prices for more likely results such as 1-0, 1-1 and 2-1 being around the 5.00 mark and upwards. As you move up past these scores you start to really gain momentum with the odds on offer, with prices hitting upward of 20.00 for some high scoring affairs.
Whilst these markets may seem tough to call – and to be fair, they are – there is a way in which you can break them down to create a solid betting strategy and take advantage of these long priced betting markets.
Correct Score Bet Types
There are a number of variations that you can choose from for correct score betting, as listed below. It allows for a fair amount of flexibility
Full time
The full time market is the most popular of the correct score markets and the one in which most bookies will operate with even if the others aren’t available.
It’s a simple process in that you need to predict the correct score at the final whistle, and that’s it.
It’s worth noting that this will include injury time as well, but not usually any extra time or penalties.
Half Time/ Full Time
With this, you will need to predict the score at the end of the first half and at full time. Bear in mind that this doesn’t mean the score per half, but the score at the end of the first half, and then at the end of the game including goals from the first half.
So, if a team were leading 1-0 at half time then 2-1 at full time, you would need to predict both of these outcomes for this bet to win. Sometimes this market is simply about who will be winning at the end of each half as opposed to getting the score right, so make sure you check what you are betting on.
You can also just bet on the first half score without betting on the full time score as well. In this instance, if the first half ends and the score is as your predicted, your bet wins and the rest of the game is inconsequential.
Scorecast
The scorecast is where you will need to predict both the first goalscorer and the full time result.
It adds another dimension to the bet which also makes it much trickier; it’s also worth noting that this bet isn’t classed as a double, but a single bet.
We’ve written a full article on this if you are looking to find out more.
Correct Score Strategy
Now you’re up to date on the markets that are on offer, it’s time to get stuck into some betting strategies that should help you determine positive results for these types of bets.
Common Score Lines
We mentioned earlier in the article about common score lines in football being 1-0, 1-1 and 2-1. In a survey that was recently taken from over 180,000 matches throughout England it was determined that these three score lines made up over 42% of the overall results.
It’s a huge percentage when you consider just how many combinations of score lines are possible in each match.
We aren’t saying that you have to back these scores for each game, as for some fixtures they won’t be realistic. For example, backing a 1-0 score line for Barcelona v Malaga wouldn’t be all that smart due to the fact that Barcelona are likely to score many more goals than this. But, as a general rule, for the majority of closer match ups these bets won’t be too far off the mark.
Avoid 0-0
This is a pretty common betting strategy used by many regular bettors and for one simple reason.
It’s not because games don’t often finish 0-0, in fact from the survey mentioned above 7.2% did finish 0-0, it’s because if you place a bet on the no goalscorer market instead this will also give you the added protection of being able to concede an own goal without that goal affecting your bet.
It would be criminal to back the 0-0 and for that game to end 1-0 via an own goal when if you had placed what is effectively the same bet on another market your bet would have won.
Both Teams to Score
Choosing a score line where both teams need to score one goal will often keep you in the bet for longer. For example, if you back a team to win 2-0 and the opposition scores early in that game, you have instantly lost your bet. If you bet 2-1 on the same fixture and the opposition scores early, then this is actually a good thing, as you needed them to do so at some point anyway to be successful with the bet.
This type of strategy works great if you are looking to either cash out your bet or lay your bet to potentially see a return. Even though the team that you have selected to win is losing, the fact that a goal has been scored will, in some circumstances, mean that you can cash out for a net win as the result starts to become more likely.
This works especially well when a lesser visiting team scores first in a game they are expected to lose against a short priced favourite.
Consider Multiple Selections
Choosing multiple score lines for one game is never going to be a terrible strategy for this market, mainly due to the size of the odds of offer. If we say that the worst price for a correct score is that of 5.00, we could choose two or even three variants of that score line to cover our bets, and still come out on top.
For example, we decided that we want to back Arsenal to beat West Ham 2-1 at odds of 5.00. The price for 1-0 to Arsenal stands at 6.00 and the price for a 1-1 draw is also 6.00. If we place £10 on each of those three results we will have wagered £30 in total and at worst our returns would be £50, making £20 net win should one of the three results come in. High stakes bettors often use this strategy when betting on this market just to limit their exposure to certain results.
Again, if it comes to it and the game goes the right way, we could be in a great position to cash out one, two, or even all three bets to see a return for these selections.
Pay Attention to Form and History
It’s the most common form of betting strategy, but it’s always well worth looking at the current form of both teams before placing a bet. You need to see what sort of score lines they have been getting recently and see if you can determine a pattern here.
On top of that, it’s also worth checking out head to head games between the two sides. Often you may see a correlation between the results when certain teams play each other – perhaps they rarely finish with either team keeping a clean sheet, for example.
Any bets made around using this information will often stand a better chance of winning.
Target Short Priced Favourites for Big Score Lines
Seeing odds of 1.10 or similar for certain teams to win isn’t going to get many people excited, but we can establish from this price that the short priced favourite is likely going to serve up a bit of a hammering for their poor unequal opposition.
With this in mind, it’s time to look at scores such as 4-0, 5-0, 6-0 and even higher. A game such as England v San Marino, for example, will be more likely see this type of result occur, and often offers up some juicy odds. Similarly, anyone betting on Man City’s 8-0 hammering of Watford in 2019 will have made a pretty penny.
Don’t forget that if you do head down this road, spread your bets into multiple selections and include at least one that has the opposition to nick a goal, just in case, and use cash out if the time is right.