Tipsters Dream Of Classic Spread Bet…

It’s been a disappointing week overall on the spread betting tipping league, with a few big losses affecting our position, but we are still in profit despite this.

And, four of our five tipsters are still ahead of the game, and it’s only our spread betting newbie Mark Layton who is lagging, but to be fair to Mark, if you followed only his Lay Betting tips, which is his speciality, you would be in profit there as well.

Also, I think the importance of correct staking is underlined by the size of one of two of the losses we’ve incurred this week. If in doubt, read the articles about your bank and unit stakes again.

I will be publishing a definitive list of unit stakes for each market over the festive period, so look out for that, but I wanted to share the story of the classic spread bet result which my good friend Dave and I shared back in 2001.

Thankfully we have both had plenty of more profitable wins in the years since, but this the infamous match between Tranmere and Southampton in the FA Cup back then, crops up whenever we get down to discussing memorable bets.

The match itself has gone down as a classic and I seen it mentioned only this week in a newspaper article about great comebacks. Fresh from a sensational away win in the previous round at Everton, Tranmere travelled to the south coast and drew 0-0 with Southampton in the 5th round.

So back to Prenton Park for the replay, and I strongly fancied the Premiership Saints to be too strong for the plucky Division One side, who I thought had already had one giant killing too many. Dave agreed, and we duly piled into a hefty buy of Southampton’s performance in the match, and watched in smug delight as the visitors swept into a 3-0 half time lead.

A telephone discussion took place, and Dave & I agreed that we should close our position on Southampton and take our hefty profit. Apologies, but the numbers involved here have been lost in the mists of time, and probably are not as great as I remember them in my head, but never mind, it was definitely a beauty…

“Ok”, we said, “nice pick, and we can relax now and enjoy the second half.” Wait a minute, look at the price of Tranmere performance – quick discussion and an agreement that it seemed low, and that there was a possibility that John Aldridge’s boys would come out fighting. Let’s settled Saints, and buy Tranmere. Duly placed with our good friends Sporting Index.

Now it would be absurd to pretend that we expected Tranmere to actually come back and win the match, but in spread betting as you know, success can be had regardless of the definitive outcome of a match.

Just this week in our tipping league, I thought that the spreads in the Livingston v Clyde match were a bit high in Livi’s favour, and eventually decided to go with a sell of Clyde’s 1st Goal @ 61. Clyde were duly thumped 7-1, so my feelings on it being a bit tight were well wide of the mark, but as the Bully Wee scored in the 11th minute, a handsome profit was had.

Back to Prenton Park, and the mother of all comebacks produced a momentous 4-3 win for Tranmere, and another stonking lift for Dave & I thanks for Paul Rideout’s hat-trick and a winner from someone whose name escapes me.

We wallowed in the glory of our superb double whammy longer than the victorious Rovers fans, after all they had a tie against Liverpool to look forward to in the next round, and we didn’t really care about that.

It’s funny though, because I never ever bet on the team performance market now, and haven’t for years, and similarly, I’m not in the habit of closing positions either, so this scenario would be totally different if played out now.

It’s a good betting story though, and when Dave & I meet up for a pre-Christmas drink next week, there’s a good chance it’ll get another airing!

Look forward to having more tipsters on board for the start of the New Year, and I’m sure we can find some gems for you if you are following the information.

The updates over the festive period on the Forum might not be as frequent as they usually are, but I’ll do my best to put as many of the recommendations on as I can, and answer any queries.

Enjoy!