It is a huge weekend of sport as the Rugby League World Cup and Cricket World Cup both get underway on opposite sides of the globe and England have a live chance in both. Scotland and Ireland also compete in both, but are much bigger prices and a couple of victories would represent good tournaments for them.

To provide some inspiration for the next few days, which will also be stacked with football and racing, we look back on Wednesday and Thursday to pick out three big winning spread bets.

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

MANCHESTER UNITED v OMONIA NICOSIA – MANCHESTER UNITED LEADING MINUTES (SETTLED AT 0)

Manchester United made heavy weather getting past Omonia in Cyprus, but the expectation was that the Cypriot side would wilt under the bright lights of Old Trafford. Far from it. United had nearly all of the ball as they showed their quality, but some excellent rearguard action from Nicosia kept the scores level late into the match.

Omonia keeper Francis Uzoho was having a blinder, but his resistance was finally broken in the 93^rd minute when Scott McTominay became the first Manchester United player to strike an injury time winner in Europe since Ole Gunner Solskjaer completed the comeback in 1999.

United’s blushes were spared then, but it was a good night for people who sold Manchester United Leading Minutes at 56-59. With McTominay’s winner coming after the 90-minute mark, this spread settled at zero and sellers landed a maximum win of 56x their stake.

AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND T20 – DAWID MALAN RUNS (SETTLED AT 82)

At the time of writing, the third T20 is underway between Australia and England but England won the series on Wednesday thanks to a batting recovery inspired by Dawid Malan and Moeen Ali.

Malan has been one of the key players in this T20 line-up for a number of years now, but he had a point to prove on Wednesday after not being awarded a central contract by the ECB. He came to the crease in Canberra with England at 54/4 but an impressive 82 off 49 deliveries dragged England to a defendable total.

The visitors held on to win for their second successive eight run victory and those who had backed the South African-born batsman to go well were rewarded. At the start of his innings, Malan’s run spread was 28-32 but thanks to a score of 82, buyers got their half century and won 50x their stake.

19:30 CHELMSFORD CITY 13^th OCTOBER – OTTOMAN PRINCE 50-25-10 (SETTLED AT 40.2)

Sir Mark Prescott is known as one of the canniest trainers around, equally happy when winning Group races at Longchamp or maidens at Chelmsford and when the money comes for one of his, you generally take note.

However, Thursday’s runner at Chelmsford was Ottoman Prince and the two-year-old was sent off at 80/1 before going on to win under Luke ‘the Sniper’ Morris. Anyone who was brave enough to have a punt on Ottoman Prince would have been handsomely rewarded with the spread as they were loaded into the Spreadex-branded stalls 0.50-2.0.

A non-runner would affect the total payout of the race but Ottoman Prince’s win earned 40.2 points on the spread as buyers won 38.2x 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.