There’s a good reason for the popularity of the 1X2 market, and that’s its simplicity, because the only thing bettors need to ask themselves is which team they think will win in a given matchup. As with any aspect of betting, something so simple is far more complex once you start to pull back the layers, and the smart money doesn’t just focus on the 1X2 price for heavy favourites. You’ll need to cast your net much wider to pull out the most useful indicators of current and future form.
What Stops Favourites Winning
Looking at 1X2 markets is a quick way of seeing which team is favoured to take home a victory. What this doesn’t account for is the likelihood that a theoretically dominant team will concede one or more goals in a given game. Unpicking this riddle involves considering the tactical disconnect between the opposing sides.
Say you’ve got a firm favourite whose play style is predominantly based on keeping possession of the ball and pushing to attack frequently, especially in the early game, allowing a lead to be established. If they achieve this goal, then the pressure can be switched off, and they might coast toward an assumed victory, because it seems safe to do so. This exposes them to an underdog with a penchant for scoring from well-managed set pieces, meaning that even one or two missteps late in the game could lead to their lead evaporating.
Alternative Betting Markets to Explore
Considering many a sports betting option rather than only focusing on 1X2 markets is a good way to avoid succumbing to the common misstep of preferring an apparent sure-thing, in spite of the evidence to the contrary.
For instance, betting on both teams to score (BBTS) gives you a hedge in the case that the underdog does indeed sneak in a consolation goal, or even pulls it back to a score draw. Betting on BTTS along with a favourite-to-win wager can amplify the odds further in your favour.
Total goal markets are another popular option for those who’ve run the numbers and seen that there’s more of an opportunity for a particular match to result in net-rattlers at both ends of the pitch. Betting over or under a given scoreline also means you aren’t putting all of your eggs in one team’s basket, but are instead looking at the game as a whole and accommodating the potential of an upset.
If you prefer specificity above all else, you could opt for multi-score bets that cover a range of potential outcomes, giving favourites room to make mistakes and underdogs a chance to claw back a goal or two.
There’s always a place for using 1X2 markets when you want to make a bet on a game that you feel certain is a foregone conclusion, even if there’s not much value in the pricing in this context, from a bettor’s perspective. Combining this knowledge with an exploration of other betting markets will make things more interesting and give you a new way of seeing apparently asymmetric matches.
