1X2 betting: what 1, X and 2 mean on a bet slip

Read a 1X2 line from left to right: home win, draw, away win.

At a neutral ground, 1 is still the team named first. Read the names, not just the numbers, before you tap a price.

What counts as the result is regular time: 90 minutes plus the stoppage time the referee adds. 22Bet’s football rules accept bets on regular time and count extra time and penalty shoot-outs only for markets such as to qualify. In a cup tie that is level after 90 minutes, the 1X2 result is X, whoever goes through. Each site has its own rule for a match that is abandoned.

The margin inside the three prices shows when you turn each one into a chance. Divide 100 by each price, then add the three.

The guide to how betting odds work goes further into margins and why they cost most in accas.

The markets built on 1X2 each change one thing about it.

• Double chance puts two of the three results on one bet: 1X, X2 or 12.
• Draw no bet is a win bet that returns the stake on a draw.
• A handicap is 1X2 after one team has been given a goal start.
• First half 1X2 is the result at half-time only.
• HT/FT asks for the result at half-time and at full time together.
• 1X2 and over/under, or 1X2 and GG, are combined markets where both parts must be right.

The X is the result punters forget. Back a team at 1.50 and a draw loses the bet, even though the team did not lose the match. A price of 1.50 needs the win two times in three just to break even.

Sportsbooks price the same match differently, and 1X2 is the easiest market to check: three numbers per site. Bettings.ng scores each sportsbook for odds in its best odds list. Football coverage is compared in the football betting list, and every operator Bettings.ng lists is in the table of betting sites in Nigeria. You have to be 18 to place a match result bet.