Leading online bookmaker PaddyPower is launching another new football market this weekend, offering punters the chance to bet on the first assist in all televised Premier League matches. Following the lead of American sports, assists in football has now infiltrated itself into the modern vernacular of all football fans, pundits and punters as a key aspect of players’ performance and worth – so much so that PaddyPower are the first bookmaker to offer regular ‘first assist betting’ for all live Premier League games.

To get the ball rolling this weekend, as well as the televised matches Stoke v Wigan and Man Utd v Aston Villa, PaddyPower’s first wave of first assists odds features the Big Four clash between Liverpool and Arsenal. Perhaps not surprisingly it’s the two skippers leading the way in the market with Liverpool talisman Steven Gerrard at 6/1 and Cesc Fabregas, who tops the Premier League assists charts so far this season, the favourite at 5/1.

PaddyPower himself, said: “With our history of innovation and invention in our betting markets PaddyPower punters have been asking us to bet on this market and we’re only too happy to assist them. Hopefully it will soon become an established fixture in people’s football flutters.”