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The under/over 2.5 goals betting market is becoming very popular with smart bettors. Numerous people are starting to realise just how good this market really is. You don’t need to do much research for this market and more importantly there are only two outcomes so you have more chance of winning!
In the under/over 2.5 goals market you are basically betting on whether there will be 2 or less goals, or 3 or more goals – It’s pretty simple!
Research shows that the ratio of under and over 2.5 goal games is around 50% each, so combined with the 50:50 outcome of the bet and some clever prediction, you have a very good chance with this bet.
Firstly check to see if there is value in the bet you are thinking of backing. Check the head-to-head records between the two teams, but also recent results of each team. Both these factors can help you decide whether to bet on over or under 2.5 goals.
You sometimes have to look for conflicting evidence. Team X may have scored 4 goals in their last match, BUT the goals may have come from just 4 shots on target. Check the shots on and off target stats. The strikers may have been on form that day or the opposing goalkeeper (team Y) may have had a very bad day. It could have been that team X weren’t really that good, but team Y were just terrible. What we are saying here is that on the 4 goal evidence you may have though of backing team X at over 2.5 in the next game, but looking into how these 4 goals came about is also important.
You need to look at the motivation of each team. If a team lets in a lot of goals, then the next match they will be more motivated towards defending, so will always let in less goals. If a team has scored a lot lately, they will have momentum, so this team will often keep scoring goals.
When looking at tournament matches (world cup betting) the under/over 2.5 goal bets can be even better. This is because we often have very big teams playing smaller teams in the group stages. When you place your bet you will without doubt be thinking that the big team will win with a lot of goals. However you have to remember that the smaller team is likely to resort to defending tactics/damage limitation strategy, so the bigger team could find it hard to score goals. This is what has happened a lot in the 2010 World Cup. For example the Argentina vs. Greece game, where it took Argentina until the 77th minute to score.
Sometimes the defending team even manages to nick a goal and win the match 1-0. This happened in the Spain vs. Switzerland game where Switzerland managed to score in the 52nd minute and held on until the end. This last example should be considered when betting on correct score markets. A 1-0 win for the least favoured team will have quite good odds.
