Overtime (OT) or extra time is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same.
If the contest remains tied after the extra session, depending on the rules, the match may immediately end as a draw, additional periods may be played, or a different tiebreaking procedure such as a penalty shootout may be used instead.
It follows a short break (traditionally five minutes) where players remain on or around the field of play and comprises two 15-minute periods, with teams changing ends in between.
Although the Laws of the Game state that extra time is one of the approved methods to decide a winner, competitions are not bound to adopt extra time, and each competition is free to choose any method designated in the Laws of the Game to decide a winner.
In games played over two legs at the continental levels (such as the three–tier men's continental club competitions and the women's continental club competitions), domestic levels (such as Copa del Rey, DFB-Pokal and the Coppa Italia semi-finals or Bundesliga relegation and promotion play-offs) or even at lower levels (such as the English Football League play-offs), teams only play extra time in the second leg where the aggregate score – then normally followed by an away goals rule – has not produced a winner first, however starting the 2021–22 season, UEFA decided to abolish it for all club competitions and changed with the penalty shootout if the aggregate is still tied after the extra time.
Up until 2021, under NCAA college soccer rules, all games that remained tied after 90 minutes had an overtime period.
[1] High school rules vary depending on the state and conference, but most will have a sudden-death overtime procedure wherein the game ends upon scoring a golden goal, although in some instances the overtime will go until completion with the team in the lead after time expires (i.e., silver goal rules) declared the winner.
Gameplay is conducted similarly to the regulation periods (in contrast with the "Kansas system" used in college football rules), and each team is given two timeouts.
In 1974, the NFL adopted sudden-death overtime for regular season and preseason games: if the score is tied after regulation time, one additional period is played.
[5] In March 2010, NFL owners voted to amend overtime rules for postseason games; the changes were extended to the regular season in 2012.
Incidentally, this was also the shortest overtime in NFL history until 2019; Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham kicked off and the ball went out of the back of the end zone, resulting in a touchback and no time off the clock.
[6] The first time the "first-possession field goal" rule was enforced occurred on 9 September 2012, the first week of the season, in a game between the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars.
[7] A 2022 rule change gives both teams one possession to start the first overtime in playoff games, no matter whether or not a touchdown is scored first.
The United Football League settles ties this way: teams will try three rounds of 2-point conversions from the three-yard line.
Prior to that, five games had been decided in seven overtime periods: Arkansas vs. Ole Miss in 2001, Arkansas vs. Kentucky in 2003, North Texas vs. FIU in 2006, Western Michigan vs. Buffalo in 2017, and LSU vs. Texas A&M in 2018, the latter of which was the impetus for the 2019 rule change which mandated two-point conversion attempts after a set number of overtime periods.
If no one manages to score (field goals are not allowed), then the team that is in its opponents' territory at the conclusion of the eight plays is awarded one point and declared the winner.
In levels below collegiate/Olympic play, an overtime period is half the length of a standard quarter, i.e., four minutes for high school varsity.
The rule was first used in the 2009–10 EuroCup quarterfinals (which consist of two-legged ties), although no game in that phase of the competition ended in a regulation draw.
The Canadian Elite Basketball League first used the Elam Ending in a 2020 tournament that replaced the season that was scrapped due to COVID-19, using TBT rules except that the target score was set by adding 9 points instead of 8.
Starting in 2022–23, the NBA G League adopted a variation of the Elam Ending in regular-season games, calling it the "Final Target Score".
For the G League Winter Showcase, an event held in December in Las Vegas that sees all 30 teams play two games, the Elam Ending is implemented in the same manner as in the NBA All-Star Game, except the target score is the leading score plus 25 (instead of 24).
The 21-point rule, under which a regulation game ends once either team has reached 21 points, does not apply during overtime; a tie at 20 must go to 22.
Baseball and softball are unique among the popular North American team sports in that they do not use a game clock.
In the early decades of baseball (up to the 1920s), a game could also be called off due to nightfall, but this ceased to be a problem once stadiums began installing lights in the 1930s.
[31] In the ICC ODI World Cup 2019 Final, the score was decided by a super over with that being tied and England winning it 32–24 on boundary count.
Rugby league games in some competitions are decided using overtime systems if scores are level at full-time (80 minutes).
[32] If the sudden-death extra time period results in no scoring, standard World Rugby rules call for a kicking competition to determine the winner.
For Example: Exeter Chiefs and Montpellier played in the round of 16 in the European Rugby Champions Cup on April 2, 2023.
Unlike the 15-man game, extra time in sevens is true sudden-death, with the first score by either team winning the match.
[54][circular reference] The official longest tie-break on record, 50 points, came in the first round of Wimbledon in 1985 when Michael Mortensen and Jan Gunnarson defeated John Frawley and Victor Pecci 6–4, 6–4, 3–6, 7-6 (24).