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Aussie
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Centrebet Capers
RUGBY LEAGUE Anyone who ever doubted that Newcastle are champs with Andrew Johns and chumps without him should go and have a look at the tapes of the last two Knights matches. It was simply amazing to see the turnaround last week as the rampaging Knights beat premiership aspirants St George Illawarra 54-6. It was party time for punters in round four when five of the seven favourites won with all five covering. Our worst result of the round was when the Roosters got home by four points over Cronulla. The Roosters attracted two $20,000 bets conceding 2½ points start as well as a bet of $18,000 to win outright at 1.66. Even though Newcastle was the outsider against the Dragons there was solid money for them to win but it was a winning result. A punter from Victoria was the biggest beneficiary of the win by Newcastle when he placed $15,000 on them to win at 2.00. This week it's another tough round apart from Monday's game, where the Bulldogs are 1.20 to beat Souths. The Good Friday match between the Roosters and the Broncos has been robbed of a lot of interest as both sides struggle with a long list of injuries. In saying that, it has been a great betting match. The first two bets on the game were $10,000 for Brisbane at 1.90, followed by $15,000 at 1.87. Melbourne doesn’t have a lot going for them this week or at least we didn't think so. That is what this game is all about and punters have let us know that they are not prepared to write off the Storm just yet. AUSTRALIAN RULES Punters had us on our knees coming to Sunday last week but in some sort of a fightback, the wins by Port Adelaide and the West Coast saw us all but get out of the weekend. It was a massive round of betting; nearly doubling anything we had ever taken before. Some big multis were taken, with two of those saluting. One was for Friday night which coupled up North Queensland to win in the NRL, the Crusaders to win in the Super 14 and finished off with St Kilda to beat Richmond. The outlay was $250,000 for a payout of $512,000. Then it was on to Saturday and a bet of $300,000 was taken to win $200, 00 for the Highlanders to beat Western Force (Super 14), Brisbane to beat Souths (NRL) and Geelong to beat the Kangaroos. That made it two from two when all got over the line. The third big multi was on Sunday when we took a bet of $160,000 to win $320,000 for the Swans and Adelaide to win in the AFL and the Bulldogs to win in the NRL. The loss by the Swans took a lot of pressure off as there was already a fortune riding through them anyway when all five previous matches had been won by the favourites. To say Port Adelaide is our new pin-up side would be an understatement. The match of the round was the last game and that saw Adelaide firm from 1.60 into 1.44 at the bounce. The West Coast were extremely hard to sell, although we did take bets of $15,000 and $10,000 for them with 16 points start, as well as two $5000 wagers to win outright at 2.80. Apart from that, it was all one way traffic, with the biggest Crow bet being $30,000 at 1.55. They were down and out after a woeful third quarter, which saw the Eagles posted at 1.12 at the last break. Bets of $5000 and $3000 were taken then and those punters would have been feeling sick as the Crows hit the front 5 minutes from the end. A couple of quick goals saw the Eagles get an eight point break again with a late Crows goal bringing the final margin back to two points. St Kilda host Brisbane tonight (Thurs) and are very short at 1.32. Being the first favourite up, there is a stack going through them in multiples but the price looks very short. We think Carlton can beat Sydney on Saturday night and it looks like punters agree as there is absolutely no early interest in the Swans. They are 1.60, and less than $500 has been placed on them in the first 48 hours of betting. Melbourne plays Adelaide up at Carrara Stadium on Sunday. The Demons went well in the first half against the Bulldogs last week and may be on the improve. An early bet of $8000 has been placed on the Crows at 1.45 but the price remains. CRICKET Bangladesh are a 5.75 to pull off one of sports greatest upsets later today (Thurs). Most would remember when Bangladesh defeated Australia in a one-day match last year. On that occasion the Aussies were 1.01 but anything can happen in one day cricket. A five day Test match is completely different however, and nobody expected this match to go beyond three days let alone that Bangladesh could win it. We opened Australia at 1.10 and took bets of $20,000 and $10,000 at that quote. Bangladesh were 34.00 and the draw was 7.00 with only one bet being taken on the bolters before it started, and that was $20.00. They piled on the runs in the first innings before Australia narrowly avoided the follow on. It may seem odd but Australia have been favourites since the start, even when it did look like they would have to bat again, but we have had a terrific betting contest on our hands. Australian punters could see that our side was in trouble and many of them have jumped ship. Several big bets have been taken on Bangladesh during the first four days including $10,000 at 2.90, $7500 at 3.35 and two $5000 bets at 2.75. Needless to say we wouldn't be complaining if it rained today but that appears unlikely. With the first Test creating so much interest, we expect to see the second Test betting go through the roof. It will open as soon as the first Test is decided and while Bangladesh will be nothing like the price they were going into the first Test, they are still going to be big odds. RUGBY UNION Another weekend for the punters as all the home teams bar the Chiefs saluted the judge. The Crusaders repelled all attacks in a low scoring, high intensity contest. Some more astute judges have commented that Mat Rogers could have been the difference. Maybe we should bear this in mind as we make our way towards the pointy end of the season. The Western Force showed again that they are competitive with the better outfits but have yet to learn how to win. The Bulls were one of the best backed teams of the week, as the big punters came within a whisker of getting all the cash. One of our local clients had $10,000 on the Bulls +8½ at 1.90, followed by another $8,000 at 1.85. There was more to come with over $6,000 being invested on an outright Bulls victory at 3.55. The final result in the Blues game flattered the locals, but was critical in keeping their slim finals hopes alive. The Brumbies were well supported with three bets over $10,000 giving the Cheetahs 16 ½ points at 1.90 and dually re-paid the punters faith by putting in one of the better performances seen this year. The Blues go into their Eden park clash as overwhelming favourites (-18 ½), perhaps on reputation alone. The Crusaders are expected to account for the Cheetahs comfortably and are being well supported conceding 25 ½ points at 1.90. Two of our better clients have taken the Crusaders at the handicap giving us an early hold in excess of $20,000. One of the most anticipated matches of the season (for everyone in New South Wales and the ACT at least) is played on Easter Sunday. The Waratahs host the Brumbies. The betting favours the Waratahs at 1.50 and conceding 5 ½ points at 1.90. The early hold suggests this could be as big as any final already we have written over $50,000 in bets, trending 3/2 in favour of the Waratahs. GOLF It may have taken Phil Mickelson twelve years and 42 majors to discover how to win golf's holy grail but after watching him win his second green jacket on Sunday there's no doubting there'll be a few more. Mickelson was without doubt the best backed to win this years first major. His opening quote of 10.00 had firmed into 6.50 by tee off and it wasn't because of his comprehensive win in the Bell South the previous week. Quite simply, he was taking out over $100,000 by the time his last putt in his record breaking win had hit the bottom of the hole. And there was still four days of betting to go. As well backed as Mickelson was just as neglected in the betting was Tiger Woods. Although in search of his fifth green jacket and an Augusta specialist, most rank and file punters decided to steer clear of the world number one. Others well backed were Ernie Els at 10.00, Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh at 13.00 and Jose Maria Olazabal and Chad Campbell at 51.00. All were backed to win in excess of $50,000 and a quick look at the final leader board will show that punters were well on the mark. DANCING WITH THE STARS DWTS devotees have had to take a week off as the show was put on hold for the Easter break but that hasn't stopped people from betting on it. We have a really interesting show coming up next week to see if Kate Langbroek will make it into the final four. As we said last week, if Kate makes it into the final four her Nova sidekick Dave Hughes will be $10,000 richer. The good news for both is that Noelene Brown is the 1.80 favourite to go ahead of Kate at 3.50 and Kostya Tszyu at 3.70. Kostya has been well backed to go even though we took a bet of $600 on him to win the whole show at 12.00 late last week. He is back into 9.00 with Grant Denyer still overall favourite at 1.90. LOGIE AWARDS The betting to win the Gold Logie is bubbling along quite nicely and we have a new favourite. Rove McManus has come into 3.00 after opening at 4.50 no doubt on the back of his impressive lead up form of years gone by. However, as we pointed out last week, it is different this year with the public being able to vote right up until the night. John Wood's price hasn't changed (3.50) and we have taken dozens of bets for him to win as well with Ada Nicodemou moving into third favourite (5.50) ahead of Bert Newton (7.00). One big surprise was that of all eight nominees the only one who had not had a bet placed on them after a weeks trading was Bec Hewitt. Bec has been literally everywhere in the media over the past twelve months, yet it took until Tuesday of this week before we found somebody prepared to back her to win the Logie and that was one bet of $5. Until next week, good punting For further information contact Gerard Daffy at Centrebet on 02 9206 8715 or centrebet@centrebet.com
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