Ahead of the first round of Premier League matches this weekend, it’s time to get in your Hotshot Jackpot selections (it’s free), if you haven’t already done so.
The object of the game – we did mention it’s free, right? – is to choose six correct First Goalscorers from the nominated games each week.
To make things easier for you, we asked our trading boffins for some stats on the market.
Specifically, we requested details of bets (singles only) placed on the First Goalscorer market on Premier League matches from the 2016/17 season.
They came up with some interesting information, and we’ve run through it in order to pick out the juiciest tidbits.
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There were a total of 67,096 First Goalscorer bets on Zlatan Ibrahimovic, making him comfortably the most-backed in the market. However, the towering Swede only emerged as a winner four times across the entire league season.
Surprisingly, he was outperformed in that regard by the likes of Sam Vokes, Etienne Capoue and Junior Stanislas, all of whom recorded five market-wins.
Diego Costa was next on the list, being backed 45,201 times by punters. The Brazilian’s win-ratio was vastly higher than United’s target-man, with him settled as First GS winner on eight occasions.
Meanwhile, Man Utd’s pricey new frontman, Romelu Lukaku (then playing for Everton) was backed in 41,475 First Goalscorer singles, winning the market seven times.
Alexis Sanchez (9 wins), Eden Hazard (8 wins) and Sergio Aguero (7 wins) were hot on Lukaku’s heels in terms of the amount of punters who backed them, all in and around the 40k mark.
But leading the pack was Tottenham’s precocious young mouth-breather Harry Kane, who notched up ten first goalscorer wins in 2016/17. A total of 41,804 wagers went onto the Englishman.
When choosing your selections for Hotshot Jackpot this year, the above stats should help you get a handle on who exactly are the most efficient first goalscorers.
But to make things even easier, we’ve included below the full list of players who were responsible for winning four or more times last season.
Never let it be said that Paddy hasn’t got your back!
List of First Goalscorer market-winners in 2016/17 Premier League season
H Kane – 10 times
A Sanchez – 9
Diego Costa – 8
E Hazard – 8
R Lukaku – 7
S Aguero – 7
S Mane – 6
S Vokes – 6
E Capoue – 5
J Stanislas – 5
M Antonio – 5
F Llorente – 5
A Negredo – 5
C Austin – 5
C Eriksen – 4
Dele Alli – 4
J Defoe – 4
J King – 4
J Mata – 4
J Vardy – 4
N Chadli – 4
O Giroud – 4
T Deeney – 4
Z Ibrahimovic – 4