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Aussie
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Centrebet Capers
CRICKET The South Africans have been sent home with their tail between their legs and now Australia will play Sri Lanka to decide the one-day series winner. Sri Lanka goes into game one as 5.00 outsiders to win the series. There has been little interest shown in them even at that quote while the Aussies (1.15) are a loser for us after we accepted bets of $30,000 and $25,000 at 1.28 before the series began. The first final is in Adelaide on Friday and Australia goes in as a hot 1.25 favourite. Already we have taken bets of $5000 and $4000 at the short quote but Sri Lanka has their share of admirers at 3.85. They have shown flashes of brilliance throughout this series but unfortunately it has been their batting which has been the big let-down. Batting first and making a big score is probably the only way they can win. We will be offering 'live' betting throughout the finals series, as well as next man out. WINTER GAMES The games in Torino begin on Saturday and Centrebet is taking bets on every Gold Medal winner, as well as many Country specials. We will also be giving an extensive coverage of team events and head to heads. One of the most popular events is the Women's Cross Country, a gruelling event with a very big field. Favourite is Norway's Marit Bjoergen at 3.00. She has drifted out from 2.50 after word got out that she was ill and there was a lot of money for Katerina Neumanova (Czech Rep), who came in from 6.00 to 4.00. But those who have ruled a line through the winning chances of Marit may have to think again. She has had ongoing problems with asthma but has been training in a specially modified mask that changes the cold air to warm air. If that works, then the 3.00 is over the odds. Finland's Janne Ahonen has been very well backed to win the Men’s Ski Jumping gold. We have taken dozens of bets for Ahonen to win at 6.00, 5.50, and 5.00, as well as a bet of €3000 to finish in the top three at 2.10. We think that he can be beaten and have a leaning towards team-mate Matti Hautemaeki (6.00) and Austria's Thomas Morgernstern (8.00). Hautemaeki has had a bet of €2400 placed on him at 2.30 to go top three but several Finnish clients have taken the 1.65 for Ahonen to finish ahead of him. Over here in Australia, the winter games are big news following the 'success' of Steven Bradbury last time. I don't think anybody will ever forget that moment when he won speed skating gold but it has helped lift the profile of the games. We have noticed a lot of betting coming from our Aussie clients but one is tipping that we will not perform too well. He has placed $5000 on Australia winning less than 2.5 medals at 1.45. How unpatriotic! RUGBY UNION The Super 14 season kicks off this week with punters very circumspect about the chances, or at least the value of certain provinces this year. New franchise the Western Force will host the Brumbies at Subiaco Oval on Friday. New franchises have a habit of causing upsets early in the season and perhaps this game will be no different with the Brumbies favourite at 1.35 and conceding 8½ points, while Western Force are value at 3.20. Punters have not got involved in this game at this stage which is no surprise, as trying to line up the Force against a Brumbies unit which may be a little underdone is no easy task. On Saturday, Super 14 favourites the Crusaders host the Highlanders at Jade Stadium. The defending champions are notoriously slow starters which may give the visitors some hope. Canterbury is 1.25 and 11½ point favourites while the Highlanders are 4.00. Early indicators are that this will be a lively betting game with money for both provinces. The Reds take on the Waratahs at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night. The visitors dominate betting at 1.40 and 7½ points while the Reds are 2.95. The Reds have a great record against the Waratahs and that is reflected in the weight of money for the home side including one $3,000 wager at the win and another $5,000 receiving 7½ points. The first week of the Six Nations produced the mandatory upset result with France falling at the hands of a determined Scotland at Murrayfield. It was an awful display by the pre-tournament favourites who now have a battle on their hands just to get back into a position that they can win the title. England is now solid favourites at 1.72 to become the premier rugby nation in the Northern Hemisphere, a price which may shorten given they are unbackable favourites to defeat Italy this week. RUGBY LEAGUE Considering that many of the experts couldn't see how the Wests Tigers were going to beat Bradford last weekend, it was staggering to see the support that came for them. The betting got off to a relatively quiet start but really fired up on Thursday and Friday, with two nations locked in battle. Most of our Aussie clients were on the Tigers while our UK clients got right behind Bradford. We thought the Tigers would struggle without Benji Marshall so were happy to take those punters on. We took bets of $10,000 at 2.90 and 2.80, $5000 at 3.10, 3.05, 3.00 and two at 2.75. There were five $10,000 bets placed on the Tigers receiving 7½ point-start. Some of the larger bets for Bradford included £5000 conceding the 7½ start and another £10,000 conceding 9 ½ start at 2.10. Rugby league was also in the news in Sydney when we took the step of suspending wooden spoon and final eight betting on this season's NRL competition. The 'Craig Gower saga’ took an unexpected turn when rumours got around that he was bailing out of his contract with Penrith and was likely to go to Melbourne. We took nearly $1200 in bets for Penrith to run last at 13.00 and $5000 worth of bets for Melbourne to make the finals at 2.00. The prices have been changed around a bit on all finals options but the talk of Gower leaving has disappeared. AMERICAN FOOTBALL Pittsburgh may have won the Super Bowl 21-10 but all would agree that Seattle let victory slide from their grasp. The Seahawks were clearly the better side during the first half but couldn't capitalize and went into the major break trailing 7-3. An early touchdown to Pittsburgh in the third quarter all but snuffed out the chances of the Seahawks and actually gave us a good result. In a massive betting game, the bulk of the money on the handicap was for Seattle with a four point-start and there was also plenty for them to win outright. Each year when the Super Bowl is on, the underdogs are always easy to sell, and this year was no different. As we said last week, the handicap had moved from -3½ out to -4. While money early in the week had been for Pittsburgh, in the last 48 hours, we couldn't keep the punters off Seattle. Bets of $28,000, $20,000, and several $10,000 wagers were struck at the line and even when it moved back into 3½ late, money still rolled in. Naturally Pittsburgh had support, including bets of $40,000 to win outright at 1.47 and four bets of $10,000 conceding 4 point-start at 1.95. Punters were right on the mark with betting on the game total of 46.5. Nearly every bet was for the 'under' and we were never really in the fight as far as that bet option was concerned. GOLF If ever a player, Tiger Woods aside was destined to be successful on the PGA tour it was J.B Holmes. That fact he won at his fourth appearance was something of a surprise but not to J.B or his dad Maurice. Holmes was the 2005 SEC player of the year, a member of the successful 2005 Walker Cup team and a medallist at the 2005 qualifying tournament where he had six rounds in the 60's. He defeated international hardened player Alex Cejka by three shots indicating he is ready for the big time. It should have been expected that Centrebet had a good result with a Tour rookie winning however, punters were keen to take the 16.00 on offer at the completion of the second round where he was backed to win in excess of $20,000. Sure, Phil Mickelson was well backed at 6.50, David Toms at 51.00 and Chris DiMarco at 19.00 but it was all not enough to prevent us from losing on the event. The Tour heads to California for the Pebble Beach Pro Am. Defending Champion Phil Mickelson has been installed favourite at 6.50 ahead of Fijian, Vijay Singh at 9.00. Mickelson has been very well supported which is no surprise given he has had three top 10's at his only three starts for the season. What may be more of a surprise is the money for Tim Clark at 26.00, Mike Weir at 41.00 and Paul McGinley at 81.00, all backed to win in excess of $40,000. Last week on the European Tour we saw Tiger Woods break a four year hoodoo in taking the Dubai Desert Classic in a play-off from a fit and healthy Ernie Els. It is the second successive tournament that Woods has won in a play-off which is testament to his strength of concentration. Woods and Els were the best backed in this event at 3.75 and 7.50 respectively so Centrebet had little hope of a result except for Aussie left hander Richard Green, who was an 81.00 chance. Green led by a shot with one hole to play only to hit his drive into trouble and eventually made bogey. This week the tour heads down under for a combined Australasian/ European Tour event, The Johnnie Walker Classic, played at the Vines Golf Club in Perth. South African Retief Goosen has been installed 7.00 favourite ahead of Michael Campbell at 10.00 and defending champion Adam Scott at 14.00. ACADEMY AWARDS There has been a bit of action on the Academy Awards since nominations were announced last week, mostly centered on many of the favourites. Rachel Weisz has been the biggest firmer in her quest to win the Best Supporting Actress Award. After opening at 1.60, Rachel is now into 1.36 with some of the bigger bets including €3000 at 1.55, and a bet of $USD 2500 at 1.45. A bet of $6000 saw Reese Witherspoon's price cut from 1.25 to 1.22 to win the Best Actress category but having said that, we have taken several bets for Felicity Huffman at 4.00. A couple of those bets came from punters who have a history of winning on the Oscars so maybe there is some value there. Philip Seymour Hoffman is back into 1.10 to be the best actor as interest dries up in our own Heath Ledger. Heath is back out to 8.50 as the form assessors have all but handed the Oscar to Hoffman. Brokeback Mountain remains a hot 1.14 favourite to win the best picture Oscar but the push for Crash has continued. We have cut that particular movie into 6.00 as it has been backed to win over $40,000 since being nominated and there is also continued interest in both Munich and Good Night and Good Luck at 21.00. It seems as though punters are fearful of the negative media being circulated about Brokeback Mountain. DANCING WITH THE STARS The first show in this year's series is still a couple of weeks away but the hype surrounding the event has seen betting go to another level. Even though nobody is certain of the dancing capabilities of many of the celebrities, close to $10,000 has already been wagered. All ten have been backed with Jennifer Hawkins, Simone Warne, Toby Allen and Alicia Molik the most popular. Toby Allen, from Human Nature, has had two $500 bets placed on him at 9.00 and 8.00 and is into 7.00. While in the past seven days we have taken bets of $1000 and $600 for Jennifer Hawkins at 3.25, who remains favourite at that price. What has been amazing is the popularity of Simone Warne. Simone has been everywhere in the newspapers and magazines over the past three months and while we haven't taken a bet of any large proportions, well over 50% of the bets taken have been for her to win. 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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