(expired)Sporting Index: Spread Betting Preview 11 Jan

Sunday’s game against Chelsea is the first occasion United have met Big Four opposition at Old Trafford this season, but buyers of their supremacy at 0.6 with Sporting Index will take encouragement from their recent record. They have won seven of the last nine since the start of the 2005/06 season and have won two and drawn one in the last three meetings here between the sides. Spread bettors have made a habit of profiting from the time of the first United goal in recent seasons at Old Trafford and sellers have the added bonus that United have led 1-0 at the break in all of the last three games against their London rivals. There will be plenty of punters trying to take on the Champions though and sellers of their supremacy on the spreads will point to Chelsea’s excellent away form this season. Interestingly, in the Premier League, there have been eight previous occasions when a team undefeated in eight matches at home has hosted a team undefeated in eight away. It is the away team which has the slight advantage, winning four compared with the home team’s three, but spookily, in 2004/05 Chelsea came to Old Trafford in similar circumstances and left with a 3-1 win, going on to be crowned Champions. They are currently marginal second favourites in the Sporting Index season points index.

This will be Phil Scolari’s first taste of the Old Trafford atmosphere and both he and supporters of his side on the spreads will be hoping it doesn’t turn out to be bitter. However, the signs don’t bode particularly well, as only two out of 12 new Big Four managers who have visited Old Trafford for the first time have ended up winning the game: Phil Thompson with Liverpool in 2001/02 and Mourinho with Chelsea in 2004/05. Spread bettors know that United’s games at home are their bread and butter and the buyers at 0.6 will be further boosted that Chelsea haven’t won any of their last eight games at the Big Four across all competitions. Another unexpected statistic, which will be of interest to in-running Sporting Index punters, is that they have gone into half-time losing all eight of these games – failing to score in the first period in all of them. Buyers of the time of the first Chelsea goal also have more reason for post-festive cheer, as United have now registered seven straight league clean sheets – a record for them in the Premier League.High tempo, high aggression and high scoring games are the key strings to a buying spread bettor’s bow. True, games between these two, as with all members of the Big Four, can be very fiery, but buyers of total goals won’t be shouting from the rooftops by looking at the stats. First of all, all eight of Chelsea’s last eight away ties at the Big Four have ended with less than three goals, whilst eight of United’s last 12 hosting the Big Four have been under this figure. Spread buyers, of both total goals and United supremacy, will also be concerned that the Red Devils have only scored more than one goal against the Blues once (last season’s 2-0 victory here) in 16 games since Abramovich took over at Stamford Bridge. In fact, the average number of goals in those 16 matches is just 1.75 per game, but sellers should also take into account that the last five between the sides have all produced two or three.

The fare earlier in the afternoon at Wigan isn’t quite as mouthwatering, but there should be plenty to whet the spread betting public’s appetite before the big one at 4pm. The Latics are the 0.1-0.3 favourites in this one, but buyers of Steve Bruce’s side will be hoping they can re-write the history books, as they’ve never beaten Spurs in eight attempts, including a 3-1 FA Cup defeat last weekend. However, spread bettors shouldn’t necessarily desert Wigan if the stats are to be believed. They have won three straight league wins and have picked up 15 points from their last 18 – an ominous sign for those hoping to buy Spurs in the Sporting Index win index. The North London side have an abysmal record at sides who have won their last three home games, drawing five and losing six of them. Wigan, much to the joy of those pressing the buy button, have won eight, drawn three and lost only four at home against sides who have collected between two and four points in their previous three away games.

The second largest prize in snooker will be up for grabs from Sunday at the Saga Insurance Masters event in Wembley. Sporting Index offers punters a similar opportunity to win big with a number of special spread markets including the highest tournament break, currently predicted to be between 140.8 – 141.3. Both buyers and sellers will be interested to know that previous highest breaks going back over the last five tournaments (since losing Benson and Hedges sponsorship) have all been around this mark (141, 139, 141, 138) – the one exception being Ding Junhui’s maximum in 2007.

Besides the standard frame supremacies on every match, another exciting wager can be found in Sporting Index’s ‘Ton-ups’ markets, where a prediction is made on the total number of points scored over 100 in breaks throughout a match (ie. a break of 107 contributes 7 to the make-up). For the final the figure is currently set at 36-40. Buyers will certainly be buoyed by the number of competent century break-builders in the draw but the recent history of Masters Finals will make great reading for these spread bettors. No final of the last five has had a make-up below 43, and in 2006 and 2007 the figures were 77 and 97 respectively. However, the statistics which should really get buyers excited are those from last year’s demolishing of Stephen Lee by Mark Selby. Going into the last frame the ton-up figure was already 81, before Selby emphatically equalled the tournament’s highest break of 141, bagged the Masters title and took the ton-up value to a staggering 122.

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