A Guide To Half Time/Full Time Betting: What You Need To Know

27 February 2018

They say it isn’t over until the final whistle, but it could all be over by half time if you don’t get this type of bet right!

Despite that, half time/full time betting markets have exploded in popularity in recent years and with bigger odds to tempt you with, if you call a winner you’re far more likely to make more money than backing an outright match result.

Almost every top UK bookie now offers HT/FT wagers, so it’s well worth checking out this article if you’re wanting to get in on the action.

After all, football is a game of two halves and if you remember the 2005 Champions League Final, you’ll know that anything can happen in just 45 minutes!

A great wager for cup competitions, where we often see huge turnarounds from half to half, the half time/full time bet is fast becoming a staple of the savvy punter’s diet.

What Is Half Time/Full Time Betting?

Half Time/Full Time betting is essentially a bet split across two wagers, the winner of the first half and the winner of the second.

This could be any sport that has separate halves and therefore could include rugby, NFL, hockey and, most commonly, football.

To win then, what you have to do is predict the result in both halves. This will generally see a bigger payout than a simple match result bet as the risk is that little bit higher

There are nine different outcomes of a Half Time/Full Time bet, with the odds fluctuating massively depending on a variety of factors.

Home/Home

Home/Draw

Home/Away

Draw/Home

Draw/Draw

Draw/Away

Away/Home

Away/Draw

Away/Away

Usually the odds predicting the home side to win overall will be the lowest, with away sides generally considered the underdog. Of course, this can much depend on who are actually playing as the home and away sides.

Example:

Let’s take a game between Crystal Palace and Tottenham. Going into the game, Spurs would be clear favourites at around 1/ 2.

However, the odds on a half time/full time would see improved odds for Tottenham and look something like this:

Tottenham/Tottenham – 9/4

Draw/Tottenham – 16/5

Crystal Palace/Tottenham – 10/1.

This would give you vastly better odds than just backing Spurs, although the result would be a little harder to predicts

When To Play A Half Time/Full Time Bet

Playing a Half Time/Full Time bet can always be a bit risky but if you do your research you can win big.

Discovering how teams generally perform in first and second halves will help your chances dramatically. For example, if an away side who is favourite to win generally scores late goals you might want to back a Draw/Away outcome.

Equally if a side likes to set their stall out early at home to tough opposition you may want to back a Home/Draw bet.

Teams with strong squads will often be stronger as the games going on with high quality substitutes being a key factor in half time/full time betting.

Manchester City have been a good example of this in recent times with the early stages of the 2017/18 campaign seeing a flurry of late goals.

That comes with the mindset too. Pep Guardiola seems to have his side playing until the final whistle, just as Sir Alex Ferguson did during his time at Manchester United, with the term Fergie Time coined for that very reason.

An interesting one to look at is the FA Cup, where underdogs can often hold until the latter stages of a tie but fitness and quality can take over, in many cases seeing a flurry of second half goals following a 0-0 or underdog winning first half.

It’s about being clever with your bets. If you get it right, the payout will be bigger. To get a real feel for the wager, why not check out our free bet offerings and see how you get on?

Things To Note With Half Time/Full Time Betting

What is interesting to note is that your Half Time/Full Time bet will only be valid for the regulation 90 minutes of a football match, so if a game was to go to extra time the bet would payout for a draw in the second half of the bet rather than whichever team goes on to win the game.

Additionally there are also a number of other rules which apply to Half Time/Full Time betting:

• Injury time is included as part of the full 90 minutes
• As mentioned, extra time is excluded as are replays from the original wager
• Penalty shootouts do not count towards half time/full time betting
• An abandonment in a half will result in the bet being void and stake will be returned

 

On top of this always read any terms and conditions for further rules which may apply.

Which Sports Can I Back Half Time/Full Time Betting?

As mentioned above you can back a number of sports with half time/full time betting. These include:

• Rugby League
• Rugby Union
• NFL
• Hockey
• Ice Hockey
• Handball
• Hurling
• Gaelic Football
• Lacrosse
• Basketball

 

In some cases you are also able to back quarterly bets in games such as basketball, NFL and ice hockey which are broken down into quarters on the pitch.

Not all bookmakers will offer these sports in entirety so you may have to shop around for some of the more obscure sports.

Which Bookmakers Offer Half Time/Full Time Betting?

All the best bookmakers on the planet will offer Half Time/Full Time betting across pretty much every fixture they have odds for.

It’s a huge market and you’ll see the market in everything from Manchester United v Liverpool to Matlock Town v Stalybridge Celtic.

The World Cup Half Time/Full Time will of course be very popular, with the likes of William Hill, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power leading the market on this one.

Here’s a list of our favourite bookmakers offering Half Time/Full Time betting:

• bet365
• Betfred
• BetVictor
• 888sport
• Unibet
• Sun Bets