Luis Suarez may have been left in tears last night as Liverpool threw away a 3-0 lead at Crystal Palace to draw 3-3 and all-but hand the title to Manchester City, but has his form been leaving punters with a smile this season?

The Uruguayan has been the standout player in the Premier League this campaign with 31 goals from 32 games securing him the Golden Boot as well as the PFA Player of the Year and Writers’ Association Player of the Year awards.

But what about when it comes to betting? For those who love to bet on football, has Suarez been the man to cheer punters throughout the 2013-14 action?

When it comes to placing fixed odds football bets on individual favourites, the big favourite is the First Goalscorer market.

However, in the 32 league games that Suarez has started this season, he has been First Goalscorer on just six occasions. Hardly the payout that punters would have been anticipating from such a free-scoring striker.

This suggests that Anytime Scorer or Last Goalscorer markets may be more the selections to consider when betting on Suarez – unless of course you look to the spreads and take on Suarez’s Player Goal Minutes.

Football spread betting on Player Goal Minutes

When it comes to football spread betting on individual players, Player Goal Minutes is the market to look out for.

The spread offered by sports spread betting firms on this market is simply based on the minutes of the goals scored by that player in a match.

So, for example, when Suarez hit four against Norwich in a 5-1 win in December his Player Goal Minutes made up at 153 (goals scored in the 15th, 29th, 35th and 88th minutes).

So those who bought on Spreadex’s pre-match spread of 49 – 53 would have made 100 times their initial stake ((15 + 29 + 35 + 88) – 53).

It’s important to remember that while the profits can be handsome should you call the bet correctly, with spread betting you can lose more than your initial stake size should the bet go against you. So if Suarez had drawn a blank in the above game against Norwich, punters who bought at 53 would have lost 53 times their stake size.

You can also play on the Player Goal Minutes market if you feel a striker is out of sorts and won’t find the net in a match. So those who have been selling Ricky van Wolfswinkel’s Player Goal Minutes for most of the season will be celebrating a hugely unsuccessful campaign for the Canaries’ £9m Dutch misfit.

Another popular punt on Player Goal Minutes is to find a defender with a low spread who has a goal threat at the other end of the pitch. Martin Skrtel has netted seven times in the league for Liverpool from centre-half this season including twice (41st and 54th minutes) in the 6-3 win at Cardiff in March.

His pre-match spread for that game was 4 – 7 meaning those that bought at seven would have made 88 times their initial stake ((41 + 54) – 7). The attraction of this form of bet is a lower downside – i.e. if Skrtel had not scored in that Cardiff game then buyers of his Goal Minutes would only have been risking seven times their stake size.

You can also bet on Substitute Player Goal Minutes too – perfect for if you fancy a striker to come off the bench and pinch a late one.

So back to the original question – has Suarez been the main man when it comes to football spread betting this season?

As the table below shows, the Liverpool livewire is the clear leader when it comes to Average Total Goal Minutes per appearance.

So if you’re already looking ahead to the World Cup then Suarez – who incidentally is 12/1 to be top tournament scorer behind Lionel Messi at 13/2, Neymar 10/1 and Cristiano Ronaldo at 11/1 – could be the man to watch when he comes running out for Uruguay.

Good news for spread betters who love some Player Goal Minute action. But bad news for England defenders…

Premier League 13-14 Player Goal Minutes spread betting chart

Player	Goals	App's	Goals per game	Total Season Goal Mins	Av Goal Mins Per App	Typical Goal Mins Spread
Luis Suarez	31	32	0.97	1381	43.16	33 - 37
Yaya Toure	19	33	0.58	1037	31.42	22 - 26
Daniel Sturridge	21	28	0.75	849	30.32	25 - 29
Wilfried Bony	15	33	0.45	912	27.64	24 - 28
Wayne Rooney	17	29	0.59	783	27.00	27 - 31
Sergio Aguero	17	22	0.77	567	25.77	24 - 28
Loic Remy	14	26	0.54	667	25.65	24 - 28
Edin Dzeko	14	29	0.48	622	21.45	26 - 30
Jay Rodriguez	15	33	0.45	656	19.88	13 - 17
Olivier Giroud	16	35	0.46	642	18.34	24 - 28