In this article we’ll write about the Over/Under 2.5 goals market. We’ll also explain some of the advantages of betting on the Over/Under 2.5 goals market. In a previous article we’re written about what stats to look at when picking matches for Over/Under 2.5 goals, but here we want to speak a little more broadly about the market in general.

The Over/Under 2.5 goals market is one of the most popular betting markets in football. Over the year it has been shown that the average amount of goals per match historically has been around 2.5 goals so sportsbooks began offering this market to punters. Why the 0.5 goal? Well, that’s easy to explain; if it was Over 3 goals then bets would have to be refunded/voided if the match ended 3-0, 2-1, 1-2 and 0-3 and neither punters nor bookies can make any profit if bets have to be voided so they went with 2.5 goals.

It’s this simplicity that has made the Over/Under 2.5 goals market so popular. If you bet on Under 2.5 goals then you need a few results to happen for your bet to win: 0-0, 1-0, 2-0, 1-1, 0-1, 0-2 and that’s it. For Over 2.5 goals, so long as three goals are scored then your bet will be a winner.

Advantages of Betting on Over 2.5 Goals

The largest advantage is that since it’s such a popular market then there tends to be huge liquidity in the betting markets, what does this mean? Basically, because it’s so popular there’s usually plenty of money in the markets. This means that the markets become more accurate (wisdom of the crowd) as more people bet on certain events so the odds on offer reflect a true, or truer, representation of an event occurring.

Another advantage is that odds tend to be pretty good on the Over 2.5 goals market. Of course they aren’t going to be as short as the Over 1.5 goals market but for the most part you generally see them around 1.85 or there abouts. Of course, with teams that score loads of goals, like Man City, Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern the odds can be lower but generally the odds are close to Evens (2.0) so we can get decent odds and good value for our wagers.

Another advantage is that you don’t need to predict who will win the match, you just three goals scored and predicting goals can be far easier than predicting winners particularly when in the Win/Draw/win market it is split three ways whereas in the Over 2.5 goals market it’s only split two ways, the match will either end with three goals or more or it doesn’t.

Disadvantages of Betting on Over 2.5 Goals

The biggest disadvantage is that historically around 50% of matches end with Over 2.5 goals, so you’re going to lose on occasions and it can be quite frustrating to see a match end with just two goals when you’ve bet on Over 2.5 goals.

Of course, you won’t win as often as with betting on Over 1.5 goals because far more matches end with Over 1.5 goals than with Over 2.5 goals, but with a good eye for stats and the better you become at picking games the more you’ll profit in the longterm.