Over/Under 3.5 Goals Explained
Brian Thompson06 January 2026
It’s one thing to have a selection of sports to bet on, but each of these comes with their own markets as well. Some markets exist across all sports, yet many of them are also very specific to each individual sport. Here, we’re going to outline some of the top sports betting markets in South Africa. If you’re interested in placing bets at the best online sportsbooks, then these markets may be great places to start.
If you decide to bet on an outrights market, then you’re betting on the team that will win a tournament, a championship, a league, etc. For example, if you decide to bet on the FIFA World Cup outright market, you’re picking which team out of those competing will win the whole thing. If, in 2022, you had placed a bet on Argentina winning the World Cup in soccer, you would have received a payout for it.
In most sports, teams or players need to try and win by achieving points or goals. The more of these obtained, the better positioned they are to win. The over/under market entails you predicting the number of goals or points scored within the match in question.
You don’t need to be specific about the points, either. Instead, you just need to determine whether the points or goals achieved will be above or below a particular number. If you bet on Chelsea soccer club to beat Everton in a 3-1 outing, then you will need to bet on an over market of 3.5, because the total number of goals scored is 4.
This market is often associated with soccer online betting more so than anything else. As its title suggests, you are wagering on both competing teams to score at least one goal. If this occurs, the final result doesn’t matter. You receive a payout once each team scores a single goal.
It is often the case that a specific player on a team will outclass the others when playing. Sportsbooks often offer the chance to wager on that player to obtain the most points or goals or runs if we’re talking cricket. You need to know about the players participating and how good they are to effectively wager on this market.
In handicap markets, a virtual advantage is added to the underdog in the game. Should both teams be more or less equal, then the handicap will likely be quite low, such as 0.5 or 1.5 points. Yet this will be higher if there is a quality or some form difference to the favourite. You can often find handicap betting on basketball, soccer, rugby, and similar sports.
Horse racing betting fans will know this market as being a popular one. In an each way bet, you place two separate wagers in one go. The first part of it is to wager on a specific horse to win the whole race, while the second is a bet that it will finish anywhere up to 5th place. This is an ideal wager to place if you have an idea that a runner may win, but you’re not 100% sure. So, you back it to win, but if it doesn’t, then it’s also backed to finish in one of the top positions, too.
One final popular market to take note of comes from the realm of tennis betting. This is set betting, which requires you to not only guess the winner of a tennis match, but the final result in sets, too. So, for example, if Novak Djokovic is playing Roger Federer at ATP Auckland, you may see set betting options like this:
Options exist for each possible outcome of the best 2-out-of-3 set match. In this example, should you believe Federer is going to win in a close battle, you choose him to win 2-1. That’s the basic premise behind set betting.
Brian Thompson
Brian ThompsonBrian Thompson
Brian ThompsonBrian Thompson
Brian Thompson
Brian ThompsonBrian Thompson