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Aussie
Rules
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Centrebet Capers CRICKET The Ashes series loss is a distant memory now after the Australian side took the knife to the Rest of the World and also the West Indies. Now the one-day side cross the Tasman to take on the Kiwi's in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy beginning in Auckland on Saturday. This will be a three match series but unfortunately New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming has withdrawn from at least the first two games after having an operation on his jaw. That is a big loss and enough for us to turn out the price of the Kiwi's to win the series from 2.80 to 3.25. Australia is a hot favourite at 1.30 and while many may think that there isn't much between these two sides, think again. Since the summer of 2001/2 the two teams have played 13 times with victory going to Australia on 12 occasions. Those statistics and the loss of Fleming have seen us open up Australia at 1.40 to win game one at Eden Park, Auckland. We have already taken two decent bets of $5000 and $3800 at that quote. The Aussies seem certain to firm even further as we can't find any takers for New Zealand. Betting will be updated at the end of each major break and because they are day-night games televised into Australia, we will also be doing 'next man out' markets as well. GOLF Tiger Woods proved the master with a seven shot victory in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf over Phil Mickelson, Michael Campbell and Vijay Singh. On the local scene Victorian Robert Allenby overcame a wrist injury, which has plagued him all year, to hold off Nick O'Hern, John Senden and Paul Sheehan by a shot to claim his second Australian Open title. Betting on the event was not as brisk as in previous years. However, there was strong support for US PGA tour members in Stuart Appleby at 9.00, Peter Lonard at 11.00, Geoff Ogilvy at 13.00 and Allenby at 15.00. Aaron Baddeley was expected to show a return to form being backed from $41 into $26, including one wager of $500 each-way. The Australian PGA is currently under way at Coolum on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Stuart Appleby was the pre-tournament favourite at 8.00 from Michael Campbell at 9.00 while last week’s winner Robert Allenby represents value at 15.00 Betting has been an even affair with Tasmanian Matthew Goggin best backed at 51.00 along with Paul Gow at 101.00, including one wager of $570 each-way from a local client. RUGBY LEAGUE Australia's rule as the rugby league power of the world came to an abrupt end on Saturday evening when New Zealand thumped the Kangaroos 24-0 in the tri-nations final. Betting on the event was busy with the Kangaroos opening 1.25 favourites and conceding 10½ points. Our first wager was $5,000 at the start followed by another $5,000. The indicators were that they would start shorter than their opening quote and immediately firmed into $1.20 and 11½ points. Betting then settled for a couple of days before a $20,000 wager on the Kiwis receiving 11½ points firmed the betting back into 1.25 and 10½. Money was then solid for the Kangaroos for the day leading into the game. A late flurry for the favourites, including a £5,000 from one of our British clients forced the market into 1.20 and 1.83 conceding the start. The result put the icing on what was a successful tri-nations campaign for Centrebet. Just a pity it meant the Kangaroos had to lose their 'invincibles' tag. RUGBY UNION The end of a long season has arrived for the elite southern hemisphere rugby players. The All Blacks racked up a grand slam, put together a Lions series whitewash, claimed the tri-nations crown and put the Bledisloe Cup back in the trophy cabinet. Punters found a couple of good results over the weekend, especially Wales as they were backed in from +13.5 into +10.5. The win price firmed significantly from 5.00 into 3.85. Happy days for all bar Wallabies and bookies. New Zealand and England put on big scores against Scotland and Samoa respectively, while Italy showed they have made some gains under their new coach beating the Fijians by 15. France got off to a super start in Paris and didn't let the South Africans back in the game, giving our punters a nice little bank heading into Christmas. The expanded Super 14 competition kicks off in February next year. The betting will open shortly with the Crusaders genuine favourites at 3.40. The next line of betting has last year’s finalists, the Waratahs at 4.50 with David Nucifora's Blues posted at 4.75. AUSTRALIAN RULES The Brownlow Medal betting for next year has been open for over a week and there has been a very good reaction to the prices. As reported last week, the bulk of early betting and centered on this year’s winner, Ben Cousins. Cousins is the co-favourite at 11.00 with his team-mate Chris Judd but a week into the betting and already nearly 50 players have attracted a bet. St Kilda's Nick Del Santo was well in commission this year and there has been solid support for him at 34.00, including three bets of $200 each-way. Hawthorn's Luke Hodge is another perennial ball gatherer who many think will poll well as he has been backed to take out a shade under $20,000 at 34.00. In premiership betting, the Sydney Swans remain the worst backed side to win the flag next year. Amazingly, less than $200 has been placed on the reigning premiers and in fact we have taken more for the Swans to win the wooden spoon at 101.00. St Kilda still head the flag market at 4.75 ahead of the Eagles at 5.00 but the early support that we saw for Adelaide and Geelong has continued with both sides firming significantly, now into 8.00 and 11.00 respectively. ELECTIONS The money was on the mark when Independent Alex McTaggart won the Pittwater (NSW) by-election held at the weekend. Pittwater had historically been a safe Liberal seat but this by-election was brought about by the recent controversial resignation of John Brogden, who was the State Liberal leader. There was a feeling that there would be a public backlash over the treatment Brogden received, but there needed to be a 20% swing against the Libs. We posted Alex McTaggart at 2.25 and in the first 48 hours of betting he was backed all the way into 1.60. One client placed three separate bets of $5000 on McTaggart at various odds. While there was a late rally on Friday for Paul Nicolaou (Lib) which saw the betting close at 1.85 for both, the major portion of the $60,000 wagered on the election was for the eventual winner, Alex McTaggart. There has been a major change to the betting on the next federal election with the Coalition drifting from 1.57 out to 1.72 and Labor into 2.00 from 2.30. We have only taken a handful of bets for that to happen (less than $3000) but with John Howard’s industrial relations scheme copping a battering from all quarters, if there was an election next week, we doubt he would even be the favourite. HANDBALL The Women’s World Championships in Handball get under way on December 5 and the host nation, Russia, go in as our 2.25 favourite to win the title. The home advantage will be a big plus but the Russians also have the largest squad, which is very important as they will have to play ten matches in 15 days to win gold. We haven't seen a lot of money for Russia yet but the next two in the betting have been well supported. Korea (5.00) have a very quick game plan which can often catch opponents unaware and the biggest bet for Korea has been €1000 from an Italian client. Denmark is next in the betting at 6.00, and of course, very popular with our Danish clients. They are the current Olympic champions and looked very strong in last weekend’s Mobelringen Cup where they outclassed Norway and drew with Russia. Hungary (13.00) has been backed to win close to €25,000 by a group of handball followers from Norway but while they have been impressive in the lead up tournaments, they haven't been playing against the top teams. France won the title last year but go in as one of the outsiders at 101.00. Australia has a side in the championships but as you can tell by the price (2501.00), we aren't expecting too much. They are in the strongest group and in most of their matches will be receiving up to a 20 point -start, a very big handicap in handball. 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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