A question I'm asked relatively frequently when sticking bets up is "What does goal line mean?". The obvious sarcastic answer is the line in between the two posts on the pitch, but that stopped being funny about 3 or 4 years ago, much like I did, so for those of you who don't know what a "Goal Line" bet is, let me explain.
Now these are called Goal Line bets on Bet365, but on a lot of European markets they are simply just Over / Under goals. Most European bookies will have an Over / Under market that looks like this: Over 0.25 Over 0.50 Over 0.75 Over 1.00 Over 1.25 etc Might look complicated to those of you not used to it, but it's relatively easy to understand. Bet365 on the other hand has an Over / Under market of 0.5, 1.5, 2.5 etc but their Goal Line market will look like this: Over 0.5, 1.0 Over 1.0 Over 1.0, 1.5 Over 1.5 Over 1.5, 2.0 Over 2.0
etc Now firstly, most of those mean exactly the same thing. So where with a 2.5 market there is a clear winner, if there are 3 goals it wins, if there are 2 goals it loses, what a goal line does, or a European bookmaker does, is basically merge those lines in between the goals to create more options. By doing so they create a wider range of betting opportunities for punters. Now with both the Bet365 way of doing things and the European way, if the number of goals you bet on exactly matches the line that you bet on, you get a refund. So for example, you back Over 1.0 goal line and there is 1 goal in the game, that's a refund. Simple right?
The only bit that makes it complicated is the split lines in between, but all you have to do is just imagine that whenever a market reads two numbers like 0.5, 1.0, or if it reads the middle number between those 0.75, which is exactly the same, then your stake gets split into two bets. So say you stick £10 on Over 0.5, 1.0 Goal Line (or 0.75 goal line which is the same) at 2.00. £5 goes onto the Over 0.5 Goals, £5 goes onto the 1.0 Goals. Now if there's 1 goal in the match, your 0.5 lands but your 1.0 is a "push" or a refund. If there are 2 goals, both bets win whereas if there are 0 goals both bets lose. This little image of the chart I've made below should help you out though if ever you need a quick reference!
