|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Aussie
Rules
|
Centrebet Capers CRICKET The final couple of matches of the round-robin One Day Internationals dropped right off as far as betting goes once the two finalists were known, and also punters showed some doubt about the level of intensity, and that was probably a fair enough call as several players were rested. To date, the cricket results have been extremely kind to Centrebet even though favourites have dominated, but the big result was when Sri Lanka managed to beat the Aussies two weeks ago, it not only was a fantastic game for us, but it sparked a new wave of interest in the series, which saw money for the 'outsiders' in each of the ensuing matches. Today (Thurs), the first of a 'best of three' finals series gets under way in Sydney. The SCG pitch has always given spinners some assistance, and with Shane Warne expected to line-up, the Aussies go in as red hot favourites at $1.25. We have seen plenty prepared to cop the short odds, including one of our Indian clients ($USD 25,000) at $1.30, followed up by two bets of $10,000 from New South Wales. The form of the Aussies has been very patchy over the past two weeks, but the side has been changed around, and the team that will grace the turf of the SCG will be much stronger. Australia are $1.18 to win the series, with England at $4.50. The bowling and fielding of the tourists has left a lot to be desired recently, but there are some who think that they can spring an upset in the first final. Lots of smallish bets have been taken at the $3.75, but there has also been a significant one of $6000 from South Australia for the Poms to strike 'first blood'. All the normal exotic options are available, with Matthew Hayden ($4) and Michael Bevan ($6) both backed to take out close to $12,000 in the Aussie high bat. The spread of money is more evenly spread around amongst the Englishmen, but Nasser Hussein ($6) will more than likely go in as our worst result. Locally, there is a Pura Cup match beginning in Newcastle today between NSW and WA. There isn't a lot doing on this match as punters seem to be tiring from taking the short odds NSW, but we have again installed them pretty short at $1.55. On Sunday, there are two ING Cup matches. Victoria play Queensland in Ballarat, and Tasmania host South Australia in Hobart. Victoria are $1.72 to win their match, but we have taken three bets totaling $5800 for the Bulls to win at $2.10, while the $1.80 Tasmania has been taken with a wager of $5000 from a NSW client. AMERICAN FOOTBALL The critics thought that Tampa Bay would have trouble coping with the freezing temperatures in Philadelphia in the NFC Conference, but how wrong they were when the 'Buc's steamrolled Philadelphia, winning 27-10. We reported last week that there had been solid early support for Philadelphia in this match, led up by a bet of $16,000 from Melbourne for Philadelphia to cover a 3½ spread. The 'line' moved to a flat 4, and money continued to roll in. We also took a $40,000 double from Germany for the favourite double (Philadelphia into Oakland), so it was certainly a good start to get Tampa Bay home. As always there was some money for the underdogs, with the largest winning bet being €5500 (from Finland) for Tampa Bay with the 4 points start. Once there was an upset in the first final, all the late money in the other was for Tennessee, so what was shaping as a horrible result, eventually turned out to be a slight loss. Elsewhere, the 'line' had moved as much as 2 points, but in the flurry of late bets for Tennessee, we took two win bets of $4000 at $4.25, as well as two seperate bets of $10,000 for the Titans with 8 points start. Those bets assisted greatly in paying a couple of big ones we had taken for the Raiders early on in the weekend. An English client led the way with a £5000 bet conceding 7½ points, and while Tennessee ended the third quarter only 3 points in arrears, Oakland scored 14 unanswered points in the last quarter to win 41-24. That sets up an intriguing Super Bowl final between the attacking Raiders, and the equally defensive Tampa Bay. A good argument can be put up as to the winning hopes of either side, so that means a great betting final. For a change, we are in a win/win situation as both sides a good winners in our book, with Tampa Bay being a slightly better result. There are a couple of good sized wagers alive on Oakland, both from Australia, while an Austrian client has taken the big odds available early for Oakland, coupled up with Barcelona to win the Euroleague basketball Championship. The bets on Oakland are $2500 at $9, and $3000 taken at $5 just over 3 weeks ago. The double is a bet of €1500 for Oakland when they were $9, into Barcelona to win the Euroleague basketball championship, to win just over €50,000. Already we have seen an equal amount of money for both sides to win the big one. Oakland are $1.55, and a couple of Canadians have taken that price, investing just on $22,000 between them. As usual in Super Bowl finals, there is any amount of money for the underdogs, not so much in big single bets, but just a whole series of smaller bets from people wanting to be on the outsiders, and remembering what happened last year when New England won, maybe it's not a bad strategy. The 4 points start for Tampa Bay has also been taken by close to $14,000 in early trading, so the signs are there that that is likely to continue. All our 'exotic' options will be available on Friday, and betting will be available at half time. TENNIS Well, the Australian Open again proved to be Lleyton Hewitt's 'Achilles heel' as he was bundled out in the fourth round by Morocco’s Younes El Aynaoui. That loss by Hewitt was one of our biggest ever results on a tennis match as he had firmed from an opening $1.16 into $1.10 to win the match. That match was on Monday, a day that can only be described as quite bizzare as far as tennis betting goes. There were a couple of upsets as well as Lleyton's, and we had a client lose $15,000 on what he described as a 'love double'. The Victorian client coupled up Hewitt to win his fourth round match into Hewitt’s girlfriend Kim Clijsters to win her fourth round match against Amanda Coetzer, which she did easily, but of course the double was already 'dead'. We then had a couple of really strange transactions come from a Sydney punter. This person took a double of Chandra Rubin to win her match against Barbara Schwartz into Roger Federer to beat David Nalbandian. His double of $15,000 came to an abrupt end when Rubin lost, but then our punter did a complete 'about face', placing $15,000 on Nalbandian at $2.90, which saw him come out $13,500 in front on the whole deal. The loss by Hewitt put an end to several big title doubles taken into Serena Williams, but Andre Agassi is still looming as a horror result. The popular American had been backed to take out over $200,000 prior to the demise of Hewitt, and as we enter the semi finals stage Agassi is now $1.33 while in the women’s Serena Williams is $1.90, the best price she has been since the tournament started. GOLF The second win in as many weeks by Ernie Els lined the pockets of at least three punters when the big South African beat Aussie youngster Aaron Baddeley in a playoff to win last week’s Sony Open in Hawaii. We had nowhere to hide coming into the playoff as both players had been backed to win substantial amounts. The $5.50 on offer pre-tournament for Ernie was taken with a $2000 bet from a Tasmanian punter, and we also laid $1000 (from Queensland) and €500 (from Finland) at the same quote. One of Baddeley’s fans from Queensland placed $500 on him to win at $67, and narrowly missed a big 'pay day' when he went over in the play-off. Why the same punter didn't place his bet 'each way' we will never know! This week, Els is $3.25 to make it three on end in the Singapore Masters. That sort of form-line is normally reserved for Tiger Woods, but with Tiger out injured, and Phil Mickelson opting out of the Hawaiian events, the door was left ajar for Els, and he has taken the opportunities. The Singapore Masters isn't an overly strong field, and we have already taken two bets of $4000 for Ernie. In the US, Phil Mickelson is our $12 favourite to win the Phoenix Open at his first start from a long spell. Punters haven't been too eager to back Mickelson, preferring David Toms ($600 each way at $17), Vijay Singh, backed to win $20,000 by an Aussie client at $16, and last years winner Chris Di Marco, who has been backed to take out in excess of $25,000 at $21. Judging by the performances of all the Aussie contingent in Hawaii last week, we can expect a few new faces to be betting on the PGA Tour each week, and there has already been evidence of that this week. Aaron Baddeley is the 'flavour of the month', attracting nearly $800 in bets as soon as he opened this week at $34, but nearly half of that has come from smaller punters who don’t normally bet on the golf. Robert Allenby wasn't far away last week, and we have taken a bet of $400 each way for him at $34, as well as seeing several each way bets for Peter Lonard at the same quote. Anikka Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Laura Diaz and Laura Davies will be in action in a Skins game in Hawaii at the weekend. We have bet on enough of these, and given plenty of warnings, in the past about taking short odds the big name players in 'Skins' as it really is a raffle, but that hasn't deterred many this week. Nearly $8000 has gone on Sorenstam early in the week, mostly from her native Sweden, at the short odds of $2.25, but having said that, we have also seen money for Webb at $3.50 and Davies at $4. At the moment, the winning chance for us is Diaz, a $5.50 chance, but price means nothing in Skins, its all luck. BASKETBALL It is amazing how ugly things have turned for Canberra in the space of a month. From being touted as a realistic title contender, the financial woes of the Cannons have now seen them become the league 'easybeats', with punters lining up to bet against them each time they play. Last night (Wed), Canberra travelled to Wollongong as despised $9 outsiders. The 15 points that Wollongong were conceding to Canberra was taken with bets of $5500, $4000 $2000, but in a low scoring affair Canberra only went down by 11 points. Sydney were also red hot $1.06 fav's at home to the Giants, and they were also the target of a barrage of support giving up 14 points start, including $4000 and $3300. As only the Kings can do they lost a match that everybody thought they would win, going down by 8 points. In the other match, Townsville ($1.28) continued their climb 'back from the dead' into a real finals threat when the defeated Cairns by 16 points. On Saturday, West Sydney host Wollongong in what looms as a crucial game for the Razorbacks. They are on the fringe of a finals spot after a disappointing season, and the hammering they suffered at the hands of the Kings last week would not have done their confidence much good. Punters have jumped straight into our opening quote for West Sydney however, with the first $9000 bet on the game all coming from New South Wales, and all for West Sydney to win at $1.90. It would be great for the morale of Canberra residents if the Cannons could do something on Saturday night when they host Melbourne, but even the most ardent of fans have dropped off. We always see money for a 'home' side who are receiving a start, but it has been impossible to get anything out of Canberra with the 8½ points start, whereas we have already taken just over $6000 for Melbourne. Perth remain $2.50 fav's to win the title, ahead of Sydney at $3.50. Townsville, who got out to as much as $201, are now into $9, and are playing well enough to give it a shake if they can maintain their current form. HANDBALL The men’s Handball Championships began on Monday of this week, and there were two major upsets on the first two days of play, which meant that Centrebet got off to an extremely good start to the tournament. The first surprise result on Day One was when Croatia, a $1.02 chance, were beaten 30-29 by Argentina. Although there was only one 'singles' bet of 40,000 DKK ($AUD 10,000) on Croatia, they carried a fortune in multiple bets, including one of 200,000 DKK which was coupled up with five other short priced favourites, all of whom won. That setback was set aside by punters, with most launching into all the second day favourites, but this time it was Sweden, one of the tournament favourites, who went 'over'. The Swedes were $1.12 against Slovenia, but were beaten 29-25. A Swedish client placed the equivalent of $12,700 on Sweden to win at the $1.12, but the big money was through the multiples again. On the same day, a few Australian punters had a win even though Australia were beaten 46-16 by Germany. We handicapped the Aussies with 31½ points start, and took a few bets from Australia, including on of $800, that the Australians would get inside the handicap, which they did by the barest possible margin. As far as the title goes, Danish clients have backed Denmark to win close to 2.5 Million DKK. Originally Denmark were $8, but by the time the first round of match began, they were into $3.50, and even that was being taken! Betting will be updated throughout the event, and there are several 'exotic' options available on most games. FOOTBALL Last week saw the commencement of “live betting” on televised Premier League matches, with punters keen to test their skill and luck, with betting in the run. And Centrebet could not have picked a better opening match for this new bet type than a top of the table clash between Man United and Chelsea at Old Trafford. Punters were happy to have Man United as their banker through their multi’s and they were well supported through the game; the largest bet of 20,000 NOK at $1.70. However, Chelsea opened the scoring in the 30th minute and were quickly $4.75 into $2.10 with Man United drifting to $3. Man United got themselves and punters back into the match with a goal in the 39th minute to Paul Scholes. Once again the betting swung with Man United $2 favourite from the draw at $3 and Chelsea at $3.50. The second half proved to be a test of nerves for Man United followers and it was not until the 90th minute that South American substitute Forlan scored the winner. During this time the draw had firmed into $1.60, with one Swedish punter investing 10,000 SEK in an attempt to save his stake placed on Man United prior to the start of the match. His lack of patience proved his undoing but highlights the value which can be obtained from “live betting”. “Live Betting” was also offered on the Blackburn v Birmingham game and Arsenal v West Ham. And while the very well supported Arsenal (over $250,000 in singles and multi’s) began quickly, with the first of Thierry Henrys’ hat-trick of goals in the 14th minute, Blackburn proceeded to shoot themselves and punters in the foot by conceding an equalizer in the 83rd minute. Blackburn opened the scoring in the 19th minute with goal to Duff and their price immediately shortened from $1.65 to $1.30. Even at that price they were seen to be of value with one Norwegian client placing 15,000 NOK expecting the Blackburn defence to remain firm. This week sees two midweek Premier League matches, with Charlton $2.10 favourites at the Valley taking on West Ham and Newcastle short priced favourites at St James Park against a hapless Charlton. Early betting suggest West Ham will give Charlton a scare, with one bet of $5000 at $3.40, and Newcastle to dispense with Charlton in a high scoring game. The weekend features the 4th round of the FA Cup. Normally the lads at Farnborough spend their Saturday nights sinking pints and watching the likes of Arsenal sink their opponents, but this week they get a taste of reality as they take on the Gunners at Highbury. Not surprisingly they are $51 outsiders to cause what would be the greatest upset in FA Cup history. Arsenal are $1.03 and the draw $10, however there has been some support for Farnborough with over $400 placed at $51. Perhaps their punters have a long memory remembering Wrexham defeating Arsenal in 1992 when they were, as today, league titleholders. In Italian Serie A on the weekend, one clients’ crystal ball went horribly wrong when he placed $20,000 at $2.30 on Roma to defeat Atalanta away and buttered up with another $10,000 at $2.20, just to see Atalanta come from behind to secure a 2-1 victory. However this was equally matched by a client from Italy who placed two €3000 bets on the draw, Modena and Brescia at $3.15 and the punter who placed $6000 USD on Juventus at $2.30 in their 4-1 demolition of Chievo. Spanish Primera Liga sees a full round of fixtures this weekend, and early indications suggest Athletico Madrid and Deportivo La Coruna will be hard to beat. One client from Denmark has placed €3000 on Atletico to defeat Real Sociedad at $2.50, while another client from Spain has placed €3000 on Deportivo at $2.40 to record an away victory against Espanyol. And while early money is often an indication as to a teams chances, remember the client from Singapore last week who placed $10,000 on Alaves only to see Osasuna force a 1-1 draw. Whatever league you fancy it promises to be a big weekend in football. Until next week, good punting. For further information contact Gerard Daffy at Centrebet on 08 89555800 or on centrebet@centrebet.com.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
