The super sub offer and its many names

Most people find out this offer exists the first time it saves a bet, or the first time they assume it applies and it doesn’t. Here is what actually counts as the trigger, every bookmaker’s current name for it, which markets each one covers, and the edge cases worth knowing before you rely on it.

What the super sub offer is

One sentence: if the player you backed in a prop market is substituted before your bet is settled, some bookmakers automatically move your bet onto the player who comes on in their place, at the same stake and the same odds, instead of leaving it to lose.

This matters because a substitution is one of the most common ways a promising player prop dies early. A striker sitting on nothing from the shots on target line gets hooked at half-time in a game going badly, and normally that is that: the bet settles on what the original player did in the time they had, usually a loss. The offers below change that by keeping the bet alive through the substitute, and in some cases through a second substitute after that.

FootyMetrics already touches this briefly on the shots on target learn page, since it directly changes how that market can settle. This page goes further: every bookmaker’s current branding, what each one actually covers, and the exclusions that catch people out.

What each bookmaker calls the Super Sub offer

The mechanic is close to identical across the board. What changes is the branding, and which markets and competitions each bookmaker actually applies it to.

All six pay the bet as a winner if either the original player or their replacement (or a further sub down the chain, at bet365, Sky Bet and Paddy Power) completes the outcome, as long as the bet hadn’t already been decided one way before the substitution happened.

Which markets qualify for the Super Sub offer

This is not a blanket rule across every player prop. Each bookmaker limits it to a specific list of markets, usually on a specific list of competitions too, and the offer only applies where its icon appears next to the market on the bet slip. Based on each bookmaker’s own current listing:

• bet365 (Sub On, Play On). Goalscorer markets, shots, assists, cards and fouls, and similar player markets carrying the Sub On, Play On icon.
• William Hill (Impact Sub). First, anytime and last goalscorer, score 2 or more, hat-trick, assists, score or assist, shots on target, cards and player fouls, on selected leagues including the Premier League and Champions League.
• Sky Bet (Super Sub). Goals, assists, shots on target, shots, corners conceded, offsides, fouls committed, yellow cards, red cards and goalkeeper saves, on selected leagues.
• Paddy Power (Super Sub). Player markets including first goalscorer, players to be booked, shots, goals and assists, on selected leagues.
• SBK (Fresh Legs). First, last and anytime goalscorer, multi-scorer, shots on target, cards, assists, player to score or assist, and player fouls.
• Betfair (Safe Sub). Player-based outcome markets confirmed for shots on target, on a shorter competition list than the rest.

Tackles is not confirmed as a covered market at any of the six on their current pages, so don’t assume it is included just because shots and cards usually are. Always check the icon on your own bet slip rather than working from memory, since the exact list differs by bookmaker and can change.

Why the price is a little shorter

Exclusions and edge cases

A few situations trip people up because they assume the offer is a blanket guarantee. It isn’t.

• A red card is not the same as a substitution. At bet365, if the player is sent off rather than subbed, Sub On, Play On does not apply, and the bet settles on what that player actually did before the red card, under the standard football rules. This is the single biggest thing to get right: the offer covers a tactical or injury substitution, not a player leaving the pitch through dismissal. Other bookmakers do not spell out the same scenario as explicitly on their own pages, so treat this as confirmed for bet365 and check the specific terms elsewhere before assuming identical treatment.
• Extra time is mixed, not universal. bet365 and Betfair both limit their offer to 90 minutes of play plus stoppage time, excluding extra time. Sky Bet’s own support page states the opposite for Super Sub, confirming it applies to their “120 Minute Payout” market specifically. That is a standing part of Sky Bet’s rules, not a one-off World Cup promotion, and it covers a fixed list of competitions where a 120-minute market is offered at all (the Premier League and its divisions, the Champions League, the Europa League, the World Cup and its qualifiers, and the Community Shield). So the practical trigger is whether you have bet the 120-minute market in the first place, not which tournament is on. This genuinely differs between bookmakers rather than following one universal rule, so it is worth checking per bookmaker in knockout football.
• There is no fixed minute cutoff, just a settled-or-not test. The shared rule across the bookmakers researched is that if your bet’s outcome was already decided before the substitution happened, the offer changes nothing. A player who has already hit 1+ shots on target and is then subbed off has already won the bet; the sub adds nothing and takes nothing away. The offer only matters for a bet that is still unsettled at the moment of the change.
• Multiple substitutions can chain. At bet365, Sky Bet and Paddy Power, if the substitute is later replaced by another substitute, the bet rolls onto that second substitute too, under the same rules.
• Cash out usually changes once a sub is involved. Most of the bookmakers researched either stop offering cash out or switch the cash-out valuation to the substitute’s price from the moment the substitution happens.

Researching around it

None of this changes the football, only what happens to a bet once a player leaves the pitch. The most reliable way to reduce how often you need the offer to bail out a bet is to research the player before you back them. FootyMetrics’ player stats and odds pages show a full season of shots, shots on target, cards and tackles per player, and every match page shows the predicted and confirmed starting lineup, so you can see who is actually named to start before backing a prop that a super sub offer would otherwise need to rescue. The player props finder lets you search upcoming fixtures for players who fit your own statistical criteria, filtered by shots, shots on target, fouls and cards across their recent matches. It works from historical stats rather than a live start-probability score, so it won’t flag subs risk directly, but checking a player’s recent minutes alongside their prop history before you bet is the practical version of the same idea.