Weekend's Big Winning Bets 5.1.26

The New Year has already brought us plenty of sporting drama, and the first weekend of 2026 saw Luke Littler dominantly secure another Darts World Championship title at Alexandra Palace, Wolves claimed their first league victory of the season in the Premier League, and Joe Root pitched in with a batting masterclass as England have been fighting hard to claim a victory over Australia in the final Ashes Test.

As always in our daily betting blog, we run through some of the biggest spread betting winners from Saturday and Sunday!

WOLVES v WEST HAM: WOL/WHU TGM SUPREMACY (SETTLED AT 76)

We start with the Premier League football action as the league's basement side Wolves finally grabbed their first league win of the season with an impressive 3-0 drubbing of an abject West Ham side. After the home side's creditable performances in tight losses against Liverpool and Arsenal, they came away with a point from Old Trafford last time out and finally clicked here to bring some joy to Molineux.

While Wolves are still overwhelmingly likely to be relegated, they did narrow the gap to safety to 12 points, while West Ham were further drawn into the relegation mire with the Hammers now 4 points from safety themselves. A first half blitz saw the home side grab a 3-0 lead that they never relinquished thereafter. This meant not only Wolves' first win, but their first clean sheet of the season too.

In terms of spread betting, buying punters managed to score a handy profit on our Wolves/West Ham Total Goal Minutes Supremacy market. With the market settling at 76 from a starting spread of -2 - 12, this meant a tidy 64x return on 'buy' bets.

You can learn more about spread betting on football by clicking here.

PDC DARTS CHAMPIONSHIP - LUKE LITTLER v GIAN VAN VEEN: MULTI-SETS (SETTLED AT 7)

In the darts betting action, the weekend saw Luke Littler prove why he was the betting favourite at the PDC World Championships as the 18-year-old arrowsmith secured back-to-back titles with an incredible performance against Dutchman Gian van Veen in the Ally Pally final.

Although van Veen claimed the perfect start by winning the opening set, the Dutchman suffered the same fate as previous Littler opponent Ryan Searle as 'The Nuke' exploded on the oche to start an utterly dominant comeback.

While van Veen had a golden opportunity to close out a 2-set lead, Littler brought some magic to reel in the Big Fish to score a 170-out which essentially won him the match thereafter, as momentum terminally swung in favour of the Warrington teenager.

For darts spread bettors, sell bets on the Multi-Sets market saw good profit. With a pre-match spread of just 25 - 27.10, a settlement of just 7 meant a return of 18x on opening stakes!

You can refresh your Darts spread betting knowledge by clicking here.

THE ASHES 5TH TEST: JOE ROOT (BATTING RUNS): (SETTLED AT 160)

Finally, we round off on the cricket action and The Ashes 5th and final Test, which is still yet to be concluded with England looking to finish the series in Australia on a high. At the end of Day 2, the odds have shifted again in the Aussies' favour, but England have given themselves a chance in major part due to Joe Root's batting performance.

Having scored a knock of 160 from 242 balls in Sydney, Root's effort allowed England to reach 384 all out, although this was lower than the 400 that the tourists hoped to achieve. Australia are 218 runs in arrears, and will be fired up to secure a 4-1 series win, while England will hope for a respectable 3-2 series defeat as a best-case scenario in the circumstances.

For cricket punters who decided to buy on our Joe Root market, some handy profit was to be made with a settlement of 160 from a starting spread of 45 - 50, meaning a return of 110x stake on buy bets!

If you like to bet on cricket but want to know more about how Cricket spread betting works then we have all the information you need, including our bet calculator with which you can calculate potential spread betting winnings or losses.