Correct Betting Odds
Correct Score bets are the third most popular wager on football behind outright match result and goalscorer markets. For many other sports correct score betting is equally popular and for some smaller games this can often be one of only a few markets available. All of this means this bet type is highly competitive and competition drives up odds prices reducing bookmaker margins, meaning this wager offers great value to punters compared to other betting markets.
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You can place a correct score bet on virtually any points based sport with any of our listed bookies, this doesn't however mean they are all the same. In this section we discuss the best bookies for correct score betting, how often correct score bets win, the value of these wagers, betting strategies and common terms to look out for.
- Correct Score:
Best Correct Score Betting Sites and Bookmakers
Bet365 are the best football bookmaker in the world in our opinion and can be relied upon to offer both deep markets and good odds. They also have a range of long running retention offers that can be used to add consistent value to bets, rather than just pushing selected lines Bet365 provide consistency across the board.
This is also the place to go for correct score betting outside of the major leagues and cups. Where other betting sites will often give poorer prices on less popular leagues Bet365 always provide good odds.
Along with good value they also have an applicable offer you can read about below.
BetVictor run one of the lowest average margins on football markets in particular. You won't find tons and tons of promotions related to this bet type but if you are looking for a bookie that can you can be sure will give you the best price for a 1-0 result then look no further. If you want to combine correct score lines into an accumulator BetVictor are also the best betting site to use.
The bookie also offers a huge range of combination correct score, e.g. 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1, which pays out if the result is any of those scores. This is a useful market when you think a team will win by a certain margin but cannot be entirely sure.
Betfair provide a unique opportunity for correct score betting as they have both an exchange and a fixed odds sports book. This means you can bet like you would with any other bookie on correct scores and Betfair are renowned for having good prices in this area as they benchmark them against their exchange. The exchange itself allows you to both back a correct score, similar to the the fixed odds sportsbook, but also lay your own correct score outcomes (i.e. be your own bookie and take other peoples bets). This means you can hedge your bets or if you are confident of an outcome back a market and lay it.
Exchanges are different as they are full of normal people offering their own odds or taking the prices offered by others. With something like football and correct scores there is often a tribal emotional element that means rival fans will often provide bets at higher odds than you would find with a conventional bookie.
Ladbrokes are one of those bookies that no one would say is their favourite but that a lot of people have an account with anyway. The reason for this is they are simply colossal, they are the UK's oldest bookie and they provide pretty much every market on every league imaginable. They are also well know for daily price boosts and the majority of these are for football. They are one of the few sites that reliably boost correct score markets and they even have a long standing promotion that lets you boost your own odds on one bet each day, which could be a correct score market.
The bookie also have an exchange, not as big as Betfair's but still with a lot of liquidity in correct score markets. The site is not pretty and it is very crowded but then you can't argue they don't have the markets and prices available, which ultimately is the point.
What is Correct Score Betting?
Correct score does what it says on the tin, you guess the final score of the game and if you are right you get paid out, if not you lose.
Most correct score bets are placed on the final result, in football this would be after 90 minutes and extra time is generally excluded. You can however bet on the correct score at various stages of the match, at half time for example or at ten minute periods.
In general, for bigger games especially, this is a very competitive market commanding good prices and decent linked promotions. The more obscure your correct score bet however the lower the value you can expect to receive.
Which Betting Company Gives The Best Odds
Correct Score Bet Types
Full Time
The most common bet type and the most competitive line between betting sites. This is where you can get most value from this market in general. All bookies will offer this market at the very least and this makes shopping around easy. This is also the most common market for which most correct score offers are applicable too.
Half Time / Full Time
More popular now than ever is betting on the score at the interval, this can also be combined with the correct score at full time or you can bet on each half independently. This allows you to bet on a game to be say 1-0 at half time and 2-1 at full time, massively increasing the odds if the outcome does occur.
Periods and Extra Time
Bigger bookies like Ladbrokes will let you bet on the score of the match at various intervals, e.g. the correct score after ten minutes, twenty minutes and so on.
It is generally not possible to bet on correct score after extra time before the game begins but if the match goes to extra time you can usually place an ET correct score bet live in play.
Scorecast
It is not possible in general to place accumulator bets on events from the same event, this is known as a related contingency. This means you can't place a double bet on the first goalscorer and the correct score in the same game. Why? Because both bets factor in the chances of a result and if you link these you are in effect doubling this factor.
Bookmakers therefore offer markets such as scorecast and anytime scorecast that allows you to predict the correct score and first or anytime goalscorer. For example Harry Kane to score and England to win 3-1. Read more about this in our scorecast article.
Accumulators
It is possible to combine multiple correct score bets into an accumulator or full cover bet. These can be very profitable considering the higher odds available for correct score bets. For example, if you predict three correct scores in a treble all with a price of 7/1 the cumulative price will be around 600/1.
The best place to do this would be BetVictor considering they have the best overall single odds in the first place. Beware though with any accumulator bet you are in effect compounding the bookmakers margin, you can read more about bookie margins here.
Specials
Many operators run special markets around bigger games that link the correct score with another outcome. There is no way to guarantee a specific bet will be available but in general the best places to look are SkyBet, Ladbrokes and Coral. Examples include:
- Correct score and:
- Player to be booked / sent off
- Method of first goals (Header, Free Kick, Shot, etc)
- Multiple Goalscorers
- Penalty to be awarded
- Player to be subbed
Correct Scores Odds Prices
Typically you can expect the odds on a correct score in an evenly matched game to be around 6/1 (7.0 decimal) and upwards. For strong favourites this can be as low as 3/1. More likely scores such as 1-0, 1-1 and 2-1 carry the lowest odds and less likely scores can carry huge odds, 5-3 for example could be over 500/1.
This is one line that can vary a fair bit across a range of bookie so do make sure you have a few bookmaker accounts open and you use odds comparison websites to shop around. I've seen the price of a 2-1 result in a football game vary from 7/1 to 13/1 with various operators.
Most Common Football Scores
1-0 to is the most likely score in any football game. This has been proven by taking a selection of over 188,000 English league football games played since the origins of the football league.
The likelihood of a 1-0 to the home team is 9.8% and for the away team is 6.8%. The overall chance of 1-0 to either team is therefore 16.6%. This is followed in second place by a 2-1 result, this occurs 14.5% of the time with 8.9% of this for the home team and 5.6% for the away team.
The most likely draw is 1-1 which crops up in 11.6% of matches. The table below details the likelihood of a correct score based on this dataset, any score not listed has a 0.1% or less chance of occurring (i.e. less than 1/1000 games):
| Correct Score | Overall Chance | Home Team | Away Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-0 | 7.2% | - | - |
| 1-0 | 16.6% | 9.8% | 6.3% |
| 1-1 | 11.6% | - | - |
| 2-0 | 11.5% | 8.1% | 3.4% |
| 2-1 | 14.5% | 8.9% | 5.6% |
| 2-2 | 5.2% | - | - |
| 3-0 | 6.2% | 4.8% | 1.4% |
| 3-1 | 7.5% | 5.2% | 2.3% |
| 3-2 | 4.6% | 2.8% | 1.6% |
| 3-3 | 1.1% | - | - |
| 4-0 | 2.7% | 2.3% | 0.4% |
| 4-1 | 3.2% | 2.5% | 0.7% |
| 4-2 | 2% | 1.4% | 0.6% |
| 4-3 | 0.8% | 0.5% | 0.3% |
| 4-4 | 0.2% | - | - |
| 5-0 | 1.1% | 1% | 0.1% |
| 5-1 | 1.3% | 1.1% | 0.2% |
| 5-2 | 0.8% | 0.6% | 0.2% |
| 5-3 | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.1%% |
| 6-0 | <0.5% | 0.4% | <0.1 |
| 6-1 | <0.5% | 0.4% | <0.1 |
| 6-2 | <0.3% | 0.2% | <0.1% |
| 7-0 | <0.3% | 0.2% | <0.1% |
| 7-1 | <0.3% | 0.2% | <0.1% |
Draw Money Back
There are not a huge number of correct score promotions that can reliably add regular value to your bets but the draw money back is the stand out exception. This tends to come in two formats, those that refund stakes for score draws and those that give you money back if the game is goalless.
What if I want to bet on 0-0 I hear you say? Well you shouldn't do that through a correct score market and I'll tell you why in the strategy section below.
Correct Score Betting Strategy
No betting strategy can guarantee you will win but using a good strategy can ensure that when you do win you are getting the best possible value available.
Here we discuss some common correct score methodologies that could help your long term wagers:
Never bet on 0-0
Invariably the odds on a 0-0 draw are the same or very similar to the odds of no goalscorer. If you want to bet on 0-0 then bet on no goalscorer instead.
The reason you should do this is own goals are usually not counted in no goalscorer bets but they are in correct score bets. Therefore if a game ends 1-0 and the only goal was an own goal the 'no goalscorer' bet will pay out but the 0-0 bet won't.
1-0 is the way to go
There are two major reasons to bet on a 1-0 result. First of all it is the most likely correct score result (if you combine the home and away chances), second of all it allows you to win more often when there are shock results for the underdog. If you have a game where there is a strong favourite, Manchester United vs Notts County for example, the odds on 1-0 can often be over 20/1.
1-0 is the most likely scenario for Notts County to win this game, effectively get a goal against the run of play and then try to see that game out. You see these types of results time and time again in football and this therefore represents a great wager.
Bet on 1-1 or 2-1 to stay in the game longer
One problem with correct score betting is you can lose your wager very early in the game. If you've bet on 2-0 for example and the opposition team scores early then your bet is immediately downed. You can have more fun and keep your bet alive longer by betting on a correct score where both teams score, this way whoever nets first your wager can still win.
If you want to really keep your options open consider a 'both teams to score' bet, you can read more about these in our dedicated article.
How To Read Betting Odds
Place opposite correct score bets
Correct Betting Odds College Football
If you think the game is going to be low scoring but you are unsure who will win you could place several bets that mean you will win either way if the game has a low number of goals. Here I have taken a real example of a match between Poland and Portugal, instead of betting on under 3.5 goals at odds of 1/8 (a £20 bet will give you £22.50 back with stake) bet £5 instead on 1-0 home (at 9/2), £5 on 0-1 (at 15/2), £5 on 1- 1 (at 5/1) and £5 on no goalscorer (at 9/2).
Correct Betting Odds Horse Racing
In this scenario if there are 3 or less goals one of your bets will win for sure and your returns would be: £27.50 for 1-0, £42.50 for 0-1, £55 for 1-1 and £27.50 no goalscorer. This means you are guaranteed to win at least £5 more than the under 3.5 goals market for the same overall stake. No brainier really.
How Do Betting Sites Calculate Odds
Look at form, odds and history
This is the obvious strategy, do your research. Teams that score and concede less often will tend to have lower correct scores, and vice versa. If you go to place a bet on Stoke City to win 4-0 you will find they are three times higher than the odds of Arsenal winning 4-0, this should tell you immediately about the chances of each event happening.
Correct Betting Odds Against
If you want to win more often place the right correct score bet for the right team/match.
Common Correct Score Terms and Rules
Correct Betting Odds Poker
- Extra Time – Extra time is not included in correct score bets (unless clearly stated). Always assume you are betting on the result in 90 minutes of play. For big tournaments likes the Euros or World Cup there are occasionally bookie offers that include extra time but it is very rare.
- Abandoned Games – All bets should be void and refunded if a game is abandoned even if they correct score bet is already technically down. If say you bet on 1-0 correct score and the game is abandoned at 2-1 you should still get your stake back. If you've bet on a half-time correct score for example and the game is then abandoned in the second half however then the original bet will still stand.
- Own Goals – These DO COUNT in correct score bets but they DO NOT COUNT in goalscorer bets. If betting on 0-0 always take the no goalscorer bet.