Total Goals is one of the betting strategies used in sports betting today, and it is part of many markets available to punters for sports such as soccer. There are various types of punters in today’s sports gambling world. Casual bettors place wagers for fun, and there’s not much to lose for them as they do it chiefly as a hobby. On the other hand are professional punters. This is a serious bettor who’s ready to make a real income. Casual bettors may not know much about sports betting beyond the most common types of markets. For the most part, they concentrate on the moneyline or 1×2 bet. However, serious bettors genuinely care about increasing their Returns on Investment (ROI) in betting. For them, every single win counts towards meeting specific financial objectives at the end of each betting period. Total Goals, therefore, is a concept that most serious punters are well aware of. Unique markets like these are a great way to diversify one’s betting game and increase the potential profit from sports gambling.
What Is Total Goals Betting?
Goals are the sole object of a sport like a game of soccer, and they are what every soccer fan tunes in to see when they watch a game. In the same breath, goals are vital in soccer betting, and they are the basis upon which many soccer betting markets are formulated and, for the most part, on which soccer bets are settled. As the term suggests, a Total Goals bet predicts the number of goals scored in a match. It does not matter which team scores the goals, and the total is considered at the end of regular playing time in the match. Total Goals is a great way to diversify from the traditional 1X2 bet. That’s because predicting the number of goals scored, in most cases, is easier than predicting who scores them, and it is easier than picking match winners all the time.
Types Of Total Goals Wagers
Over/Under
The over/under wager is probably the most straightforward Total Goals wager. The objective is to predict if the total number of goals in the game will exceed or be less than a specific total. Here’s an example:
Chelsea vs Real Madrid
| Over 2.5 | 1.65 |
| Under 2.5 | 2.20 |
Betting Over 2.5 means the punter predicts 3 or more goals to be scored in the match. Under 2.5 standards they expect 2 or less goals. The most common line is 2.5 goals. That said, there are various other lines for over/under, including 0.5, 1.5, 3.5, 4.5, etc. Since there’s no such thing as half a goal in soccer, the decimal format (.5) ensures the wager can’t end in a tie. It’s a wager that must be settled at the end of each game.
Total Goals Brackets
This type of wager is not very unlike Over/Under. The critical difference is that a range is given instead rather than a specific line for total goals. For example:
Chelsea vs Real Madrid
| 0-1 | 2.90 |
| 2-3 | 2.00 |
| 0-2 | 1.70 |
| 3-4 | 2.80 |
| 0-3 | 1.40 |
| 5+ | 10.00 |
In this scenario, the 0-1 bracket wins if the game ends goalless or only one goal is scored. Similarly, the bet is lost if the game ends with more than one goal scored. The 2-3 bracket wins if 2 or 3 goals are scored and loses otherwise.
Exact Number Of Goals
In this wager, the punter predicts the exact total number of goals to be scored in the match. For example:
Chelsea vs Real Madrid
| 0 | 8.50 |
| 1 | 4.33 |
| 2 | 4.10 |
| 3 | 6.50 |
| 4 | 3.35 |
| 5 | 12.50 |
It is a wager that’s much harder to win than the two previous types but, as ever in sports betting, harder bets lead to more profitable wins.
Number Of Goals By Team
This Total Goals wager requires the punter to predict exactly how many goals a team scores. The wager may be offered in any above styles – brackets, over/under, or exact number.
