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Aussie
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Centrebet Capers
GOLF The 134th British Open played at the 'old course' St Andrews will see the best players in the world congregate at the most famous golf course in the world to say goodbye to the most famous player of all time, Jack Nicklaus. Nicklaus may have no hope at this year’s open and his 5,000/1 quote may appear under the odds but he will still be the sentimental favourite. Speaking of favourites, Tiger Woods has been installed top of the betting at 4.25 ahead of Ernie Els at 9.00 and Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh at 15.00. Both Woods and Els have been backed to win in excess of $100,000 along with Darren Clarke 26.00, Luke Donald 31.00, Angel Cabrera 41.00 and Michael Campbell at 51.00. However, three of the ‘Big Five’ Mickelson, Singh and Goosen have been totally ignored by the punting public. Woods won here back in 2000 with a nine shot runaway victory but with the form that many of the top players are in a repeat of that performance would be surprising. CRICKET Australia and punters, fought back in the last two matches in the one day series before the Ashes get under way next week. Ironically, after all the flak that the English press gave the Aussies after losing against Bangladesh, the Poms themselves have come away with nothing. They split the first series with Australia when the final was a tied and lost this series 2-1. Betting was well up on the second and third games both before the matches started and during the games. The Australians went in at 1.50 in both matches and one client from Sydney placed $20,000 to win both games. One thing of interest throughout this series has been the lack of punting activity coming from our Indian clients. Normally they are all over Australia when they play but they have taken a rest (thankfully) throughout this series. The first test will begin at Lords next Thursday and although that is a week away we have already taken close to $50,000 in bets. Two bets of $8000 have been placed on the draw at 2.75 and 2.70 while close to $20,000 has been placed on the Aussies at 2.10. We have the English at 4.50 and are beginning to see money come from England at that quote, along with a bet of £3000 for them to win the series at 4.00. There has also been a bet of £3000 placed on a drawn series at 7.00 but the Australians are still hot favourites at 1.45 to retain the Ashes. AUSTRALIAN RULES After a very torrid start to season 2005 punters have staged some sort of a comeback over the past few weeks. Round 15 saw seven of the eight favourites win with the only 'upset' being Richmond’s win (2.00) over Essendon. Fortunately a couple of the favorites who did win failed to cover their allocated handicap which did prove to be a saving grace. The Kangaroos were well supported to beat the West Coast on Friday night firming from 2.50 into 2.30. Some of the bigger bets for the Roos were $6000 and two lots of $5000 taken at 2.50 as well as a late bet of $20,000 (1.90) with 11 ½ points start. Having said that the Eagles are a popular side, and we took some big action on them with the largest bet being $40,000 conceding the 11.5 points start, so the late goal to the Roos which got them within four points was crucial. Essendon were backed as if unbeatable against Richmond on Saturday but the Tigers once again showed some ticker to get home by 26 points. Early in the week the betting was 1.90 both sides but when Richmond captain Kane Johnson was ruled out the Bombers were backed in to 1.75. Some of the larger bets including $25,000 at 1.85, and $16,000 conceding 6 ½ start. What a round we have coming up this week. Brisbane are on a roll but travel to Perth to take on the Eagles. We have slashed the premiership odds of the Lions to 4.75 as the losses by Melbourne and Geelong last week have given the Lions a good chance to even make it to the top four. They are the outsiders in this game at 2.30 but their supporters think they can win as we have taken more for the Lions to win than the Eagles. Geelong can beat Port Adelaide at Skilled Stadium on Saturday afternoon and we have been keen to take Port on. They won last week but their previous form was inconsistent. The opening quote of 1.90 attracted two bets of $2000 and if we can’t spark any interest in them, we will be turning the price out. They are a good risk. West Coast remain flag favourites at 2.90 ahead of the Lions at 4.75. Last week we took a bet of $5500 for Melbourne at 11.00, $1500 for Brisbane at 7.00 and $1000 for the Kangaroos at 34.00. RUGBY LEAGUE Some teams are now precariously placed on the brink of the final eight and looking through the draw there is a strong possibility that any one of the Bulldogs, Dragons and Roosters (or even all three) could miss the finals. Even if those sides do make the eight they are going to have to take the hard path through the finals with the likelihood of four 'sudden death' games so the prices currently on offer for them definitely don't represent value. Brisbane still head the market at 3.30 but Parramatta (5.25) look on track to finish in the top two, so they, along with Melbourne (9.00) look the sides who will have a good draw and do look like they are value. The Eels have improved out of sight after a shaky start to the season but although they are the form side of the comp and second favourites to win it we haven't found any serious takers as yet for them to win the title. Betting on the games is a different story however, as there were plenty of happy winners after Parra's 40-14 demolition of the Dragons last Friday night. Even though there had been early money for the Dragons to win at 2.40 that was overshadowed by late money for the Eels. Four bets of $20,000 were placed on the Eels conceding the start and there was some serious money also placed on them through the multiples. Willie Mason made an early comeback to the Bulldogs side on Sunday and the Doggies kept their finals hopes alive with a hard fought 26-24 win over New Zealand. In a monstrous betting game the Bulldogs started fav's at 1.80 with three $20,000 bets coming for them on Sunday before the game started. The Warriors had been a solid go all week including early bets of $30,000 and $16,000 at 1.95. This week, Canberra, Manly and the Roosters have been backed in early trading. Manly opened at 1.72 and although better odds were given elsewhere we found ourselves taking two $5000 wagers at that quote. The Eagles can cement a spot in the eight if they beat St George Illawarra and now that Trent Barrett will not be playing, we rate the Sea Eagles good things. Canberra will also be missing captain Simon Woolford, who has spent plenty of time on the sidelines recently courtesy of the judiciary and we thought that would be enough to tip the scales in favour of Parramatta, who are 1.40 or -8 ½ . Punters disagree as we have taken $3000 worth of win bets for Canberra at 2.90 as well as three bets of $5000 with the start. The Roosters and the Warriors play a 'must win' match at Aussie Stadium on Saturday night and while we have rated the Roosters 6 ½ point favourites, we were more than happy to take two opening bets of $10,000 and $4000 for the Roosters conceding the start. RUGBY UNION Whilst Sir Clive Woodward is banging on about the various success’ of the Lions tour in New Zealand we’re still recovering from the last minute try to Rico Gear, enabling the All Blacks to cover the line and punters collecting all monies. The betting on the third Test match opened with the home nation a 14 ½ point favourite and for the 1st time in the series, the Northern Hemisphere money came the same way as all of our New Zealand clients forcing an eventual shift out to 16 ½ points. The opening match to the Mandela Cup series was played out at Telstra Stadium on Saturday night. The Wallabies convincingly outplayed the Springboks (except for the goal kicking) and managed to keep their own try line impenetrable. The South Africans were friendless in the betting as the Wallabies were backed from $1.53 into $1.43 with some big money (4 bets over $10,000) shifting the handicap from -5 ½ to -6 ½. FORMULA ONE Juan Pablo Montoya finally put it all together to chalk up his first win of the season in the British Grand Prix at the weekend. The win by Montoya in a McLaren wasn't totally unexpected as he started a solid second elect at 4.00 behind Fernando Alonso. The hard luck story probably belongs to Kimi Raikonnen in the other McLaren. As we said last week, Raikonnen had been well backed at 2.30 to take out the British GP including bets of €4000 at 2.40 and €2000 at 2.30. Once again he had engine troubles and was penalised ten places on the grid after Saturday’s practice. He went in to the race as an 11.00 chance before powering past most of the field to finish third. Montoya landed some decent bets, the largest of those being $3000 at 4.50 and there was also an avalanche of money for race favourite Alonso, including $4000 at 2.75. Giancarlo Fisichella, who wound up finishing fourth, had one bet of $12,000 at 1.50 placed on him to finish amongst the points, as did Mark Weber (1.80) who disappointed again finishing in eleventh spot. BIG BROTHER Hotdogs is gone and that was good news for punters as he was backed from 1.60 into 1.50. Last week’s Big Brother eviction was one of the best ever as far as betting interest went. Hotdogs attracted two bets of $2000 at 1.60 and another $2000 at 1.50 but all four who were up drew some sort of action. The odds were well over for Hotdogs as it turned out because he ended up with a massive 53% of the vote. This week another four are up for eviction and Dean is the warm favourite at 1.40. While we have taken nearly $1800 for Dean early in the week it has been Rita who punters have latched on to. After opening at 5.50 a series of bets has seen that price cut to 2.75 with a big gap to Kate (21.00) and Tim (51.00). Tim has been favourite to win overall now for nearly three weeks and in the past seven days we have taken nearly $3000 for him at 2.00 and 2.20. Vesna and Kate are both quoted at 5.00 and both continue to grab plenty of attention from punters as does Logan (the twins) at 5.50. 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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