Two World Cups got underway this weekend on opposite sides of the world as the elite rugby league nations come together in England and the Group Stage got underway in the Cricket World Cup in Australia. There were thrilling and surprising performances in both tournaments, not least England’s 60-6 thumping of Samoa to open the Rugby League World Cup at St James’ Park.

At domestic level, the rugby union Premiership may be going through the wringer at the moment, but there was still plenty of entertainment on show, with Saracens the early pacesetters. At Champions’ Day, Baeed lost his unbeaten record in his last race as Bay Bridge triumphed in the Champion Stakes and Baeed sellers won 39x their stake on the 50-25-10 market.

With drama everywhere you looked, we review three big winning spread bets in the headline-grabbing events.

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

ENGLAND v SAMOA – ENG/SAM MATCH SUPREMACY (SETTLED AT 54)

In the run-up to the World Cup, England had to endure plenty of questions about their ability to go deep into the tournament given the absence of key players and the strength of the Pacific nations. They faced one of those Polynesian outfits on Saturday and with a plethora of NRL talent available, Samoa are probably the strongest they have ever been.

The visitors were favoured on the supremacy spread which was -3.0-0.0 before the match, but England raced into an 18-6 lead at half time with Izack Tago’s intercept try the only score Samoa could put on the board. In the second half, Samoa fell to pieces and England were rampant with stellar performances from George Williams, Victor Radley and new kid on the block Dom Young.

Shaun Wane’s side turned the screw in towards the end of the game and 42 unanswered second half points left them with a superb 60-6 win to celebrate and England now be looking at the semi-finals as a minimum.

It wasn’t just Wane and the boys who were celebrating as with a winning margin of 54 points, those who had bought the Match Supremacy at 0.0 were left with a win of 54.0x their stake.

LIVERPOOL v MANCHESTER CITY – GOALS X BOOKINGS X CORNERS (SETTLED AT 440)

44254454 may look like a phone number, or the form of a horse who can’t quite trouble the places, but it is in fact the number of goals scored in the previous eight meetings between Liverpool and Manchester City and punters and traders alike were expecting a number of three or bigger to be added to that sequence on Sunday.

However, what transpired was a gripping affair, but one which lacked goals and after Manchester City had one ruled out for a foul in the build-up, Mo Salah streaked through to bag the only strike of the match.

Before the match, the Goals x Bookings x Corners spread was 1300-1450, but with just one goal, 40 booking points and 11 corners, this market made up at 440. It was a good match for sellers then as they won 860x their initial stake.

SRI LANKA v NAMIBIA – SRI/NAM MATCH SUPREMACY (SETTLED AT -55)

Another Match Supremacy market, but this time in cricket and our focus falls on the result of Sri Lanka’s match with Namibia which opened the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Massive underdogs on the Supremacy spread, Namibia opened the batting and posted a respectable score of 163/7 but one that Sri Lanka were expected to chase down with ease. Before the match, the Supremacy spread was 53-61, but Sri Lanka wilted in their innings and were reduced to 40/4 at one point.

Eventually, they struggled their way to 108 all out as they slumped to a 55 run defeat against their lowly opposition. That result left the spread to settle at -55 as sellers won 108x 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.