Soccer Toto

What Soccer Toto is

Soccer Toto is the football arm of Sports Toto, South Korea's sports promotion voting ticket system. Unlike a lottery, where everything depends on luck, the operator describes Toto as a skill game in which participants analyze and predict match results⁴. You study the fixtures, make your calls, and win money if your predictions are right.

The games cover matches hosted by the Korea Football Association and the K League, plus major matches held in Korea and abroad¹. Alongside soccer, the same system runs baseball, basketball, volleyball and golf pools, and a Toto UO under/over product². If you want the wider picture of legal sports wagering in the country, see our page on sports betting in South Korea.

Soccer Toto itself comes in three game types, each with its own ticket price, odds and prize structure. All three share a few basics: sales open one to three days before the deadline and close at the start time of the first target match, results are announced on the day the final match ends, and 50% of total sales is refunded to players¹.

The three game types at a glance

Sports Toto groups its pari-mutuel products by difficulty: high-chance pool games, mid-chance specials and low-chance match games, with soccer represented in each band⁶. The three soccer formats fit that pattern. Match is the easiest to hit, Special sits in the middle, and Seung-mu-pae is the long shot with the biggest potential payout.

Predicting exact scores: Soccer Toto Special

Soccer Toto Special asks you to predict the final score of selected matches, with extra time included and penalty shootouts excluded¹. A round covers 2 to 3 matches, and there are two game types within it: Double, where you predict 2 of the matches, and Triple, where you predict all 3¹.

You do not need to name an exact scoreline like 2-1. Each team's final goal count is divided into six categories: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 or more¹. So for each match you pick a goal category for each side, which keeps the number of combinations manageable.

The odds reflect that. The Double type has a hit probability of 1/1,296, and the Triple type 1/46,656¹. First prize in the Double requires both matches to be hit correctly, and it takes 100% of that game type's prize fund¹.

Multiple purchase is allowed for Special, so you can buy several tickets for the same round with different combinations¹. Sales open one to three days before the deadline and close at the start time of the first target match¹.

There is also a related product called Soccer Toto Special Plus, an increased-volume issuance product whose proceeds fund large-scale international sports competitions⁷. It works the same way: you predict the final score of designated matches, extra time included, penalty shootouts excluded⁷.

Soccer Toto Seung-mu-pae: win, draw or loss across 14 matches

Seung-mu-pae (승무패, literally "win, draw, loss") is the classic Soccer Toto format and the hardest to win. You predict the home team's final result in 14 matches as a win, draw or loss, with extra time and penalty shootouts excluded³. The target matches are chosen from Korea Football Association and K League fixtures plus major matches at home and abroad³.

The unit stake is KRW 1,000 per vote, higher than the other two game types, and multiple purchase is allowed³. The voting method is result-prediction style, and the refund method is a fixed refund rate³.

Prizes come in four tiers, each tied to how many of the 14 matches you call correctly³:

The overall chance of hitting any prize tier is about 1 in 1,447³. The result that counts is the score at the end of the second half of regulation time: the applicable period runs from the start of the match to the end of the second half, extra time and shootouts excluded³.

Soccer Toto Match: first-half and full-time score of one match

Soccer Toto Match is the simplest format on the surface: one match, one ticket. You predict the first-half score and the final score of both teams in a single game, with extra time included and penalty shootouts excluded².

Like Special, the game uses score categories rather than exact scorelines. The final score is divided into six categories per team: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 or more goals². You pick a category for each team at half-time, and again for the final result.

First prize requires both the first-half and final score results to be correct, and it takes 100% of the prize fund, with a hit probability of 1/441². The unit stake is KRW 100².

Two rules are worth knowing before you play. Duplicate purchase is not allowed, so you get one ticket per round and cannot hedge with multiple combinations². And the applicable time runs from the match start to the final whistle, extra time included, penalty shootout excluded².

Refund rate and how prizes are split

All three Soccer Toto games work on a fixed refund rate: 50% of total sales is returned to players as prizes¹. That is the same level as tax-free lottery tickets in the region, according to a Japanese research paper on sports promotion voting⁸.

How that 50% is divided depends on the game:

• Special: 100% of each game type's fund goes to first place, meaning Double winners split the Double fund and Triple winners split the Triple fund¹.
• Seung-mu-pae: the fund is split 50% to first prize, 20% to second, 10% to third and 20% to fourth, as shown in the table above³.
• Match: 100% of the fund goes to first prize².

Because it is a pari-mutuel style pool, your actual payout depends on how many other people made the same predictions. Fewer winners means a bigger share per ticket.

Rollover and carryover rules

If nobody wins a prize tier, the money does not disappear. In Soccer Toto Special, if there are no winners for a game type, the prize carries over to the next round of that same game type¹. In Soccer Toto Match, if there is no winner in a round, the fund carries over to the next round².

Seung-mu-pae has the most detailed carryover rules³:

• First prize money carries over to the next round for up to 5 consecutive rounds. After 5 consecutive carryovers, it is distributed to the next lower tier that has winners in that round.
• Second and third prizes are not carried over; if there are no winners, they go to the next lower tier in the same round.
• If there are no fourth-prize winners, the fourth-prize money is distributed to the next round's 2nd, 3rd and 4th prizes at a 2:1:2 ratio, which works out to 40%, 20% and 40%³.

This is why Seung-mu-pae jackpots can grow large: a string of rounds with no perfect ticket keeps pushing the first-prize pool higher.

Taxes on winnings

The tax treatment is the same across all three game types¹. No tax is imposed if:

• your winning odds are 100x or less and the refund is KRW 2,000,000 or less, or
• the refund is KRW 100,000 or less, regardless of the odds.

Anything outside those thresholds is taxed. In practice, most small and medium wins fall inside the tax-free band, while a big Seung-mu-pae first prize after a rollover will not. For the broader picture of how gambling winnings are taxed in the country, see our page on tax on gambling winnings in South Korea.

Claiming winnings: deadlines, rounding and payment methods

You have one year to claim, counted from the day after the official results announcement, though payment can actually start on the announcement day itself. If the deadline falls on a non-banking day, the next banking day becomes the deadline¹.

Winnings are rounded up to the nearest won. If your calculated winnings come to less than the unit stake, you are paid the unit stake instead: KRW 100 for Special and Match, KRW 1,000 for Seung-mu-pae¹.

For tickets bought online through Betman, the operator's internet sales channel, winnings are paid to a deposit account or a refund bankbook, whichever you choose. Refunds for voided rounds go automatically to your deposit account, and amounts originally bought with Betmoney are refunded as Betmoney¹.

Results for all three game types are announced on the day the final match in the round ends¹, so for a typical weekend round you will know your fate by Sunday night.

Canceled matches, void rounds and ticket rules

Once a ticket has been properly issued, it cannot be canceled, refunded or modified¹. That applies to all three game types, so check your selections before you confirm.

What happens when a match is called off depends on the game:

• Seung-mu-pae: if 2 or fewer matches are canceled, those matches are deemed correct for everyone, a rule called the winning special provision. If 3 or more matches are canceled, the whole round is voided and refunded³.
• Special: if a selected match is not held, only that game type in the round is voided and refunded. For example, if match 3 is canceled, only the Triple is voided and the Double is processed normally¹.
• Match: if the target match is canceled, the sale is voided and refunded².

There is also a schedule rule that applies across Sports Toto products: if a match is rescheduled, it stays valid if the new date falls within the last target match date of the round, Korea time, and becomes void if it moves to the next day or later⁹.

The voiding and refund process follows the National Sports Promotion Act, its enforcement decree and the sports promotion voting ticket terms, which also govern how the games are run generally².