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Aussie
Rules
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Centrebet Capers
2012 GAMES HOST Could French President Jacques Chirac’s gaffe about London’s food have cost Paris the 2012 summer games? Punters certainly took full advantage of the faux par which eventually saw the IOC’s decision to award the hosting rights to London. If punters managed to turn on Paris we wonder how many of the delegates changed their mind following President Chirac’s comments. Paris had been the hot favourite throughout betting on this event but in the final 24 hours we noticed more and more money coming for London with Paris drifting from 1.44 to 1.55. On the back of a strong final presentation London were always going to be tough to beat and when betting closed we were offering 2.75 which was in from 3.75. Moscow was never considered a realistic chance and we didn’t see much interest in them at all. However, there was some last minute, parochial money around for both Madrid and New York. Good luck to London in 2012, we just hope they build plenty of stadiums with roofs on them to accommodate the ordinary weather. RUGBY LEAGUE The third game in this year’s State of Origin series proved to biggest ever from a betting perspective with punters coming from everywhere to back New South Wales. Queensland may’ve copped a hammering on the field but we copped a fair hiding ourselves. After withstanding plenty of pressure in the first seven minutes of the game the Blues never looked in any danger of losing the match. They were backed in from 1.58 to 1.44 with two bets of $50,000 at 1.48 and another $30,000 wager with the -5 ½ handicap at 1.90. One client will be waking up this morning with a sore head for all the wrong reasons after placing a $10,000 bet on the total points score being over 42 ½ . Queensland managed to put some respectability into the score line with a couple of late tries but with the final score 32-10 our man will be ruing the final conversion attempt which went astray. Last weekend saw us suffer a mixed result with most of the favourites getting up but a few plunges also went wrong for punters. The Wests Tigers rarely perform when they are at an odds-on quote but turned history on its head when downing Manly by 25 points at Leichhardt Oval. The Tigers had three $20,000 bets placed on them at the handicap of -6 ½ which wasn’t a great start to the weekend for us. New Zealand were a massive go against a vastly under strength Cowboys. The Warriors were backed from 2.00 to 1.70 just prior to kick-off but disappointed with another terrible performance away from home. Thankfully for us Cronulla also under performed when they met Brisbane minus their Origin stars. The Sharks were backed off the map and in to 2.00 from 2.25, including two bets of $30,000 at 2.10. Following that performance Brisbane has justified their 3.50 price to win the title. This week has been fairly quiet as punters wait to see if the Origin players will be backing up to play for their club teams. We are expecting tomorrow night’s clash between Parramatta and St George-Illawarra to be the biggest betting match of the round. Early indications are that Dragons fans think their side will topple an in-form Eels. AUSTRALIAN RULES Round 14 of the AFL proved to be the biggest betting weekend of the year with punters taking a slight advantage as five of the eight favourites got up. In the Friday night match Port Adelaide came in for heavy backing mainly on the back of a $30,000 bet at $1.52. Collingwood meantime had their supporters with a handicap of 14 ½ points which included one bet of $24,000. The Pies turned in arguably their best performance of the year to win by 31 points. West Coast were the shortest price of the year at 1.07 to defeat Carlton at home and one punter had no hesitation in putting $40,000 on at that price. We also saw another client have $15,000 on the Eagles at the handicap of -53 ½. Both those punters would have been more than a little nervous at half time when Carlton were leading, but in the end West Coast found another gear and kicked away to win by 77 points. After last weekend’s betting bonanza, we were expecting things to be a little quieter this week but as soon as betting opened we had $16,000 worth of bets placed on the Kangaroos at 2.50 to down the West Coast, tomorrow night at the Telstra Dome. Richmond and Essendon both have their seasons on the line this weekend and we’ve seen plenty of money coming for the Tigers in the early stages of betting. Richmond supporters have been very keen to take the 1.90 on offer despite the sides looking evenly matched. CRICKET The tie in the final of the one-day tri-series between Australia and England last weekend at Lord’s does show how close these teams really are. The strange thing is there’s another one-day series to get out of the way before the Ashes. Heading into the final at Lord’s the Aussies were 1.57 with England at 2.40. Both sides had their supporters with a couple of $20,000 bets coming for each team along with several other bets of $5,000. The game looked all but over with England losing five wickets for next to nothing chasing 197 but to home side’s credit they managed to salvage the tie. As we mentioned there’s still another three one-day internationals to come before the Test matches get under way. In tonight’s first game we have Australia at 1.57 and England 2.40 in what is expected to be yet another fairly even contest. In Ashes betting, Australia had been pretty solid at 1.40 despite their poor start to the tour. However, since the latest Shane Warne controversy erupted punters are shying away and the visitors are now out to 1.45 with England 3.85. We can’t blame punters for being a little cautious as we don’t know what kind of impact the break-up of his marriage will have on Warne. TENNIS Roger Federer again proved he is the master of grass-court tennis, when he won his third straight Wimbledon title, defeating American, Andy Roddick in straight sets in the final. Federer at 1.53 is the shortest pre-tournament favourite we’ve ever had heading into Wimbledon and he certainly proved he was worthy of that quote. With his complete game the Swiss sensation never looked in any trouble. Punters were still willing to back Federer in the final despite his price of 1.13. One of our regular clients placed a $50,000 wager at that price and never looked in any danger of collecting as Federer went on to win easily. Strangely, Roddick was 6.00 to win the final after being a 5.00 chance throughout the tournament. In the women’s final, a rejuvenated Venus Williams downed Lindsay Davenport in a thrilling three-set marathon to win her third Wimbledon crown. Williams was considered an injury risk heading into the tournament, hence our double figure odds offered before the tournament began. In the final Williams did come in for some heavy support as she was back in from $1.70 to $1.60 just prior to the start of the match. Davenport was perhaps a sentimental favourite with lots of small best coming for her at 2.30. Overall the women’s title was a good result for us with Justine Henin-Hardene, Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova all backed to win in excess of $100,000. FORMULA ONE Following the debacle that was the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis punters were very slow to participate in betting on the French GP last weekend and who could blame them? The exception to the rule was McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen who always seems to attract plenty of interest in every race. Prior to qualifying we saw bets of €4000 at 2.40 and another of €2000 at 2.30 for the ‘Flying Finn’. Those punters can consider themselves very unlucky as Raikkonen was forced to start from 13 on the grid after having engine troubles. He flew home for second behind Renault’s Fernando Alonso who has tightened his grip on the World Driver’s Championship. This week we head to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix where plenty of punters will no doubt still be celebrating London’s successful bid to host the 2012 games. We again haven’t seen too much in early trading. Raikkonen is the top pick at 2.00 ahead of Alonso at 4.00 with Michael Schumacher 6.50. WIFE CARRYING CHAMPIONSHIP As we mentioned last week one of the more bizarre contests we bet on each year is the World Wife Carrying Championship in Finland. The Estonians usually dominate this event and this year was no different. Margo Uusorg missed last year’s event with a hamstring injury but returned to claim this year’s event to give him his fourth title in the past six years. Uusorg was our 1.66 favourite and beat his brother and last year’s winner, Maddis. Our spies in Finland tell us there’s another Uusorg brother who is a champion 800 metre runner and is considered a better athlete than both his older siblings. It looks like the Uusorg family will continue to dominate this event for many years to come. Much to the disappointment of promoters, former NBA bad-boy Dennis Rodman failed to show, however, Miss Finland did compete but unfortunately was unplaced. We suggest she sticks to beauty pageants rather than being carried around an obstacle course. BIG BROTHER It’s certainly been an interesting week in the Big Brother house with two of the more ‘ocker’ characters getting their marching orders. Glenn, the shearer from Stawell in Victoria was first to go after facing the public vote for the first time. Glenn, who was an early 2.00 favourite to win this series of Big Brother, paid the price for his misdemeanors in the house, particularly involving the females. He obviously didn’t take into account that most of the people who vote (young females) are the ones he offended the most with his behaviour. Glenn received bets of $1,500 and $2,000 to go at 1.50 with little interest in other the nominees; Kate, Vesna, Dean and Hotdogs The next head on the chopping block was ‘intruder’ Heath. It wasn’t a big surprise he was the first of the intruders to go with Rita and Melanie taking a low-key and cautious approach to their time in the house. This week there’s a trio up for eviction with Kate, Hotdogs and Vesna facing the public vote. Kate almost received maximum points from her fellow housemates so it will be interesting to see whether the voting public views it same way. Kate is a 4.00 chance of going but there’s only been a series of smaller bets for her to go. Hotdogs has attracted the most betting interest at 1.60 with two separate bets of $2,000 coming at that price. Vesna appears to be on borrowed time also, with her constant whining and moaning over the past couple of weeks. She has had bets of $200 and $150 placed on her at 4.00. Tim continues to be the dark horse of the group and is into 1.90 to win the series, ahead of the Logan twins (5.00) and Christie (5.00). They continue to avoid getting nominated and are a strong chance of being the final three left in the house if the trend continues. 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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