Things are not looking good: the Tenner bet currently occupies bottom spot in the office sweepstake.

Things are not looking good: the Tenner bet currently occupies bottom spot in the office sweepstake, a ZZ-light France side look devoid of inspiration, Greece are playing like the team everyone expected four years ago and just about every other choice from last week looks misguided - apart from Portugal and Germany.

Followers of this column will have taken a battering in recent months as a series of failed bets has ravaged profits and undermined confidence in a system' that seemed to be working. There is a certain amount of moral responsibility attached to writing a column such as this. Indeed, recently I became embroiled in a conversation with a reformed gambler who was only too keen to point out to me that there is no such thing as a system. He's right, of course. As far as this column is concerned it is a nebulous word. There is no system, no great mystery as to how bets are won and lost - just research and a nose for a bet. The closest we have ever come to anything like a system is our level-staking plan and therein lies the crux of the matter: responsible gambling.

For instance, if you look at our total profit, we're still in rude health but, after this column's first week, I was £20 in the red. It took a modicum of research and a strict adherence to the level stake to ensure we had that margin for error.

But, now we have earned a sizeable profit, it would take a run of 33 failed bets before we found ourselves in such a mess again.

Now, if you'll excuse the evangelical sermonising, there's money to be made.

There has been something of a vacuum in sports betting in recent weeks following the conclusion to the domestic football season. Thankfully, Euro 2008 has offered the Tenner bet an opportunity to focus again on relatively familiar ground (please ignore the aforementioned France and Greece bets at this point).

Over the next three days, there are six games on show with Group A and B teams jostling for qualification position and Group D playing their second round of matches.

From the evidence of what's gone before, Spain should have too much know-how for Sweden and while I'm still not convinced Luis Aragones' men will win the tournament, they should defeat a static Sweden side. This same team humiliated Ukraine 4-0 at World Cup 2006 and we all know how that ended. Still, the Spanish should beat the Scandinavians particularly as the Swedes were just marginally less woeful in their defeat of Greece.

Elsewhere, Germany must defeat Austria to ensure qualification on Monday and while they struggled against Croatia, their next-door neighbours are a different proposition. Josef Hickersberger's side are one of the worst to feature in a Euro finals tournament and Germany are in a win or bust situation. Croatia will probably rest players with their position as Group B winners already secured but they should still prove too strong for Poland, possibly the second-worst side ever to feature at a Euro finals.
Selections Spain (10/11 vcbet), Germany (2/5 general), Croatia (15/8 bet365).
Treble 6.68/1
Season's profit £299.40