Penalty shootout

The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to penalty shots in that a single player takes one shot on goal from a specified spot, the only defender being the goalkeeper. Teams take turns, with the one with the largest number of successful goals after a specified number of attempts being the winner. If the result is still tied, the shootout usually continues on a "goal-for-goal" basis, with the teams taking shots alternately, and the one that scores a goal unmatched by the other team is declared the winner. This may continue until every player has taken a shot, after which players may take extra shots, until the tie is broken, and is also known as "sudden death".

A penalty shootout is normally used only in "no ties allowed" situations (for example, a tournament where the losers must be eliminated) and where other methods such as extra time and sudden death have failed to determine a winner first. It avoids the delays involved in staging replayed matches in order to produce a tie-break. A common complaint about penalty shootouts is that they only determine the better team in the one, rather narrow, discipline of taking penalty shots, rather than fairly determining the better team in overall play.

Sports in which a penalty shootout may be used include:

A similar concept has been adopted in a few professional baseball leagues. The Israel Baseball League (IBL), in its only season in 2007, and the Can-Am League, beginning in 2014, have both used home run derbies as tiebreakers instead of the potentially endless system of extra innings used in Major League Baseball and elsewhere. In the IBL, home run derbies took place immediately after regulation ended (after the 7th inning) while the Can-Am League does not employ the home run derby tiebreaker until after the 10th inning.

A Super Over is sometimes used to decide a tied match. Both sides will bowl one over, in turns. Two wickets are allowed to be fallen from both sides, after which the team is not allowed to bat any more. The team who scores maximum runs in this over is declared the winner. Team batting last in the original run of play bats first in super over.

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