Thursday's Big Winning Bets

Having won in France and Germany, Alpinista landed a Group 1 success for Sir Mark Prescott and the team when coming home in front to land the Yorkshire Oaks in impressive style.

That was the highlight of the racing yesterday, but there is still plenty more action to come on the Knavesmire with a full field of 24 declared for the Ebor on Saturday – Europe’s richest handicap on the flat.

In the football last night, West Ham won their Europa Conference League tie with Viborg, but Hearts surrendered a lead to go down 2-1 away at FC Zurich.

Finally, in The Hundred, Southern Brave were battered by the Manchester Originals, and after the second day of the Test between England and South Africa, the visitors are in control and were 4/9 before play today to go on and win the match.

Ahead of a busy sporting weekend, we look back through yesterday’s action to pick out three big winning spread bets.

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

ZIMBABWE v INDIA – INDIA 1^ST WICKET PARTNERSHIP (SETTLED AT 192)

India rarely make the trip to Zimbabwe these days, but cricketing royalty rocked up at the Harare Sports Club on Thursday for a three-match ODI series against the African nation. Zimbabwe had not beaten the Indians in 12 attempts and that run was extended to 13 as they were routed in the capital city.

Zimbabwe opened and were quickly on the back foot, with the top four in the line-up contributing just 18 runs; Deepak Chahar was responsible for three of those wickets. Some decent scoring from the lower order meant that India would at least have to work for the win as captain Regis Chakabva top scored on 35 with Richard Ngarava and Brad Evans on 34 and 33 respectively.

A total of 189 was still expected to be light work for the Indians and the spread on their opening partnership was 60-65 as Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill took to the crease. Despite the best efforts of the hosts’ bowling attack, they could not find a breakthrough, and India reached a total of 192 without a single wicket falling.

That meant it was a near-maximum win for buyers as they came out with a profit equal to 127x their original stake.

FERENCVAROS v SHAMROCK ROVERS – SHIRTS x BOOKINGS (SETTLED AT 4250)

Thought you’d seen the last of them in the blog? Not a bit of it, Ferencvaros are back again and thanks to their policy of doling out shirt numbers all the way up to 93, they will surely be here to stay.

Shamrock Rovers were the visitors to the Hungarian capital last night and having beaten Macedonian side Shkupi in the last round, they would have hoped to extend their run in the Europa League into the group stages.

However, the Irish champions were 1-0 down after 13 minutes when Argentine full-back Carlos Azuqui (shirt number 28) found the back of the net. Adama Traore (20) bagged a brace on either side of the half-time break and the hosts piled on the misery when Eldar Civic (17) bagged a fourth in the 93^rd minute.

With 50 booking points handed out for five yellow cards, the Shirts x Bookings spread settled at a whopping 4250. Before kick-off, the spread had been 2450-2700 as buyers landed a win equal to 1550x their stake.

WEST HAM v VIBORG – CROSS-BOOKINGS (SETTLED AT 0)

After last season’s run to the Europa League semi-finals, West Ham will be looking to go one better in the Europa Conference League and they got their campaign off to a flying start with a 3-1 win over Viborg.

Gianluca Scamacca bagged his first competitive goal for the club since signing from Sassuolo for a deal thought to be worth around £35m. Jarrod Bowen doubled their lead after 64 minutes and though they were pegged back five minutes later, Michail Antonio rounded off the scoring to ensure a comfortable home win.

Aaron Cresswell was sent off twice for the Hammers in the latter stages of last season’s European campaign, but with the Scouse left-back still suspended for this one, West Ham’s discipline was exemplary as they avoided picking up a single booking. The Danish visitors were only given one themselves which meant that Cross-Bookings settled at 0.

Pre-match, the spread was 415-485 as sellers were in the money with a win of 415x their initial 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.