How to bet on football: every market and term on this site, explained

This page is the one to read before any of the tip tables. It explains how a football bet is written, what each market pays and when it loses, and how to read the probability and fair odds columns that appear on every prediction page on this site. It is written for readers in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and Zambia who bet on a phone, so the vocabulary is the one you see in a local betting app rather than the one in a textbook. Betting is for adults aged 18+ only, and nothing here will make a bet safe. The aim is to make sure you know exactly what you are buying.

The slip, the stake and the odds

Every bet has three parts. The selection is what you say will happen, such as "Arsenal to win" or "over 2.5 goals". The stake is the money you put on it. The odds decide what you get back if you are right. Bookmakers in our region show decimal odds: a price of 2.50 returns 2.50 for every 1.00 staked, which is your stake plus 1.50 profit. A price of 1.20 returns 1.20 and the profit is only 0.20.

Decimal odds are also a disguised probability. Divide one by the odds and you get the share of the time the bookmaker is pricing the outcome to happen: 2.50 is 40%, 1.20 is about 83%. Add up the implied probabilities of every outcome in a market and they come to more than 100%. The excess is the bookmaker's margin, and it is the reason a long run of bets at the bookmaker's own prices tends to lose money slowly even when half of them win.

Our tables turn this around. The model estimates a probability first and then prints the fair odds, which are one divided by that probability with no margin added. If the bookmaker's price is higher than our fair odds, the model thinks the price is generous. If it is lower, you are paying more than the model believes the outcome is worth. The mathematical prediction page explains why a probability is the only honest way to describe a tip.

1X2, the match result market

The oldest market has three outcomes: 1 for a home win, X for a draw, 2 for an away win. It is settled on the score after 90 minutes plus stoppage time. Extra time and penalties in cup ties do not count; if a knockout match is level after 90 minutes, the X wins even if one side lifts the trophy an hour later. Our 1X2 predictions page lists the model's home, draw and away calls, and the draw prediction page deals with the outcome most bettors ignore.

Double chance combines two of the three results in one selection: 1X covers a home win or a draw, X2 an away win or a draw, 12 either team winning. It cannot pay as much as a straight result, but it only loses to one outcome instead of two.

Draw no bet removes the draw entirely. You back a team to win, and if the match is drawn your stake is returned. A handicap, in its European form, adds goals to one team before settlement: back the away side at +1 and a 1-0 home win becomes a 1-1 draw for the purposes of your bet. Asian handicaps split the line into halves and quarters so that a push, a half win or a half loss becomes possible.

Goals markets: over/under, Asian lines and both teams to score

Over/under asks only how many goals there will be, ignoring who scores them. The line is normally set at a half, so there is no tie: over 2.5 needs three goals or more, under 2.5 needs two or fewer. The full set of lines from over 0.5 to under 4.5 is explained, one by one, on the over 1.5 meaning page. The tips themselves live on the over 2.5 predictions and over 1.5 prediction pages.

Asian goals lines use whole numbers and quarters instead of halves. Over 2 means three goals or more wins, exactly two goals returns the stake, and one goal or none loses. Over 1 works the same way one step down: two or more wins, exactly one is a push, a goalless draw loses. Quarter lines such as over 2.25 split the stake across the two neighbouring lines, so part of the bet can win while the other part pushes. Readers who search for "over 1 meaning" or "asian over 2 meaning" are nearly always looking at one of these lines in a betting app and wondering why there is no half in it. The answer is that the whole-number line gives you a refund where the half line would have lost.

Both teams to score, written GG and NG in East and West African apps, pays on "yes" if each side scores at least once and on "no" if either side is blanked. A 1-1 is GG; a 3-0 is NG. It is independent of the result: a 4-1 away win is GG just as a 1-1 draw is. Our both teams to score today page shows the matches where the model puts GG or NG above its thresholds.

Correct score and the "other" lines

A correct score bet names the exact final result. It pays well because there are many possible scores and most of them are unlikely individually. Bookmakers list the common scorelines separately and bundle the rare ones into three catch-all selections: "other home win", "other away win" and "other draw". If the listed home wins stop at 4-1, then a 5-0 or a 6-2 falls under "other home win". The correct score prediction page lists the model's most likely scores with the probability of each, which is also a quick way to see how unlikely any single exact score is.

Accumulators, bankers and promotions

An accumulator, or acca, joins several selections into one slip. The odds multiply: three selections at 1.50 each make an acca of 3.375. The catch is that every leg has to win, so the probability multiplies too, downwards. Three legs at 70% each land together about 34% of the time. Our accumulator calculator does the multiplication for you and shows the implied probability of the whole slip, and the sure 2 odds page shows how the model builds a short acca each day from its strongest legs, with the plain warning that no accumulator is ever certain.

A banker is the leg a bettor is most confident in, often used as the anchor of a slip. The banker of the day page is the model's version: the single highest-probability tip of the day, with its fair odds beside it. System bets such as a Trixie or a Yankee take a set of selections and cover every smaller combination among them, so that one losing leg does not empty the slip; they cost more lines, and the payout is smaller.

1up and 2up are promotions rather than markets. Where a bookmaker runs them, a match-winner bet is paid out early as soon as the backed team leads by one goal (1up) or two goals (2up), even if the lead is later lost. Cash out is a related feature: the bookmaker offers to settle a live slip for a fixed amount before the end. Both can be useful; both are priced so that the bookmaker keeps its margin. Read the terms in the app before relying on either, since they vary by operator and by match.

Reading our tables

Every tip on this site comes with three numbers: the probability, the fair odds and, once the match is over, a hit or a miss on the track record page. The probability is the model's view after calibration and, where bookmaker odds are available, after blending with the odds. The fair odds are the price that would exactly match that probability. A tip is only printed when its probability clears the threshold for its market, which is why some days have thirty tips and others two. The methodology page lists every threshold and explains the model in full.

The tables show kick-off times in East Africa Time and convert them to your local time in the browser. Nigeria is two hours behind EAT, Ghana three hours behind, so a 19:00 EAT kick-off is 17:00 in Lagos and 16:00 in Accra.

Betting without harming yourself

Choose a stake you can afford to lose before you open the app, not after you have seen the odds. Treat a losing slip as the cost of the entertainment, not as money to win back. Never bet with borrowed money, and set a deposit limit on the day you open an account rather than the day you need one. The responsible gambling page lists the tools and where to find help. The site is for adults aged 18+ only.