The Goalscorer Betting Market in Football – Is It Worth It?

Some betting markets will never be as popular as others. They may be too risky to take on a regular basis, or just too hard to predict. Such alternative betting markets can be a double-edged sword. They can be great sources of betting value but often boast disproportionately wide bookmaker margins. Goalscorer markets, however, remain exceedingly popular despite their innately risky nature.

Goalscorer bets in football betting are wagers that involve which specific player will score during the game. Let’s take a closer look and see if their potential for profit outweighs the fact it’s hard to make such betting predictions.

What Are Goalscorer Bets?

Goalscorer betting markets come in a lot of different variations, but they all involve predicting whether a player will score in the match. However, even that definition is a bit too narrow. Several bets on goalscorer markets also involve a set of circumstances beyond a simple goal. Let’s look at some examples.

For instance, the Player to Score in First Half market requires the player to not only score but do so in the first 45 minutes. To be fair, it’s obvious what most of these betting markets are all about. Here are some common Goalscorer bet variations:

• Anytime Goalscorer – the basic variation, simply requires the predicted player to score once at any point.
• First Goalscorer – the selected player must be the first to score in the match.
• Last Goalscorer – the chosen player has to be the last player to score.
• To Score First or Last – combines the previous two. Either option results in a successful bet.
• To Score 2 or More Goals – fairly self-descriptive; some online bookies offer different goal lines, such as “To Score 3 or More Goals.”
• To Get a Brace – almost identical to the previous market. However, the chosen player must score exactly two goals and not more. Also available as ‘To Get a Brace’ for a 3-goal requirement. Moreover, some bookies simply phrase these markets as “Player to Score Exact Goals.’ This means that the goal line can also be set at 1, 4, or any other number.
• To Score in First/Second/Both Halves – The player must score goals during the specified period, or score a goal both before and after half-time.

We’ve seen some even more ‘creative’ variations, but you get the gist. Note that a lot of these are considered niche betting markets, so they may not be available at all sportsbooks.

Why Bet on the Goalscorer?

Let’s preface this by saying that we do not recommend this betting market to beginners. It usually involves digging through a lot of statistics, but it also requires you to know how to use the data. That said, trying out a straightforward Anytime Goalscorer is not that difficult – successful teams have prolific strikers, after all. Still, let’s look at some of the reasons some punters consider the work and risk worth it.

The most obvious Goalscorer betting advantages have to do with the attractive odds. This is especially true for the more complex market variations, such as To Score Exact Goals. However, even the best betting odds are irrelevant if the wager is too risky. That’s why this type of bet’s main advantage is actually the betting value involved. Because goalscorer wagers are fairly niche, bookmakers devote considerably less time to pricing them. An experienced puntercan use this by placing bets that are less risky than the odds are implying.

Moreover, the high returns mean that you only need one bet in several to work to turn a profit. Tools such as bet-hedging can be extra useful as well. Another common goalscorer betting strategy is to bet on several players, increasing your odds of success dramatically.

When it comes down to it, though, making goalscorer bet predictions is not as easy as it may seem. While it may look simple to just go for an Anytime Goalscorer bet on a team’s main striker, the odds often aren’t worth it. Remember that bettors cannot know what’s going to happen in the pitch. Maybe your chosen player spends most of the match on the bench. Maybe the weather slows down goal-getting. Either way, you have to pick your punts. And that usually means researching dozens of teams and players.

Goalscorer Betting Tips

Because most football betting tips rely on low-risk, low-reward bets, they don’t often suggest Goalscorer bets. However, we sometimes run across interesting opportunities in our football tips section.

Beyond that, we can offer you some simple football betting strategies with Goalscorer bets.

• Research the teams and players extensively before making your selection. As far as the players go, look for goal records and scoring streaks. Also, you may want to consider the player’s style and how much time they spend in the pitch on average. This also applies to the team’s overall tactics. For example, some teams focus on a strong start, so Starting 11 striker means considerably more.
• Keep an eye on Twitter. This may seem like a strange suggestion, but most of the world’s best football teams regularly announce formations an hour before a match. Keeping up with football news is a great idea for any punter.
• Use in-play betting to your advantage. For example, any Anytime Goalscorer wager can work like a much safer To Score in Second Half if you just place it long after kick-off.
• Other useful information involves overall team form and head-to-head statistics.

Hopefully, this will give you enough information to get started with Goalscorer betting. Good luck!