The 2022 World Cup came to an end on Sunday and culminated an incredible month of football with potentially one of the greatest matches – certainly finals - we’ve ever seen as Lionel Messi led Argentina to the trophy after a tense 120 minutes of football ending in a 3-3 draw and decided on penalties. Has Messi now confirmed he is the greatest footballer of all time?

Amongst the other sport on an incredible weekend, the NBA continued in full swing, the NFL action saw the biggest ever comeback in the organisation’s history, the PDC Darts World Championship continued to take shape, and there was more Test cricket with India, England, and Australia among the sides in action.

As always, we have looked at the market make-ups and picked out three big winning spread bets!

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

ARGENTINA V FRANCE  – TOTAL GOAL MINS X CORNERS (SETTLED AT 1547)

The World Cup concluded in quite remarkable fashion with arguably the best saved for last, as Argentina secured their first World Cup trophy since 1986 in incredible circumstances. After thoroughly dominating an abject French side who could not even get a shot on target for the better part of an hour, a 2-0 lead from Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria’s goals was wiped out in the space of just 90 seconds as Kylian Mbappe threatened to rip up the script with two late quickfire goals (80th and 81st min).

The Argentines were suddenly on the ropes but survived to take the match into the thirty-minute extra time period, in which Messi once again took the mantle to write his fairytale script. Scoring his second of the evening and Argentina’s third, it was surely the confirmation of the trophy heading to Buenos Aires. As it was, Mbappe was not done with his one-man mission and once again levelled the game through his second penalty in the 118th minute, showing nerves of steel to beat Emiliano Martinez.

It then came down to the lottery of the penalty shootout to decide the fate of the famous gold trophy, and it was once again time for Aston Villa’s Martinez to prove his penalty-saving prowess including a crucial save from Kingsley Coman and his trademark mind-games seeming to put-off Aurelien Tchouameni, who put his spot kick wide of the post. Both Messi and Mbappe coolly dispatched their kicks, and the final hero was Argentina right-back Gonzalo Montiel, securing the final kick past Hugo Lloris.

But where was the profit for punters in this match? While there were several profitable betting angles, the Total Goal Mins x Corners multi-market would certainly have been a decent option. With seven corners in the regulation period and a TGM make-up of 220, the market settled at 1547, meaning punters who bought at the opening spread of 970 – 1070 would have been left with 477x their opening wager!

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS @ MINNESOTA VIKINGS – MINNESOTA LAUNCH! (SETTLED AT 2560)

The NFL witnessed its greatest ever comeback victory as the Minnesota Vikings erased a 33-point deficit by beating the Indianapolis Colts 39-36 on Greg Joseph’s 40-yard field goal with just three seconds left in overtime Saturday to win the NFC North division!

The Vikings , who trailed 36-7 late in the third quarter and became just the third team in league history to win 10 games in a season by eight points or fewer, had Kirk Cousins to thank in large part as he passed for 460 yards and four touchdowns to lead his team back to victory. According to statistics from Sportradar, the Vikings became only the second team in 1,551 regular-season or playoff games since 1930 that a team trailed by 30 or more points in and won. Some doing!

But which market provided some of the best profit? The Minnesota Launch! market would certainly have provided as seismic profit for buying punters as was the seismic comeback, with the make-up of 2,560 meaning those bought on the spread at 1,101 – 1,251 would have been left with 1,309x their opening wager!

AUSTRALIA V SOUTH AFRICA  – SOUTH AFRICA 2^ND INNINGS RUNS (SETTLED AT 99)

While it wasn’t a huge surprise that Australia secured a comfortable victory over South Africa in this First Test, the South Africans’ poor display and the manner of the Aussies’ speedy victory led to some profitable opportunities for punters – as well as a bit of history being made.

Pat Cummins and his bowling mates produced a quite incredible feat: a Test match run and won in the first two playing days. Only once before in the game’s 145 years has this happened in Australia, way back in 1931 against the West Indies. Of the 2482 Test matches played across the world, 23 have been two-dayers. Nine of those were in the 1800s, and five of the six in the last 20 years have had Zimbabwe or Afghanistan on the receiving end. Glorious for Australia, but a painful and unwanted record for the South Africans.

But where was the spread betting profit? For those who decided to sell on the South Africa 2^nd Innings Runs market at a spread of 223 – 238 would have been celebrating a return of 139x their opening 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.