Having a flutter on Euro 2008

Ok, so Euro 2008 has kicked off (if my calculations are correct, we should be most of the way through France vs Romania right now). And the BBC still bellows “Who will you support?” Answer: no-one. We didn’t qualify, remember? Cinderella has never had so much empathy.

I wrote on Friday night how we Brits could mine some enjoyment out of the tournament. But I just thought I’d pick up on another – albeit expensive – way of injecting some genuine emotional attachment into proceedings, and that’s to stake cash on them. These days there are some highly elaborate and intricate ways of losing money that you should know about.

First up, you can avoid being a butterfly and back your club’s overseas players to outscore their Premiership rivals. New signing Modric has already got the ball rolling for Spurs yet the favourites remain Liverpool’s Spanish contingent. Manchester United look good with Portuguese brace of Nani and Ronaldo, but outsiders Chelsea have Ballack destined to play a lot of games and a smattering of French.

Alternatively you can remain patriotic and bet that the Premiership will outscore the Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A, although my hunch is that, without England in the equation, that might be hasty.

Putting patriotism aside, the most excitement, and by that I don’t mean fun but palpitations, is to be had in the spread betting. My pick at the moment is the total number of red cards in the tournament (excluding extra-time) with a spread of 6.2-6.7. In the World Cup the match between Portugal and The Netherlands picked up 4 on its own, and with Turkey playing Switzerland, Poland against Austria and the head-butt-provoking Marco Materazzi lurking about, it’s got to be worth a flutter. As a bonus that bet gives you grounds to shout SEND ‘IM OFF! at every innocuous foul.

The spread for the total number of goals stands at 69-71 (excluding extra-time) which doesn’t offer too much, so for a bit more spice you can have a punt at the number of headed goals at 12-13 (ex. e-t). Germany and the Czech Republic have big men up front, and it’s still the easiest way to score from a corner.

Of course, don’t misinterpret any of this as sound advice from a tipster as I’m pretty sure I haven’t filled in the online form to put those letters after my name. Also, I don’t pretend to suggest that these bets will make events any more fun as I know there are few things more gruesome than a badly turned out spread, but what I can guarantee is that a flutter here or there will without doubt make you care more about the tournament than randomly deciding to support a foreign country for a month. Instead of “You shall go to the ball” it’s more the fairy godmother saying, “go on then Cindy, which one of the ugly sisters is going to get blown out first?” and then giving her odds.