Head to head betting: H2H odds, draws and moneyline explained

Key facts

A head to head (H2H) bet wins if your team or player wins. $50 at $1.30 returns $65; $50 at $3.60 returns $180.
A $1.30 / $3.60 market adds to 104.70% in implied chances: the extra 4.70% is the bookmaker's margin.
Under the TAB's Victorian rules, a draw in a market with no draw option is settled as a dead heat: the payout is halved.
If a draw price was offered, a draw means every bet on either team loses, and extra time is ignored.
Moneyline is the American name for the same bet. $1.30 is -333 in American odds and $3.60 is +260.

Head to head betting in one line

A head to head bet is a bet on who wins, nothing more. The TAB's own definition is "If you pick the winner of the game, you win", and the only condition is that "Your team must win the game." There is no handicap and no score range to predict. That simplicity is why H2H is the most common bet in footy, cricket, tennis, fights and motor sport, and why the small print about draws matters so much.

Reading a head to head market

Every H2H price includes your stake. Here is an example two-way market with a clear favourite.

Selection	Example price	$50 returns	Profit	Implied chance
Favourite	$1.30	$65.00	$15.00	76.92%
Outsider	$3.60	$180.00	$130.00	27.78%
Total				104.70%

The implied chances add to 104.70%, not 100%. In our calculation the 4.70% over the top is the bookmaker's margin, and it is built in whichever side wins. Put another way, the "fair" prices for these chances would be a little longer than the ones on offer. To find the fair price, divide each implied chance by the total: 76.92 / 104.70 is a 73.47% chance, or about $1.36.

The favourite's price is also its break-even rate. Back $1.30 shots and you need to win more than 76.92% of them to come out ahead. At $1.10 the bar rises to 90.91%, which means one loss in every eleven bets is enough to put you behind. Short favourites lose less often, but each loss costs you many wins.

Two-way and three-way markets

The biggest trap in head to head betting is not knowing which kind of market you are in.

Two-way market: only the two teams are listed. If the game ends level, the bet is settled under a tie or dead heat rule.
Three-way market: the draw has its own price. If the game ends level, the draw wins and both team bets lose.

Soccer is the classic three-way sport. An example market of Home $2.20, Draw $3.40, Away $3.25 adds up to 105.64% in implied chances, and the draw price is there because level results are common. Under the TAB's Victorian rules, soccer results are decided at the end of normal time, which in most cases is 90 minutes plus injury time, unless you are told otherwise when you bet (rule 11.1.8.3).

What a draw does to your head to head bet

These are the rules the TAB applies in its Victorian sports rules. Other licensed bookmakers publish their own, so check yours.

What happened	Rule	$50 on the $1.30 favourite	$50 on the $3.60 outsider
Your side won	Normal payout	$65.00	$180.00
Draw, no draw option offered	Rule 12.5: payout divided by the 2 tied teams	$32.50	$90.00
Draw, draw price offered	Rule 10.9: bets on either team lose	$0	$0
Level at full time, decided in extra time	Rule 10.8: extra time counts unless notified otherwise	Paid if your side wins in extra time	Paid if your side wins in extra time

Look at the dead heat row. In our calculation, the favourite backer gets $32.50 back from a $50 stake, a loss of $17.50, while the outsider backer still collects $90, a $40 profit. Any price under $2.00 returns less than your stake under a half payout, and any price over $2.00 still returns a profit. If you are using our dead heat calculator, a two-team tie in one place is a divisor of 2.

Draws do happen in two-way sports. Penrith and Newcastle finished 14-14 on 31 May 2020 even after golden point extra time, the kind of result where two-way NRL bets fall back on a tie rule. Our NRL betting guide covers how golden point interacts with each NRL market. The full maths of splits across racing, golf and multis is in our guide to dead heat rules.

Head to head rules in cricket and motor sport

Some sports have their own head to head quirks in the TAB's Victorian rules:

Sport	Rule	What it means for you
Test cricket	11.1.3.5(f): if the match is a tie, bets on either team are paid at half face value and bets on the draw lose	A tie is not a draw: the draw backer loses
T20 cricket	11.1.3.4: match betting excludes the super over unless stated	A tied T20 is settled on the scores before any super over, so the tie rules apply
Any cricket match	11.1.3.1(a): unless at least one ball is bowled, all bets on the match are void	A washout before a ball gets your stake back
Motor racing H2H between two drivers	11.1.6.4: if either fails to finish, the driver with more laps wins; same laps means dead heat rules	You can win a head to head even if neither driver finishes

For the full set of cricket markets, see our cricket betting guide.

Moneyline: the American name for H2H

Moneyline betting is the same bet with American odds. A minus number shows how much you bet to win $100; a plus number shows how much a $100 bet wins.

Decimal	American (moneyline)	Implied chance
$1.10	-1000	90.91%
$1.30	-333	76.92%
$1.50	-200	66.67%
$2.50	+150	40.00%
$3.60	+260	27.78%

In our calculation, a decimal price of $1.30 becomes -333 because you would need to bet about $333 to win $100 (100 / 0.30). A price of $3.60 becomes +260 because $100 wins $260. The odds converter does this for any price.

Pundit tip: before you take a short head to head price, check the line market on the same game. If you think the favourite wins easily, a line bet near $1.90 may suit your view better than $1.15 on the win.

When head to head is the right bet

H2H suits games you think are genuinely close, where both prices are reasonable and a draw is rare or priced separately. When one side is a big favourite, the head to head price often offers too little to be worth the risk, and line betting turns the same view into a near even money bet.

Two Australian rules apply to every H2H bet with a licensed bookmaker. You cannot fund it with a credit card, funds linked to a credit card or crypto: ACMA's credit ban has applied since 11 June 2024. And online bets close when the game starts, because in-play sports betting online is banned. For the other bet types on an Australian slip, see bet types explained, and if betting is costing more than you planned, our gambling help page lists free support.

Frequently asked questions

What does head to head mean in betting?

It means you are betting on which of two teams or players wins the contest. The TAB puts it simply: if you pick the winner of the game, you win. There is no points start, unlike a line bet.

What happens to a head to head bet if the game is a draw?

It depends on the market. Under the TAB's Victorian rules, if no draw option was offered, the payout is divided by the two tied teams, so you get half your normal return. If a draw price was offered, bets on either team lose.

Is H2H the same as moneyline?

Yes. Moneyline is the American term for a bet on the winner, usually shown in American odds such as -200 or +150. In decimal odds those are $1.50 and $2.50.

Do head to head bets include extra time?

Under the TAB's Victorian rules, results include extra time unless you were told otherwise when you bet. The exception is a market that offered a draw price, which is decided without extra time. Soccer is settled at the end of normal time unless notified otherwise.

Is head to head betting on a short favourite a safe bet?

No bet is safe. A $1.10 price implies a 90.91% chance, which still means losing about one time in eleven, and a single loss wipes out the profit from ten wins of $1 per $10 staked.