BTTS in Scottish Football: Premiership to League Two Compared
Ten seasons and 7,243 matches show the Scottish Premiership leaning towards BTTS No, while League One is the division where both sides most often find the net.
- 48.9%BTTS Yes in the Scottish Premiership
- 54.3%BTTS Yes in Scottish League One, the highest
- 34.0%Premiership away sides failed to score
Scottish football has a reputation for honest, open contests, so I wanted to see whether the both-teams-to-score market supports it. I took every completed league match across the four senior divisions and checked how often both sides scored, division by division, season by season, and against the favourite's price.
The headline: both teams scored in 51.3% of 7,243 matches, close to an even split. The more useful detail is the gap between the top flight and the third tier. If you want the fixture-by-fixture view, my best BTTS bets today page applies this same thinking to individual matches.
01The Premiership is Scotland's tightest division for BTTS
The bars rank the four divisions by how often both teams scored. The Scottish Premiership sits at the bottom on 48.9%. Scottish League One is at the top on 54.3%, with the Championship on 50.5% and League Two on 52.4%.
In BTTS terms that spread is meaningful. The top flight is the only division where No lands more often than Yes, and League One is where Yes is clearest. Lower down, defences are less organised and fewer sides can protect a lead without conceding.
View the data: btts rate in scottish football
| Both teams scored, 2016/17โ2025/26 | |
|---|---|
| Scottish Premiership | 48.9% |
| Scottish Championship | 50.5% |
| Scottish League One | 54.3% |
| Scottish League Two | 52.4% |
I don't read this as the Premiership being dull. It reflects the gap in strength between its clubs, which I come back to in the price heatmap.
02Season-by-season BTTS swings in Scotland's four divisions
The lines show how much each division moves from year to year. Premiership BTTS ranged from 40.8% in 2020/21 to 53.9% in 2016/17. League One and League Two combined ran from 44.1% to 56.7%. The Championship bounces around as well, from 43.4% in 2024/25 to 56.3% in 2020/21.
This is the main caveat, and I'd sooner state it once and clearly. With roughly 180 matches per division each season, a single season is noisy. 2019/20 was curtailed and 2020/21 was shortened in the lower divisions, so those points carry less weight. All of this is historical frequency, not a forecast.
View the data: scottish btts season by season
| Scottish Premiership | Scottish Championship | League One and League Two | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016/17 | 53.9% | 55.0% | 56.7% |
| 2017/18 | 50.9% | 48.3% | 55.0% |
| 2018/19 | 42.1% | 48.9% | 52.5% |
| 2019/20 | 49.7% | 51.8% | 53.3% |
| 2020/21 | 40.8% | 56.3% | 44.1% |
| 2021/22 | 48.7% | 45.6% | 53.1% |
| 2022/23 | 49.6% | 53.3% | 53.3% |
| 2023/24 | 50.4% | 55.0% | 55.8% |
| 2024/25 | 51.5% | 43.4% | 48.9% |
| 2025/26 | 51.8% | 48.3% | 56.7% |
The longer view is steadier. In 2000/01โ2009/10 the Premiership produced BTTS in 49.7% of 1,781 matches, against 48.9% across the latest ten seasons. The top flight's lean towards No has held for two decades, and that consistency matters more to me than any one-season spike.
03Short-priced favourites drag Premiership BTTS rates down sharply
The heatmap splits each division by the favourite's pre-match price. In the Premiership, BTTS landed only 43.7% of the time when the favourite was under 1.60, rising to 52.2% in the 1.60โ2.19 band and 50.4% at 2.20 or longer. A heavy favourite there tends to dominate the ball and the chances, and the underdog often never gets a clean sight of goal.
The same pattern shows lower down, but the drop is smaller. League One drops to 49.0% with a short favourite and rises to 55.8% in the 1.60โ2.19 band. League Two tops out at 55.9% when the favourite is 2.20 or longer, which is close to a coin-flip match where both sides commit bodies forward.
Bands with fewer than 100 matches are flagged in the facts.
View the data: btts by favourite price and division
| Favourite <1.60 | Favourite 1.60โ2.19 | Favourite 2.20+ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish Premiership | 43.7% | 52.2% | 50.4% |
| Scottish Championship | 48.6% | 51.1% | 50.2% |
| Scottish League One | 49.0% | 55.8% | 54.2% |
| Scottish League Two | 49.2% | 51.1% | 55.9% |
For me this is the most useful chart in the study. The favourite's price is a quick read on game state before kick-off: a lopsided contest suppresses BTTS, and an even one opens it up.
04Fair BTTS prices and blank rates for every Scottish division
The table turns each frequency into a break-even price with no bookmaker margin. Premiership Yes is fair at 2.05 and No at 1.96. League One reverses that, with Yes fair at 1.84 and No at 2.19. The Championship sits almost level at 1.98 and 2.02, and League Two is fair at 1.91 for Yes.
The blank columns explain why. Premiership away sides failed to score in 34.0% of matches, against 24.0% for home sides. In League One the away blank rate falls to 28.2%, and in League Two it is 29.5%. When I'm assessing a Premiership BTTS Yes bet, the away attack is the first thing I question.
| Division | Matches | BTTS Yes | Fair Yes | Fair No | Home blank | Away blank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish Premiership | 2,203 | 48.9% | 2.05 | 1.96 | 24.0% | 34.0% |
| Scottish Championship | 1,691 | 50.5% | 1.98 | 2.02 | 27.4% | 31.1% |
| Scottish League One | 1,673 | 54.3% | 1.84 | 2.19 | 22.9% | 28.2% |
| Scottish League Two | 1,676 | 52.4% | 1.91 | 2.10 | 24.0% | 29.5% |
These are fair prices from the historical record, not targets that guarantee profit. Use them as a benchmark: if the price on offer is shorter than the fair line, the margin is working against you.
BTTS checklist
- Start from the division. Set your baseline by tier before looking at the fixture. Premiership BTTS lands in 48.9% of matches against 54.3% in League One, so the same price means different things in each.
- Check the favourite's price. A Premiership favourite under 1.60 has gone with BTTS only 43.7% of the time. Treat a short favourite as a warning sign for Yes, especially in the top flight.
- Question the away attack. Premiership away sides blanked in 34.0% of matches, against 24.0% for home sides. If the visitors struggle to create clear chances, the No side deserves a closer look.
Quick answers
How often do both teams score in Scottish football?
Across 7,243 matches in the four senior divisions since 2016/17, both teams scored in 51.3%. That is close to an even split, but the rate varies clearly by division.
Which Scottish league has the most BTTS?
Scottish League One has the highest rate at 54.3% of 1,673 matches, which gives a fair Yes price of 1.84. The Premiership is lowest at 48.9%.
Is BTTS No a good bet in the Scottish Premiership?
Historically No has landed slightly more often than Yes in the top flight, with a fair No price of 1.96. It is strongest when a favourite is under 1.60, where BTTS came in only 43.7% of the time. Past frequencies do not guarantee future results.
I'm Thandiwe Nkosi, based in Cape Town, and I write the both-teams-to-score tips at soccerbet.tips โ reading defensive frailty and real attacking intent rather than chasing the obvious high-scoring names.
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