Somewhere Over The 2.5 Goals Rainbow

Somewhere Over The 2.5 Goals Rainbow

I remember telling older gamblers in a pub about over 2.5 goal bets and none of them understood it.

How can you bet on half a goal?! It's impossible!"

And they had a point, so much so I forgot about it, putting it to the back of my mind.

Then I remembered it during the last World Cup. On the Who Scored website, they'd have pointers, such and such a team's last eight matches have featured 2.5 goals. So, I dabbled in the market.

It proved to be a success.

Bookies seemed to have overpriced the market (I'm sure some games were over evens) and they must have watched in horror as a lot of the early games finished with three or more goals.

I followed the bet for a bit into the new season before I gave up. It was too early to use any sort of form to judge teams and I made the mistake of looking for stats to back up my selections that weren't there.

I started to use a website to concentrate on teams who were averaging more than 2.75 goals per game on the basis that they'd have a good chance of finishing over 2.5 goals and if I found two teams that ticked this box who we're playing each other, then that was my bet.

My intention, as the odds (especially in Scotland) weren't as generous as you'd want, was to rack up as many teams that met the criteria as possible and put them in an accumulator.

But this wasn't always the case.

So, I started to also throw in teams who met that criteria even if their opponents didn't. I think it's called being greedy instead of being sensible and patient.

What happened I hear you ask? Let's just say I didn't win a fortune. I was all over the place.

Some selections that met the criteria originally set came in, some didn't. Some that I forced into the criteria came in, some didn't.

So, I gave up.

But I think I'll start again. Why though?

Here's the thing. It's a great bet. From a neutrals point of view all your doing is wanting goals to be scored and as many as possible to help your bet. 

I remember changing things slightly and betting on the over 1.5 markets for the Holland and Chile game and cheering on both sides at the top of my voice. 

Football suddenly became exciting again.

And that's what football should be about.

Forget about goal-line technology, forget about zonal marking, forget about diving.

Football is about goals. Anyone who disagrees is either a liar or a firm backer of 0-0.

Another good thing about the bet is that it doesn't matter who scores, it can be any team.

So, this is different from the popular both teams to score market and the traditional 1X2 market.

How often has your bet been looking good only for one team to let you down.

Going forward, what do you do? Avoid that team as you feel that they jinxed you?

Keep betting in them as they owe you one?

My intention is to look into stats and list the games where the two teams have an average of over 2.75 goals.

This will be done for the weekend matches to juggle my work and family balance.

One thing that may be of interest is if I miss out on 2.5 goals is it still hitting 1.5 goals?

The odds are obviously less but if you get ten out of ten then it's still a winner.

Again, any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

And with the law of averages, I'll probably give up after a disastrous first week!

After opening 14-0, they promptly rested their starters for the rest of the regular season which ended with 2 losses.

Believe it or not, once a playoff seeding is guaranteed, ensuring their players stay healthy takes precedent over a record like this.

Want to test betting on over 2.5 goals? 

Head over to the free OLBG football tipping competitions.