World Cup Qualifier, Saturday, 5.15pm, bet here

You may not have much luck watching England’s World Cup Qualifier on Saturday, but our friends at Sporting Index would like to help you make some money from it…

Save for last-minute injuries, Fabio Capello is expected to field a full-strength side against Ukraine, giving spread bettors and armchair fans – not to mention Croatia manager Slaven Bilic – the hope of seeing a competitive game in England’s penultimate World Cup Qualifier. Although effectively a dead-rubber for the visitors, the partisan home following will ensure a lively encounter at the 31,000-capacity Dnipro Arena, in the country’s third-largest city, Dnipropetrovsk. The newly built stadium may not have the tradition of Ukraine’s regular home, the Olympic Stadium in Kiev – which fits over 80,000 and is currently being renovated to host the 2012 European Championships final – but it is sure to provide an intimidating atmosphere for the Three Lions’ first trip to the country, and a new challenge for Sporting Index’s football spread punters.

Buyers of England’s win index spread

Chelsea/ Liverpool, Sunday, 4pm, Sky Sports 1, bet here

The phenomenal scoring rate of Premiership teams this season is great news for both armchair fans and spread punters, but an entertaining season for most of us usually means a disastrous season for the bookies: estimates suggest that punters have scooped around £7m since the start of the new campaign. Our friends at Sporting Index explain why goal spread bettors may be in for a treat when two of the league’s most prolific sides meet at Stamford bridge on Sunday…

Spread bettors may be unsure of whether Chelsea and Liverpool, will cancel each other out or pile on more misery for Sporting Index’s poor football traders when they play on Sunday. Buyers of the total goals spread may know that Liverpool have scored a staggering 22 in seven games, and a great many spread buyers will get on board in the knowledge that Torres, Kuyt, Benayoun and even Babel (after his two late strikes on Saturday) are firing on all cylinders. Buyers of any Chelsea-related

Some expert spread betting info from Sporting Index

The Sporting Index traders have priced up the outright Champions League win index and have installed the two big Spanish sides as the favourites. The current champions, Barcelona, did spread bettors a big favour last season, comfortably winning La Liga, as well as producing an assured performance to beat Manchester United in the final in Rome. Their spread, before a ball has been kicked, is set at 42-45 (100 points for the winner, 75 for runner-up, 50 for losing semi-finalist, 25 for losing quarter-finalist and 10 for last 16) and they will be many people’s idea of the winner again this time around.

However, their arch rivals Real Madrid will also carry a lot of spread bettors’ cash after getting through a shed-load of the stuff this summer to bring in the likes of Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema and Alonso. Manuel Pelligrini’s side are next best in the index with a 38-41 point spread, but the problem for those who fancy either of these sides on the spreads is that no individual country has won back-to-back competitions for 20 years. Milan were the last club (and Italy the last country) to win it two years in a row back in 1990, so spread sellers of the big Spanish two have some reason for optimism.

A spread bottors guide to the weekend’s big Premiership games

After an international-induced hiatus, England’s top tier returns with some standout games for spread punters to look forward to. As Tottenham host Manchester United and Arsenal make the opposite journey to face Manchester City at Eastlands, one side from each game goes into the weekend with a 100 per cent winning start – but probably not the two teams that most of us would have anticipated at the start of the campaign. Yet the most hotly-contested game of the weekend will surely happen at St Andrews, where Birmingham look to win their first Midlands derby since 2005.

For the benefit of those who wish to make a pretty penny from these clashes, our friends at Sporting Index have kindly provided betting match previews…

Tottenham/ Manchester Utd
(Sat, 5.30pm, ESPN)
Spread punters will be aware that The Red Devils have the upper hand over Spurs, having lost to them just once since the turn of the century. This defeat came 20 games ago at White Hart Lane in May 2001, when United had already long-since been crowned champions.

Spurs fans are used to a never-ending cycle of promising and hope-fuelled pre-seasons followed by disappointment when it comes to the real thing, but after their best-ever Premier League start,

South coast legend admits to cheeky spread betting swindle

In the season when Wimbledon FC suffered more than their fair share of inexplicable floodlight failures, The Spoiler was puzzled to see the Dons put the ball out of play straight after kick off on more than one occasion. The reason behind this apparent waste of possession has become clear, thanks to Matthew Le Tissier’s (awfully-titled) autobiography ‘Taking Le Tiss‘.

In a 2-0 victory over Wimbledon in April 1995, The Southampton legend admits that he took advantage of the emerging trend of spread betting, by placing a wager on the time of the first throw-on. If he could get the ball out of play within the first minute of the game, Le Tiss and a friend stood to make £10,000. Unfortunately, a tubby journeyman striker thwarted his plan:

“Southampton were safe from relegation and I couldn’t see a problem with making a few quid on the first throw-in.

“I went to hit it out towards Neil Shipperley but I was nervous and didn’t give it quite enough welly.

All the cool kids are doing it, why not join them?

We’re more than partial to spicing up a neutral game with a punt, and have found that one of the best ways of doing this is via the fine art of spread betting. It’s not nearly as complicated as it looks on the surface, and in it’s simplest form it is simply a game of higher or lower - a bit like Bruce Forsyth’s Play Your Cards Right, but without the old man, over-sized playing cards and impossibly attractive hostesses.

The Spoiler wanted to let you all know a little bit more about spread betting, and to give you a reason to click on all our wonderful ad banners (HINT!), so we asked our friends at Sporting Index to explain a little bit more about it…

How to spread bet

The first thing a spread betting punter must consider before betting on any event is where the ‘spread’ is pitched. The ‘spread’ is the range that covers the point at which a punter can bet lower (sell) to that at which he can bet higher (buy). Here’s a simple example of how spread betting works…

A man can see a field in the distance and asks the farmer how many sheep are in the field. The farmer isn’t sure, but guesses somewhere between 52-55 sheep. This is the spread and the man must decide whether he thinks the farmer has pitched his prediction too low or too high. He decides that there must be more than 55 so buys (bets higher) at that figure.

Sporting Index provide vital some statistics for the new campaign

Do you like football? Do you like making money from a cheeky flutter? If the answer to these questions is ‘yes’, then you’ll enjoy the following previews of two of the weekend’s biggest games, courtesy of our devilishly handsome friends at Sporting Index…

Bolton/ Liverpool
The Trotters have made a slow start to the season and those spread bettors getting against them have made healthy profits from the opening two games. They don’t have an easy task on Saturday when Liverpool come to town and those who like to play the spreads will know that the Reds have won all of the last five meetings between these two outfits, all by at least a two-goal margin. The Trotters also lost all eight games against the Big Four last season, so spread bettors hoping to sell Liverpool’s supremacy will be hoping to see a performance similar to when Big Sam was at the helm. Bolton won two and drew two of their four games at the Reebok against Liverpool between 2003/04 – 2006/07.

Sporting Index provide vital some statistics for the new campaign

It hardly seems like it’s been three months since we last discovered which football team was the best one at playing football, but the journey starts once again tomorrow. The Spoiler enjoys a good Premier League flutter, and we’re particularly fond of the fine art of spread betting. Therefore, we’ve enlisted the help of the experts at Sporting Index, who have kindly provided a spread betting preview for three of this weekend’s opening fixtures…

Manchester Utd/ Birmingham
This season could be extra special for the Red Devils as they attempt to become the first club to win four Championships in a row, so Sir Alex will be glad of his team’s formidable record against Birmingham. Since 2002/03 the sides have met on five occasions at Old Trafford in the Premier League, and Fergie’s side have claimed all 15 points. Spread bettors who like to bet on the match supremacy spreads will be interested to know that in those five fixtures, United have not conceded a single goal and averaged 2.3 goals per game.

Tottenham/ Liverpool
Having ran United so close last season, Liverpool will be champing at the bit to go one better this season. Other than a home victory in the league and a repeat in the Carling Cup last season, Tottenham have a poor recent record against Liverpool. They have only won once in the league at White Hart Lane in the last five seasons,