The song, “oh to, oh to be, oh to be a - Gooner!” regularly reverberates around The Emirates and I would be willing to bet that a few fans of other, less exhilarating teams up and down the country are secretly wishing that their allegiance was to the North London club after Arsenal delighted a plethora of punters in mid-week. One (of the many) client(s) bought Arsenal’s Team Goal Minutes at 138 for £50 in Tuesday’s Group H game against Slavia Prague. Cue one of the most impressive and one sided Champions League performances anyone will ever witness as the ‘Gonners’ absolutely roasted the Czechs. Cesc ‘world at my feet’ Fabregas opened the scoring in the 5th minute and the monsoon followed in the 24th, 41st, 51st, 55th and 58th minutes. By this time two of our traders had committed suicide, too scared to face the prospect that Arsenal still had over half an hour left to play! But Nicklas Bendtner’s 89th minute poke past the keeper was the final act in the rout which left the client to scoop an incredible 215 point profit and leave our monthly P&L target out of reach.
It took some big cojones for anyone to get with England on the World Cup Outright Index after the infamous 36-0 drubbing from South Africa. After that game England had slumped 17 points on the Index and, without any real hope of serious progression, were available to buy at just 27. You had to be a complete mentalist to buy knowing that a losing quarter-final team would still only make-up 25. So step up Mr. B, a mentalist from Northumberland, who bought Brian Ashton’s men at 27 for £200. He got the ride of his sporting life and brought the science of cheering on a bet to a different level as England smashed Samoa, Tonga, Australia and France on route to a quite simply scandalous make-up of 80. A cheque of £10,600 tied to the leg of a carrier pigeon is on its way up north.
