Ryder Cup Preview
Like tennis's Davis Cup, the Ryder Cup excites in a way that other golf tournaments cannot and, being held at a new venue this year in Celtic Manor, there's plenty of research for spread punters to do before diving into Sporting Index's numerous Ryder Cup spread markets.
On any measure, the Europeans are favourites to win the title back from their American opponents - justified considering Europe have won five of the last seven contests. Furthermore, buyers of the point supremacy spread, set at 0.6-1.2 in Europe's favour, will be pleased to hear that since Great Britain & Ireland welcomed Seve Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido to become Team Europe in 1979, USA have only won twice on this continent. The Americans won last time out, but not since 1993 have they retained the Cup.
Other spread punters may prefer to buy or sell the outright supremacy, quoted at 3-6. In this market, 10 points are awarded for the win, plus 3pts per competition point won by. Buyers will be pleased that the make-up would have easily satisfied the spread in all but the last competition. Europe triumphed by an incredible nine points in both 2006 and 2004 - a repeat would lead to a juicy 31 point profit for buyers.
Those spread bettors who believe that Colin Montgomerie's men will secure victory, but are not convinced it will be by a significant margin, may prefer to buy Europe's win index at 15 (25pts for a win, 10pts for a tie) or even sell USA's index at 9.5.
Golf spread punters who prefer much more volatile markets will like the 'winning margin x50' spread, set at 185-205. Buyers should be pleased that recent margins have been high, although for seven consecutive events, between 1987 and 1999, not more than two points separated the teams. A tie would incur losses of 185 times their stake for buyers, although a repeat of Europe's nine point win of four years ago would beckon a profit of 254 times the stake! The spread is liable to swing a fair way (no pun intended!) between October 1st and 3rd so this is also likely to be heavily exploited by spread bettors who will bet on the Ryder Cup in running. It might be worth looking at the order of play and seeing where the strongest pairs are to be sent out.
Aside from tipping the overall winner, Sporting Index give golf spread punters the opportunity to challenge their predictions on the top scoring players in a number of categories. In the top European index (50-30-20-10 for the top four scoring players) Rory McIlroy is favourite with his spread at 14-17pts, and an even bigger favourite in the top debutant index at 19-22, while Ryder Cup veteran Padraig Harrington can be bought at 9pts. Sellers of Tiger Woods' spread at 16 will be encouraged by his relatively poor Ryder Cup record and questionable form prior to the competition.
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