When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn The half-time/full-time (HT/FT) market can only be used with a handful of sports but the uniqueness of this bet allows you to be creative and, in turn, find value away from mainstream bets. We will examine how the half-time/full-time bet works, market variations, and strategies to increase profitability.
What is a Half-Time/Full-Time Bet?
The half-time/full-time bet is where you bet on the result of the game at half-time and the result of the game at full-time.
You need both predictions to be correct for the bet to win.
Bets will come with a range of combinations. The range of combinations depends on the sport. These can include:
- Home win – home win
- Home win – draw
- Home win – away win
- Draw – home win
- Draw – draw
- Draw – away win
- Away win – home win
- Away win – draw
- Away win – away win
HT/FT bets require you to win both halves to win the overall bet. It’s quite a difficult market to make money from consistently, but it can be very profitable if you can find a strategy that works for a certain game profile.
It’s worth noting that the scoreline of the win doesn’t matter. For example, if you’re betting on the NFL and one team wins the half, whether it’s by one or 20 points it won’t make a difference. But you need both halves to have the right result for the bet to win.
This bet is not about who wins each half. Instead, it’s about the score after each half.
So if you’ve bet on a home win–home win, as long as the team is leading at half-time and then again at full-time, the score doesn’t matter. They could be 5-1 up at halftime in a soccer match and end the game 5-4, taking a beating in the second half, but the bet would still win as they’ve won at full time.
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HT/FT Betting Examples
Half-time/full-time bets work differently depending on the sport you’re betting on. To highlight these differences, we’ve included real-world examples, where possible, of how an HT/FT bet works.
Soccer
The most popular sport for this market is soccer, which is where it originated. Other sports have been able to adapt the bet, but more wagers are placed on this market with soccer than all other sports combined.
You’re betting on three results: home win, away win, and the draw. This creates nine possible betting combinations:
- Home win – home win
- Home win – draw
- Home win – away win
- Draw – home win
- Draw – draw
- Draw – away win
- Away win – home win
- Away win – draw
- Away win – away win
You must choose the correct result at the end of each half for the bet to win. So, if you’ve bet on the draw–home win, then the score at half-time needs to be a draw, and the score at full-time needs to be on an away win.
Let’s expand on how that works from an upcoming Premier League game between Manchester City and Liverpool.
As you can see from the image below, there is a range of odds based on the probability for each of the nine combinations. The higher the odds, the less likely the result.
If we choose to bet on the draw–away win for this game, then we need a draw at half-time and Liverpool to win the game at full-time, as they are the away team here.
As you can see, the odds for this are +900. This means that for every $100 wagered, we make a $900 profit.
It’s worth taking a minute to see how the odds for each bet range from as low as +145 up to +4000. When you bet on the favorite leading at the end of half-time and full-time, this will usually be the lowest odds for the bet. The longest odds come from the favorite winning at half-time and the underdog winning at full-time, which is the case in this example.
NFL (American Football)
The NFL is another popular sport for half-time/full-time betting. The only difference between this and soccer is that NFL markets only include regulation time.
In the NFL, if games are tied after the fourth quarter, then the game will go into overtime. This market will only apply to regulation time and not overtime.
This is a key feature to note as it allows us to bet on the draw (tie) in a game where the draw (tie) would be almost nonexistent after overtime. Odds will be very different from soccer because of the infrequency of games ending in a draw and going into overtime, but this can add value.
Let’s run through an example below of how this might work.
We have an NFL game between the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears. The Lions are strong favorites to win the game, and you can see that combinations with them winning first or second halves are the lowest.
The favorite on the market is the Lions to lead at half-time and then win the game in regulation time. This is priced at -152 and offers good value compared to the Lions at -290 on the moneyline.
You’ll notice that any results with a draw at full-time are long shots. As we’ve mentioned, teams being tied full-time in the NFL is rare and works out at less than 8% of the total games over a season.
NBA (Basketball)
The NBA works a little differently than soccer and the NFL. The market includes overtime, so the final result can never be a tie.
Based on this, the number of combinations reduces from nine to six:
- Home win – home win
- Home win – away win
- Tie – home win
- Tie – away win
- Away win – home win
- Away win – away win
The example below is from an NBA game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans. The Timberwolves are 6.5-point favorites on the spread, which means they are also strong favorites on the half-time/full-time market.
The lowest odds are -121 for the Timberwolves to lead at half-time and win. The longest odds are the tie with a Pelicans win.
Like most sports, the tie will yield the largest odds at half-time, but the nature of the NBA and basketball generally means the result is rare.
Ice Hockey
Ice hockey might be a surprising inclusion to the list of sports that offer half-time/full-time betting, given that there are three periods and no official half-time. But the workaround for the bet is the first-period winner and end of 60 minutes winner, applied to regulation time only.
Betting options include:
- Home win – home win
- Home win – draw
- Home win – away win
- Draw – home win
- Draw – draw
- Draw – away win
- Away win – home win
- Away win – draw
- Away win – away win
For the sake of the market, some sites will have the draw listed as a tie, but it means the same thing. Regulation time will mean the result at the end of the third period. Any overtime results will not be counted. This means having a draw–draw bet is possible, which is rare for US-based sports.
The example above is from a game between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Philadelphia Flyers. This should be an even game on paper, with the moneyline bet set at -155 for the Knights and +133 for the Flyers.
This makes for a relatively even betting market. The smart money with these bets is usually to bet on the favorites to lead at least one of the first-period or full-time results. The lowest odds here are for the Golden Knights to win the first period and the final result at +260.
If you were to bet $100 on this market, you would make $260 profit. The least likely results based on the odds are for the Golden Knights to lead after the first period and the Flyers to win the game in regulation time. This comes with odds of +1800, meaning a $100 wager returns a $1,800 profit.
Rugby
Rugby coverage in the US is small, but it’s growing. With two disciplines in league and union, there are multiple opportunities to bet on the half-time/full-time market.
The bet is very straightforward and works the same as soccer in that there are nine possible results, with the tie (draw) available in the final result. Rugby has no overtime, and games can end in a draw. Here’s how the bets look:
- Home win – home win
- Home win – draw
- Home win – away win
- Draw – home win
- Draw – draw
- Draw – away win
- Away win – home win
- Away win – draw
- Away win – away win
The example above is from an Aviva Premiership game in England, with Harlequins playing Saracens. These are two of the biggest clubs in the country, and the betting is close, with the moneyline only just favoring a Saracens win at odds of -145 compared to Harlequins at +125 and the draw at +2200.
It’s worth noting the price of the draw here as in the HT/FT market, you can see any results that end in a draw are very high odds. In fact, the most unlikely result is a draw-draw (tie-tie) priced at +9000. The favorite is Saracens to be winning at half-time and full-time, priced at +125.
Use Bovada for the best HT/FT betting odds.
Types of Half-Time/Full-Time Betting Markets
Half-time/full-time bets can include multiple markets and scenarios in the game. In this section, we’ve looked at what types of bets you can expect to find across various sports.
Winner (Result)
Betting on the winner or the result of the half is the most common. The number of possible combinations will depend on the sport.
Soccer, for example, has a home win, away win and draw, making nine possible combinations. The NBA can only have a tie at half-time as the bet includes overtime, so results cannot end in a draw, meaning there is always a winner.
Correct Score
The correct score is one of the toughest HT/FT bets to predict. This means you need to have the correct score at half-time and the correct score at full-time. It’s worth noting that the score must state which team is which.
For example, if you choose 2-1 half-time, you must state which team that is too. You can’t just put the score and take results regardless of which team is ahead. The only exception here is with a draw as you don’t need to pick a winner.
The odds for this market can be huge, but it’s incredibly difficult to win. Sports like the NBA and the NFL tend not to have this option as the range of points is too wide. Soccer and ice hockey are much easier to call, albeit still incredibly tough.
Goals
Goals are linked to the total number of goals scored at half-time and then at full-time. This will be a cumulative number that rolls on from the half-time score.
For example, let’s say you’ve bet on a soccer game to have three goals at half-time and five goals at full-time. The score at half-time is 2-1, which means this half of the bet wins. The score at full-time needs to be either 4-1, 3-2, or 2-3. Essentially, the bet only wins if exactly two goals are scored in the second half.
Corners
The corner bet is the cumulative number by both teams in a soccer match. Some online sportsbooks will have this as a bracketed number, which might be 0-3, 4-6, 7-9, and so on, but others will have it as a single number for the total amount.
Regarding rules, the bet is the same as picking the result. You need to pick exact numbers or bracket numbers for the total number of corners at half-time and then at full-time. For this market, there are usually many more corners in the second half than in the first, so bear this in mind with your bets.
Cards
Cards can be linked to both red and yellow cards in soccer. Again, this is a cumulative number for both teams, and you need to pick the right number (exact) awarded before half-time and then at full-time.
Like corner betting, most cards come in the second half, so apply this knowledge to your bets.
How to Place an HT/FT Bet
The half-time/full-time betting market is widely accessible across most major online sportsbooks. To show the process of placing the bet, we’ve used Bovada, which we at Techopedia rank as one of the best in the industry.
1. Open an account
To get started, you need an account. When you land on the Bovada sportsbook, click the red ‘Join’ button at the top of the page. You will need to input fields such as your name, email address, and create a username and password for your account.
2. Make a deposit
Once your account has been set up and verified, you need to log in. Head to the cashier to make your first deposit. The payment options linked to your account will be based on your location, so they may differ from the image above.
3. Choose a sport
Now that your account has been funded, click on the ‘Sports’ tab at the top of the page. You can then use any of the multiple menus to find the sport you want to bet on or use the ‘Live’ option to bet in-play.
4. Find half-time/full-time markets
Most sports will have half-time/full-time markets listed under ‘Game Props’. If you still can’t find it, use the ‘All’ section and scroll through the markets to find them.
5. Place a HT/FT bet
To place a bet, click on the odds to load it into the bet slip. You can then choose your stake, which will tell you how much you can expect to win based on your stake. Confirm your selection is correct and the amount you want to bet, then click ‘Place Bets’ to finalize.
How are Odds and Payouts Calculated?
Most US-based online gambling sites will have American-style odds as the default. If you wish, you can change this in the settings to either fractional or decimal odds.
American odds have either a positive or negative number, identifying the implied probability of that result. The negative number is the amount you need to wager to make a $100 profit, and the positive is the profit you will make from a $100 bet.
How to Calculate Implied Probability
Odds are designed to showcase the likelihood of a result as an implied probability. This tells us the chance that the bet has of winning.
For example, if you were flipping a coin, you would always have a 50% chance of it landing on heads or tails. 50% implied probability as betting odds is +100, or even money.
The odds for half-time/full-time bets work in the same way. The image below covers an NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
The most likely outcome for the market is that the Chiefs will win at half-time and full-time (Chiefs-Chiefs) priced at +130.
We can use an odds converter to see how that looks as an implied probability.
- +130 = 43.5%
The sportsbook tells us this bet has a 43.5% chance of winning. If we compare this to the least likely outcome, which would be draw-draw, then we get the following implied probability:
- +4500 = 2.2%
At 2.2%, this is, at best, an outside chance and, for the most part, has no chance. But we can use the odds to see how likely a sportsbook thinks that result will happen with implied probability. Then, we can use this to find value.
For example, if we think the Chiefs-Chiefs result should have an implied probability of 50%, the odds would be +100. Given that this sportsbook offers higher odds than that at +130, this creates value.
Is the HT/FT Bet the Same as To Win Both Halves?
One of the most common mistakes we see around the HT/FT betting market is when bettors think it works the same as the to win both halves market. This is not the case.
When you bet on a team to win both halves, you need them to do exactly this. The bet is simple, all you need to do is pick yes or no, and that team then needs to get the job done (or not).
Let’s stick with the Chiefs v Eagles game to see how this might work.
As you can see, we’ve got two additional markets to the half-time/full-time bet, which are the Chiefs to win both halves and the Eagles to win both halves.
If we were to bet yes on either of these markets, the team would need to outscore their opponent in both halves to win. For example, if we pick the Chiefs, they must score more points than the Eagles in the first and second halves.
The bet essentially resets the score at half-time.
It differs from the half-time/full-time market because this goes on the overall result, and it’s possible a team could lose one half and still win the bet.
For example, if you bet Chiefs-Chiefs and they were 20-10 up at half-time before winning the game 30-25 after the second half, it would mean they’ve lost the second half 10-15 but still won the game. So, your HT/FT bet would win, but the to win both halves bet would lose.
Half-Time/Full-Time Betting Strategy
One of the best reasons to use this market is that every game will have a bet well suited to the HT/FT. The trick is working out what teams to target and for what bets, which is where a betting strategy comes in. We’ve listed a few methods to help you find profitable picks below.
Data – Most Points from Losing Positions
The highest returns from this market come from games where you can pick a team to lose at half-time and then go on to win. It’s the least common outcome, as most teams win or draw when they are ahead.
To do this, we need to look at data points such as points won from losing positions. Soccer is a great place to start, as there’s lots of data around this scenario.
Above, you can see data on the first 12 games of the Premier League season. It shows the number of times a team has been behind and come back to win, lose or draw. It outlines the number of points teams win when they go behind in a game from the match’s first goal.
At the top of the list is Liverpool. From 12 games, they’ve won an impressive 11 points from losing positions. Three of those games they’ve won, two have been draws, and just one defeat.
Now let’s look at Liverpool’s next game against Fulham at home.
There are three results combinations where Fulham scored the game’s first goal. They either go on to win, draw, or lose.
We need to find value in one of these markets where Fulham could be ahead at half-time but likely fail to win the game. This leaves us with two bets, Fulham-Draw and Fulham-Liverpool, priced at +220 and +2300, respectively.
The only caveat to using this sort of data is that it’s not reflective of the half-time scoreline.
For example, Liverpool could go behind first but still lead at half-time, which is crucial for this market. That said, it’s a great starting point to determine possible outcomes.
Target Half-Time Results
When you have two-part betting markets like this one, you need to start your research by getting the first part as close to perfect as possible. If the result at half-time is wrong, the whole bet loses.
We must jump back into data for this and look at numbers such as winning or losing percentages at half-time. Any league table or graph you can use to show win, draw, or loss percentages will help massively – like the one below.
This data shows how each team in the Premier League performs in the first half. So, Manchester City are at the top of the table here with seven wins, three draws, and two losses at half-time, with a win percentage of 58%.
Now, betting on a Manchester City-Manchester City outcome doesn’t yield massive returns for what is a hard market to call. Even in one of their toughest games of the season versus Liverpool, they were only priced at +145 to be winning at the end of both halves.
Manchester United would be a really interesting one to look at from this table. They’ve had an OK start to the season and sit sixth in the league. But shockingly, they’ve only been ahead at half-time in one of their games this season, which was against Burnley, ironically netting right on the stroke of half-time.
Interestingly, they’ve no draws this season, so very much in the result business. So, we’re looking at the following combinations:
- Draw – Manchester United
- Opponent – Draw
- Opponent – Manchester United
If we jump back to their losing at half-time data, of those five matches, they won just two. This means we can be fairly happy to rule that out unless opponents’ data suggested it could go the other way. We’re now looking at the top two results.
Their next game is against Everton, and you can see all the odds for this market above. The two we’re most interested in are as follows:
- Draw – Manchester United = +500
- Everton – Draw = +1300
Now we must return to the winning/losing at half-time table to see if Everton ticks any boxes. Well, they do. 58% of their games have been a draw at half-time. Manchester United are at the 50% mark, which is very high when there are three possible results.
Everton leading at half-time is just 17%, which makes our pick even more obvious. This is why the value is in picking the ‘Draw – Manchester United’ bet. It’s worth noting that if we just wagered on Manchester United to win, it would give us much lower odds of +145 compared to +500 for this bet.
This is a solid example of how you can use market-specific data to your advantage to find bets that offer value.
Most Goals/Point Scored in the Second Half
The NFL and soccer, the two most popular sports for the HT/FT bet, see more goals or points being scored in the second half than in the first half.
The numbers are closer for the NFL, with a 48% to 52% on average, but slightly wider in soccer leagues such as the Premier League, with margins as big as 42% to 58% in the second half.
What we can take from this is that games in the first half are cagey and will see less variance than in the second half.
If you’re betting on soccer, applying this sort of data is easier. The game starts as a draw, and the fewer goals in one half over the other mean that the chance of a draw at half-time is greatly increased.
Look for teams that struggle to score in the first half to find these bets. The image below shows data on how each team performs in each half. We can use this to find trends between teams that are playing next.
Let’s say we’ve got a game between Luton Town and Wolverhampton. We can see that both teams struggle to score in the first half, but both have decent defensive records. As a result, we can look at the draw as our first combination for the half-time/full-time market.
As we’ve outlined previously, any result that includes the draw tends to have some of the biggest odds within the market.
The other extreme here would be picking a game like Manchester City against Burnley, where the odds are massively in favor of Man City to be ahead at half-time.
Apply this HT/FT betting strategy at BetOnline and get industry-leading odds.
FAQs
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