More reds and yellows in store?

This World Cup has seen a record number of yellow cards, as FIFA clamps down on a raft of measures. You can bet on bookings in a couple of ways with Sporting - either on a match, or the total for the whole tournament.

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Match Bookings
So far, there have been an average of approx 5.4 yellow cards per match. Interestingly, although the sample size is small, the matches involving Eastern European or African teams are averaging higher, at around 6 yellow cards per game.

Sporting Index award 10 points for a yellow card, and 25 points for a red card (max 35 points per player). So 5 yellow and 1 red card would be worth 75 points. This means that if there's a match with plenty at stake and you think that both teams will really get stuck in, you would bet high on Sporting's Bookings market.

E.g. Sporting Index quote 58 to 62 points, which is to say they think there will be 6 bookings. If you think it will be a "physical" match, then you would "bet high" at 62. Alternatively, anyone predicting a quiet day for the ref would "bet low" at 58. How much you win or lose depends on how right or wrong you are, as per the previous examples above.

So for Sunday's match between England and Ecuador, bear in mind their form. England have picked up just 4 yellows in 3 matches, and Ecuador 6 so far. This would suggest a low number of bookings when they meet, compared to Portugal v Holland that evening.

Both of these have picked up 9 cards each in their group matches, which suggests an average of 6 per match. With more at stake in the knock-out rounds, anyone betting high will hope for a repeat of the Ivory Coast v Serbia match - 7 yellows and 2 reds meant the bookings were worth 120 points!

Total Tournament Yellow Cards
At the start of this tournament, Sporting Index predicted the total number of yellow cards shown in all 64 matches was 270 to 280. As more and more have been dished out, this price has moved up and up, currently standing at 320 to 324 (205 cards shown after 40 matches). With 24 matches to go, there's still plenty of time to take an interest in this market.

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Please note that odds are correct at time of publication and are subject to change.