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Aussie
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Centrebet Capers
CRICKET It didn't take too long to get an upset in the World Cup-the very first game! Unfortunately we didn't get an opportunity to take full advantage though as we had no live coverage, either by television or radio, in Central Australia, so that put an end to any chance we had of betting 'in the run', and it would have been a fabulous game to do so. Anyway, things are back on track now with a live coverage, so we can look forward to some excitement over the next month or so. As reported last week we took two bets totaling $USD 45,000 on South Africa at $1.30 and $1.29 a few days prior to the match, and these two remained as the biggest losing bets. As usual, there were plenty of small bets on the outsiders, the West Indies, at $3.70, but nothing in excess of $2000. The Windies staged a Herculean performance to win, and get us off to a great start. We gave some back when Sri Lanka thumped New Zealand on day two. One of our Indian clients placed $USD 25,000 on Sri Lanka at $1.85, but on the day of the match, Sri Lanka touched $1.90 after a series of big bets for the Kiwi's came our way, including one of $16,000 from Auckland. We had a good book before it started, but betting 'in the run' saw money only for Sri Lanka, with the biggest bet being $28,000 ($1.45) at half time. It would not have surprised too many that Zimbabwe belted Namibia, and plenty of our clients availed themselves to the $1.09 we were offering, but one did stand out. A Danish client invested 50,000 DKK ($AUD 12,000) for Zimbabwe to win, and never had cause for concern after they posted 340 runs. Namibia had to score 8 runs an over off a revised total after rain intervened, but they weren't up to the task. There had been a lot of talk surrounding Australia's opening match against Pakistan, and that made it an even better betting contest than it would have been. We were taken aback by the level of support for Pakistan from Australian punters, who backed Pakistan from an opening $3.25 into $2.80. No doubt the logic behind that move was that many of the Aussies had been injured recently, and Michael Bevan, who some claim to be the best one day batsman in the world, was out of the side. Then we had the Shane Warne catastrophe and when word spread like wildfire around the country that he was out of the World Cup, punters backed Pakistan into $2.40. Warne’s departure had little affect as the Aussies piled on 310 runs with all the money “in the run” being for Australia. With all the conjecture surrounding that game, the win by Canada over Bangladesh hardly rated a mention but it was a massive result for us. One Sydney punter predicted an upset by placing $1000 on Canada at $6.50, but several big bets including one of $50,000 from India were lost when Bangladesh were 60 runs short of Canada’s total. Today (Thurs) we have a close betting match where the West Indies go in as slight favourites over New Zealand at $1.75. Betting has been evenly spread amongst the two, so our result will hinge on whatever happens during the match. The Aussies front up again at Centurion Park on Saturday against India. India were woeful in their win over the Netherlands and the early money would suggest that Australia might start shorter than the opening quote of $1.36. RUGBY UNION Plenty of movement in Super 12 again over the past seven days as we count down to the season opener next week. Punters continue to ignore the two favourites, The Crusaders ($2.60) and The Brumbies ($3.75), putting a lot of emphasis on the trial form. Late last week, we were hit twice for a Waratahs win. The first bet was from Victoria, with a Melbourne man placing $5000 on the New South Wales side at $11, and at the same time one of our regular English rugby clients placed $6000 at the same quote. This punter also placed $2000 on The Hurricanes at $31, and the interesting story with this guy is that he is the punter who won $90,000 on The Crusaders last season. Following on from a trial win by the Auckland Blues over The Brumbies on Friday night, Saturday saw bets of $5000 (from NZ) and $4000 (from Sydney) come for the Blues at $7, and the money already bet to win this years title has already eclipsed years gone by. There will be more trials this weekend, and betting for round one will open next Tuesday morning. Six Nations football gets under way this weekend, with the highlight being the clash between England and France at Twickenham. Late last year England showed what they were capable of when the defeated all three Super 12 nations, but their last defeat was at the hands of the French last March, in Paris. England deserve their $1.33 tag in this game, and we have already taken several bets totaling just under $13,000, mostly from New Zealand, for England to win, as well as bets of £2000 and $4500 for the English to cover a 9½ point handicap. Centrebet will also be covering the other two Six Nations matches. Wales travel to Rome as 12½ point favourites over Italy, and on Sunday, Scotland host Ireland in what should be a good betting game. We haven't seen any early action, but Ireland are the favourites at $1.55. BASKETBALL Punters ended up a little worse for wear after last weeks round of NBL. This was probably one of our better betting rounds of the season so far, and the crucial result was the 4 point win by the Victorian Giants over West Sydney. The Razorbacks were coupled up in two multiple bets with a total of $22,000, and also drew win bets of $6000 and $3200 at $1.25, as well as several bets at -8 points start. West Sydney are now in jeopardy of missing the finals, and their overall form doesn't warrant them being there anyway. Plenty of large bets were landed when the Melbourne Tigers came from 18 points down in the second half to beat Adelaide 108-103. The Tigers firmed from $1.75 into $1.60, with the largest winning bet being $7300 taken at $1.70. Melbourne missed 18 free shots, but were still able to mow Adelaide down. Perth were thrashed 122-104 by Adelaide on Friday night, and the wheels have currently fallen off the Wildcats, who have lost four of their last seven matches. Added to that are rumours of all not being well in the camp with some on the roster getting preferred treatment, so the Wildcats have some work to do. Luckily they look to have an 'easy' game against West Sydney this Saturday. Perth go in as fav's at $1.25, or giving up 8 points start. It doesn’t get much better for the Razorbacks as they have to stay in Perth and do it all again next Tuesday. Friday's local derby between the Tigers and the Giants takes on added importance as Melbourne try and cement a place in the top six. Although they haven't had the best of seasons, punters still love the Andrew Gaze led Tigers, and they have been well supported in this match already, with bets of $4500, and two of $2500 for Melbourne to win at $1.52. In the WNBL this week's Qualifying Final matches up two teams who probably cannot believe they are playing in this game. Sydney Flames crashed to lowly Bulleen in the last game of the regular season to lose the double chance, then needed a period of overtime to gain the narrowest of margins over Adelaide last week. Townsville could be excused for thinking that their next game was going to be the Grand Final as they controlled the Semi Final against the Canberra Capitals only to see their 14 point half-time lead and 11 point margin early in the last quarter, evaporate courtesy of an unstoppable Lauren Jackson. Townsville are unbeaten at home this season but Sydney came as close as any side to beating them losing by only four points in Townsville then beating the Fire twice when they visited Sydney. If Townsville don't win this to gain a Grand Final berth and rematch with Canberra it is more likely that they haven't recovered from the psychological belting Jackson gave them rather than anything that the Flames produce. That may well be the case. For the record early support has been for Townsville at $1.42. BOXING IBF Bantamweight Tim Austin (considered the best BW in the world) takes on Rafael Marquez in a battle of the power punchers. both fighters have formidable KO records so there could be some value in the "Fight Result" betting. Austin comes in a solid favourite and should salute though the craftiness and strength of Marquez may never be underestimated. We have posted Austin a short priced favourite at $1.22 and $1.65 to win by KO, which has attracted a bet of $2500 from Canada. The first kickboxing event ever to be wagered upon legally in Australia is warming up. In what is arguably the biggest grudge, match let alone fight, in Australian kickboxing history, former undisputed Heavyweight world champion Stan "the man" Longinidis takes on the ultimate fighting machine "Gurkan Ozcan (Supermiddleweight) in a 10 round “barn burner” that will be on Pay Per View Main Event. A punter asked for $20,000 on Stan, but we cut him back to $6000 at $1.75 due to the nature of the fight. We give Gurkan a great chance in this, seeing Stan is coming out of retirement. RUGBY LEAGUE How will the National Rugby League champions approach this weekend's World Club Challenge game? That is the question on the lips of rugby league punters ahead of the match between Super League kings St Helens and the southern hemisphere's strongest side, Sydney Roosters. Ricky Stuart's Roosters are favourites at $1.55 for a fixture in which the English teams boast a very impressive record. In premiership betting, the Roosters have drifted to $5.25 (from $4.50) with early-bird punters snapping up ante-post prices on most of the other leading contenders. Most interestingly is the support for Newcastle ($8 from $9), a team that relies heavily on the brilliance of one man, Andrew Johns. “No Joey, no Knights” is the cry whenever the Australia and New South Wales halfback picks up an injury, and with reports filtering around that his injured groin is still a problem, must be a concern to those punters. The Charity Shield will be played at Aussie Stadium on Saturday night and with St George Illawarra going in with a depleted line up we have listed Souths favourites at $1.70. We are looking for early money for the Dragons who will also be missing Trent Barrett but punters haven’t been eager to take the $2.10. FOOTBALL Feed the Goat and he will score! The Centrebet office sounded like Maine Road's Kippax near the end of Sunday's Manchester derby at Old Trafford. City striker Shaun Goater's goal with his first touch was just one of many magical moments for us over the weekend. Goater's goal alone was worth several hundred thousand dollars as his equalizer knocked Man United punters out of multiples. Sir Alex Ferguson's side were not the only famous club to come unstuck. Bookmakers that lost money on a weekend in which United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Milan, Lazio, Barcelona, Deportivo La Coruna, Real Sociedad, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund failed to win should give up the game! One Centrebet client who managed to squeeze out a handsome profit from the last round of European matches was an Australian punter with a thing for Thierry Henry and Brian Lara. He won over $2000 after placing a $35 double on Henry to score the first goal of Arsenal's game versus Newcastle ($6) and Lara to be “man of the match” in the World Cup opener between West Indies and South Africa ($11). Well, you can’t win them all! Wasn’t it fantastic to see Australia beat England? All sorts of excuses will now be “wheeled out” for why the Poms trailed 2-0 at half time, but on face value it looked like they weren’t good enough. Our $6.50 for Australia was taken by hundreds by parochial punters but we were pleased to pay as the $1.55 we were offering England attracted many big punters including a bet of €23,750 from Austria. At this stage we haven’t elevated the Socceroos’ to World Cup favourtism, but brought them in slightly to $41! GOLF The PGA tour saw a shootout on the final round of the AT & T Pebble Beach National Pro Am between two veterans, Davis Love and Tom Lehman. While the first 3 days were more light hearted with the likes of celebrities Bill Murray and NHL Hall of Fame Legend, Wayne Gretsky competing, the final round was all down to business. Davis Love had not won an event for over 24 months; in fact his last victory came in the same event in 2001. Tom Lehman had won one event since 1996 when he won the British Open and the Tour Championship, and to add to the tension sitting two shots behind Love was the in-form Mike Weir who had won the Bob Hope the previous week. Love was well supported with one wager of $800 each way at $15, along with Vijay Singh, $1500 each way at $9, Mickelson (4000 DKK at $8) and Weir ($600 each way at $21). Our chances looked slim coming to the final round as Love held a 2 shot lead over Lehman, Weir and Pampling with a further shot back to the much improved Rocco Mediate. However an exciting finish unfolded between Love and Lehman, both level into the 72nd hole. Lehman unfortunately missed a makeable birdie putt while Love seized his opportunity with a magnificent approach to 10 feet to set up Eagle. He missed that putt, but tapped in for birdie and a well deserved win. This week we head to Torrey Pines for the Buick Invitational and the return of Tiger Woods. Woods won this event in ’99 while tying for second in 2000 and fifth in 2002. On the strength of his form in this event, and his first up record, he has been installed at $3.25 favourite, attractive odds one would think given the lack of depth in the field. However, punters have kept away from Woods with good money for Mickelson, ($1000 each way at $13), to suggest he can repeat his back to back victories in 2000 and ‘01, also Mediate ($500 each way at $41) and (1000 NOK each way at $34). Apart from Singh and Toms, this field drops away and if Tiger’s knee is right, $3.25 represents great value. The European Tour stays “Down Under” for another week with a class field represented in the Johnnie Walker Classic. Ernie Els returns after a weeks lay-off and has been installed $4.50 favourite from his inform countryman and defending champion Retief Goosen $10 and “El Nino”, Sergio Garcia at $13. Best of the locals are Robert Allenby at $16, Adam Scott $21 and Craig Parry $23, followed by a host of in-form players of the calibre of Immelman, Rose and Casey. If last years result is any indication, where no Australians finished in the top 10, then the locals will be in for a tough time, having not won this event since 1994 where Greg Norman saluted in Phuket. YACHTING The America’s Cup commences this weekend with a best of 9 series. As the Royal New Zealand Yacht squadrons’ rules prevent local betting agencies from offering betting on this event, Centrebet has been inundated with bets from across the Tasman. Team New Zealand are $1.55 favourite to retain the Cup from Alinghi Swiss Challenge at $2.40. Over $50,000 has been placed on the black NZL 82, however there has been good support to suggest the Cup would find it’s way to Europe for the first time. Centrebet are offering a complete coverage of this event with betting options such as exact series result, first boat to cross the start line along with quickest boat in each leg of each flight. Until next week, good punting. For further information contact Gerard Daffy at Centrebet on 08 89555800 or on centrebet@centrebet.com
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