Football Betting in 90 Minutes
When placing a football bet, you may notice it says “90 minutes only,” or something similar. This can be confusing for punters who do not understand exactly what this means. It may also lead to people believing they have won their bet when in fact they haven’t.
So, what does betting in 90 minutes mean?
What this means is the market you’re betting on will be resulted after 90 minutes, and will not include extra-time or penalties. However, it does include stoppage time added by the referee for injuries, penalties etc.
Confusion is mainly caused because there’s a difference between league and cup games. League games cannot go to extra-time or penalties, so you don’t really need to pay attention to the 90-minute rule. But, the team you bet on in a cup match may win after extra-time and you would still lose your bet as the game was level after 90 minutes.
League Betting in 90 Minutes
A good example for this rule is the Premier League match between Manchester United and Everton from April 2017. Everton were leading 1-0 after 90 minutes, but United equalised through a 94th minute penalty from Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
For the purposes of betting in 90 minutes, which includes stoppage time added by the referee, this match goes down as a 1-1 draw. So, if you backed Everton to win, your bet would lose even though they were leading when the clock reached 90 minutes.
Cup Betting in 90 Minutes
The betting in 90 minutes rule comes into play when betting on cup games. These can go into extra-time and penalties, so can cause confusion if your team wins but your bet isn’t a winner.
An example of this is the FA Cup Semi Final between Arsenal and Manchester City last season, which Arsenal won 2-1 After Extra Time.
As the score was 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes and stoppage time, for betting purposes the result was a draw. If you backed Arsenal to win using the normal match result market your bet would have lost, despite the fact they eventually won and advanced to the next round of the competition.
The same applies for the recent England vs Germany match in the Under-21 European Championships. The game was level at the end of 90 minutes and stoppage time, with the Germans winning on penalties. That means the match ended in a draw, even though Germany advanced to the final.
Exceptions to This Rule
When placing a bet on a cup match, you may want to look at markets which excludes you from the 90-minute rule.
Some bookmakers will offer odds on how the tie will be decided. With this market, you have several different options for teams to win after extra time or penalties. You usually have the option of backing a specific team or either team to win AET or penalties.
Punters can also bet outright in the “To Qualify” market, which means you back a team to advance to the next round of the competition regardless of how they do it. For cup finals, this market is usually called “To Lift the Cup,” or something similar.
Using the “Draw no Bet” market can be advantageous in cup games, as you would get your stake back if the game finishes level at the end of normal time.
How Does Betting in 90 Minutes Affect Different Markets
Different markets, including “Both Teams to Score” and “Anytime Scorer” will also usually be resulted at the end of 90 minutes even in games where there is extra-time or penalties.
So, using the matches mentioned above, we will look at whether certain bets would have won or lost.
Firstly, the winning bets using the Manchester United vs Everton match.
For this, Ibrahimovic’s penalty would have given punters a winning bet if they had backed both teams to score, over 1.5 goals, Ibrahimovic to score anytime, correct score of 1-1, or a penalty to be awarded in 90 minutes. As Ashley Williams was also sent off in the 93rd minute of this match, betting on a red card in 90 minutes would also have been a winner.
Let’s also look at winning and losing bets from the Arsenal vs Chelsea match.
Alexis Sanchez scored the winning goal in extra time, so backing him to score anytime would have resulted in a lost bet as he didn’t score during normal time. Also, betting on Arsenal to win was a loser, as well as over 2.5 goals or a correct score of 2-1. However, you would have won if you bet on Arsenal to qualify.
Abandoned Games
A game is defined as abandoned if it doesn’t reach a natural conclusion by midnight local time on the date of the game.
Any bets in which the outcome has already been decided will stand if a game is abandoned. This includes half-time betting if the game reaches the break, and first team to score bets if there’s a goal before the abandonment.
All other bets will be void, regardless of the score when the match was abandoned. So, if you backed a team to win and they were 2-0 up when the referee called a halt to proceedings, your bet would be void.
However, if the game was abandoned in the second half, you would be a winner if you backed that team in the half-time market and they were leading 1-0 after the first 45 minutes.
If a referee removes the players from the field of play for some reason but resumes the game before midnight local time, it will not go down as an abandoned game and bets will stand as normal.