Both Teams to Score, usually shortened to BTTS, is a simple yes/no market that asks a single question: will both teams score at least one goal during the match? It ignores the final result completely and focuses only on whether each side finds the net at least once.
Because it is easy to understand and does not require picking a winner, BTTS is one of the most popular alternative markets in football betting.
What Is Both Teams to Score?
There are only two possible outcomes in this market:
- BTTS Yes both teams score at least one goal each, regardless of the final score
- BTTS No at least one team fails to score
A 2-1 result settles as Yes. A 3-0 result settles as No, because one team did not score. A 0-0 draw also settles as No.
How and When BTTS Is Settled
Standard BTTS markets are settled on regular time only, meaning the first 90 minutes plus stoppage time. Extra time and penalty shootouts in knockout competitions typically do not count toward the standard full-time BTTS market unless the market is specifically labelled otherwise.
Some bookmakers also offer BTTS markets for individual halves, such as BTTS in the first half, which is settled using only goals scored before half-time.
How Bookmakers Price BTTS Markets
Bookmakers estimate the probability of each team scoring based on attacking form, defensive record, head-to-head history, and current squad availability. These are only inputs into a pricing model, not predictions of what will happen.
As with any two-outcome market, the odds include a built-in margin. For example:
- BTTS Yes: odds of 1.80
- BTTS No: odds of 2.05
Converting to implied probability:
- 1 / 1.80 = 55.6%
- 1 / 2.05 = 48.8%
The two numbers add up to 104.4%, not 100%. That 4.4% difference represents the bookmaker’s margin on this specific market, the same concept explained in more depth in our guide to how bookmakers build margin into odds.
Both Teams to Score correlates loosely with other high-scoring indicators such as expected goals for both sides, since two teams that each generate a reasonable volume of quality chances are more likely to both find the net than two sides that create very little. This is why bettors sometimes cross-reference a BTTS price against a match’s expected goals split before deciding whether the market looks fairly priced, rather than relying on the scoreline odds alone.
BTTS Combined with Other Markets
Many bookmakers offer combined markets that merge BTTS with a match result or a goals total, such as “Home Win & BTTS” or “Over 2.5 & BTTS”. These combined markets require every condition to be true at once, which is why their odds are considerably higher than a single BTTS bet on its own, reflecting the lower combined probability.
Common Misunderstandings About BTTS
- Confusing it with Over/Under. A 4-0 result has plenty of goals but settles as BTTS No, since only one team scored.
- Assuming high-scoring teams guarantee BTTS Yes. A team can score four goals while conceding none, which still settles as No.
- Ignoring clean sheet records. A team’s defensive record is just as relevant to this market as its attacking output.
- Forgetting settlement timing. Late goals in stoppage time still count for standard full-time BTTS markets.
Key Takeaways
- BTTS asks whether both teams scored at least once, regardless of the final result.
- Standard markets settle on regular time only, not extra time or penalties.
- Odds for BTTS Yes and No include a built-in bookmaker margin, just like any other market.
- Combined markets (BTTS with result or totals) carry higher odds because more conditions must be true simultaneously.
- Both attacking and defensive form are relevant when this market is being priced.
What Actually Drives a BTTS Result
Both teams to score depends on two largely independent attacking questions being answered yes at the same time, which means it is influenced less by which team wins and more by how open or cautious both sides set up to play. A tactically defensive away performance can suppress a BTTS outcome even in a match the home side wins comfortably, while two mid-table teams with weak defenses can produce a BTTS yes result even in a fixture neither side is expected to win outright. This is why BTTS form should be read through each teams defensive record as much as their attacking one, since a high-scoring team that also concedes rarely is a very different BTTS proposition from a high-scoring team that leaks goals at both ends.
Combining BTTS With Other Markets
BTTS is frequently paired with total goals or the match result in combination markets, since the three questions, who wins, how many goals are scored, and whether both sides score, are related but not identical, and a combined market can capture a more specific view than any single market alone. A view like the home side wins and both teams score reflects a genuinely different scenario than simply the home side wins, and pricing that combination accurately requires modeling the joint probability of both events rather than just multiplying the two individual prices together.
None of this requires complicated modeling to apply in practice; simply checking both teams recent scoring AND conceding records side by side, rather than looking at one teams attack in isolation, is enough to spot when a BTTS price looks out of step with the actual pattern of both defenses.
If this topic interests you, our guides on Correct Score Betting Explained: Why the Odds Are So High and Correct Score Betting Explained: Why the Odds Are So High cover closely related ground.
