Win Both Halves bets are a common bet type, offered by many bookmakers and betting exchanges. Although the name is self-explanatory - straight from the ‘It Does Exactly What It Says On the Tin’ school of bet naming - it’s easy to get them mixed up with the similar sounding, but very different, Half-Time/Full-Time bets. It's especially important to understand the difference if you're Matched Betting, to avoid backing one market and laying the other.

When you’re betting on a team to win both halves, you’re effectively viewing each half separately, as if they were two games.

For your bet to win, you need the team you’ve bet on to outscore their opponents in both halves of the game, so they’d need to be winning at the end of the first half and extend their lead by the time the final whistle is blown. 

In this guide, you’ll find out about how Win Both Halves bets work, their advantages and disadvantages, and how to find them at bookmakers and exchanges. We’ll also explain how they differ from Half-Time/Full-Time bets and look at a range of similar bet types offered by bookmakers.

Whether you're having a flutter at the bookmakers or value betting, Win Both Halves bets are an important type of bet to have in your arsenal.

How Win Both Halves Bets Work

Win Both Halves bets are available in a range of sports, but are most common in football. For your bet to win, you need your chosen team to win the first half by scoring more goals than their opponent. They then need to win the second half as well, again scoring more goals than their opposition in this half.

Let’s imagine you’ve bet on Tottenham to win both halves and they’re a goal to nil up at half-time. For the purposes of your bet, the two halves are treated almost like two separate games, both of which your team needs to win for your bet to be successful. Since they’re 1-0 up at half-time, Tottenham have won the first half. 

By the end of the game, Tottenham have extended their lead from one goal to two, by scoring two goals in the second half to West Ham’s single goal. This means that they’ve won the second half by two goals to one. 

Since Spurs have won both the first and the second half, your Win Both Bets bet will win. 

Now let’s look at another game, where you’ve bet on Aston Villa to win both halves. They’re winning by two goals to one at the end of the first half, so they've won the first half, which satisfies the first part of the bet.

The game ends 3-4, meaning that Manchester United and Aston Villa scored two goals each in the second half, so the second half result is a 2-2 draw. 

Since Aston Villa won the first half but only drew the second half, your Win Both Halves bet will lose. 

Finding Win Both Halves Bets

Win Both Halves bets are less popular than some other bet types, so you won't find them at all bookmakers and exchanges for all games. When they are included, they’re normally pretty easy to find, although you might need to select the ‘All Markets’ (or similar) tab to find them. 

Here are some screenshots of how you’ll see them listed at different bookmakers and exchanges. First off, here’s the market on 888Sport, who are good enough to add a note explaining what needs to happen for your bet to win.

Betfred have the Win Both Halves bets for both of the teams listed together, and you don't get the option to bet on either of the teams to not win both halves:

Coral have separate markets for the two teams, and you can bet on either team to win or not win both halves:

Betting exchanges also often feature a Win Both Halves market, although they might only start listing it fairly close to the start of the game, and not at all for lower-profile games. Another factor to consider is that liquidity and odds might be poor, as is the case for this game:

Win Both Halves vs Half-Time/Full-Time Markets

The Win Both Halves market often gets confused with the Half-Time/Full-Time market, due to the wording of the two bets. This is especially problematic if you're using them to place bets for Matched Betting, and end up backing one market and laying the other one.

Here's a bet on France to Win Both Halves at Ladbrokes:

Here's their Half-Time/Full-Time market for the same game:

The France/France bet on the Half-Time/Full-Time market is easily confused with 'France to Win Both Halves', but they're not the same. In the Half-Time/Full-Time market, you're betting on the position of the teams at half-time and at full-time. A France/France bet will win if France are winning at half-time and then go on to win the game at full-time. They don't need to win the second half for your bet to win.

With Win Both Halves bets, you can only bet on either of the teams to win both halves (and bet against them to win both halves with certain bookmakers). On the other hand, Half-Time/Full-Time markets have nine different possible bets, as you can see in the screenshot above. Here are a couple of bets you could choose:

• Belgium / France - Belgium to be winning at half-time, but France to win the game.
• France / Draw - France to be winning at half-time and the game to finish as a draw.
  

Example 1

In this game, Arsenal drew the first half of the game and won the second half.

• A bet on 'Arsenal Win Both Halves' would lose because, although they won the 2nd half, they only drew the 1st half. 
• A bet on 'Arsenal/Arsenal' in the Half-Time/Full-Time market would lose because Arsenal were drawing at half-time, rather than winning.
  

Example 2

In this game, Arsenal won the first half of the game and drew the second half.

• A bet on 'Arsenal Win Both Halves' would lose because they only won the 1st half but drew the 2nd half. 
• A bet on 'Arsenal/Arsenal' in the Half-Time/Full-Time market would win because Arsenal were winning at half-time, then went on to win the match at full-time.

Example 3

In this game, West Ham won both halves of the game.

• A bet on 'West Ham Win Both Halves' would win because they won both the 1st half and the 2nd half (they outscored Ipswich in both halves). 
• A bet on 'West Ham/West Ham' in the Half-Time/Full-Time market would win because West Ham were winning at half-time, then went on to win the match at full-time.

Related Markets

Bookmakers and exchanges offer a wide range of bets, so you'll probably find what you're looking for. If you want even more versatility, most bookmakers now offer Bet Builders, which allow you to create a huge range of custom bets.

Listed below are a handful of bets that are similar to Win Both Halves bets, to give you an idea of what's available. These examples are all taken from Paddy Power. As with all bets, some of them are much more likely to win than others, so you have a wide range of odds available for the same teams and can pick your level of risk versus reward.

Match Odds

The most popular football betting market, where you're betting on the full-time result of the game and you can bet on either team to win, or for the outcome to be a draw.

Win Both Halves

As covered in the article, this is a bet on your chosen team to win both halves, as if each half was a separate game.

Win Either Half

A bet on your chosen team to win either half, or both halves. This is much more likely than a team winning both halves, so the odds are considerably lower for this market, compared to Win Both Halves bets.

Half-Time/Full-Time

A bet on the position of the two teams at half-time and full-time. You're betting on which team will be winning, or if it will be a draw, at half-time, and the full-time result. There are nine possible bets:

1. Home Team / Home Team
2. Home Team / Draw
3. Home Team / Away Team
4. Draw / Home Team
5. Draw / Draw
6. Draw / Away Team
7. Away Team / Home Team
8. Away Team / Draw
9. Away Team / Away Team
   

To Be Winning at Half-Time or Full-Time

This is similar to a Half-Time / Full-Time bet, but much easier to win (and therefore has much lower odds), since you only need your chosen team to be winning either at half-time or full-time, rather than correctly picking the exact half-time and full-time positions of the teams. 

A Goal Scored in Both Halves

For your bet to win, you need at least one goal to be scored in each half. It doesn't matter if it's the same team, or both of the teams, scoring the goals.

To Score in Both Halves

Here, you're betting on one of the teams to score in the first half and also score in the second half. This bet has much lower odds than the Win Both Halves market, since your team only needs to score in each half, rather than needing to score more goals than their opponents in both halves.

Half with Most Goals

As it sounds, you're simply betting on which half has the most goals scored in it overall, including goals from both teams. This one has a tie option, so you can bet on the same number of goals being scored in the first and second halves.

Pros and Cons of Win Both Halves Bets

Pros

• Good payouts due to much more competitive odds than the Match Result market.
• Allows you to bet on strong favourites with higher odds.
• Available across a range of sports.

Cons

• Higher risk than betting on the match result market.
• The high odds reflect the relatively low likelihood of the bet winning.
  

Conclusion

Offered by a wide range of bookmakers and exchanges, Win Both Halves bets allow you to place bets at much higher odds than you'd get by backing the same team on the Match Result market. It's important to understand the difference between these bets and other closely related bets. This is especially true of the Half-time/Full-time market, so if you're Matched Betting, you need to take great care to back and lay the correct markets.

Bookmakers often have Price Boosts on Win Both Halves bets, and they can also be used for arbing and Value Betting, giving this important bet type plenty of versatility.