WIDE BOYS AT IT AGAIN
London, 6th March 2007 – Spread Betting Bookmakers Sporting Index today revealed their menu of bets for the Cricket World Cup and have included a prediction on the number of wides bowled in the tournament. Many may have expected the firm to avoid offering such a bet after the famous disaster of 199, when a trading error led to losses in excess of £500,000.
However, Sporting are happy to offer a price and predict that there will be 790 wides this time round. “The wides debacle of 1999 won’t ever be forgotten here”, recalls PR Director Sporting Index. “From time to time we do get things wrong, but never again will we be that wide of the mark. I’m pretty confident that our prediction this time round won’t be wrong by 714 wides again”.
1999 – Sporting Index well wide of the mark
It was the first week of May 1999 and Sporting Index had just unveiled over 100 special markets on the Cricket World Cup. The cricket trading team had worked back-breaking hours pricing up an incredible number of markets, but were blissfully unaware of the fact that they were about to serve up the biggest error in spread betting history.
The market in question was a prediction on the total number of wides bowled in the 42 game tournament and was pitched at 245-265. Now, the traders hadn’t just plucked any old price from out the sky. There had been hours of research on the number of wides bowled in previous tournaments.
The feeling was that there were going to be fewer wides than usual in an age of disciplined bowling. It was genuinely felt that the make-up was more likely to be in the 100s than in the 300s and that an average of around six wides a match was spot on.
The phones were red hot within hours of the prices being released and punters were knocking each other over to buy at 265 and then 270 as word of the error spread. In fact, 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.
It was now public knowledge that the bowlers were going to have extreme difficulty controlling the swing generated by the white ball in English conditions and the prediction was miles out. The entire trading floor realized the firm had made an expensive mistake well before 21 wides were bowled in England’s opening encounter with Sri Lanka.
The next day saw another 55 wides bowled in 2 matches and the price continued to spiral out of control. Eventually, when the 979th and final wide was bowled in the final, Sporting Index had lost a shade over £1/2 million.
