The widely criticised Stanford Super Series reaches its climax on Saturday and those interested in cricket spread betting could be in for a real treat if Pietersen and his men go all out for victory.
Sporting Index are offering new spread accounts the chance to win £100 if KP goes on to be England’s top scorer in the match. They have a fair shout and buyers of his match performance (where you are awarded a point per run, 10 per catch, 20 per wicket and 25 per stumping) will be pleased to hear that the captain is England’s top overall scorer in Twenty20 with 412 runs. Sellers of his performance on the spreads will be even more worried that KP is the joint top individual innings scorer for England, along with Paul Collingwood with 79 runs, and he has taken the most catches for the side (7).
No England player has ever scored a century for the national side at Twenty20 and only eight 50’s had been made before the start of the Stanford Tournament. With performance spread betting in cricket, it often pays to side with the bowlers and buyers of Paul Collingwood performance have a lot to cheer about. Colly now tops England’s T20 bowlers, with 15 wickets from 16 matches, but alongside this, his 339 runs from 15 innings also show that he is one to keep firmly on the right side of.
The weekend Premier League action kicks off with the lunchtime fixture between Everton and Fulham at Goodison Park. The Toffees were formidable at home last season and although Sporting Index still have them as their supremacy favourites (spread 0.5-0.7), sellers will be alarmed that they are the only team yet to win at home this season. However, buyers also have reason to be cheerful, as they face Fulham, a side who have only earned one point away from home so far, but also a side they have never lost to at home in the league. In all 14 Premier League games between these two teams, the home side has been victorious in all of them, so if that statistic is to be preserved, the buyers will be coming out in their droves to take on the Sporting Index traders.
Everton have scored ten goals against the Cottagers in the last three games at Goodison, so spread sellers of the time of their first goal would think they might be on to a winner. However, although Fulham’s away form hasn’t been strong in the past two seasons, since the beginning of 2007/08, they have lost only five first halves out of 22 – the joint fewest in the league. Buyers of the time of the first goal will also be pleased to hear that 50% of their away games (11/22) have been level at the break, with eight of these being goalless. Everton have only had a half-time lead in three of their past 13 home league matches, with seven of those being level at the break (five goalless).
Spurs host Liverpool on Saturday, the second time they will have faced Big Four opposition since Harry Redknapp took charge. Liverpool will be the supremacy favourites with Sporting Index and they have lost only four times to bottom half teams in three years. Sellers of the Reds’ supremacy on the spreads will also be concerned with Spurs’ home performances against the top clubs – they have won only once in four years against the Big Four. Buyers of Liverpool’s supremacy will be encouraged by the Merseyside team’s results at White Hart Lane, as Tottenham have been defeated in this fixture in the last two seasons and have not scored at home against Liverpool since 2004. Sellers of the time of the first Spurs goal beware! A final noteworthy quirk for those Sporting Index bookings punters: in the last six games between these clubs, the referee has shown his yellow card just seven times – an average of just 1.2 bookings per game, or 12 points on the index.
Newcastle registered only their second home victory of the season against West Brom on Tuesday night and they will be looking for a third when Aston Villa come to town on Monday night. There were five goals the last time these sides met at Villa Park last season and buyers of goals in this one (spread 2.6-2.8) will be delighted to hear that in eight of the Magpies’ ten league games this season, both sides have scored at least once. Buyers have further reason to celebrate as all of their last eight games have seen at least 3 goals scored. Spread betting goal sellers will point to the goalless draw between these sides at St James’s last season, but they will be worried that since Martin O’Neill became Villa boss, over two thirds of their games saw at least one goal from each side (29/43). Their fear could be further compounded by the fact that 16 of Villa’s last 20 away games have produced at least 3 goals.
A great sporting week will be topped by the final Grand Prix of the season on Sunday, where Felipe Massa has the opportunity to break the hearts of the nation and snatch the Championship from Lewis Hamilton. Buyers of Massa in the Sporting Index Championship index at 44 (60pts for the winner) will be hoping he does just that, although even if the Brazilian were to repeat his 2006 victory at his home circuit, buyers will require Hamilton to finish no higher than sixth place. Massa has had other success in Sao Paulo with Ferrari, finishing second to teammate Raikkonen last year. This is of significance to F1 spread punters – Massa must finish in the top two to give himself any chance of winning the title.
All spread bettors, particularly those betting on Sporting Index’s season points markets, will be interested to learn the outcome should the race finish as it did last year. Hamilton would finish on a season total of 96, Massa just one behind on 95 and Kubica and Raikkonen equal on 79. So Hamilton is in a better position than he found himself in at the same stage in 2007 and this should be of encouragement to all buyers of both Hamilton’s season points total (currently at 99-99.5) and Championship index (56-58, 60pts for winner).
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Bill Esdaile of squareintheair.com, a former sports trader, spread betting specialist and self confessed stats addict, casts his eye over this weekend's sport and shares his views on some of the trades available. Please note these are his views and are not the views of Bettingpro.