Is Erling Haaland a Nightmare for the Bookies?

Erling Haaland was expected to hit the ground running upon joining Manchester City ahead of the 2022-23 season, but nobody could have foreseen just how effective he would be. In his first 13 appearances for his new club, the Norwegian managed to put away 18 goals.

Haaland’s output is incredible, and sportsbooks around the world are probably wondering whether there’s any point in offering scoring markets on the player in upcoming matches.

Should Sportsbooks Bother Offering Odds on Haaland?

Modern online sportsbooks pride themselves on providing a wide range of markets for players to bet on, and these come built into the betting solutions that many operators turn to when creating their sites. Оperators do have the power to choose which markets they want to include and which ones they don’t.

Bookies should always offer anytime scorer markets, but is there any point in giving odds for Haaland when it’s so likely that he will find the back of the net every time he steps out onto the pitch? Haaland can usually be found at odds-on to score any time, meaning that it’s not worthwhile for bettors who stake on him. The best option for bookies would be to give special odds on combined bets that include Haaland scoring, along with some other scenarios.

Freak Football Events Often Stun Bookies

Betting companies probably prefer dealing with more predictable happenings in football, such as the fact that Haaland will score in any game. They can mitigate this by writing the odds accordingly, so as not to incur any losses. The worst situation for these companies is when freak events that never could have been anticipated happen.

This can sometimes come in the form of underdogs beating the best in the league. For example, when Brentford beat Manchester City before the winter World Cup break, the Cityzens were flying high and looked impossible to beat. Nobody could have foreseen that the Bees would win at the Etihad Stadium. Similarly, the bookies will have faced some large payouts to lucky punters when Leeds United and Nottingham Forest both managed to beat Liverpool this term.

The biggest upset for the betting industry was in the 2015-16 season when Leicester City won the Premier League. This was one of the greatest sporting stories of all time, and people who wagered on the Foxes at the start of the season were richly rewarded. Before a ball was kicked that year, Claudio Ranieri’s men were at odds of 5000/1 to win the competition. Many people placed the bet and made money from cashing out early. Few held their nerve all the way, but some bettors were in line to win as much as £250,000 if they had done.

With Haaland currently taking the English top flight by storm at the age of 22, it’s incredible to think what he will be doing once he officially hits his footballing prime. With his best years still ahead of him, bookies may as well resign themselves to leaving him out of anytime scorer markets in the future.