What Does Goal Line Mean In Betting?

Goal line betting is something we’re often asked about so let’s take a closer look and answer your question.

The Quick Answer

What Does Goal Line Mean In Betting?

Picture a goal line as an imaginary line that a bookmaker uses to form an over/under goals market in which punters can bet on there being more or less goals than where the goal line is fixed.

For example, it’s most common for bookmakers to set a goal line at 2.5 goals, meaning you can bet on there being more than 2.5 goals in a match or less than 2.5 goals. You’ll win any under bet if there is none, one, or two goals, and lose if there are three goals or more. The opposite applies if you bet over 2.5 goals.

What Goal Line Bets Are There?

While over/under 2.5 goals is the most common goal line market, most bookmakers offer a variety of other goal line markets on popular football matches.

Bookmakers tend to set a variety of goal lines, normally starting at 0.5 goals and going up to as high as 8.5 goals. Of course, you can also bet on a variety of goal lines in between, such as 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 6.5, and 7.5 goals.

Over/under 2.5 goals is the most popular goal line, mainly because there are two or three goals scored in a big percentage of matches. That means bookmakers can offer similar odds on both the under bet and the over bet.

But that’s not always the case when two teams are unevenly matched. For example, if Liverpool were playing a division two side in the FA Cup, you might find that the closest goal line market could be pitched at as high as 4.5 goals.

Examples Of Goal Line Markets

We’ll use a hypothetical London derby match between Chelsea and Tottenham as the basis for our goal line example. You do your statistical analysis and see that the recent matches of both teams are averagely producing 3 goals a game. Recent past matches between the two sides are even higher and average 3.4 goals a game.

This looks like a good opportunity to bet on there being over 2.5 goals. You check the market and see that the bookmakers are betting 4/5 (1.91) on there being under 2.5 goals and the even-money (2.00) over 2.5 goals. You think that over 2.5 goals is a great bet, so you have £50 on it.

If there are 3 goals or more, you’ll win £50 and get your stake back for a total return of £100. If there are two goals or less, you’ll lose your £50.

Sure, these odds aren’t super exciting, but lots of professional football punters make a living betting at these types of odds when the value is in their favour.

If those kinds of odds don’t float your boat, you’ll need to take a bigger risk. If you think Chelsea and Tottenham are going to produce a goal-fest, you might want to play in a different goal line market such as over 3.5 or over 4.5.

Typically, you might get around 2/1 for more than 3.5 goals, with over 4.5 goals at 4/1 (5.00). If you want bigger odds still, how about over 5.5 goals 9/1 (10.00), over 6.5 goals 20/1 (21.00), over 7.5 goals 50/1 (51.00), and over 8.5 goals 100/1 (101.00). But these are just examples, so check with your bookmaker or use an odds comparison site to check the odds for each match you want to bet on from a variety of different bookmakers.

Should I Bet On Goal Line Markets?

There is a massive variety of football betting markets and adding goal line markets to your repertoire gives you another potential source of winners that other markets may not provide. You may find it difficult to pick the winner of a match between Chelsea and Tottenham but, if you think there will be lots of goals, the goal line markets give you a chance to win without picking the winner.

That’s why we suggest you always consider the goal line markets as part of your bigger football betting strategy.

What Other Goal Line Markets Are There?

There are other varieties of over/under markets on football betting than the ones we’ve mentioned. Another popular goal line market is correctly predicting which team will win and the total over/under goals. The odds for picking this sort of winner can be much more rewarding, though that does reflect the difficulty of picking these winners.

The goal line markets we’ve mentioned so far have also been ones that will be settled at full-time, but lots of bookmakers offer similar markets that are settled at half-time.

How Do I Know Which Goal Line Markets to Bet On?

If you’re an avid football statistician and form student, you’ll soon see where you can think you can exploit goal line markets. Just remember to only place bets when you think you’re getting value odds.

For example, if there have been three goals or more in four of the last six matches between Chelsea and Tottenham, and they’re both currently scoring plenty of goals, then getting even-money for more than 2.5 goals could be considered a value bet. While you won’t win all your bets, constantly betting at value odds should allow you to make a long-term profit from gambling.

How Do I Pick Goal Line Betting Winners?

Picking goal line betting winners is relatively easy but, as we highlighted above, it’s whether you’re betting at value odds that will make the difference as to whether you make long-term profits from doing so. It’s no good thinking you’re clever betting on over 2.5 goals at 1/10 (1.10), as picking nine winners out of 10 will still mean you end up losing in the long run.

It’s much better consistently picking three winners out of five bets at even-money, as this will ensure those long-term profits. But you don’t have to limit yourself to just one goal line market, you can exploit any that offer you value bets.

But to do this, you will need to spend a fair amount of time and effort studying statistics and the form to have the information you need to know that you are selecting value-priced goal line winners. The other possibility to consider is following the advice of professional football tipsters that use goal line markets as part of their football betting strategy.

What Football Tipster Should I Follow?

Here at Betting Gods, we offer free tips and subscription services from football tipsters that have proved to us that they can make long-term football profits. Each of our tipsters has passed a strict six-month vetting process, while many of our tipsters have been with us for much longer.

If you drop us your email address here, we’ll send you a daily sample of free tips from our tipsters. These normally include football tips but may also include tips for many other sports such as horse racing, cricket, golf, tennis, basketball, ice hockey, and American football.

Our free tips are the perfect way to see how Betting Gods work, and a great way to find your perfect tipster. Our monthly subscriptions are also popular and give you complete access to all the tips from any tipster you subscribe to.

You can also check out our tipsters by their profiles, where you’ll see facts and figures such as their average monthly profit, return on investment, and strike rate. All our subscription services also come with the Betting Gods money-back guarantee.

We hope that’s answered your question, what does goal line mean in betting.


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