Best 1X2 Sports Betting Tips. Exclusive Bookmaker Bonuses

When it comes down to football sports betting, most punters will have discovered by now how many markets they can actually choose from. Accumulate bets, real-time bets, handicap bets; there are quite some options for players to take their sports bets to the next level and we can’t deny that there’s nothing quite like beating the bookie with a successful multibet. Some bettors try to keep things more simple and it’s easy to see why. At the end, 1X2 betting is still the most popular way to place a wager.

If you’re a complete newbie to the wonderful world of football betting, you may not be familiar with concepts like bet accumulators or 1X2 betting and we can’t really blame you. Much of the vocabulary around football betting can seem somewhat intimidating. But, like much in sports betting jargon, the main idea behind 1X2 betting is actually pretty straightforward. In fact, with 1X2 bets we’re talking about a very common type of sports betting that is especially popular among football bettors.

If you’re looking for a complete answer to the question, ‘What does 1X2 mean in betting?’, we are happy to invite you to read on. Not only will we answer this particular question, in our five 1X2 betting tips we will also give you some tips and tricks of how to make your own successful 1X2 betting plan.

There are no more factors to consider than whether (1) the home team will win, (2) the away team will win or (3) the match will end in a tie. These are the only things you need to think of in a 1X2 bet. It really is that easy. Generally, the three outcomes of a match between two teams are represented by either 1, 2, or X, hence explaining the definition of 1X2 sports betting. 

• 1 stands for a home win.
• 2 stands for an away win.
• And X for a draw.

Example

Let’s have the concept of 1X2 sports betting explained with a clear example, taken from the English Premier League. Let’s imagine Tottenham Hotspur are playing West Ham United at home. 

• Tottenham would be team 1.
• West Ham would be team 2.
• The X would be a draw between Tottenham and West Ham.

The basics of 1X2 sports betting

There’s nothing more to it. Of course, as with anything, simplicity often covers complexity in one way or another. When we’re talking about 1X2 betting, the matter of complexity doesn’t necessarily come from the type of sport betting you’re dealing with but has to do with the knowledge and preparation that you need to carry out to make sure you’re following an efficient betting strategy. A big part of 1X2 bets’ popularity has to do with its history. Way before the modern days of online football betting came with an overwhelming wealth of betting options, 1X2 betting was often what punters associated with the basics of sports betting.

Build good habits and break bad ones

Not only does this mean that the traditional 1X2 market has a relatively big importance for the older generations, but these kinds of concepts echo across generations and represent what sports betting is all about.

It’s hard to change consumer behaviours sometimes and we can’t blame the older generation for not wanting to get involved with all sorts of bet accumulators or handicap bets. Even if explained the benefits of other markets, this is the group of die-hard bettors that would always turn to 1X2 betting and they’re completely right if they feel more comfortable this way. They say never change a winning team, don’t they? 

Easy to switch to new markets

However, for those trying to find other interesting markets to bet on, 1X2 betting is actually a very versatile betting market to build upon. What we mean by this is that 1X2 bets can be easily combined with other markets in order to create bigger combination bet without becoming overly complicated. 1X2 bets can be easily applied in handicap betting or accumulator bets. We, therefore, consider 1X2 betting as a very solid base to stand on. 

Best 1X2 sport betting in a nutshell

• 1X2 betting is where you only bet on the result of a match.
• You can bet on the game is a home win, a draw or an away win.
• 1X2 betting works well with handicap bonus bets and accumulators.

Soccer odds 1×2 betting

We’ve already formulated that in 1X2 betting, the 3 possible betting outcomes are each labeled with their own signifier: 1, 2, and X. But how are football betting odds on 1X2 betting markets listed? As with other betting markets, there are 3 different ways of displaying odds: 

1. Fractional odds.
2. Decimal odds.
3. American odds. 

American odds don’t tend to be used for football as they are more common for sports that are popular in North America, like American football, baseball and ice hockey, or in fact for sports that don’t have draws, which is clearly not the case with football. We’ll therefore just stick to the fractional and decimal odds for now to make things more practical.

Fractional odds

Some punters find fractional odds a bit difficult to understand at first, but the way they work is actually pretty straightforward. An example of 1X2 bet with fractional odds:

• 1: Manchester City 8/11
• 2: Newcastle United 3/2
• X: Draw 11/4

The number you can find on the left of the fraction is the figure you’ll win if you place a bet with the number of the right. For instance, if Newcastle United win, you’ll win £3 for every £2 you stake. A £20 bet on Newcastle United would give you £30 in winnings, for a total payout of £50. In this case City are the clear ‘odds-on’ favourites, so you would win less than your stake when you bet on them. It’s very important to remember that, as opposed to decimal odds, your bet isn’t included in the equation and you must add this to your earnings to calculate the total payout you can win. 

Decimal odds

What is 1×2 betting with decimal odds? We’ll take the exact same example of the 1X2 bet given above, but with decimal odds in this case. This would add up to:

• 1: Manchester City 1.73
• X: Draw 3.75
• 2: Newcastle United 2.50

Many bettors find it easier to compare odds when they are displayed in this way, especially those who engage in matched betting. All bettors need to do is work out the total payout of the bet, by multiplying the stake by the decimal given and, voilà, that’s your figure. A £10 bet on Manchester City would give you a value of £17.30. Different than fractional odds, decimal odds do actually include your stake, so in this case £7.30 would be your winnings at the end. Please note that fractional odds are the most common way of displaying betting odds in the United Kingdom, so punters in the UK will need to get familiar with decimal odds. 

Best 1X2 accumulator bets

We already mentioned that 1X2 sports betting can be easily applied in accumulator bets. When you place a 1X2 bet, you can combine multiple 1X2 bets into your acca without a hitch. Accumulators are bets that include 4 or more selections and give well informed sports bettors the possibility to win more money by combining multiple games or markets. A successful accumulator bet gives you higher payouts and can be very interesting for those that do their research before a game. 

Many online bookies have special promotions for accumulators, like free bets, as these have managed to grow out to be the most popular form of football bets, offering punters a potentially high return while the stake is relatively low. In a football accumulator, your stake rolls over and we’ll illustrate this by explaining the concept of 1×2 betting with an example. Below will give you a basic idea of just how easily the money can stack up in a successful 4-fold football odds 1X2 accumulator:

• 1: Tottenham Hotspur 1.73.
• X: Draw (Chelsea vs. Leicester City) 3.25.
• 2: Aston Villa 2.50.
• 1: Everton 1.27.

So let’s imagine a £1 stake on Tottenham Hotspur would give you a pay-out of £2.73. This number would then be placed on a tie between Chelsea and Leicester City and so on for each of the above games. If each subsequent bet turns out to be successful, you would be looking at a payout of £17.85 at the end, which includes your original stake of £1.

Other types of 1X2 sports betting: 1 X 2 half-time

Your 1X2 bet can also place 1X2 wagers on other types of bets like half-time results. In this case, the nature of the bet is pretty much the same of a normal 90 minutes game. So, you’re still wagering on either (1) a home win, (2) away win or (3) draw. However, the end result of the bet is based on what the score is at half time, that is, after 45 minutes + injury time.

Let’ s say you have placed a half-time 1X2 bet on a tie between Southampton and Crystal Palace. If, after 45 minutes, the scores are even at 0-0, but during the second half Southampton scores three goals to take a 3-0 victory, you would still win your bet, as the score at full-time doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you got the score right in a particular betting period. 

5 tips on how to be successful in 1X2 betting 

Even with a betting market as easy as 1X2 betting, it’s always a good idea to go into it with a well thought strategy in mind. As is always the case with sports betting, there’s a lot of research that goes into a successful bet. In order to help you get started with 1X2 betting, we’ve combined 5 of our best 1X2 tips. Let’s take a closer look at each of them. 

1. Know your sport

One of our most important recommendations for betting successfully on sports betting in general is to focus on 2 or 3 sports at most. In fact, a lot of successful bettors will focus on just one single sport as their devotion to bringing home the bigger wins. If you’re a football fan, we would even recommend you to stick to a few leagues. Focussing on a few football leagues or competitions should usually give enough interesting combinations of bets anway.

Knowledge is power

Knowing everything about the sports on which you are betting makes it a lot easier to get a hold on the actual value of odds on offer and predict interesting outcomes. The main idea about sports betting is to lower the chance of random results as much as possible. In other games of chance you haven’t got a chance to influence the randomness of the game, but when it comes down to sports betting, knowledge does make a difference. A few ways to gather useful information is to chew over our sports betting guides or follow tipster 1×2 info.

2. Do you research ahead of the game

Apart from knowledge being the key to power in sports betting, you’ll also need to realise that football bets are all about applying the right knowledge at the right time. This might sound somewhat obvious, but you might just be the biggest FC Barcelona fan out there, but if you weren’t aware that Messi got injured a few hours before kick-off, your research wasn’t conducted well.

As 1X2 betting is all about picking the right team at the right circumstances, your knowledge about the form of each team ahead of the event makes a huge difference. 

Always stay updated

Being aware of injuries to important players, or last-minute tactical changes, is all crucial when it comes to making the right decision in a 1X2 bet. Doing your research ahead of the game means that you can better access the odds of the bookies offering sports bets. Knowing as much as possible about the teams that are going to face each other, makes sure you can make a well balanced assessment of which odds represent good value.

3. Boost your chances with accumulators

One type of betting that can be a nice challenge to get the most out of your 1X2 betting strategy is that of accumulators. An acca is where you combine multiple 1X2 bets onto one single bet. The odds from each bet are added together and lead to a higher pay-out if successful. Betting with accumulators is an effective way for betting on the favourites, commonly known for their less interesting odds.

While a single 1X2 bet on a topdog might not give you the pay-out you’re hoping for, combining bets on several favourites can actually lead to high wins. Just make your selections in a careful way, always trying to maximise the risk to reward ratio. At BetBuilder we recommend you to stick a maximum of 5 bets, as we find this number to represent the right balance between potential winnings and probabilities. 

4. Understand the odds

One of the biggest challenges of sports betting is trying to keep things as simple as possible. Understanding how odds work should therefore be one of the main challenges, as the main idea is to recognise whether a bookmaker offers proper odds and which odds can be beaten according to your own calculations.

There are a few ways to do so. One way is to find out how much your odds are worth. That is, the return that you will get if your bet turns out right. This is actually made quite easy by online bookies, but if you want a better understanding of how this works across in football betting, we strongly suggest you to go through our guide of How to search for high value football bets which tackle this topic.

5. Do consider draws

Very simple, but always worth mentioning, is our last tip: considering odds. As there are 3 potential outcomes in this type of betting, people tend to stick to the most challenging outcomes: either or a win or a less, discarding the potential outcome of a draw. Ties are considered less ‘sexy’ and don’t always come with interesting odds, making them less favourable among some punters. Your main objective, however, should be to keep things as rational as possible and always consider the possibility of a draw. Even if the odds aren’t that interesting you could always think of spicing things up by safe betting on an accumulator bet. 

We’ll here to help you find those bookmakers that offer a lot of different markets across a wide range of sports, including 1×2 betting systems. Offering fair 1×2 odds is, nonetheless, one of the many criteria we take into consideration before recommending a bookmaker. Whether you’re looking for a bookie that offers cash outs, accumulator bets, or free bets, all of the recommended bookmakers on our site will have it covered and – very important – punters in the Nordic can now register for a free account with these licenced providers: 

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