Odd and Even Meaning in Betting
The meaning of odd and even in betting: you predict whether the match goal total is an odd or even number. See how 0–0 settles, Naira examples, half and team variants, and common myths.
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Odd/even is a bet on whether the total number of goals in a match is odd (1, 3, 5) or even (0, 2, 4). A 0–0 draw counts as even, a 2–1 is odd and a 2–2 is even. Only regular time counts, and both sides are usually priced close to 2.00.
On this page
In odd/even betting you pick whether the final goal total will be an odd number (1, 3, 5) or an even number (0, 2, 4). Who wins is irrelevant. The one point that confuses people is a goalless draw, which counts as even because zero is an even number.
The basic rule
Add the two teams’ goals together and look at the number. That is the whole settlement process. On most apps the market sits in the goals section, labelled “Odd/Even”, “Goals odd/even” or “Total goals odd/even”.
| Final score | Total | Settles as |
|---|---|---|
| 0–0 | 0 | Even |
| 1–0 | 1 | Odd |
| 1–1 | 2 | Even |
| 2–1 | 3 | Odd |
| 2–2 | 4 | Even |
| 3–2 | 5 | Odd |
Every extra goal flips the outcome. That makes the market unusual: unlike over/under, it is never settled early, because one late goal turns a winning even bet into a losing one, and a second late goal turns it back.
How punters use odd/even
Odd/even has no clear favourite in the usual sense. Because each extra goal flips the result, many matches are close to a coin toss, and bookmakers price both sides near 2.00. Under a simple goal model, even is very slightly more likely in low-scoring games because 0–0 counts as even, but the gap is only a few percentage points at most.
Punters use it as a stand-alone bet, as an extra leg on a slip, or live when the score and the clock make one side more likely. At 1–1 in the 85th minute, for example, even wins if nobody scores again, and the live price reflects that.
Odd and even examples in Naira
Example ₦2,000 on even at 1.90. The match ends 0–0, returning ₦2,000 × 1.90 = ₦3,800, a profit of ₦1,800. A 1–0 result would lose the stake.
Example Odd and even are both priced at 1.90. Each implies 100 ÷ 1.90, about 52.6%, so the pair adds up to about 105.3%. That extra 5.3% is the bookmaker’s margin. Backing both sides with ₦1,000 each costs ₦2,000 and always returns ₦1,900, a certain ₦100 loss.
That second example shows why covering both outcomes never works. You can read more about margins in our guide on how to read odds and implied probability.
Odd/even variants: halves, teams and other statistics
- First-half odd/even counts only goals before half-time; 0–0 at the break is even.
- Second-half odd/even counts only goals scored after the restart, not the full-time total.
- Home or away odd/even looks at one team’s goals; a team that fails to score counts as even.
- Corners or cards odd/even appears on some apps and applies the same rule to a different statistic, as on our corner markets page.
- Basketball odd/even applies the idea to total points scored.
Read the market name carefully. A game that is 1–0 at half-time and ends 2–1 settles as odd on the full-match market (three goals) but as even on the second-half market (two goals after the break).
Settlement rules: extra time, own goals and abandoned games
Goals in regular time plus stoppage time count; extra time and penalty shootouts do not, unless the market title says otherwise. Own goals count like any other. Because odd/even can always change with one more goal, an abandoned match usually voids the bet and returns the stake, though some bookmakers apply their own rules. Check the sports rules section of yours before betting.
Odd/even settles on goals only. Do not confuse it with “even odds”, which describes a price of 2.00 where you win the same amount you stake.
Live odd/even: how the current score shapes the bet
Before kick-off the two sides are close to equal. Once the match is under way, the current total matters a great deal, because the side that is winning right now only needs no further goals, or an even number of them. Late in a game, when no more goals is the most likely outcome, that side becomes a clear favourite and its price shortens.
Take a match at 2–1 after 80 minutes. Odd is ahead and stays ahead if nobody scores or if two more goals arrive. Even needs exactly one more goal, or three. With ten minutes plus stoppage time left, a goalless finish is far more common than any of those, so odd will be priced short and even long. Backing even there is really a bet on one late goal.
Myths and mistakes about odd/even
- “0–0 is neither odd nor even.” Zero is even, and bookmakers settle it that way.
- “Even keeps coming up, so odd is due.” Earlier matches do not affect the next one. A run of evens tells you nothing about tonight’s game.
- “It is a low-risk filler.” At roughly 50%, each odd/even leg nearly halves the chance of a multiple winning; see accumulators explained.
- “A high-scoring team means odd.” More goals make the result less predictable, not more odd.
If you would rather bet on how many goals than on their parity, start with over 2.5 goals or under lines, and see our daily goal-line selections for current fixtures. Combined goal markets such as GG are covered in GG/NG explained.
Related betting terms
Odd and even goals: FAQ
A goalless match settles as even. Zero has no remainder when divided by two, so it is an even number, and bookmakers treat a 0–0 as a win for the even side on full-match, first-half and second-half odd/even markets alike.
Yes. Own goals are part of the official score, so they are added to the total like any other goal. A 1–1 where the equaliser was an own goal is still two goals and settles as even.
It means the number of goals scored after half-time must be even. A match that goes from 1–0 at the break to 1–0 at full time has zero second-half goals, so second-half even wins, while 1–0 to 2–0 is one goal and loses.
No. Exactly one of the two will win, and the margin means the winning return is less than the two stakes combined. You lose a small amount every time, as the worked example on this page shows.
It refers only to the goals scored by the home side. If they score 0, 2 or 4, the bet wins; 1 or 3 loses. The away team's goals are ignored, so a 2–3 defeat still wins home team even.