Scorecast

A Scorcecast bet is a wager placed on a football match which is really two bets rolled into one – similar to a double. It sees gamblers trying to predict both a goalscorer in a game along with the final score.

For most high-profile football games, the bookmakers will make the market combinations for gamblers, allocating long odds accordingly depending on what those combinations are.

So, for example, let’s say Tottenham Hotspur are playing at home to Liverpool and you think Spurs are likely to win two nil and that England striker Harry Kane will score. This scenario isn’t all that unlikely of course; Spurs would probably be around 12/1 to win by that margin, whilst Harry Kane would be somewhere around 9/2 to open the scoring.

Now with a Scorecast, you would have to combine these two bets into one, for which the odds would be around the 35-1 mark. The reason the odds for this Scorecast aren’t simply a multiple of the two previous odds quoted is that if Harry Kane scores, Spurs are more likely to win, so this impacts the overall odds. It is for this reason that Scorecasts are placed through a special market as listed by the bookmaker and not via a first goalscorer and correct score double bet.

You also need to be quite careful about the bookmaker’s definition of the Scorecast. This should be made clear on the website or betting slip. With most Scorecast bets, your anticipated final score needs to be along with a specific goalscorer to score what is usually the first goal of the game, but may also be the last goal of the game – or a goal at any time during the game. The terms are defined by the bookmaker – or by you on the betting slip.

Scorecasts are difficult to get right but can be good fun to enhance the enjoyment of a game as they’re usually long odds depending, obviously, on your score and scorer prediction combination!

If the player doesn’t play for any reason, the Scorecast isn’t usually voided. Instead, your bet is treated as a single bet on the correct score by most bookmakers. Remember, too, that own goals don’t count and if your selected player is introduced to the field of play any time before the first goal is scored (i.e. comes on as a substitute) or goes off for any reason without scoring, your bet is a loser.