USA goal spree against Thailand hits spread-betting firm hard

Spread-betting company Sporting Index were left counting the cost on Tuesday after the USA's sensational 13-0 victory over Thailand at the Women's World Cup.

The company offered USA supremacy - the number of goals they were expected to win by - at 4.95-5.25 on the morning of the match and by kick-off it had risen to 5.4, but there were still plenty of punters happy to buy as they fancied the margin of victory would be much higher.

Subsidiary markets brought even more unusual results, particularly as ten goals arrived after half-time and Jill Ellis's side scored five times in the last 11 minutes.

Total goal minutes made up at 773 having been available to buy at 295, while Alex Morgan, the ante-post favourite to be the tournament's top goalscorer, scored five goals. Her goal minutes made up at a whopping 307.

Sporting Index's Sten Saaret said: "Alex Morgan's goal minutes were 90-95, which is probably the highest pre-match quote for a single player in our history.

"The damage was pretty hard and the biggest losing market was total goal minutes, which cost us about £30,000. A lot of clients got involved in USA match supremacy and that cost us another £20,000."

The match in Reims completed the first round of matches in the tournament and just three of the 12 games have featured more than three goals.

With coverage on the BBC, Sporting are pleased with the level of business on the tournament, the final of which takes place in Lyon on July 7.

Saaret said: "Despite the harsh night on Tuesday, business has been pleasantly good with most of the games attracting decent amounts of bets.

"The publicity about women's football has definitely had punters involved more and the numbers are encouraging.

"If we are comparing it to men's football then only the Premier League and Champions League have attracted more interest this season."

The Americans are in action again in Paris on Sunday and their supremacy against Chile, who lost their Group F opener to Sweden 2-0, is 4.1-4.3.

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