Midweek's Big Winning Bets

Three became two in the battle to avoid the drop on Thursday evening as Everton completed a stunning comeback to beat Crystal Palace 3-2 at Goodison Park. Burnley’s 1-1 draw with Aston Villa ensured the final day of the season remains in their hands thanks to their vastly superior goal difference over Leeds.

There was drama in the Premiership Rugby Cup Final as Worcester secured a famous win. With extra-time unable to split the sides who were locked together at 25-25, the Warriors were given the trophy on the tries scored ruling.

Heartbreak for London Irish then and heartbreak for Ranges in Seville whose Europa League dreams came to a crushing end. However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom over the last week as we look at the markets where punters could have landed some good wins.

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

EVERTON v CRYSTAL PALACE – TOTAL GOALS (SETTLED AT 5)

The Everton dressing room would have been an interesting place to be at half-time as Frank Lampard’s side trailed Crystal Palace 2-0 in a match they probably needed to get something out of.

Lampard has split plenty of opinion over the last few months, but whatever words he conjured up during the break certainly inspired the home side and along with a raucous Goodison Park, the Toffees set to work.

Michael Keane started the comeback with a crashing header before Richarlison levelled the match in the 76^th minute. Just 12 minutes later Dominic Calvert-Lewin completed the comeback, sparking a mini pitch invasion.

Thankfully no-one seemed to have been head-butted this time around, but full pitch invasion at full-time saw Patrick Viera kick an Everton fan to the ground after an exchange of words that looked less than pleasant.

Normally in this blog, we feature high volatility markets, but there is more than one way to skin a cat, and this was quite a decent win for Total Goals buyers in what is a low volatility market. The spread before the game was 2.20-2.40 meaning that buyers landed a win equal to 2.60x their stake.

SWINDON TOWN v PORT VALE – X-PENALTIES (SETTLED AT 64)

The EFL play-offs are almost guaranteed excitement and drama and there have been some cracking ties over the last few weeks.

Swindon and Port Vale were looking to be the sixth side to secure their spot at Wembley and after James Wilson’s 8^th minute goal for Vale, the tie was level at 2-2. There would be no further goals in 90 minutes despite the best efforts of both teams.

At this point, those who had bought X-Penalties would have started getting excited. This is a market that multiplies the total number of penalties each side takes in a shootout (if the match does not go to a penalty shootout the market settles at 0 even if penalties are awarded during the match itself).

The 30 minutes of added time saw no more goals and the game did go to penalties with Port Vale missing two of their first three from the spot. However, the Valiants would ultimately hold their nerve as they won 6-5 on penalties and with both sides having eight attempts, the market settled at 64.

Pre-match, the spread was 3-5 as buyers converted a win equal to 59x their stake.

WARRINGTON WOLVES v ST HELENS – MATCH MULTI-POINTS (SETTLED AT 96)

The rebuild Daryl Powell envisioned at Warrington hasn’t quite come to fruition and the veteran coach will have been pulling his hair out in some of their recent performances, especially after a second half collapse last week away in Perpignan where they lost 40-8.

They lost again on Thursday evening, but Powell could take heart from the way his side pushed St Helens all the way, with the champions just coming out on top on a hard-fought 12-10 victory.

The visitors can thank the goal kicking of Tommy Makinson whose successful conversions ultimately proved the difference and ensured Saints go into the Challenge Cup break on top of Super League.

Low scoring matches are a dream for sellers and so it proved at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and those who sold the cross-points market would have been ecstatic. This multiplies the number of points scored in the first half by the number scored in the second, with the spread at kick-off 361-398.

Just six points were scored in the first forty minutes and whilst 16 points followed in the second half, the market still only made up at 96 as sellers landed a win equal to 265x 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.