Goalscorer Betting: Anytime, First, Last and Hat-Trick Markets Explained

Nothing in football betting beats having a name on your slip. A 1-0 win is a result. A 1-0 win where your striker bundles in the winner from six yards is a story you're still telling on Monday. Goalscorer markets put you on one player's shoulder for ninety minutes, and every touch in the box suddenly matters.

They're also the markets punters understand least. What happens when the first goal is an own goal? Is your bet live if your man starts on the bench? Does extra time count? The answers change from one bookmaker to the next, and that small print decides whether you get paid.

The 2026/27 Premier League is seven weeks old and five rounds in. The international break is wrapping up, and Erling Haaland already tops the scoring charts with five goals. The fixtures are about to come thick and fast, so now's the time to get the rules straight: how anytime, first, last, brace and hat-trick bets settle, where scorecast and wincast fit, what actually moves a scorer price, and the angles we lean on before every bet.

Every goalscorer market asks the same question in a slightly different way: will this player score, and when? The "when" and the "how many" are what separate a short price from a long one.

Market	What you need	Price shape	Key small print
Anytime scorer	Your player scores at any point	Shortest	Void rules for players who don't start or don't play
First goalscorer	Your player scores the first goal	Long	Own goals, substitutes, "No Goalscorer"
Last goalscorer	Your player scores the final goal	Long	At Sky Bet, stands if he plays any part
Brace / hat-trick	Two or more, or three or more	Longest	bet365 counts extra time and voids non-starters

Anytime is the bread-and-butter bet. Your player needs one goal, whenever it comes. That makes it the shortest price on the card and the easiest to reason about.

First goalscorer needs two things to go right: a goal in the match, and your player getting there before anyone else. So the same striker can be a short price to score anytime and several times bigger to score first.

Last goalscorer is the forgotten cousin, and it deserves more love than it gets. It rewards the players still on the pitch when games open up late. Braces and hat-tricks sit at the long end, where one big afternoon pays for plenty of quiet ones.

Here's where the small print earns its keep. Sky Bet and bet365 both publish clear goalscorer rules, and they differ in ways that change real outcomes.

Situation	Sky Bet	bet365
Own goal	Doesn't count; first goalscorer rolls to the next goal	Doesn't count
Extra time	Not counted (90 minutes plus injury time)	First/last scorer and multi-goal markets include extra time if played
Player not in the starting XI	First goalscorer stays live if he comes on before the first goal; void if he comes on after it	Void if he doesn't start (rolling-sub competitions excepted)
Anytime scorer, player unused	Void if he takes no part; stands if he plays any part	Void if he doesn't start
Goal reassigned after the match	No resettlement	Later official enquiries not considered

Extra time matters most in cup football. At bet365, a first or last scorer bet on a knockout tie carries on into extra time if it's played. Sky Bet stops the clock at 90 minutes plus injury time, and penalty shoot-outs don't count unless a market says otherwise.

The substitute rule is the one that catches people out. Back an impact sub to score anytime at bet365 and the bet is void if he isn't in the starting line-up. At Sky Bet, the same bet stands the moment he steps onto the pitch.

Both firms settle on official Opta data. Sky Bet counts corrections made during the game, but a dubious goals panel decision days later won't flip your bet either way. A goal chalked off by a video review is a different story, and our guide to how VAR affects football betting markets covers how those calls play out for scorer bets. Rules vary from firm to firm, so check your bookmaker's goalscorer rules before you back an impact sub or a cup-tie scorer.

First goalscorer has more moving parts than any other scorer market. Here's how the awkward cases play out at Sky Bet.

Own goals roll over

If the first goal of the game is an own goal, it's ignored and your bet rolls on to the next one. Another own goal? It rolls again, until a player scores into the net his own team is attacking. If the match finishes 0-0, or the only goals are own goals, the "No Goalscorer" selection wins. It's a real runner in the market, and on a cagey derby we'd give it a look.

Substitutes and early exits

A player who comes off, or gets sent off, before the first goal loses on both the win and place parts. A substitute who comes on before the first goal is a live runner. One who arrives after it is void, and you get your stake back. In a multiple, that void leg simply drops out, so a treble becomes a double.

Each-way first goalscorer

Sky Bet settles the place part of an each-way first goalscorer bet on any goal your player scores, at 1/3 of the odds. Score first and both halves win. Score the second, third or any later goal and the place half still pays. Scoring twice doesn't earn extra, and if the game ends goalless, both halves lose.

£5 each-way (£10 total) on a player at 12/1 to score first

He scores the second goal:
  Win part:   loses              -£5
  Place part: 12/1 x 1/3 = 4/1   £5 x 4 = £20 profit + £5 stake = £25 return
  Net result: +£15

He scores the first goal:
  Win part:   £5 x 12 = £60 profit + £5 stake = £65 return
  Place part: £25 return
  Total return: £90 from a £10 outlay

bet365 offers each-way first goalscorer on unlimited places at the terms shown on the bet slip, with extra time included if played. If you trust a striker to score but can't be sure he'll score first, each-way keeps both outcomes on your side. Our each-way betting guide walks through the logic in more detail.

Backing the last scorer

At Sky Bet, a last goalscorer bet stands as long as your player takes any part in the match, and it's void if he doesn't play at all. "No Goalscorer" is a selection here too. bet365 includes extra time in its last scorer settlement, which gives a cup-tie bet an extra half-hour of life.

We like this market more than most. Managers chasing a game throw on fresh forwards, tired defences leak late, and whoever's on the pitch at 85 minutes has a big say in who scores last. A striker who reliably plays the full 90 is worth more here than in first scorer.

Braces and hat-tricks

Sky Bet's "To Score a Brace" market needs two or more goals. It's void if your player takes no part and stands if he features at all. If a match is abandoned, it only wins if he's already scored twice. At bet365, the two-or-more and hat-trick markets include extra time and are void if the player doesn't start.

These are the longest prices in the scorer family, and they suit one type of game: a dominant side against a leaky defence. Manchester City's 5-3 win over Sunderland on 20 September produced eight goals in one afternoon. That's exactly the sort of match where a hat-trick punt earns its keep.

Niche markets worth knowing

bet365's "To Score the Team's Winner" needs your player's team to win by exactly one goal and your player to score the last goal of the game. The in-play Next Goalscorer market counts anyone who's been on the pitch before the next goal; back a player after he's gone off and the bet's void. Goalscorer Match Bets, where you pick which of two players scores more, need both to start.

You'll sometimes hear about dead heats in first goalscorer betting. In a single match they don't come up, because only one player can score the first goal. Where they really matter is the top scorer outright, like the Premier League Golden Boot.

It happens more than you'd think. Son Heung-min and Mohamed Salah shared the 2021/22 Golden Boot on 23 goals each, and in 2018/19 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sadio Mané and Salah split it three ways on 22. When that happens, your stake is divided by the number of players tied and the odds apply to that share. Here's Sky Bet's own worked example:

£10 on a player at 6/4, three-way dead heat

Stake share:   £10 ÷ 3 = £3.33
Profit:        £3.33 x 6/4 = £5.00
Return:        £5.00 + £3.33 = £8.33

So a winning bet can still hand you back less than you staked. Dead-heat rules don't apply when the market offers the tie as its own selection. Haaland won the 2025/26 Golden Boot with 27 and is setting the early pace again this term, so know how a shared crown would settle before you get involved.

Think of these as the doubles of the goalscorer world: two predictions on one bet for a much bigger price.

Scorecast combines the first (or last) goalscorer with the correct score of the same match. Get both right and the payout is big; get either wrong and you're beaten. At Sky Bet, own goals don't count towards the scorer half of a scorecast.

Wincast pairs a player to score at any time with his team to win. It's the more natural pairing, because a striker scoring and his side winning tend to go hand in hand. Fancy a favourite to win and have a clear idea who'll do the damage? Wincast lets you back both thoughts in one go.

Our view is simple. Wincast is a sensible way to back a strong opinion; scorecast is a small-stakes bit of fun. If you enjoy building combinations, our same-game multi strategy guide shows how to keep the legs logically linked instead of bolting random picks together.

Bookmakers price scorer markets on the same things you can research yourself. Your edge comes from doing that homework more carefully than the average punter.

Minutes on the pitch

Time is the biggest factor of all. A striker who plays 90 minutes gets more chances than one who's routinely hooked on the hour, and a bench player gets fewer still. That's why we never back a first goalscorer until the confirmed line-ups are out, and why the starting-XI rules in the table above matter so much.

Penalties and set pieces

Penalty duty is gold in scorer markets. A player who takes his side's spot kicks has a route to goal that doesn't depend on open play, so check recent match reports and team news to see who's been stepping up. Set pieces are the other angle: a big centre-back who attacks every corner often sits at long odds in the anytime and first scorer lists. For "Goal Method" bets at bet365, a penalty goal has to go in directly from the spot kick, with the taker as the named scorer.

Shots, xG and the matchup

Volume matters. A player who racks up plenty of shots, and good ones, is knocking on the door even in games he doesn't score. Our guide to using xG for smarter football betting explains how to read chance quality, and the shots on target guide covers the neighbouring markets. Then look at the opponent. A missing first-choice keeper or centre-back, a poor recent defensive record, or a team that sits deep and concedes set pieces all tilt things your way.

First scorer prices dwarf anytime prices for a simple reason: you need a goal in the game and your man to beat everyone else to it. To judge whether either price is fair, turn the odds into an implied probability. The prices below are illustrative examples, not live odds.

Implied probability = 1 ÷ decimal odds

4.00 (3/1)   →  1 ÷ 4.00  = 25%
29.00 (28/1) →  1 ÷ 29.00 ≈ 3.4%

Return = stake x decimal odds
£10 at 4.00 → £40 back, including your £10 stake

If you reckon your player scores more often than the implied probability suggests, you've found value. If you can't make that case, pass.

Scorer markets have dozens of runners, and the more outcomes a bookmaker prices, the more room there is for margin. Add up the implied probabilities of every name in a first goalscorer market and you'll land well above 100%. That's no reason to avoid the market, but it is a reason to be choosy. Bet the handful of players you've properly researched rather than spraying small stakes across the list. Our prop betting strategy guide is the next read if you want the same thinking applied across player markets.

• Read the rules tab first. Sky Bet and bet365 treat substitutes and extra time differently, so check your bookmaker's goalscorer rules and pick the one that suits the bet you're placing.
• Wait for the team sheet. No first goalscorer bet goes on until the line-ups are confirmed. Knowing your man starts is worth more than any early price.
• Follow the penalty taker. Spot-kick duty is the most reliable route to goal there is. Recent match reports and team news will tell you who's taking them.
• Give defenders a look on set-piece days. Big centre-backs against teams that concede plenty of corners are where the long-odds anytime value tends to hide.
• Go each-way on first scorer. On terms that pay any goal at 1/3, a striker you trust to score, but not necessarily first, is a natural each-way bet.
• Don't overreact to five games. Early-season scoring charts are fun, but minutes, penalties and chance quality tell you more than a hot September.
• Keep scorecasts small. Wincast is a sound way to back a strong view; scorecast is a fun punt, not the core of your staking.

Set a fixed stake per bet, stick to it through the barren weeks, and let the big scorer prices come to you instead of chasing them.

• Player shot markets: how to profit from shots on target
• How to use xG for smarter football betting
• Prop betting strategy: finding value in player and team props
• Same-game multi strategy: building winning SGM bets
• How VAR affects football betting markets

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