Goal Betting: Goal Scorer & First Goal Bets – Strategy & Tips

The collective term “goal bets” covers a number of betting offers in football that have one thing in common: they all focus on the goal, which is the central element on the football pitch that will decide the outcome of the match.

The competing teams chase after it while the audience eagerly awaits the next goal.

And so it is of little surprise that the goal bet is immensely popular with football punters, as is the fact that, that there is hardly any other topic that is as heavily covered by bookmakers as goal bets.

This article will present the goal bets in its entire spectrum.

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Different kinds of goal bets

Bookmakers put a great amount of creativity into creating a sports betting offer based on everything surrounding the goal. In order to get a good overview, it is worth putting together a form of classification.

First of all, it can be established that goal bets tend to appear in the form of 2-way, 3-way and multi-way bets. The most important take-away from this statement regards the chances of winning, or rather, the risk of losing: the fewer outcomes are possible for a bet, the higher are the chances that a single selection will win.

Goal bets can also be differentiated thematically, depending on what they focus on: this can be the number of goals scored, the time at which the goal was scored, or the goal scorer. Most goal bets can be sorted into the following categories.

• Goal bets focusing on the numbers of goals scored
• Goal bets focusing on the time of the goal
• Goal bets focusing on the goal scorer
• Special bets among football goal bets

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Goal bets focusing on the number of goals scored

There are two bets that by now are classics in the world of sports betting. As such they are always listed among the main bets and have even their own bet types named after them.

We are talking about the Correct Score bet and the Over/Under bet, both of which revolve around the number of goals scored.

Correct score bet

The correct score bet requires you to predict the exact match result, which means the final score between the home and away teams at the end of regular match time.

Naturally this allows for a large number of possible results (such as, for example, 1:0, 1:1, 0:1, 2:0, 2:1 etc.), which is what makes the correct score bet one of the riskier multi-way bets.

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Because of its success, the correct score bet can now also be found in connection with half time betting in many sportsbooks. In this case the result of the 1st half or of the 2nd half needs to be picked.

Over/Under Bet

The Over/Under is a 2-way bet, as part of which the punter has to decide whether more or fewer goals will be scored than the number stated in the betting offer. With Over/Under Betting, one always encounters decimal numbers:

How many goals will be scored during the match?
… over or under 1.5?
… over or under 2.5?
… over or under 3.5?
etc.

So just like the correct score bet, the Over/Under bet can be used to create variations and generate questions that fit in with an existing betting strategy.

The total number of goals during the first half, or the number of goals scored by the visiting team, are just two examples for which Over/Under bets can be used.

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Further questions on the number of goals in football matches

Bets that revolve around the number of goals can be looked at from different angles in most betting strategies: is the total number of goals scored during the game going to be even or uneven?

Is the home or the away team going to score 0, 1, 2, 3 times or more? Are more goals going to be scored during the 1st half or during the 2nd, or is it going to be an equal number of goals?

Asking questions that can be answered with a Yes or a No is also popular. As there are just two possibilities for selection here, you will get outcomes with a relatively high chance of winning:

• The home team will win to nil – yes or no?
• Both teams will score two or more goals – yes or no?
• Both teams will score at least one goal – yes or no?
• Both teams will score during the second half – yes or no?

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Goal bets focusing on the time of the goal

Another way to approach goal bets is by looking at which time the goal was scored. Bets that focus on the time at which the goal occurs are also summarized under the term time period bets.

Here the bookmakers also show much ingenuity and offer their customers thoroughly different options for betting. Following on from here are a few examples that can be picked as 2-way, 3-way or multi-way bets:

Time of first goal

• 1st-15th minute
• 16th-30th minute
• 31st minute until half time
• 46th-60th minute
• 61st-75th minute
• 76th minute until final whistle
  

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Other Bets focusing on early goals

• Who will score more goals between the 1st and 15th minute? (Home or Away)
• Who is going to lead after 10 minutes? (Home or Away)
• How many goals will be scored in the first 15 minutes? (Over 0.5 or Under 0.5)

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Goal bets focusing on the goal scorer

This type of bet puts the focus on the goal scorer. In a broader sense, in addition to the goal scorer, you can also add the question of which team will score the first goal.

The bet on the first goal scorer, or the first team to take the lead, is the best-known offer here. Beyond this you could, for example, place wagers on the last goal scorer of the match or whether there is a player who will score two or perhaps even three goals.

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Special bets among football goal bets

Among the collectively termed “special bets” you will often find some very unusual sports betting offers. However, there are three prominent bets on offer here, which even got their own names and that, strictly-speaking, belong to the combination bets.

But rather than putting the picks together on the bet slip, as is the case with the combination bet, the offer here comes as a ready-made bet.

• Wincast: combines the bet on the first goalscorer with an 1×2-bet.
• Scorecast: combines the bet on the 1st goal scorer and the exact correct score.
• Timecast: combines the bet on the 1st goal scorer and the time the goal is scored (in the 1st-20th minute, for example)

All of these bets contain the bet on the first goal scorer and combine this with one other popular type of bet: the 1×2 bet, the correct score bet or the time period bet.

In addition to these specifically named combination bets, there are usually further combination bets under the section special bets.

Here are a few examples:

• The home team wins and over 2.5 goals are scored
• Double chance 1x and a total number of under 3.5 goals
• The home team wins and both teams score at least one goal
• The home team scores the first goal and goes on to win

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Football Goal Betting Summary

The topic of football goals is extremely broad. It is the subject of analysis, speculation and, of course, there are also plenty of betting opportunities. For this reason, it is possible that one and the same question will be asked from different perspectives or worked into different bets.

So, for example, the question, “How many goals will be scored”, can either be answered in the form of an Over/Under bet or with a more exact selection: 1 goal, 2 goals, 3 goals etc.

One of these bets can be selected as a 2-way bet, the other is known to have multiple outcomes. It is obvious that this means different chances of winning and also different odds. This makes the field of goal betting so exciting and also offers bookmakers the opportunity to put an individual touch on their own betting offer.

All types of betting markets explained

System Bets	Handicap Bets	Long-term Bets	Goal Betting
Correct Score	Double Chance	Half Time/Full Time	Win Bets/Place Bets
Asian Handicap	Over/Under Bets	Live Betting	2-way/3-way Bets