It has been a relatively quiet week on the sporting front with a lull in action before the Irish Derby at the Curragh on Saturday leads us into Wimbledon on Monday.

There are also several rugby league internationals in the southern hemisphere with New Zealand’s clash with Tonga a mouthwatering prospect whilst there is an all-Melanesian affair when Fiji play Papua New Guinea in Sydney.

Cricket fans will be hoping that the weather in West Yorkshire stays kind with England’s final Test of the series against the Black Caps underway.

Before all of that though we review the previous few days to find out where the big winning spread markets were, including a whopper from the opening qualifying round of the Champions League.

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

LEVADIA TALLINN v VIKINGUR – GOALS x SHIRTS (SETTLED AT 1386)

After 18 years, the Champions League final will return to Istanbul in 2023 and the long road to the largest city in Turkey began this week in Tallinn where Levadia welcomed Icelandic champions Vikingur Reykjavik.

The match was expected to be a close affair but the Viking invaders pillaged the Estonian capital as they helped themselves to a 6-1 victory and in doing so booked their place in the next round where they will face Andorran giants Inter d’Escaldes.

Levadia got the scoring underway from the spot as one-time Georgian international Zakaria Beglarishvili (wearing shirt number 49) made no mistake from the spot. Kyle Douglas McLagan levelled the match four minutes later before Kristall Mani Ingason (shirt number 80) put the Icelandic outfit in front.

Four further goals followed for the visitors in what was a sensational night for buyers on the Goals x Shirts market. Pre-match this spread was 233-254 but thanks to Ingason and Beglarishvili a whopping total of 1386 was reached as buyers won 1132x their initial stake.

NETHERLANDS v ENGLAND – SIXES SQUARED (SETTLED AT 25)

There was no buyer’s remorse in the Sixes Squared market in the first ODI between Netherlands and England however, by the time of the third ODI it was certainly a sellers’ market.  

The Netherlands batted first, occupying the crease for all but four deliveries in their allotted overs as they battled their way to a score of 244 which was reached without a single six. It was never likely to be enough against a side like England though and the visitors rattled off the required total inside 31 overs.

Given how some of the other matches have been, England were a touch more reserved with their batting and Jos Buttler was their only batsman to get the ball flying over the rope. He did so five times in an innings which brought 86 runs from 64 balls, earning himself the Player of the Series award in the process.

So, with just five sixes all match, the Sixes Squared market settled at 25. Before the match, the spread was at 378-448 leaving sellers winning 353x their stake.

ST HELENS v LEEDS RHINOS – ALEX WALMSLEY SUPER-MEGA MINUTES (SETTLED AT 176)

St Helen’s big bullocking forward Alex Walmsley will be expected to start in the front row for England at the World Cup later this year and he did his international chances no harm with another superb performance on Thursday evening.

His size and power was too much for Leeds on a several occasions and he grabbed the second try of the game when scoring from close range after a clever pass from Morgan Knowles.

That was one of three St Helens tries in the first half and thanks to a combination of generous refereeing decisions, solid attacking play and Leeds ill-discipline, they added five more in the second half.

As the match wore on, Leeds couldn’t live with the hosts who are strong favourites to claim another title as the Rhinos shipped three tries in the last 15 minutes whilst also seeing card-magnet Zane Tetevano sent off. The last of those tries was from Walmsley which counted as 158 on his Super-Mega Minutes market.

Added to his earlier try on 18 minutes, the total market make-up was 176 against a pre-match spread of 7-10. Buyers would have been raising a glass to the Dewsbury-born supremo as they won 166x 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.