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Ian Bruce

The BTTS meaning in betting is simple. It’s the acronym for Both Teams To Score, which is a type of wager most commonly found in the world of football betting. In this guide, we’ll explain how this bet works, why you might want to consider using it, and how to do so effectively.

BTTS Betting – How It Works

The BTTS betting market is available at most online betting sites in the UK. It requires you to predict whether or not both teams will score in a particular game. While BTTS markets can sometimes be found in relation to other sports, Both Teams To Score is primarily viewed as a football bet.

Bookmakers will form their own opinions about how likely it is that both teams will score and then offer odds for Yes or No. The BTTS Yes meaning is that you do think that both teams will score a goal. Similarly, the BTTS No meaning is that you don’t think that both teams will score.

Simply select the option that reflects your own opinion and watch the match to see what happens. If you bet Yes and both teams score at least one goal each, your BTTS bet will win. If you bet No then at least one of the teams must reach the end of the match without having scored for your bet to succeed.

BTTS Football Betting In Action

With the BTTS betting meaning explained, let’s look at how BTTS bets work in action. Let’s imagine that you’re interested in backing Both Teams To Score in a match between Newcastle and West Ham. All you have to do is visit any of the best football betting sites and navigate to the relevant match page. You should then see the market for betting BTTS somewhere below the main market for the match result. Here’s how it would look at bet365:

BTTS Betting Market

In this example, the BTTS market is shown just below Double Chance and Goals Over/Under. The available odds for Both Teams to Score are as follows:

Both Teams to Score
Yes 1/2 No 6/4

At this point, you can simply click on Yes or No to add that option to your betting slip. Enter your stake, then submit the bet. If your prediction is right, the bet will win.

Why Bet on Both Teams to Score?

Betting on Both Teams To Score is one of the most popular football bets around, and it isn’t hard to see why. There are several advantages to betting in this market for both beginners and seasoned bettors alike. Here are some of the main ones:

The Match Result is Irrelevant

As far as landing a winning BTTS bet is concerned, the result of the match is completely irrelevant. It doesn’t matter which team wins or if the match ends in a draw. The important thing is whether or not both teams score a goal. This makes BTTS a great market for anyone who doesn’t like to predict match results or doesn’t want to.

BTTS is Beginner-Friendly

If you’re new to betting on football, the BTTS market is an easy one to get involved in. You only have two options to choose from – Yes or No. And that means it’s a lot easier to win here than in more complicated arenas, such as Correct Score markets, which have multiple options.

Bets Are Settled Quickly

When you place a BTTS bet, the bookmaker will settle it as soon as it has won or lost. If both teams score within the first ten minutes, your bet will be settled straight away because the result is already known. You could therefore be quids in – if you’ve bet on Yes – well before the final whistle is blown.

Other BTTS Betting Opportunities

We love the simplicity of the regular BTTS market, but some bettors like to give themselves more of a challenge. That’s why bookmakers have come up with a number of alternative ways of packaging BTTS in betting. The ones that you’re most likely to be interested in are as follows:

BTTS and Result

SOCCER

Here you will need to decide whether or not both teams will score, as in the regular market. But you will also need to predict whether the match result will be a home win, a draw, or an away win. Both of your predictions must be correct for the bet to win. There are six possible outcomes in this market, so it’s a lot more challenging than a regular BTTS bet, but the odds you’ll get will be a lot more generous to reflect that fact.

BTTS in Both Halves

SOCCER

This is a bet on both teams to score in both halves of the match. That means both teams must score at least one goal each in the first 45 minutes and that both teams must go on to score at least one additional goal each before the full-time whistle is blown at 90 minutes.

BTTS No Draw

SOCCER

The Both Teams To Score No Draw market is basically a variation on the BTTS Result market mentioned a few moments ago. Here, however, you are betting that both teams will score and that the match won’t result in a draw. Other names for this bet are BTTS and Win, Both Teams To Score No Draw, and Both Teams To Score and Win. You’ll have just two options to choose from, and those are Yes and No. If you bet on Yes, both teams must score, and the match must result in either a home win or an away win.

BTTS 2+

SOCCER

This BTTS betting market requires you to predict whether or not both teams will score two or more goals each in the match. That’s a lot less common than both teams scoring once or more, so you won’t see this market offered for every match by any means. However, you might find it available in games where the bookmaker expects to see plenty of goals.

BTTS Acca

SOCCER

A BTTS acca is an accumulator bet that includes BTTS predictions for several different matches. For example, you might make a BTTS prediction about four matches. As with most other acca bets, all of your predictions must be successful for it to win. That makes a BTTS acca harder to win with than a BTTS single bet, but the payout will be much bigger when you manage to succeed. Use our Accumulator Calculator to work out your expected returns.

BTTS Betting Tips and Strategies

We’ve defined the meaning of BTTS in betting, explained how the bet works and highlighted the most popular BTTS bets you can make. Let’s now go one step further and provide you with a handful of BTTS betting tips and strategies that can help you make the most of this bet.

  1. Look at For and Against

    Our first tip for betting BTTS is to look at the For (GF) and Against (GA) figures in the league table (such as the English Premier League table) for each team involved in the match. Ideally, if you want to bet on Yes, you want both to be fairly high. In other words, it isn’t enough that a team scores plenty of goals, but also that they concede their fair share, too.
  2. Assess Recent Results

    While the For and Against figures just mentioned will give you an idea of how the teams have fared over the current season as a whole, it’s also good to assess more recent form. Take a look at how both teams have performed in their last two or three matches. Hopefully, from a Yes perspective, they will have scored and conceded in most or all of them. If not, tread carefully.
  3. Look at Head-to-Head Results

    You should also look at how the two teams have fared in their previous matches against each other. If both teams have scored in the majority of their previous meetings over the last three or four seasons, there’s a good chance that they will do so again.
  4. Check the Odds

    Our final tip as far as BTTS strategy is concerned is to check the odds that the bookmaker is offering for the BTTS Yes and BTTS No options. Bookmakers assess football matches in much more depth than we bettors have time for, so if they’ve offered significantly lower odds for Yes or No, they probably have a good reason for doing so. Of course, bookmakers aren’t always right, so if the odds differ markedly from your own opinion, you just might have found yourself a value betting opportunity.

Advantages and Potential Drawbacks of BTTS Betting

As with any type of wager, the Both Teams to Score bet has both its advantages and its potential drawbacks. We’ve summarised both sides of the case below so that you can see these at a glance and decide whether or not BTTS betting is for you.

Advantages of BTTS Betting:

  • Suits both beginners and seasoned bettors.
  • The BTTS bet is simple and straightforward.
  • Predicting the match outcome isn’t necessary.
  • Bets can be settled before the match ends.
  • BTTS bets can be placed in accumulators.

Potential Drawbacks of BTTS Betting:

  • Odds in regular BTTS markets are modest.
  • Form study is needed to make solid predictions.
  • Tougher BTTS markets aren’t available at all betting sites.

An Alternative to BTTS Betting

Those of you who like the idea of BTTS betting might also be interested in an oft-overlooked alternative. We’re talking about the Over 1.5 Goals market. Here you choose No if you think there will be no goals or just one goal scored in the match, or Yes if you think there will be two or more. The great thing about this market is that either team can score the goals. So if one team wins the game by two or more goals to nil, the bet will win. A BTTS bet on the same game, however, would lose.

BTTS Bets in Other Sports

While BTTS is most popular in football betting, similar markets can also be found in a handful of other sports. Here are a few examples to look out for:

  • Basketball Betting - Bet on both teams to score over a certain number of points in a game.
  • Hockey Betting - Bet on both teams to score a certain number of goals (2 or more, etc.).
  • Rugby Betting - Bet on both teams to score a certain number of tries.

You should bear in mind that the BTTS bet meaning in markets for other sports might differ slightly from how we’ve explained the meaning of BTTS in football betting. For that reason, be sure to check the specific rules of any market that you are thinking about betting in before you put any money on the line. You might also need to adjust your Both Teams to Score strategy to suit the requirements of that market.

Conclusion

Having learned how BTTS in betting works, you can now enjoy wagering in a whole range of markets that you might have previously overlooked. Of course, betting BTTS isn’t for everyone, but it’s massively popular for a reason, so we’ll leave you to give it a try and see what you think.

FAQs

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Ian Bruce

Ian Bruce joined Safest Betting Sites in 2024 as Senior Sports Editor to oversee the quality and usefulness of its gambling content. He originally developed an interest in betting after landing a winning Yankee on his first attempt. He then spent years figuring out how to replicate that success. Along the way, he became one of the UK’s leading writers on the topic of betting and gaming. Ian’s career has now spanned more than three decades, and his enthusiasm for systematic and responsible betting hasn’t waned one bit. However, his preferred approach to winning these days is Dutching, for the simple reason that “It’s a lot easier than landing Yankees.”