Paddy Power nailed it back in 2024 when they first launched ‘Super Sub’.
The football betting market had been crying out for this feature for years, so for it to finally happen was a relief.
Everyone has been there at some point. You’re watching a Premier League game, stick a bet on one of the strikers to score, only for them to get subbed off with 15 minutes to go. Nightmare fuel.
Bizarrely, the betting industry allowed this problem to persist for decades, and there’s no telling how much money punters lost because of it (our estimate would be in the hundreds of millions).
So, Paddy Power decided it was time to make punters’ lives easier by introducing Super Sub and it’s safe to say this feature has been nothing short of a game-changer.
Paddy Power themselves have earned tons of new customers, several bookies have started copying the feature, and it’s made football betting that extra bit safer in a time when punters want to be careful with their money.
What is Paddy Power’s Super Sub?
Paddy Power’s Super Sub is a feature that keeps your bet alive even if the player gets taken off. What happens is that the bet rolls over to the substitute player instead. This way, your bet still has a chance of winning.
Let’s imagine for a second you want to bet on this weekend’s Premier League game between Man City and Everton:
- Before the game, you bet £20 on Erling Haaland to score through Paddy Power, as he’s in form and already bagged 8 goals this season.
- Haaland then gets injured and subbed in the second half
- Jérémy Doku is subbed on for Haaland, so the bet rolls over to him
- If Doku scores before the end of the game, your bet still wins
It’s a handy little feature that’s saving footie fans a ton of money, with impact sub betting rapidly growing in popularity over the past twelve months.
Sure, there’s no guarantee that the sub who comes on will do what the bet requires for it to be a winner, but it’s a much better alternative to having your bet automatically voided. This was the case for years before Paddy Power finally introduced this feature.
On the technical side of things, Paddy Power’s Super Sub requires no opt-in and anyone can do it. Just look out for the yellow ‘Super Sub’ icon next to applicable markets, which will be games across the Premier League, Champions League, Europa League, FA Cup, and the Euros.
Flutter CEO Calls Super Sub the “Best-ever Product Launch” in the UK
With all the buzz surrounding Super Sub at the moment, it’s impossible to turn the TV on without seeing an ad for it.
And following how successful the launch of this new feature has been, Flutter CEO Peter Jackson has chimed in, calling Paddy Power’s Super Sub one of their best-ever product launches.
It’s hard to disagree, as it’s all punters seem to be talking about at the moment. Plus, Paddy Power themselves have seen 80% of their customers engage with the feature since its 2024 launch, showing just how happy they are with it.
The Peter Crouch Effect
The Super Sub feature was always going to be a success, but Paddy Power launched a genius marketing campaign with Peter Crouch just to seal the deal.
Former England striker Crouch has carved a nice little audience for himself since retiring from football back in 2019 and is a well-loved figure among punters, so he’s a pretty sure bet (pun intended) when it comes to any marketing campaign.
Crouch, as well as a handful of other popular names from English football, are now front-and-centre of most of Paddy Power’s Super Sub ads and banners.
The Liverpool and Stoke legend even did a hilarious television ad with Teddy Sheringham recently as part of the “All Subs Are Super” campaign. This saw the two former strikers go inside a footie fan’s home to explain to them the concept of how the Super Sub feature works while dressed as electricians.
It’s moments like this that have got punters talking, and now everyone knows what Super Sub is.
Why Punters Are Hooked on Super Subs
Super Sub bets have, indeed, taken off.
They’re the biggest trend since “accas” and it’s easy to see why.
For who knows how long, punters have been complaining about losing out on bets, often worth thousands of pounds, because the player they bet on gets subbed.
The fact that Paddy Power has not only fixed this issue but also put a fun twist on it has ultimately worked wonders for the betting giant.
Paddy Power members can now place bets on many games knowing that if their chosen player gets injured or subbed early, they’re still in with a shot at winning.
It’s saving them money and makes betting more worth it from their perspective, and the fact it took so long for a mainstream bookie to implement this feature is somewhat perplexing.
bet365 Follows Suit By Introducing ‘Sub On Play On’
In football betting, whenever a trend catches fire, most bookies will run to copy it.
This is precisely what’s happened with bet365, who have seen the success of Paddy Power’s Super Sub feature and decided that they want to get in on the action.
So, earlier this year, bet365 released ‘Sub On Play On’.
It works exactly the same, allowing punters to bet on any player market with the specific icon next to it. If their chosen player gets subbed, whoever comes on in their place keeps the bet active.
Unsurprisingly, it’s been a huge success for bet365, with the site reporting that over 3.2 million betting slips have benefited from the promotion and (as of right now) punters have received over £18 million in payouts because of the feature.
William Hill Has Also Joined the Mix
William Hill is the other big-name bookie to hop on the substitute betting trend with ‘Impact Sub’.
This, again, is an exact copy of Paddy Power’s original idea, allowing William Hill’s many customers to keep their bets alive when players are subbed off.
William Hill has also made sure the promotion covers all their popular markets, from First Goalscorer to Player Shots on Target.
It now means that punters have a choice of Paddy Power, bet365, or William Hill when they’re looking for substitute bet cover—and it’s only a matter of time before the remaining bookies launch their versions.
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