Understanding Football Bettings Part III - Halves

Example: Kidderminster are playing Welling United and I expect a tight game, my thoughts are it will be 0-0 at half time but Kidderminster will score late in the 2nd half. The odds on a Kidderminster victory are 8/15. The odds on a draw at half time and Kidderminster to win 2nd half are 3/1 so I can combine these two bets to give better value.

Highest scoring half result – this is a simple bet on which half (if any) will produce the most goals. This is a great bet if a team has a habit of scoring goals late on or if a team is renowned for conceding late goals.

Example: For the Kidderminster game, first half to have most goals is 2/1, 2nd half is 1/1 and for both halves to have the same amount of goals is 5/2.

Plenty of people are very attracted to the HT/FT market because they offer some really great returns for correct predictions. The highest returns (and also the hardest to predict) are usually paid out for matches that swing from one extreme to another, for example home team winning at half time and then the away team winning at full time. Picking a random game Home win (5/6) and away win at (7/2) the odds on a H/A result are a fantastic 40-1. Even games that on paper look like a more one sided match, say Arsenal (1/6) against West Ham (14/1) then the H/A will attract 66-1.

To win either half – This is an interesting market, which concerns the 45-minute periods seperately.

Example: Ipswich Town play Blackburn in the FA cup and we back Rovers to win at least one of the halves at 11/10. Turns out it is The Tractor Boys’ afternoon and they manage to put 4 past Blackburn inside the first half. The tie is practically settled, but the away side gets a consolation goal with 5 minutes to go. It doesn’t make a huge difference for them, but it’s a crucial one for us, since the second half’s score is 1-0 to Rovers and our bet turns out winning. Get in there!

To score / Not to score As the name suggests this is simply a bet that you believe a certain team will score at any point during the 90 minutes. It is important to note that extra time in cup competitions does not count. Some other variations on this are half-time correct score and half time /full time correct score. Half time / Full time correct score is a difficult one to call and in that respect the odds

This is just a sample of the numerous bets for halves that are available online. At the top bookies in the country you will find all top end-result markets for either half, such as correct score, BTTS, handicaps and totals.