Before the start of any major league or tournament, many bettors find it hard to resist Golden Boot Wagering, a predictions about who will be the top goal scorer.
Considering the multitude of potential contenders, it is often a challenging market. However, the upside is that success in this area brings substantial rewards.
To simplify the process, some bettors prefer to wait before placing their bets, allowing them to gather more information for informed decision-making.
The drawback of a mid-tournament or mid-season strategy is that the market may have changed significantly, with many strong starters likely having decreased in price.
While we won’t suggest when to place bets on your top goal scorer or whom to support, we’ll clearly explain how these bets work, which goals are counted, and other important details you should be aware of.
With this knowledge, you could be in a stronger position to place a successful bet on the top goal scorer.
Top Goalscorer vs. Golden Boot: What’s the Difference?
At times, these terms can be a bit puzzling because they sometimes mean the same thing; however, in certain contexts from a betting perspective, they may have subtly different meanings.
For many non-betting fans, though, the two expressions are often used interchangeably to refer to the player who scores the most goals during a particular tournament or league season.
Golden Boot Wagering, honors top goalscorers in major competitions. Bookmakers typically don’t provide odds for this award, ensuring accurate betting.
Confusion can arise when there is a tie for the top scorer position, which happens quite frequently. For instance, during the 2018-19 season in the Premier League, three players shared this honour.
Remarkably, at the 2012 Euros, six players ended up as joint top scorers including Cristiano Ronaldo, Mario Balotelli and Fernando Torres among them.
If you are placing bets on a market labelled “top scorer,” you’ll likely encounter terms like “Dead heat rules apply” within its conditions.
Conversely, some competitions implement specific rules to differentiate between tied or co-top scorers to award one player with their Golden Boot title officially.
Ballon d’Or?
A similarly named award given out after the World Cup and potentially other tournaments is the Golden Ball.
Unlike the Ballon d’Or, this accolade goes to the player considered to be the best performer of a tournament.
A technical committee and media representatives play a role in selecting its recipient. Although it might go to the top scorer, that’s not necessarily required.
Initially presented in 1982 when it was awarded to top scorer Paolo Rossi, German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn also received this honour in 2002.
Betting is open in this market, but unless an unprecedented situation occurs where the award is given to more than one player—which seems unlikely—there won’t be any complications with dead heats.
Additionally in golden boot wagering, there are Silver and Bronze Ball awards for the players ranked second and third best in the tournament; however, betting options on these are typically not available.
Are All Goals Counted?
Whether you’re betting on a league, cup, or tournament top goalscorer, own goals will not contribute to your selection’s total.
This is usually the main point of interest for most league top scorer bets unless they involve a play-off round at season’s end, like in the English Championship.
In such cases, the top goalscorer market concludes when the regular season ends; therefore, any play-off goals are excluded from counting toward totals.
In tournaments like the World Cup and the Euros, matches in the knockout stages can proceed to a 30-minute extra time period or a penalty shootout if they are still tied.
Goals scored during extra time contribute to the Golden Boot standings, while converted penalties from shootouts do not.
Golden Boot tally includes penalties, goals in third-place playoffs, replays, and qualifying stages. Players may compete for top scorer honors due to mismatches.
W. Dowden, affectionately called “Doc,” is said to have scored 19 goals for Wimbledon during the 1929/30 FA Cup season, including a record-breaking six in a single match that ended with an impressive 15-2 win.
Ted MacDougall scored nine goals in an FA Cup first-round game for Bournemouth against Margate, contributing to their 11-0 victory in 1971.
This highlights the potential for spotting unexpected opportunities in lesser-known teams or players.
When can I bet on the Golden Boot or Top Scorer?
Typically, bookmakers begin providing odds well in advance of any major tournament or league starting.
During this period, the odds may fluctuate slightly, but significant changes are unlikely until the event starts.
Exceptions to this could include situations where a key player suffers a long-term injury before the campaign begins, or potentially transfers from a top-six contender team to one that is vying for the title.
Or, in the worst-case scenario, your player might leave for a completely different league.
The market will remain open until the last game, or set of games in a league.
Before the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy, you could still place a bet on Cristiano Ronaldo at short odds of 1/8, despite his team being eliminated.
At this stage, the odds were very low because Harry Kane was the only real threat.
He would have needed to score two goals in the final, or achieve one goal and provide two assists, to surpass the Portuguese star.
Concluion
Bettors often make predictions about the top goal scorer before major leagues or tournaments, which can be challenging but rewarding.
The terms “Golden Boot” and “Golden Ball” can be confusing, but they both refer to the player who scores the most goals during a tournament or season.
The European Golden Shoe honors the top goal scorer from all European leagues, but bookmakers typically don’t provide odds for this award.
The Golden Ball, awarded after the World Cup, goes to the best performer of a tournament, and own goals aren’t counted.
