If you’re the sort of person that likes to bet on football matches then there is a good chance that you’ll look at the likes of the 1X2 market, as well as Correct Score, Player to Score and other such easy to understand wager types.
If you’re looking for a little bit more reliability, however, then it might just be worth your while broadening your horizons a little bit and exploring bets that are similar in nature but that are a little bit easier to predict, thereby sometimes seeing the odds be shorter than the more traditional bet types but more likely to come in. The likes of Shot Betting and Assist Betting are these types of wagers.
Betting on Shots Taken
There is a feeling from many that football is a high scoring game, largely because the games that see three, four or five goals scored by one team or end up finishing something like 3-3 stick in our memories. I reality, scorelines like 1-0 and 2-1 are much more common, so betting on a specific player to score is a tricky road to go down. One of the ways that you can avoid being dragged into placing a bet that there is more chance that you’ll lose than win is by placing a bet on something that is more likely to happen. Some bookmakers allow you to place bets on how many shots a player will have during the game.
These markets are usually displayed as the Over/Under, with an arbitrary number selected by the bookies. If your selection takes more shots than the selected cut off point then the Over will win, whilst if they don’t the Under will win. You tend to be able to see the options for all players in the squad, so defenders are more likely to have long odds on the Over than attacking players. Here is a look for how the Total Shots market looked when Liverpool took on Atalanta in the second-leg of their Europa League game in the 2023-2024 campaign, which Atalanta were leading 3-0 on aggregate from the first-leg:
| Player | Shots Figure | Over Odds | Under Odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ademola Lookman | 2.5 | 17/20 | 3/5 |
| Andy Robertson | 0.5 | 6/5 | 3/5 |
| Darwin Núñez | 3.5 | 12/25 | 21/20 |
| Joe Gomez | 0.5 | 13/20 | 11/10 |
| Teun Koopmeiners | 1.5 | 1/1 | 1/2 |
You can see that the bookmakers adjust the number of shots that a player is expected to take for the Over/Under depending on the position that they play in. Andy Robertson and Joe Gomez are both defenders, so the Over/Under for them is 0.5. Teun Koopmeiners is a midfielder, so there is some expectation that he’ll have a few shots, but not as many as Ademola Lookman, who is a winger. Darwin Núñez, meanwhile, is a striker and it is therefore felt that the will be much more likely to take a number of shots, which is why his Over/Under is the highest of the group.
Shots on Target
There is another variation on the same theme that bookmakers will offer, which is Shots on Target. A shot can be a good one that hits the crossbar or the post, for example, but that isn’t technically considered to be on target. It means that it will count towards your Over/Under on the Shots Taken market, but wouldn’t if you’d bet on Shots on Target. A Shot on Target is a good thing to bet on because it is more likely to come in than a goal in a low-scoring sport like football. Of course, the fact that it is a bit more precise than just a general shot means that the odds will usually be slightly longer.
Here is a look at those same players but for Shots on Target rather than just shots:
| Player | Shots on Target Figure | Over Odds | Under Odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ademola Lookman | 0.5 | 1/2 | 1/1 |
| Andy Robertson | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Darwin Núñez | 1.5 | 13/20 | 17/20 |
| Joe Gomez | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Teun Koopmeiners | 0.5 | 1/1 | 8/15 |
You can see that bookies just the number of Shots on Target for the Over/Under line here to protect their Edge, removing players that are unlikely to have a Shot on Target from the running altogether.
Assist Betting
The other thing that bookmakers will offer football fans to bet on is a player getting an assist. Assist Betting is more difficult to predict than Shots Betting and Shots on Target, simply because assists can come in all shapes and sizes. A ball passed to a play who then goes on a mazy run all the way up the pitch before scoring a screamer is classed as an assist, just as a well placed cross from a corner that lands on a defender’s head that he scores from would be. Some bookies will offer Assist Betting in the same way that they offer Goalscorer bets, which is to say You can bet on Anytime Assist markets. Here’s that Liverpool game again:
- Ademola Lookman – 4/1
- Andy Robertson – 21/10
- Darwin Núñez – 23/10
- Joe Gomez – 10/3
- Teun Koopmeiners – 7/1
You will also find some bookies that offer the likes of Goalscorer Assist Double, which means you bet on a specific player scoring from an assist by another specific player. Mohamed Salah to Score Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold was 6/1 in the Atalanta game, for example. Similarly, you can bet on to Score or Assist, with Salah having odds of 8/15 to manager that.