It was a rough week for British and Irish sides trying to reach European Group Stages as Linfield and Shamrock Rovers bowed out of the Champions League whilst TNS and Newtown exited the Conference League.

There was success for the Irish sides in the Conference League with St Pat’s beating NK Mura (a name familiar to Spurs fans) on penalties whilst Sligo Rovers beat Motherwell 3-0 on aggregate.

Away from the football, Baeed landed another Group 1 success when winning the Sussex Stakes at the Goodwood Festival and Hewick – bought for €850 as a two-year-old – won the Galway Plate and a whopping €270,000 to boot.

Punters would have been dreaming of winning such a sum of money and whilst they might have struggled to match Hewick’s haul, there was one market this week in Bratislava which landed a touch for buyers.

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

SLOVAN BRATISLAVA v FERENCVAROS – SHIRTS x BOOKINGS (SETTLED AT 19600)

This is not the first time Ferencvaros have been featured in this blog, and they will certainly be ones to keep an eye on when they play FK Qarabag in the next stage of qualifying for the Champions League.

This week they despatched Slovan Bratislava 4-1 courtesy of two late goals, but that only tells half the story.

The Slovak outfit – who boast former Aston Villa and former England youth international Andre Green in their ranks – led 2-1 after the first leg but they found themselves 2-0 down on Tuesday after first-half goals from Franck Boli (shirt number 70) and Kristoffer Zachariassen (16).

Argentine full back Vernon De Marco (81) levelled the tie up in the 70^th minute but with extra time looming Adama Traore (20) and Aissa Laidouni (93) struck late on to seal the Bulgarians’ spot in the next round.

With so much riding on the game, it became a bit ill-tempered and seven yellow cards were handed out leaving Booking Points to settle at 70. Shirt Numbers meanwhile settled at 280 and those who bought Shirt Numbers x Booking Points before the match at 3700-4050 were looking at a big windfall.

The final make-up was 19600 as buyers landed a massive win of 15500x their stake.

ENGLAND v SOUTH AFRICA 1^st T20 – SIXES SQUARED (SETTLED AT 841)

South Africa may well have levelled up the T20 series at Sophia Gardens on Thursday, but the day before was all about England as a combination of excellent batting and shambolic South African fielding secured an impressive home win.

England batted first and although Jason Roy departed with just eight runs to his name, the men after him blasted the ball to all corners of the small ground at Nevil Road.  Fellow opener Jos Buttler managed to hit two sixes before Dawid Malan hit four and England’s man-of-the-moment Jonny Bairstow clubbed eight on his way to a score of 90.

The scoring wasn’t done there though as Moeen Ali scored the quickest 50 in England’s T20 history as he reached the milestone in 16 deliveries courtesy of six sixes along the way.

Chasing 235 for the win, South Africa were never really in the game, but a superb performance from young Tristan Stubbs who scored 72 off 28 including eight sixes added some respectability to the scoreline as the visitors eventually lost by 41 runs.

All in all, it was a thrilling evening of cricket and those who bought the Sixes Squared market were rewarded with a lovely win. Before play, the spread was 222-251, but with 29 sixes, the market settled at 841 as buyers won a whopping 590x their stake.

BODO/GLIMT v LINFIELD – TOTAL GOAL MINUTES X CORNERS (SETTLED AT 3839)

Back-to-back Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt were in action during the week as they attempted to overturn a surprise 1-0 deficit from the first leg against Northern Irish champions Linfield.

David Healy’s side had defended bravely at Windsor Park in the first clash between the two sides but they conceded after just seven minutes in Bodo and their evening was only going to get worse from there. Kirk Millar saw red in the 20^th and with Victor Boniface scoring from the resultant penalty, Linfield’s race looked over.

Bodo/Glimt are one of only three sides from Northern Norway (alongside Tromso and Mjolner) to compete in the top flight and they made light work of Linfield, running in another six goals to win 8-0.

At kick-off, the Total Goal Minutes x Corners line was 1850-2025 but that was soon blasted away as buyers won 1814x their stake after the final market settled at 3839.

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.