Goalscorer betting is a lot of fun and can be profitable because it allows you to key in on certain players or situations that you think you can take advantage of.  It also allows you to bet on a finer detail of a specific game.

Goalscorer betting is available in a wide variety of sports where goals or points are earned by players. Soccer and hockey games are the two sports I primarily place goalscorer wagers on, but you can find this bet in various forms for a wide variety of sports (home runs in baseball, first basket in basketball, touchdown scorer in football, etc.). I will be using a hockey game in my examples in this article.

I personally do a lot of anytime goalscorer betting, especially when I will be watching the game for entertainment purposes.  With an anytime goalscorer bet you’re always in it as long as your player is on the field (or ice).

Anytime Goalscorer

Just like how it sounds, with this betting option you can bet on any player from either team to score a goal during the match.

First/Last Goalscorer

You can also specify if a player will score the first or last goal of the match.  The odds will increase quite a bit if you specify which goal the player will score.

Here’s an example from a Boston Bruins vs Carolina Hurricanes NHL game. The example is from Bet365.com (odds from March 6th, 2025):

As you can see the payout is significantly more if you bet on first or last goalscorer vs anytime goalscorer. The sportsbooks will generally have goalscorer betting lines available for the majority of players expected to play in the game.

Scorecast

By definition scorecast betting is a parlay that includes the first goalscorer in the match/game and the correct final score.  With this type of bet you can often get some very high odds and large subsequent payouts if you’re correct.

Scorecast bets were an early iteration of same game parlays before SGP’s existed. You will generally no longer find specific scorecast betting markets. Instead you can make correct score + first goalscorer picks as a same game parlay to get the same outcome.

Here is an example of a same game parlay bet on Manchester City to win 2-1 and Erling Haaland to score first. This is the type of bet that would be considered a “scorecast” bet.

You can also choose ‘Anytime Scorecast’ which is the exact same thing except the player is able to score at anytime through the match, as long as the score is still correct.

Wincast

With wincast betting you still have to select the player to score the first goal in the match, but instead of selecting the correct score you simply have to choose the full time result.

This is another betting market that can now be built as a same game parlay. Continuing with the above example:

• Erling Haaland to score first + Manchester City to win in regulation had odds of 5.50.

Timecast

With timecast you’re once again selecting which player to score first, but the combination involves selecting which group of minutes that goal will be scored in.

Again, this type of bet can now be made as a same game parlay. It’s unlikely you will find specific timecast betting markets now that SGP’s exist.

Here’s an example using Erling Haaland to score the first goal of the match after 40 minutes of the game.

• Erling Haaland to score first + time of first goal 40+ had odds of 13.00.