Expected goals (xG) are very useful when you want to measure a team’s underlying performance. For instance, if you have a betting model, you need the data to be precise, and oftentimes expected goals are better to use than actual goals.
Here are some good sites that share expected goals data.
Infogol
Infogol is a great website with a lot of statistics. In most major football leagues, you can view the current standings, and in the same table, it will show the expected goals for and against each team during the season.
You can also get an overview of singular matches and see what the xG score indicates. You do that by clicking “Matches” in the main menu, and then find the match you were looking for – obviously, a match has to be played before there is any expected goals data.
We find that Infogol’s xG stats are pretty reliable and good to use for measuring a team’s performance. Expected goals are also measured for each player which is very useful in detailed models and in relation to goalscorer bets.
There are expected goal stats for most of the major football leagues in the world. Regardless of whether you like the English Premier League or the Brazilian Serie A, you can find team xG and player xG.
Since Infogol is free to use, it is an absolutely awesome website that many bettors can use to improve their own betting performance – and to learn more about football.
Infogol also provides pre-match analysis and occasional betting tips. Highly recommended to follow.
Understat
Understat also provides xG stats for teams and players. Currently, Understat shares data for six football leagues: English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1, and Russian Premier League.
The data is quite accurate and easy to access.
Understat is probably the xG site that is easiest to navigate, and you will find expected goals from every single game, as well as a table that shows stats from the entire season – it is also able to separate between home and away xG.
The only major issue is that it only has data for a few leagues. It would be nice to see more leagues added, but even so, Understat is an amazing source that is reliable for the major football leagues in Europe. Thankfully, it is completely free to use, so you can easily browse the stats any time you like.
FiveThirtyEight
FiveThirtyEight (or simply 538) is most famous for political predictions during major elections – particularly in the United States.
But the site also provides data and predictions for various sports, and there are some great stats in football.
FiveThirtyEight shows the expected goals of every single match in all the top football leagues (the big 5 in Europe + Portugal, Brazil, Argentina and others). It also has an important additional stat – non-shot based expected goals. This is measured by dangerous possession. As you would expect, teams like Manchester City and Barcelona excel in this stat. It adds more data to the table and can be used in a betting model if you know how to implement it.
While FiveThirtyEight does show stats for singular games, it does not show overall xG stats over a season. Instead, it has its own rating system where it measures each team’s offensive and defensive performance. FiveThirtyEight predicts every match, and it also predicts the ultimate standings of each major league.
FiveThirtyEight uses its own xG and nsb-xG stats to rank all the football teams in the world in its Global Club Soccer Rankings. It’s a power ranking of all the clubs in the world, and it is quite interesting to look into.
If you are looking for expected goal stats, FiveThirtyEight definitely adds some value to the table when it comes to overall team performance and singular match statistics.
Wyscout
Unlike the three previous expected goals sources, Wyscout is not free – you have to pay a membership to have access.
On the positive side, Wyscout has a lot of great statistics which obviously includes expected goals. There is a free trial period if you wish to try it out. Memberships are affordable enough (between 250€ and 600€ yearly) if you are serious about your sports betting.
Aside from providing detailed data, Wyscout also has clips and highlights for major games. It is a service that is not only used by bettors, but also by scouts and journalists. The data is incredibly in-depth and it can really make it easier to get an overview of teams and players that you are not able to watch yourself.
Wyscout is an Italian company. The platform is available in English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Turkish.
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Got any other suggestions on where bettors can find sources for expected goals? Let us know in the comment section!