Although plenty more excitement is in store over the coming days with the return of the Premier League edging closer, punters still had plenty of football, cricket and tennis to enjoy on Monday and Tuesday and significant profit was available for savvy buyers and sellers.

As always, we review three big winning bets from the last two days in our Midweek Winners blog.

Please remember Spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital and can result in losses larger than your initial stake/deposit. They may not be suitable for everyone so please ensure you fully understand the risks involved.

ENGLAND (W) V NIGERIA (W) – ENG TO WIN ON PENALTIES (SETTLED AT 100)

After the Lionesses final group match against China which produced a hatful of goals and utter domination, the script completely flipped on its head against Nigeria in the round-of-16 as the match had to be decided on penalties after a tense 120+ minutes in which England were on the back foot and dominated by their African opponents, with matters made much worse by Lauren James’ late red card.

The penalty shootout was always going to be a lottery and hopes looked in major jeopardy as England blazed their first penalty wide. However, that gift was given right back to them with Nigeria’s first kick, and the Lionesses managed to recompose themselves with Chloe Kelly smashing the deciding penalty into the top corner.

But where was the spread betting profit to be had? Among a variety of profitable markets, punters who foresaw England doing it the hard way and winning the tie on penalties would have benefited from buying on a small starting spread of just 0.7 – 7.2, with a make-up of 100 meaning a 91.8x return on their opening wager!

RAONIC V TIAFOE – SET 1 CROSS POINTS (SETTLED AT 1680)

From the football action Down Under, we travel all the way to Canada for our next Big Winning Bet from the Rogers Cup Masters in Toronto, where hometown hero Milos Raonic was stepping up his recent return to action following injury. A tough first round awaited him with his opponent being top-10 player Frances Tiafoe of the USA, and the match was expectedly serve-dominated.

Raonic, who reached as high as number 3 in the world rankings and lost the 2016 Wimbledon final to Andy Murray, has been viewed as one of the best servers in ATP Tour history, and he blasted a massive 37 aces to get past Tiafoe 6-7 7-6 6-3 in 2hrs and 42 mins.

For punters betting from the beginning of the match, the Set 1 Cross Points market offered an opportunity for significant profit. With the set featuring a mammoth 26-point tie-breaker, the market settled at 1680. With the starting spread at 1082 – 1157, punters who decided to buy were left with 523x their initial stake!

MANCHESTER ORIGINALS V BIRMINGHAM PHOENIX – LAUNCH! (SETTLED AT 645)

And finally, in the cricket action from The Hundred on Monday, the Manchester Originals managed an impressive 49-run victory over the Birmingham Phoenix. This was the Originals’ first victory of the new Hundred season and was spearheaded by Jos Buttler top-scoring with 43 and Usama Mir hitting 32 not out as Originals posted 160-8 at Old Trafford.

The Phoenix lost regular wickets in their reply and did not manage a meaningful response, lacking spark and eventually being dismissed for 111. Liam Livingstone top-scored with 27 as only four Phoenix players reached double figures, with Tom Hartley taking 3-13 for Originals.

In terms of spread betting profit, our Launch! market once again saw an interesting make-up, but this time for selling punters. With a final make-up of just 645 from a starting spread of 1100 – 1200, those who sold were rewarded with a meaty return of 455x their stake.

Please note that these are examples of winning bets from the past week, and it is important to remember that spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital and can result in losses larger than your initial stake/deposit.