Goal line bets are very popular in football betting. Most
commonly, it is referred to as the Under/Over 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 or more goals
betting. In the goal line betting market, you are basically predicting that a
match will produce enough number of goals to go over or not to go over a
certain set goal line. You are free to back over or under depending on your
prediction. While many people refer to the goal line market as Under/Over 2.5,
the goal line market is quite broad and often includes Under/Over 0.5, Under/Over
1.5, Under/Over 2.5, Under/Over 3.5, Under/Over 4.5 and more.
If you pick any particular match and check the Under/Over
market, you will find a wide array of options, from Under/Over 0.5 to
Under/Over 4.5 and many more depending on the bookmaker. In some cases, you
will find this market simply referred to as the Total Goals Under/Over.
Nevertheless, the 2.5 goal line is the most common standard in football and
almost all bookmakers offer odds on this money line. This is because backing a
game to go over/under 1.5 goals in 90 minutes is easier than backing to go
Over/Under 2.5 in 90 minutes. In fact, some bookmakers reserve the Over/Under
1.5 for half-time scores and the Over/Under 2.5 for the full-time scores.
Likewise, there are shorter odds on backing a game to go under 3.5 or 4.5
because the likelihood of such number of goals occurring is very high.
There is also the term alternative goal line bet. An
alternative goal line means that whole goals are combined with quarter goals to
ensure there is a push over the line and that every match produces a winner in
the goal line market. For example, 2.5 goals is used in the total goals market
not because a team can score a half a goal, but to ensure that there is an
outright winner or loser in bets on the goal line market. Unlike the normal
goal line market, the alternative market has whole goals such as 1, 2, 3 and 4,
plus quarter goals such as 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 etc. In this market, if you bet on
under 2 goals then you win when the score is something like 0-0, 1-0, 0-1, but
will lose when the total goals is exactly 2, such as 1-1 or 2-0, because the
goals total is not under 2.
Some bookmakers also offer the Split Bet option in the goals
market. This is when you see figures such as over 1.5, 2 goals or over 2.5, 3 goals.
What the first Split bet option means is that if you put a stake of Ksh 200,
then half of the stake goes to the over 1 goal portion of the bet and the other
half goes to over 2 goals. So if the match produces 2 goals, then you will
receive a payout for the half of the bet on over 1.5 goals and lose your stake
on the other half that stated over 2 goals. The second split bet means that
half of your stake goes to over 2.5 goals and the other half to over 3 goals.
So if the match produces 3 goals, then you get a return on half of your stake
for over 2.5 goals and lose half the stake on over 3 goals.
Another example of alternative betting is over 1.0, 1.5
goals. If say your stake is Ksh 200, then half of it will go to over 1 goal and
another to over 1.5 goals. You lose the bet if there are no goals in the match.
If there are exactly two goals in the match, you win the bet with both halves
of your stake. If there is exactly 1 goal, you get a refund on half of your
stake (over 1.0) and lose the other half of your stake (over 1.5).
Another type of goal line betting is the Asian goal line,
which is not the same as Asian Handicap betting. The Asian Goal Line bet
targets a specific number of goals in a match regardless of who scores the
goals and who wins or loses the match. While in the traditional alternative
goal line betting there are 3 possible outcomes (over/under/exact goals), the
Asian goal line betting eliminates the third option (exact goals) so that
there is no exact goals (usually called a push). Therefore, with the Asian goal
line, if you bet on over 3 goals, a match with exactly 3 goals means you get a
refund, one with more than 3 goals is a win and one with less than 3 goals is a
loss.