CEO, Warren Murphy, said: “It’s been an incredible 21 years at Sporting Index and we’ve enjoyed some great successes and endured a few costly reverses along the way! You never know what will happen in sport and our clients have proved over the last 21 years that we don’t always get it right. I don’t expect this to change now that we’ve turned 21.”
Here are the 21 results that had spread bettors celebrating long into the night and the Sporting Index traders tearing their hair out with the first five being particularly painful:
Brian Lara 375, Antigua, April 1994 Brian Lara walked out on the opening day of the fifth Test between the West Indies and England at St John’s, Antigua with his side 11 for 1. He then proceeded to bat for 12 hours and 46 minutes over the course of two days where he incredibly scored 375 painful runs from 538 balls, including 45 boundaries.
Sporting Index was still in its infancy and this famous knock was almost its last ever trade. It will always be remembered for the fact that every boundary cost £1500. The then Chairman described it like being in the dentist chair for 48 hours!
Cricket World Cup Wides, England, May 1999 Just days before the 1999 Cricket World Cup, the trading team unveiled over 100 markets on the tournament, but there was a problem with the market for the total number of wides bowled in the 42-game competition.
They believed the spread pitched at 245-265 was fair, but had failed to factor in how much the newly introduced white ball would swing in English conditions. The phones were red hot within minutes and the price had moved up 100 points inside the first 20 minutes of trading and was close to the 500 mark before a ball had been bowled.
The firm realised it had made an expensive mistake well before 21 wides were bowled in England’s opening encounter with Sri Lanka. Eventually, when the 979th and final wide was bowled in the decider, Sporting Index had lost a shade over £500,000.
2010 UK General Election Having proved in successive General Elections that Sporting Index predictions were far more accurate than the polls, the traders were confident that there would be a 20 seat outright majority for the Conservatives in the 2010 General Election.
On Election night the trading floor was hit by a tidal wave of buyers getting on Labour seats matched pound-by-pound by sellers of Conservative seats. It’s well-known that had England just counted, then the Tories would have secured that majority. So it’s fair to say the people of Wales and Scotland won’t be getting many Christmas cards from Sporting Index as their lack of support for the blues cost a cool £1 million.
Portugal 7 North Korea 0, Bloemfontein, June 2010 World Cup On 21st June 2010, an avalanche of goals in the second half of this World Cup group contest still remains Sporting Index’s most expensive game of international football. It took Portugal 29 minutes to open the scoring in the pouring rain in Bloemfontein and who would have foreseen the carnage to come as the teams trudged off with the score still 1-0 at the break?
However, buyers of shirts and total match goals were out in force and six goals in the second half, including three in the last 10 minutes, meant the firm were hit for just under £1 million.
Arsenal 7 Newcastle 3, Premier League, December 2012 Arsenal have been a thorn in the side of Sporting Index in recent seasons and Theo Walcott’s hat-trick in a 10-goal thriller against Newcastle was a low point, especially as eight of the goals came in the second half with three in the last ten minutes.
Walcott’s goal minutes, originally pitched in the 20s, made-up at a staggering 183 costing just under £200,000. In fact, Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlin, Lucas Podolski, Olivier Giroud, Demba Ba and Sylvain Marveaux all contributed to an incredible game that nearly cost seven figures. It is Sporting Index’s most expensive domestic football loss on record.
The best of the rest of the six-figure howlers:
Jenson Button Season Points, Formula 1 2012 Button was second in the 2011 Championship but couldn’t match those efforts in 2012, making one heavy seller at 224 a mighty profit when the make-up was only 188.
Brazil, 100-75-50-33-20 Tournament Index, 2002 World Cup A Ronaldo-inspired Brazil romped to glory in Yokohama and Sporting Index were taken to the cleaners with buyers on the tournament index getting paid 61 times their stake.
Southern Hemisphere/Northern Hemisphere Supremacy, 2007 Rugby World Cup England might have made successive finals in Paris but the tournament belonged to the Southern Hemisphere with only two Northern Hemisphere sides even making the quarters.
Retief Goosen Finishing Position, 2005 US Open The South African’s final round collapse when leading by four shots cost the firm over £250,000 with buyers getting on Goosen’s finishing position at 3 and seeing a make-up of 13.
San Antonio at Dallas Total Points, 2008 Basketball A rather innocuous event with an opening spread of 187-191, but a make-up of 259 spelled trouble for Sporting Index with several bettors going high at 191 for several £1000s.
Feyenoord v Newcastle Shirt Numbers, 2002 Champions League Buyers of shirt numbers profited big time when Hugo Viana (45) popped up in this dramatic 3-2 Magpies win, helped by a brace from Craig Bellamy (10).
Netherlands, 100-75-50-33-20 Tournament Index, 2010 World Cup Serial under-achievers the Netherlands made it to the final and made buyers at 39 pre-tournament rich, with a make-up of 75.
Man City v Blackburn Shirt Numbers, 2008 Premier League Traders were in all sorts of trouble, buyers at 38 were in dreamland, with four goals and a make-up of 78, making it a bleak day.
Bangalore/Kolkata Supremacy, 2010 T20 Cricket Bangalore thrashed their rivals making it another dark day for the cricket boys in Kennington. The initial spread was 9-13. The result? 70.
Getafe v Malaga Bookings Make-up, 2009 La Liga A fiery encounter in Spain with buyers at 68 watching in glee as the bookings count rose, eventually closing at a mammoth 170.
Pittsburgh at Atlanta Touchdown Shirts, 2006 NFL More American pain with one NFL shrewdie taking advantage of an initial spread of 210-230 to take the firm’s pants down when 715 was the make-up.
England v Afghanistan Supremacy, 2012 T20 Cricket The Three Lions destroyed their Afghan counterparts by a margin of 116, almost exactly double traders’ original projection of 54.
Epsom Heavyweights Special, 2012 Racing A special market that will be remembered as anything but by the trading floor. A number of big names did the business on the Downs, costing the firm £200,000 from just a handful of bets.
Time of 1st Yellow Card and Aggregate 1st Red Card Tournament Totals Market, 2010 World Cup 241 yellow cards and 17 sending offs made South Africa 2010 a naughty tournament for the neutrals and an expensive one for the SPIN team, who predicted a tamer affair.
Tiger Woods Finishing Position, 2004 Masters The American putter could only finish 24th which was music to the ears of those who had bought the world number one’s finishing position at 13. The make-up was 23.5.
Portsmouth v Southampton Supremacy, 2005 Premier League A 4-1 derby win for Pompey was pretty unexpected but not for one big hitter who went long for £63,000 at 0.2 and scooped over £175,000.
About The Sporting Index Group:
The Sporting Index Group is best known as the world’s largest sports spread betting business, offering the widest range of markets and taking some of the largest bets on sporting events around the world. Markets include rugby spread betting, cricket spread betting and football spread betting. Sporting Index is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Services Authority and the Gambling Commission.
