Thursday was a night to forget for British and Irish sides in Europe as Dundee United, Linfield, Sligo Rovers and St Pat’s Athletic all exited their respective competitions. There was better news however for one of our partner clubs as West Bromwich Albion beat Sheffield United 1-0 in the first round of the EFL Cup to set up a tie with Derby County.

Oval Invincibles recorded a double over Northern Superchargers last night with Sam Curran excelling for the men and Lauren Winfield-Hill impressing for the women.

Finally, in rugby league, Warrington put another dent in Toulouse’s hopes of survival as they secured a comeback win at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, a result that left the Wire six points clear of their French opponents.

With plenty of action yesterday, here are three of yesterday’s big winning spreads.

Please remember that unlike fixed odds betting, when spread betting losses can exceed deposits.

AZ ALKMAAR v DUNDEE UNITED – CROSS-BOOKINGS (SETTLED AT 0)

Regular readers of the blog won’t be surprised to see this match featured in the big winners, but somewhat surprisingly, the market in question has nothing to do with goals. Despite AZ banging in seven past Jack Ross’ Dundee United side, one of the big winning spreads was the Cross-Bookings market.

Having shipped five goals in the space of 23 first-half minutes at the AFAS Stadion, Ross needed a big team talk to stop the rot, but he might as well have been speaking double Dutch, with United conceding a sixth in the 46^th minute.

It was a dismal evening for the Terrors and the travelling hordes will have been disappointed with the scoreline but also the lack of fight shown. The Scottish outfit didn’t receive a single booking and with Alkmaar’s Jordy Clasie the only player to see yellow, Cross-Bokings was left to settle at zero.

The spread at kick-off was 725-815 as sellers landed the maximum win of 725x their stake.

PENRITH PANTHERS v MELBOURNE STORM – MATCH MULTI-POINTS (SETTLED AT 0)

A different hemisphere, a different shaped ball, but another maximum win for the sellers as Melbourne Storm kept their top four hopes alive in the NRL with a stunning win over Penrith Panthers.

Penrith have been in sublime form this season, but shorn of star players including Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai, they struggled to get their attack firing in Western Sydney. Australian international Cameron Munster has excelled since his switch to the full back position and he was in electric form at both ends of the pitch as Penrith were kept scoreless for the first time since 2015.

David Nofoaluma – a late season recruit from Wests Tigers – put the icing on the cake when he scored Storm’s third try of the match late in the first-half. With Melbourne keeping Penrith to nil and adding no further score in the second-half themselves, the Multi-Points market was left to settle at zero.

Just ahead of kick-off at the BlueBet Stadium, the Multi-Points spread was 363-401 as sellers hit the jackpot with a win of 363x their stake.

IRELAND v AFGHANISTAN – AFGHANISTAN RUNS (SETTLED AT 122)

Ireland took a 2-0 series lead against Afghanistan at a hot and steamy Stormont yesterday thanks to an impressive bowling performance from the hosts. Ireland’s seven-wicket win over the tourists on Tuesday was their first of the summer, though there was no shame in being beaten by India, New Zealand and South Africa.

Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bat, but they never really got any kind of partnership going with Hashmatullah Shahidi their top scorer with 36 off 42 runs. Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Josh Little and Gareth Delaney all took two wickets apiece as the visitors were restricted to 122 runs.

Before a ball was bowled in anger, the Afghanistan run line was 165-171, leaving sellers to pick up a win equal to 43x 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.