Both Teams to Score Explained: What BTTS Means and How to Price It
How BTTS bets settle, how books price Yes and No, and how to turn expected goals into a fair number before you bet.
By
Eric Pauly
9 min read
What Does Both Teams to Score Mean?
Both teams to score, usually shortened to BTTS, is a soccer bet on one question: will each side find the net at least once? You pick Yes or No. The winner of the match does not matter, the margin does not matter, and the total only matters in the sense that each team needs a goal of its own. Arsenal beating Chelsea 2-1 cashes a Yes ticket. Arsenal winning 3-0 cashes a No ticket, and so does a 0-0.
That simplicity is why BTTS sits near the top of almost every soccer board, right next to the match result and the totals. It is also why it gets bet on instinct more than it gets priced. This guide covers how BTTS settles, how books build the Yes and No prices, how to estimate a fair number from each team's expected goals, and which BTTS combinations are worth understanding before you touch them. If you want a refresher on the base markets first, start with how soccer odds work.
article Summary
Both teams to score (BTTS) is a Yes or No bet on whether each team scores at least once in regulation time. You can estimate a fair BTTS price by converting each team's expected goals into a chance of scoring and multiplying the two. Strip the vig from the book's Yes and No prices and compare them to your number before you bet.
How BTTS Bets Settle
Settlement is where most BTTS confusion comes from, so it is worth reading the rules once and then never thinking about them again.
Regulation Time Only
At most sportsbooks, BTTS is graded on 90 minutes plus stoppage time. Extra time and penalty shootouts do not count. That matters in knockout competitions like the Carabao Cup, the FA Cup, and the Champions League knockout rounds. If a tie is 1-0 after 90 minutes and the trailing side equalizes in extra time, a BTTS Yes ticket still loses. Some books offer separate markets that include extra time, and they are labeled as such, so check the market name before you assume.
Own Goals Count
An own goal counts for the team that benefits from it. If Liverpool lead 1-0 and a Liverpool defender turns the ball into his own net, the away side has scored for BTTS purposes. Your Yes ticket does not care who touched it last.
Abandoned and Postponed Matches
House rules vary here. Many books void BTTS if a match is abandoned, but some settle it as Yes when both teams had already scored before play stopped, since the result could no longer change. Postponed fixtures are usually voided after a set window. These cases are rare, but the rule sits in each book's terms if you ever need it.
Quick Reference: Which Scorelines Win
BTTS Yes wins: 1-1, 2-1, 1-2, 2-2, 3-1, 3-2, and any result where both sides have at least one goal
BTTS No wins: 0-0, 1-0, 0-1, 2-0, 3-0, 0-4, and any result where at least one side is held scoreless
Does not count: goals in extra time or a penalty shootout, unless the market says otherwise
How Sportsbooks Price BTTS Odds
BTTS is a two-way market, which makes it one of the easier soccer prices to audit. You get a Yes price and a No price, and between them they cover every possible outcome. Convert both to implied probability, add them up, and anything over 100 percent is the book's margin.
Reading the Two Sides
A favorite price means the book thinks that outcome is more likely than not. BTTS Yes at -125 implies about 55.6 percent. BTTS No at +100 implies 50 percent. Those two numbers sum to roughly 105.6 percent, and that extra 5.6 percent is the vig you pay whichever side you take. A devig calculator strips that margin out and shows you what the book actually believes.
Why BTTS Prices Differ Between Books
BTTS is a secondary market at most US books. The match result and the main total get the sharpest attention, and BTTS is often derived from those numbers rather than set on its own. That means one book can be slow to adjust after team news while another has already moved. When I pull the same Premier League fixture up across several books, the BTTS Yes price regularly sits in a wider range than the moneyline on that match, which is exactly the kind of gap line shopping exists to catch.
What Moves the Number
BTTS is a bet on the weaker attack as much as the stronger one. A lopsided fixture where the favorite projects for three goals can still price BTTS No as the favorite, because the underdog might not score at all. Confirmed lineups, a missing striker, a goalkeeper change, or a manager rotating ahead of a midweek European game can all push the price several cents in either direction.
How to Estimate a Fair Both Teams to Score Price
You do not need a full model to sanity check a BTTS price. You need each team's expected goals for the match and one short formula.
From Expected Goals to a Chance of Scoring
Goals in soccer behave closely enough to a Poisson distribution that the chance a team scores at least once is 1 minus e to the power of negative xG. In a spreadsheet that is =1-EXP(-x). A team projected for 1.0 expected goals scores at least once about 63 percent of the time. A team projected for 1.9 scores at least once about 85 percent of the time. The same math drives our guide to pricing goalscorer props, just applied to a whole team instead of one player.
Combining the Two Teams
Multiply the two scoring chances and you have a baseline BTTS Yes probability. BTTS No is simply 1 minus that number. This treats the two teams as independent, which is a simplification. In real matches, game state matters: a team that goes 2-0 up often sits deeper and invites pressure, and a team chasing a result commits more players forward. Those effects tend to push BTTS Yes slightly higher than the independent estimate in open matches, so treat your number as a starting point rather than a final answer.
Where the Inputs Come From
Season xG per 90 is a reasonable start, but it needs adjusting for the opponent, home and away splits, and who is actually playing. My process is to set each side's expected goals before looking at the BTTS price, then compare. If I look at the price first, my estimate has a way of drifting toward it.
BTTS Variations and Combination Markets
Once you understand the base market, most of the BTTS menu is the same question asked with an extra condition attached. Each extra condition lowers the probability and raises the payout, and each one gives the book another place to add margin.
The Common BTTS Markets
BTTS and Over 2.5: both teams score and the match has three or more goals. The only BTTS scoreline this removes is 1-1.
BTTS and Win: both teams score and your chosen side wins, such as 2-1 or 3-1. A 1-1 or 2-2 draw loses.
BTTS First Half or Second Half: both teams score within that half. Much less likely than full match BTTS, so prices are long.
BTTS in Both Halves: both teams score in the first half and again in the second. A true longshot.
BTTS Inside Same Game Parlays
BTTS Yes is correlated with overs and with anytime goalscorer props on the underdog's striker. If the underdog's forward scores, that alone satisfies half of BTTS. Books know this and adjust same game parlay pricing for it, so stacking BTTS Yes with an underdog scorer usually pays less than multiplying the two prices would suggest. Our same game parlay breakdown covers how correlation pricing works in more detail.
BTTS vs Over 2.5 Goals
Bettors often treat BTTS Yes and Over 2.5 as the same bet. They overlap heavily, but the scorelines that separate them are where the decision actually lives.
Where the Two Markets Split
1-1: BTTS Yes wins, Over 2.5 loses
3-0 or 4-0: Over 2.5 wins, BTTS Yes loses
2-1, 2-2, 3-1: both win
0-0, 1-0, 2-0: both lose
Choosing Between Them
The split tells you which market fits which match profile. In a fixture between two evenly matched sides that both defend reasonably well, a cagey 1-1 is a live result, and BTTS Yes covers it where the over does not. In a mismatch where the favorite could run up a 3-0 or 4-0, Over 2.5 covers that path and BTTS does not. When I compare the two for the same match, I ask which of those scorelines I think the book is underrating, then check which market actually pays me for that opinion.
The Weaker Attack Decides BTTS
Totals are driven by the combined output of both teams. BTTS is capped by whichever team is less likely to score. A 3.2 projected total built almost entirely on one team is a strong over and a weak BTTS Yes. Keep that in mind when a big total tempts you toward BTTS.
Final Thoughts
Both teams to score is a simple question with a price that is easy to check. Know that it settles on 90 minutes, strip the vig from the Yes and No sides, and compare that to your own estimate from each team's expected goals. Give extra weight to the weaker attack, recheck after lineups drop, and shop the number across books, because BTTS is a secondary market that some books are slower to move.
Both Teams to Score FAQ
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