From goals, corners and cards in football to round betting in boxing, read how over/under markets work in sports betting.
What is over/under betting?
Over/under betting is offered by bookmakers in a range of different sports.
As opposed to win/draw/win betting, over/under is concerned with the number of times something will happen or the length of time it takes something to happen in a certain match rather than the end result.
For example, that could relate to the total numbers of points or goals scored in a fixture. The winning team is irrelevant.
As a gambler, you would need to decide if you think the total number of points scored will be over or under a pre-decided number from the bookmaker.
How does over/under betting work?
Over/under betting works in exactly the same way for most sports, with the most popular markets requiring you to correctly predict the combined score of both teams or players.
For example, you want to bet on five or more goals being scored in a football match.
Simply navigate to the match in question on our sportsbook.
Find the market that is called ‘over 4.5 goals’ – over/under markets are offered in half numbers to eliminate confusion when it comes to settling a bet.
If there were five or more goals scored in the match, the bet would be a winner. Four or fewer would see the bet result in a loss.
The same could be done for corners or cards in a football match.
In other sports, meanwhile, you could bet on whether there will be over or under a certain number of runs in a cricket match, 180s in a darts match, tries in a rugby match and so on.
Over/under markets also allow you to back a total number of rounds in a boxing or MMA fight, but these bets differ slightly.
The over/under numbers for rounds are still offered as half numbers, but the round would have to reach the actual halfway point for the bet to be considered a winner or loser.
UFC rounds last five minutes, so for a bet on over 1.5 rounds in a UFC fight to win, the second round of the fight would need to pass the 2:30 mark.
How to read over/under betting odds
While over/under betting is fairly self-explanatory, there are a certain things to take into account when reading the odds.
As mentioned above, over/under markets are normally offered in half numbers. It’s impossible to score half a goal, so the total number of goals will always be at least 0.5 either side.
Sometimes the market will be offered as a whole number – for example, ‘five or more goals’. In this case, five goals in the match would result in a win.
How to bet on over/under in football
The earlier example used total goals as a reference point for betting on the over/under markets in football, but that is not all they are limited to.
You can also bet on the total number of goals for a specific team or in a specific half.
It is also possible to back over or under a certain number of cards – either yellow, red or the total number – and corners.
