S.P. Read Esq. Spain v Netherlands
Despite the referee conjuring up trick after trick last night, including his magical vanishing powder, our daily columnist and pundit S.P. Read Esq started the World Cup in style with a profit of 55 points on the recommended sell on the ‘time of the first Brazil goal’ market with Star Spreads.
It’s always nice to start any major tourney with a profit even if it needed the help of a referee with industrial quantities of Vanish powder (other good vanishing products are on the market, send suggestions to FAO S.Blatter c/o FIFA).
I was delighted to notch up 55 points of profit with Star Spreads on the first match of the World Cup yesterday with a sell at 40 minutes on the time of the first Brazil goal.
Alas, when Brazil ‘scored’ after just 11 minutes – it didn’t count. I really must read the small print more carefully in future but the helpful trader on the Star Spreads Trader Chat confirmed that was the case. Apparently, if you score in your own goal it doesn’t count. Scandalous. I knew that, of course, but there’s no harm in trying it on!
However, Neymar’s goal after just 29 minutes was just what the doctor ordered and gave me a tasty profit of 11 points (sell price of 40 minutes less the time of first goal 29 minutes) multiplied by my 5 point stake.
The time of the first goal was just one market offered up by Star Spreads and during the World Cup I intend to explore a wide range of markets at the home of sports spread betting. For no other reason than I believe it’s healthy to choose markets based specific to your views on a particular match and these will vary.
I’m not sure what we learned last night in terms of future matches.
The referee had a shocker. Yuichi Nishimura should have sent Neymar off prior to him scoring and the penalty decision was ludicrous. I also thought there were a couple of tackles that should have been yellow carded so if you bought bookings on Star Spreads I think you can consider yourself unlucky with the final make-up of ‘only’ 40.
Vanishing powder is a good innovation. Goal line technology, less so, in my opinion. There are many more times when matches are ruined by poor refereeing decisions (last night, prime example) which have far more consequences for punters than the relatively few occasions of ‘did the ball go fully over the line’.
It’s probably a subject for another day but I’d much rather have seen the technology used to review pivotal decisions such as red cards and penalties. If it had, we would have seen a completely different match.
In terms of Brazil’s overall chances in the World Cup I came out of the game neutral. I fail to see why bookmakers have shortened up their price based on what we saw last night. Brazil benefitted from TWO massive decisions yet bookmakers have taken the vanishing powder to their outright odds.
Three games tonight 5pm, 8pm and 11pm. Crikey, to be in the pizza delivery business during the World Cup…..
The highlight match has to be Spain v Netherlands (8pm BBC) – a repeat of the rather dull final four years ago that ended 1-0 to Spain and the first thing I checked on Star Spreads today was the bookings market (46-50). It’s the market which awards a yellow card with 10 points and a red 25 points.
When they met four years ago in South Africa referee Howard Webb was forced to issue 14 bookings and one red card !!!!
Over the years Spain have edged the head to heads by 5-4 with just one drawn match since they first played in the 1920 Olympics. I remember Star Spreads founder Ben Keith recently telling me all about that one….
HEAD TO HEAD RECORD
(Max last 10 only)
Jul 2010 World Cup Holland 0-1 Spain
Mar 2002 International Holland 1-0 Spain
Nov 2000 International Spain 1-2 Holland
Jan 1987 International Spain 1-1 Holland
Nov 1983 Euro Championships Holland 2-1 Spain
Feb 1983 Euro Championships Spain 1-0 Holland
Jan 1980 International Spain 1-0 Holland
May 1973 International Holland 3-2 Spain
Jan 1957 International Spain 5-1 Holland
Sep 1920 Olympic Games Holland 1-3 Spain
Since 2010 Spain and the Netherlands have gone in polar opposite directions with the Spaniards, led by Vicente del Bosque, now bidding to win a fourth straight major trophy.
Group B looks competitive. A draw in this match and win for Chile later against Australia would put immediate pressure on both Spain and the Netherlands so a stalemate is not going to be a desirable option.
The time of the first Spanish goal, selling at 50, again looks tempting but I promised to diversify a little and will keep it simple with a buy on the Star Spreads Spain Win Index at 17. I don’t think the Netherlands will win and am happy to take a hit on the draw of 7 points. However, I am hopeful of collecting an 8 point profit with a Spain win.
Of course if this advice proves to be wrong I will throwing copious quantities of vanish powder over the column.
CLICK HERE FOR LIVE MARKET ON STAR SPREADS
RECOMMENDED BET (scale 1-100 points)
BUY SPAIN WIN INDEX AT AROUND 17 WITH STAR SPREADS for 5 points
WORLD CUP SO FAR: PROFIT 55 POINTS
- Any spread prices quoted are indicative and as always prices are subject to fluctuation.
- Please note the opinion, views and forecasts above are of the author and not of Star Spreads.
