Premier League betting
Robin van Persie and Luis Suarez are hotter up front than Rosie Jones. Together they have scored a combined 35 league goals this season which is more than 12 Premier League clubs have managed to rack up so far. The two hitmen account for 22 per cent of total first goalscorer bets this season.
They’ve spent the last five-and-a-bit months tormenting top-flight defences and they’ve left Paddy Power a shell of a man. The boss can no longer settle down to enjoy watching Manchester United or Liverpool matches, instead he is found in a cold, dark room sweating as RVP and Suarez empty his pockets.
If you’d stuck a tenner on Suarez to score first in each Liverpool league game this season you would be up €182.00 with Paddy. If you did the same for RVP you’d be showing a profit of €157.00.
That Paddy Power value column includes Paddy’s Money-Back Specials and his Double Odds promotions on the individual players and shows Paddy is putting more cash back into the punter’s pocket than any of his rivals.
But despite Suarez and van Persie rinsing Paddy of his pennies, they’re not the most profitable player you should be backing to be first goalscorer each week. That honour falls to Southampton’s Rickie Lambert who has knocked in 11 goals this season, with five of them being the first of the game.
Here’s the top 10 most profitable players if you stuck €10 on them to be first goalscorer each week so far in the Premier League.
Rickie Lambert – €290.00
Steven Fletcher – €280.00
Michu – €185.00
Luis Suarez - €182.00
Robin van Persie – €157.00
Christian Benteke – €100.00
Dimitar Berbatov – €70.00
Gareth Bale – €70.00
Fernando Torres – €60.00
Lukas Podolski - €60.00
The most surprising figure of them all is that if you had backed serial ‘sitter-fluffer’ Fernando Torres every week you would still be €60 up and any optimistic Villa fans who had stuck faithfully to Christian Benteke would have an extra ton in their back pocket. That should cushion the blow back down to the Championship lads.
Saints are at home to champions Emirates Marketing Project in the evening kick-off on Saturday and Rickie Lambert is 7/1 to open the scoring and boost that profit up over the €300 mark. Michu could overtake him at the top before that game though if he knocks in the first goal at 4/1 when Swansea take on relegation-threatened QPR at the Liberty Stadium.