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Betting markets explained
A plain-English guide to the markets you'll meet on BetFinder: match result, double chance, draw no bet, both teams to score, totals and outrights.
Updated 2026-06-07 · BetFinder team
Every bet lives inside a market — a question about a game with a fixed set of answers, each carrying its own price. Will the home side win, or the away side, or neither? Will there be more than 2.5 goals? Will both teams score? Different markets ask different questions about the same ninety minutes, which is why one fixture can carry dozens of prices.
This guide is a plain-English tour of every market type you will meet on BetFinder: the headline markets named on the board rows, the extra bets inside the expanded panel, the per-category tables on match pages, and the one-from-many markets used by tournaments and races. It finishes with the reason the acca tools only ever take one bet per game.
The market eyebrow on every row
Each row on the betting board leads with a small label above the fixture name — the market eyebrow — which names the market the headline pick sits in. For football it is usually Match result; for tennis and other sports that cannot end level it is Match winner; for races and one-from-many events it is Win. When a game's most likely meaningful bet sits elsewhere, the eyebrow follows the pick: you will also see Double chance, Draw no bet, Both teams to score and Total goals up there. A small green tag like +2.1% beside the eyebrow is the edge marker, and in lay mode the eyebrow carries a LAY flag so you always know which way the bet points.
Match result — the 1X2
The classic football market, with three outcomes: home win, draw, away win — traditionally written 1, X and 2. A match result price might read 1.46 the home side, 4.90 the draw, 8.40 the away side. The draw is a real outcome here: back a team and a level game loses your bet, which is exactly the wrinkle the next two markets exist to soften.
Match winner — the two-way version
Sports that always produce a winner — tennis, basketball, darts, most racing match-ups — use a two-outcome match winner market instead: one price per side, no draw. A tennis match might read 1.85 against 2.20. With only two outcomes the percentages are easier to reason about — whatever chance one player has, the other has the rest.
Double chance and draw no bet
Two safety-net versions of the match result. Double chance covers two of the three outcomes in a single bet: 1X (home win or draw), X2 (away win or draw) and 12 (either side wins — only a draw loses). On BetFinder the selections read like Double chance — Arsenal or Draw. Because two outcomes are covered, the chance is higher and the price correspondingly shorter.
Draw no bet backs one team with the draw removed: if your team wins you are paid, if it loses you lose, and if the game is drawn your stake is returned as if the bet never happened. The selections read like Draw no bet: Everton. It sits between the straight result and double chance — less protection than 1X, but a better price.
Both teams to score
BTTS ignores who wins entirely and asks one question: do both teams score at least once? BTTS: Yes lands in a 1–1 or a 4–3 alike; BTTS: No lands in a 0–0, 1–0 or 3–0. A 2–1 thriller and a 1–1 bore are the same result in this market, which is what makes it useful when you have a view on how open a game will be rather than who takes it.
Totals — over and under
Totals markets count something and split the possibilities at a line: Over 2.5 goals lands with three or more goals in the match, Under 2.5 goals with two or fewer. The same idea extends beyond goals — corners totals such as Over 9.5 corners count the corners taken, and cards totals such as Over 4.5 cards count the cards shown.
Handicaps
A handicap (or spread) gives one side an imaginary head start before kick-off, then settles the result with that adjustment applied. Handicap — Everton +1.5 lands if Everton win, draw, or lose by a single goal; Handicap — Arsenal -1.5 needs Arsenal to win by two or more. Handicaps appear where priced — chiefly in the Handicaps section of a match page — and when no bookmaker quote exists for a line, BetFinder shows its own estimate as a fair price, clearly labelled so it is never mistaken for something you can place.
Outrights and win markets
Everything above prices a single fixture. An outright prices a one-from-many event instead: who wins the tournament, the league, the race. Each runner is priced against the whole field, and on the board these events carry the Win eyebrow with the headline pick being the most likely win market selection. Horse racing works this way on every card — see the horse racing guide — and tournament winner markets feed the bracket views covered in tournaments & brackets.
The expanded panel and the match page
The board deliberately shows one pick per game, but the rest of the market is one tap away. Tap a row and a panel lists the game's other priced bets — over/under lines, BTTS, draw no bet and so on — each with a probability bar, a percentage and a price, sorted most likely first. If nothing else is priced yet the panel says No other markets priced for this game yet. The View all markets → button opens the full match page, where every market is tabled under category headings: Match winner, Goals, Score & margin, Halves, Handicaps, Cards, Corners, Fouls, Goalscorers, Player cards and Player shots. How to read those tables is covered in the match pages guide. Selections with no formed price show Awaiting price rather than an invented number.
Why the acca builder takes one leg per match
An accumulator's chance all land is calculated by multiplying the chances of its legs— and that arithmetic is only honest when the legs are independent. Markets from the same game are not: if a match finishes 2–1, then Over 2.5 goals, BTTS Yes and the winner's match result all land together. Multiplying their probabilities as if they were separate events would overstate how unlikely the combination is and flatter the slip's claimed percentage.
So BetFinder refuses the temptation: the betslip holds one leg per match — in acca mode tapping a game adds its headline pick and tapping it again removes it — and the £ Path planner's accumulator plans never reuse an event either. The percentage on your slip means what it says. Prices move through the day, so check the live price before placing anything, and only stake what you are comfortable losing.
Quick answers
What do 1, X and 2 mean?
Shorthand for the three match result outcomes: 1 is a home win, X is the draw, 2 is an away win. Double chance combines them in pairs — 1X covers home win or draw, X2 covers away win or draw, 12 covers either team winning.
What is the difference between Match result and Match winner?
The number of outcomes. Match result is the three-way football market that includes the draw; Match winner is the two-way market for sports that always produce a winner, such as tennis. The eyebrow on each board row tells you which one the headline pick sits in.
Why can't I put two bets from the same game in one acca?
Because same-game markets are correlated — they tend to win and lose together — and an accumulator's combined percentage is only truthful when its legs are independent. Allowing two legs from one match would make the slip's claimed chance dishonest, so the betslip is built to hold one leg per match.
Why does a market show Awaiting price?
The market has not properly formed yet — there is no reliable price to show, so BetFinder shows none. Rather than guessing, the row waits until a genuine quote arrives; prices typically firm up as the start time approaches.