BTTS Predictions & Tips
Read on to know what BTTS is, how it works and how to improve your winnings with it
Read on to know what BTTS is, how it works and how to improve your winnings with it
Away from backing a specific outcome of a football match (home win/away win/draw) a Both Teams To Score Bet - commonly referred to as BTTS - is one of the most popular types of individual football bets.
But what is it? And how can you enhance your chances of winning? Read on for our top Both Teams To Score betting tips.
A Both Teams To Score bet is exactly as it sounds - a ‘yes’ bet will payout if both teams in an individual match score, whereas a ‘no’ bet will payout if only one or neither of the teams score.
To place a Both Teams To Score bet simply visit your preferred bookmaker’s website, select your chosen match, and then pick either yes or no under the Both Teams To Score (or BTTS) header.
Betting either for or against both teams scoring generally offers reasonable odds, while it can commonly be added on to ‘win’ bets to improve the potential payout - i.e. X team to win and BTTS will, naturally, payout more than either one of those bets if successful.
As a standalone bet, meanwhile, it can be a fairly easy one to study form for and also offers more favourable odds on anticipated one-sided games. If a team is overwhelming favourites to win, a ‘no’ bet on BTTS will give a bigger payout than a simple ‘win’ bet - as long as one or both teams fail to score.
Alongside the standard BTTS bet - betting either for or against both teams to score in the match - you can also improve your potential returns by specifying when the goals will come.
Both Teams To Score In First-Half; Both Teams To Score In Second-Half; and Both Teams To Score In Both Halves are all possible bets, and will all return greater potential odds on a ‘yes’ bet than a standard BTTS bet. Of course, the risk with a ‘yes’ bet is also increased - the chances of both teams scoring both halves is considerably low. As a result, a ‘No’ bet will also return only a small payout.
As with all bets, the key is to balance risk and reward in order to improve your returns…
There are plenty of things to study before placing a Both Teams To Score bet, and it also depends on which type of bet you want to place.
In the 2016/17 Premier League season, for example, while Tottenham Hotspur were outscoring the rest of the division - scoring 86 goals in 38 games - they only conceded 26, and only 18 of their 38 games saw both teams score.
On the other hand, Manchester City’s incredible goalscoring form under Pep Guardiola has not been matched by a tight defence - 33 of their first 56 league games under the Spaniard resulted in both teams scoring.
It is also worth studying when goals are scored. Teams who score goals in the first 15 minutes are clearly used to starting on the front foot - and the earlier that first goal goes in, the more chance there is of both teams scoring in the first-half.
If teams have similar records, scoring and conceding most commonly in the same half - Everton and Huddersfield have both scored and conceded a lot in the first half of games early in the 2017/18 season, for example - then it is worth increasing your potential payout by specifying that half in your BTTS bet.
Look at recent results between the two teams too - if there have been a lot of score draws in recent fixtures, and the teams, players and manager are mostly the same, then it is worth betting on both teams to score again.
Safer bets would involve teams like Manchester City, for the reasons outlined above. On the other hand, Sunderland scored just 29 goals in 2016/17 so, while they conceded often, they would have been a risky pick for a BTTS to bet.
Look also at manager’s styles - those who encourage more open football, even if they win regularly, will also concede goals. Possession-based football such as that encouraged by Mauricio Pochettino can be harder to score against, while teams who ‘park the bus’ - for example Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United - are a risky bet for Both Teams To Score.
Finally, be careful to look at home and away form too - just because a team has kept a lot of clean sheets, does not mean those clean sheets occurred in away matches for example.
If you are confident in a team’s ability to keep a clean sheet, then backing them to do so - rather than betting against both teams to score - should offer better odds, and a greater potential reward. This is because backing against BTTS does not specify which team will keep the clean sheet, and the risk is therefore slightly lower.
Betting on a team to keep a clean sheet, or alternatively to win to nil, increases the risk and therefore improves the potential reward too.
As mentioned above, you can also combine a BTTS bet in a single selection with a ‘win’ bet to improve your odds. When Manchester City won four consecutive matches 2-1 in November/December 2017, that would have been a very profitable selection.
Another way to improve your odds is to place an accumulator bet, combining several BTTS bets. This will combine the odds if those bets to offer a single selection with a much higher potential return. You can click on link to read our top accumulator tips.