Types of sports bets: understanding the main markets

What does the odd you're looking at actually represent?

A single match can offer dozens of markets: final result, total goals, handicap, correct score, goalscorers, corners or player statistics. Each market asks a different question and has its own settlement rules. An odd never makes sense on its own — it only means something once you know which market it belongs to.

Market, selection, line, odd: four concepts not to confuse

A market is a question. A selection is an answer. A line is a threshold, when the market has one. An odd is the price attached to the chosen selection.

EVENT          Team A vs Team B         the match
MARKET         1X2 / Total 2.5 / BTTS   the question
SELECTION      1, X, 2 / Over / Yes     the chosen answer
LINE           2.5                      the threshold, when it exists
ODD            2.10                     the attached price

Fictional example, for illustration only:

Three markets, three distinct questions, asked on the same match. 1X2 asks who wins. The total asks how many goals will be scored. BTTS asks whether both teams will score. Three questions, three settlement families, three independent sets of odds.

Market ≠ ticket structure

1X2, Over/Under, BTTS and Handicap are markets. Single bet and accumulator are ways of assembling selections, not markets.

A single bet stakes money on one selection, whatever market it comes from. An accumulator combines several selections, possibly from different markets, into one ticket. This distinction is covered in detail on the page dedicated to single bets or accumulators — it isn't repeated here.

US bet types: moneyline, spread, totals, parlays, props and futures

US sportsbooks use their own names for the same families of bets. Here is how each one maps onto the vocabulary of this guide.

• Moneyline: who wins the game, with no handicap. It's the result family, usually two-way; see the Moneyline guide.
• Point spread (run line in baseball, puck line in hockey): who wins once a points handicap is applied to the score. The favorite has to win by more than the posted number, the underdog can lose by less; on a whole-number line, landing exactly on it is a push and the stake is refunded. Run and puck lines are usually fixed at 1.5, with prices that vary, whereas NFL and NBA spreads move the line and keep the price near even. It belongs to the handicap family, closest to the Asian Handicap.
• Totals (over/under): whether the combined score ends above or below a line, for example 47.5 points in an NFL game. Same family as Over/Under.
• Parlay: several selections on one ticket, which only wins if every selection wins. It isn't a market but a ticket structure, called an accumulator outside the US; see single bets or accumulators.
• Props (proposition bets): a specific event inside the game, often a player statistic such as passing yards or points scored. They sit in the secondary markets family.
• Futures: an outcome settled later, such as a championship or an award winner, placed weeks or months ahead. It's a result market on a competition rather than a single game.

Same game, different questions: a moneyline, a spread and a total on one NFL game are three separate markets, each with its own price and its own settlement rules.

The main families of markets

Common markets group into four main families, each answering a different question.

Result — who wins, or which outcome occurs among a closed set. This is the best-known family: 1X2, Moneyline, Double Chance, Draw No Bet.

Totals and events — how much of a given event will happen relative to a line, or whether a specific event will occur. This includes the total goals or points, known as Over/Under, BTTS ("both teams to score"), and correct score.

Handicaps — the result once an artificial adjustment is applied to the score, the margin, or the total. See handicap betting, split into European Handicap and Asian Handicap.

Secondary markets — corners, cards, goalscorers, player statistics, time-based markets. A family deliberately grouped on a single page, covered in secondary and specialty markets.

Summary table of common markets

The number of outcomes and the exact settlement rules vary by sport and by operator. This table gives an order of magnitude, not a universal rule.

Main market or secondary market?

A main market — like 1X2 or Over/Under — usually covers the overall result of the match. A secondary market covers a more specific event: a player, a sequence of play, a statistic.

The detail of secondary markets — corners, cards, goalscorers, player statistics — is covered on the page dedicated to them: secondary and specialty markets.

The timing of a bet is a betting mode, not a market

Betting before kickoff or betting once the match has started changes neither the market nor the question it asks: it's a betting mode, a moment, not an extra family of markets. In-play betting continuously recalculates the price of markets already in place — a 1X2, an Over/Under stay the same questions, before and after kickoff. Once a bet is placed, a separate transaction becomes possible at some operators: Cash Out, a buyback offer the sportsbook calculates on the already open position.

These two pages round out the vocabulary of markets with the vocabulary of betting modes: when to bet, and what becomes possible once the stake is placed.

What these markets have to do with probability and odds

Every market has its own odds, its own margin and its own implied probabilities — the underlying mechanics are shared by every market.

Converting an odd into a probability, removing a sportsbook's margin, or comparing an odd with a fair odd works the same way regardless of the market observed. These mechanics are explained once, in the cluster dedicated to probability: implied probability, sportsbook margin, margin-free odds, fair odds.

The market stays the same, the price can move

The market posed on a match doesn't change between opening and kickoff. The price attached to each selection can.

The "Over/Under 2.5 goals" market didn't change over the course of the day. The price attached to the Over selection did. Why that movement happens, and how to read it, is covered in the dedicated guide to odds movements and on the page explaining why odds change.

Understand why and how an odd moves →

Put it into practice

Apply this guide to real odds.

Dig into the market

Odds movements are only part of the story. Here are the next topics to read.

Frequently asked questions

Sources & methodology