The Under/Over 2.5 Goals market offers value for punters who want to avoid the fiendishly difficult to predict ‘correct score’ bet, a wager which requires you to predict the exact number of goals scored by each team in a game. The UNDER/OVER bet is a much easier to land, as you’re betting on the combined number of goals scored by both sides during a game, and it doesn’t matter which team scores or how many, as long as you correctly pick UNDER OR OVER the selected number of goals.

Under/Over goals is one of the most overlooked markets by football punters in the UK, although canny Asian gamblers have been wise to this wager for a long time. The advantage of this bet is clear, if you think a game will be open with plenty of chances being created then you can back OVERs, on the flip side if you feel the match will be a cagey affair then you back UNDERs.

The most popular Unders/Overs goal market is the 2.5 goal market. Although you can bet on under/over 1.5, 3.5 and 4.5 goals. What often confuses people who are new to football betting is the ‘.5’ element of the bet, how can you score half a goal? Of course, you can’t but it does allow the bookmaker to draw a metaphorical line in the sand. Alternatively, the bookmaker could just call this the ‘match to have more than 2 goals bet’ or ‘match to have 2 goals or less bet’ but that doesn’t sound very catchy.

For example: if you select a match and back OVER 2.5 goals the score at the end of the game would need to be 2-1, 3-0, 5-1, 3-2, 10-1 or any other scoreline totalling 3 or more goals for you to win the bet. If the match ends 1-1, 0-0, 1-0, 2-0 you’ve lost as the total is not more than 2 goals.

Given that the typical game of football averages somewhere between 2.4 and 2.6 goals per game (factoring in which league and competition it is) both over 2.5 goals and under 2.5 goals should be available to back generally around the evens mark and more often than not this is the case.

As with any bet you should always research the market.  Before you proceed you should ask yourself whether there’s value in your selection. Take into account head-to-head stats between teams especially in recent encounters. Some fixtures always produce a low scoring affair whereas others produce a flurry of goals. These trends, however, don’t go unnoticed by the bookmaker and they will price up their markets accordingly. Free scoring sides like Manchester City and Barcelona are usually good bets for over 2.5 goals, alternatively, sides like Stoke and Hull can be difficult to break down, even for top teams and you might find success backing under 2.5 goals in their games.

There is lots of data on the internet for this particular type of bet especially the Under/Over 2.5 goals market. We’ve even produced a handy 2.5 goals stats table for the current season further up this page.

You certainly can! Betfair have an online coupon especially for under/over 2.5 accumulators, you can choose two or more games and roll them up into a big acca. Typically a four selection acca will return around £80 for a £10 stake. A 10 game accumulator could land you £6,000+ for a £10 bet.