BOOKINGS CAN HAMMER BOOKIES
SUNDAY promises to be a hugely exciting day and all three games have the potential to be extremely fiery encounters. Sporting Index offer 10 ways to bet on bookings and the one most punters will recognise is the total bookings market where 10 points are awarded for a yellow card and 25 for a red.
Many of you will remember the battle between Arsenal and Chelsea in the Carling Cup final in 2007 when three last minute red cards produced a make up of 145. That was something of a freak result, but it shows how quickly a bookings make-up can change. Sporting Index offer a spread of 56-50 for Sunday’s game and those looking to press the buy button should tread carefully. There were only three yellow cards in the two league meetings last season.
Punters should always look at the record of the game’s referee and see if they are generally ‘card happy’ before placing their bet. They can choose to bet on anything from bookings supremacy (how many more bookings one team will get than another) to an individual team’s bookings points or even just the number of cards handed out in the first half.
There have been some interesting bookings trends in recent Merseyside derbies and the main two are that Everton tend to be worse behaved and games at Goodison are more fractious. In the last five league games between the two, Everton average a total of 41 points compared with Liverpool’s 12. There have also been three red cards in the last two games at Everton, resulting in make-ups of 85 and 80. Sporting Index quote bookings at 60-64 which is high, but history shows buyers may still turn a profit.