Win to nil explained

Win to nil catches people out because a team can dominate, win comfortably, and still lose you the bet if they conceded one goal along the way. Here is the full rule, how it differs from a plain clean sheet bet, and the awkward own goal case that decides it more often than you'd think.

What win to nil means

Win to nil is a combined result and clean sheet bet. The team has to win the match, and the opponent has to fail to score at all. Both parts have to be true. A team can win 3-1 and still lose you the bet, because they conceded a goal along the way.

The name describes the scoreline it needs: a win, with the loser left on nil. Typical winning scorelines are 1-0, 2-0, and 3-0, for whichever side is backed.

Win to nil vs a clean sheet

A clean sheet bet is simpler than win to nil. It only asks whether a team concedes. It settles as a winner whether the game ends 0-0, 1-0, or 4-0, as long as that team's goals-against column reads zero. For the full breakdown of how a clean sheet is defined and settled, see what is a clean sheet.

Win to nil adds the result on top. A 0-0 draw settles a clean sheet bet as a winner for both teams, because neither side conceded. The same 0-0 settles a win to nil bet as a loser for both teams, because neither side won. A 2-0 win settles both bets as winners for the winning team, since they kept a clean sheet and they won. A 2-1 win settles the clean sheet bet as a loser and the win to nil bet as a loser too, for the same reason, even though the team won the match.

Because the draw loses for everyone on a win to nil bet, rather than paying out on both sides the way it does on a clean sheet bet, win to nil odds run longer than a straight clean sheet on the same team.

Own goals and the direction rule

An own goal counts against the team whose player put the ball into their own net. It is added to the opponent's goal tally for the match result and for markets like win to nil and clean sheet. So if a team is 1-0 up and concedes an own goal to make it 1-1, that own goal breaks their win to nil bet in exactly the same way a normal goal against them would.

This is the same own goal direction rule that applies to clean sheet bets. For the fuller explanation of how own goals are scored and attributed, see what is a clean sheet.

90 minutes, not extra time

Win to nil bets settle on the scoreline after 90 minutes plus stoppage time. In cup competitions that can go to extra time, the bet is decided by the score at the end of normal time, not the eventual result after extra time or a penalty shootout, unless the bookmaker states a different rule for that specific promotion. This is the standard convention major UK bookmakers use for match result markets: extra time, golden goals and penalty shootouts do not count towards full time result markets unless a rule says otherwise. Always check the sport rules at your own bookmaker before you place a bet on a cup match that could go to extra time.

How the market is priced

Win to nil is usually offered as two separate selections tied to each side: the home team to win to nil, and the away team to win to nil. Bookmakers often list these next to the plain match result and clean sheet markets rather than as one combined coupon. Functionally there are three outcomes a punter is weighing: the home team wins to nil, the away team wins to nil, or neither happens (a draw, or a win where the winning team also conceded). Because a draw and a concedes-but-still-wins result both lose, win to nil odds run longer than the match odds on the same team.

Worked examples

Four scorelines, and how each one settles a win to nil bet:

• 2-0 to the home team. Settles as a winner for home win to nil. The home team won and kept a clean sheet.
• 2-1 to the home team. Does not settle as a winner for home win to nil, even though the home team won, because they conceded a goal.
• 0-0. Loses both home win to nil and away win to nil. Nobody won.
• 1-1, including an own goal by the away side's defender. If the home team was leading 1-0 and the away defender's own goal made it 1-1, the home team's win to nil bet is already broken at that point, whatever the final score becomes.

The same numbers sit alongside team win rates and result splits, useful for weighing up how often a team both wins and keeps a clean sheet in the same match.