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Aussie
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Centrebet Capers AUSTRALIAN RULES Round 10 for AFL punters proved to be a profitable one as six of the eight favourites saluted. The only respite we had from punters was Sydney, who still took out over $50,000 through multi’s after ‘good things’, Adelaide, Port and Brisbane all won. It certainly has been a tough couple of weeks, with results not going our way, but not as tough as it has been for Hawthorn coach Peter Schwab and inspirational captain Shane Crawford who have been under the media micro-scope after several insipid performances by the club, tauted as a top 4 contender pre-season. Just to make matters worse, they have lost key forward, Nathan Thompson for four weeks with a calf injury, and must face a rampant Adelaide this week, who are eyeing off a top 4 berth. Betting this week kicks off at Telstra Dome on Friday night, in what will prove to be an emotional comeback for Bali bombing hero Jason McCartney, as the Kangaroos take on a desperate Richmond, the loser likely to fall out of the eight. Early money has been for the Kangaroos with one wager of $5000 at $1.95, giving every indication this game will start $1.90 your pick. Adelaide is $1.42 fav to keep Hawthorns’ miserable season on track while Brisbane are $1.22 to defeat St Kilda, who will be without on-baller Andrew Thompson. One of the key games of the round will see a gallant Essendon take on Sydney at Telstra Stadium in Sydney. Our first wager was $10,000 on Sydney at $1.70, into $1.68, a price which may well be shorter come game time, while Essendon are now $2.15. In other games, Port Adelaide are $1.25 to end Fremantle’s winning streak, Collingwood $1.45 to return to the winners circle against Melbourne and West Coast $1.10 to keep the Bulldogs nine game losing streak intact. Finally, in a battle of cellar dwellers, Geelong are $1.75 against a ‘Rattenless’ Carlton at $2.05, with early money for the Cats. It’s certainly an interesting round of footy, with several Victorian clubs under scrutiny, and needing to show resolve. RUGBY LEAGUE Salary cap breaches, contractual disputes and player/coach conflicts will be put on hold this week at Belmore as the Bulldogs attempt to resurrect a season threatening to fall apart after a shock loss to West Tigers last week. At the prohibitive quote of $1.05 and giving away 22½ points at $1.90, the Dogs were simply out played by the gallant West Tigers team led by Terry Hill. The Tigers themselves had reached crisis point after a string of losses but found the right mixture of desperation and resolve to pull off the biggest upset in recent memory. Upsets didn’t stop there either, as North Queensland upset the Dragons, and the Knights upset the Broncos party at Lang Park with a welcome return to form. Punters didn’t forget to back them either, with one punter having $10,000 on both the Cowboys and Knights at the start of 8½ points. This week, with teams depleted because of State of Origin representation, and a limited fixture of six games punters have still rallied for the Bulldogs. Our first bet was $10,000 giving a start of 4½ points, while our last was $20,000 at the win price of $1.50. If the Doggies get their season on track this week, it’s quite possible ours’ will run off it. Also well supported has been the Warriors, $1.50 into $1.40 and Canberra, giving 7½ points start, $20,000 at $1.90. We certainly hope the trend of results continues. GOLF Kenny Perry became the sixth multiple winner on the PGA Tour this year when he won the Memorial on Sunday by two shots from Lee Janzen, with a further shot back to Mike Weir. It is the first time Perry has won more than once in a season, after winning the Bank of America Colonial last week by six shots, and is certainly one of the ‘hot’ players going into next weeks US Open at Olympia Fields. Interestingly enough, Janzen aside, Perry was chased home by Weir, Singh and Woods who are also multiple winners this year, and bears testament to the form he is in. Janzen himself was well supported in this event with one wager of $400 each way at $81 being enough for Centrebet to cheer Perry’s back to back wins. This week on tour we go to the TPC at Avenal for the FBR Capital Open, formely known as the Kemper Open. Davis Love, $8 and Phil Mickelson $9, neither of whom played last week head the betting. Defending champion Bob Estes is $21 while players with form here include Rich Beem and Stuart Appleby both of whom have been well supported, $300 each way Beem at $51 and $600 each way Appleby at $34. Others well tried include Brandt Jobe, Paul Lawrie and Jay Williamson, indicating punters are tipping an upset. Next weeks US Open sees Tiger Woods, defending champion, installed as $3 favourite, from Ernie Els at $11, Vijay Singh $12 and Davis Love $15. Form player Kenny Perry has already been well supported at $41, with one wager of $500 each way, and perennial Major placegetter, Phil Mickelson, well tried at $16. Centrebet will be offering a full range of products on the Open including, ‘make the cut’, tournament head to heads and selected four balls/best ball, for each round. It’s a big week in golf with four 72 hole events being covered. On the European Tour, Justin Rose is $12 to defend the title he won last year at Woburn from Ian Poulter. Poulter is $29, and coming off a win last week in the Celtic Manor Resort Wales Open. Favourite is Darren Clarke at $8 from Colin Montgomerie at $10. Best backed has been Paul McGinley and Ignacio Garrido, both at $41. The Champion Tour puts on a show this week with the 64th Senior PGA where Hale Irwin is $8 favourite from Tom Watson $11 and Bruce Lietzke $12, and on the LPGA Tour, Annika Sorenstam is $2.40 favourite to capture the McDonald LPGA Championship from defending champion Se Ri Pak at $7.50. It appears that two rounds against the men in the Bank of America Colonial has only strengthened her resolve which was in evidence as she streeted the field in last weeks Kellogg-Keebler Classic. CRICKET Well the Australian cricket team is finally home to friends and family after a successful tour of the West Indies. Having won the 4 test series 3-1, they extended their winning streak to 21 games in the short version of the game by winning the first four games, but lost the next three, for a 4-3 series victory. The big money came early in the series, with $10,000 at $1.45 from an Australian client and USD$20.000 at $1.40 from an Indian, coming for Australia in the first game. Australia continued to be well supported for the rest of the series, but support was also building for the West Indies, especially once Australia had clinched the series. Game 5 saw quite a number of punters follow the 'dead rubber' theory, with many bets for the West Indies. The largest of these was $2000 at $3.25 from a NSW client. That was as far as the support went though, as punters refused to believe Australia could be beaten in the remaining two games. This, despite having seen numerous times in the past, touring teams becoming weary at the end of a tour, and playing as though they were already on the plane to go home. The final game saw Australia heavily backed, with $10,000 at $1.42 in one bet from NSW being the largest single bet taken. Australia now have a break until Bangladesh come to our shores and Darwin and Cairns host their first test matches and One Day Internationals. BASKETBALL Finally, after 1189 regular season, and 82 playoff games the NBA is down to the best of seven Championship Series. San Antonio Spurs from the Western Conference and New Jersey Nets from the East begin battle on Thursday (Australian time) to determine the NBA Champion for season 2002/03. Recent history is on the side of the Western Conference team, with that Conference's representative emerging victorious the past four seasons, and six of the last nine. Only the Michael Jordan led Chicago Bulls have been able to break the West's stranglehold during the past twelve seasons. After making the Championship series last season and being swept by the Lakers, the Nets have always been strongly favoured to emerge from the East and again challenge for the title. They opened at $13 to win the title before a late season slump saw them drift to $17. Their odds have continually shortened throughout the playoffs as they swept both Boston and Detroit. Since winning the Eastern Conference title they have continued to gain support firming from $4.50 to $3.50. Punters must be putting a lot of faith in the belief that they will be fit and well rested after needing only 14 playoff games compared to San Antonio's 18 games against tougher opposition. One punter stands to collect in excess of $60,000 after backing New Jersey at $12 back in January and then stepping in another four times throughout the latter stages of the playoffs at prices varying from $5.50 to $4.25. San Antonio began the season at a similar quote to New Jersey and steadily firmed in the betting as they found form and made a charge to the number one seeding. The late support for New Jersey has seen the Spurs drift from $1.25 to $1.33 and the only significant wagers on them have come late in the season at the short odds. 10,000 NOK at $1.26 and £2,000 at $1.33 is the extent of the action for San Antonio. These teams met twice during the regular season with the home team victorious in both games. At San Antonio, New Jersey were no match losing 78-92 as they dropped four straight to Western Conference teams. In the early season match up at New Jersey, the home team won 91-82 and improved their start to 6W-2L. Not a lot can be taken from regular season games and the Spurs are a very different team now compared to mid November. The ability to win on the road is vital in a Championship Series and indeed it is the only way the Nets can become NBA Champions. San Antonio were a league best 27W-14L on the road whilst the Nets could only manage a 16W-25L record which ranked them equal 13th. It is reasonable to expect the Spurs can get at least one win away which would require the Nets to get two at San Antonio for them to go one step better than last season. That seems beyond them. San Antonio 4-1 is a likely result. Within minutes of opening Game 1 in the series, a $5000 bet was placed on San Antonio giving up a six point start and that trend continued. It seems all the New Jersey punters are happy to be locked into their Championship wagers and are content to sit back and see how this series develops. MOTOR RACING Last weekend saw an exciting Monaco Grand Prix. This was our second biggest turnover on a Grand Prix this year, second only to our “home” Grand Prix in Australia. As usual there was a lot of money on Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, but we also saw a plunge on the Renault drivers. Luckily for us we had the Williams team going for us, and with Ralph Schumacher gaining ‘pole position and Juan Pablo Montoya winning the race, Centrebet had a good result. This weekend the V8 Supercar series continues at Barbagallo Raceway in Western Australia. This round also sees the return of the sprint format of three 100km races after the previous few rounds had seen the 300km endurance races. Marcos Ambrose has won the last 2 events and is our $3.25 favourite to win Race 1. The fifth round of the Moto GP takes place at Mugello this weekend. Mugello boasts the longest track on the Moto GP Calendar and is one of the fastest circuits. Valentino Rossi won this race last year, and is our $1.55 favourite, but we expect him to have stiff competition from Max Biaggi who won here in 2000, and Sete Gibernau who has already won twice this season. Also look for a strong challenge from the Ducati team, as this is their first home Moto GP in 30 years. ENTERTAINMENT No shortage of drama in the Australian Big Brother house over the past week. Belinda became the first Australian contestant to leave the house voluntarily, Benjamin broke polling records with the highest-ever eviction vote count and the show's producers added two new housemates, Jamie and Kim. Are you still with me? Something that remains constant is the betting public's support for Regina to win the $250,000 first prize. She is long odds on to become the Australian edition's first female, with Daniel, Patrick and Chrissie looking like her only dangers. Favourite for eviction on Sunday is Claire for her back-stabbing antics and lack of group interaction. Centrebet punters know a beautiful woman when they see one. Three of their most popular five Miss Universe delegates finished in the podium positions, with Miss Dominican Republic keeping the title in Central America. The other place getters were Miss Venezuela and Miss South Africa, with Miss Serbia and Montenegro fourth. SOCCER Euro 2004 takes centre stage on Saturday and no prizes for spotting the match of the day. It is, of course, Denmark versus Norway at Copenhagen's Parken or, as we are calling it in the Centrebet office, ‘The Battle of Scandinavia II’. Saturday's sequel is the subject of incredible interest in northern Europe and Centrebet is trading more than 25 markets on the match to meet demand for exotic bets from its Scandinavian soccer clients. Given the state of play midway through the ‘Group Two’ schedule, Norway would settle for a draw if Denmark were to offer it to them on a platter. Consequently, it is somewhat surprising that punters betting early on the game are backing Nils Johan Semb's side to win and extend their Group Two lead over the Danes to six points with three rounds of fixtures remaining. The rational explanation for the market move is that clients think that Denmark will struggle to cope without their injured star player, Milan striker Jon Dahl Tomasson. We will see. Two punters from opposite sides of the globe have money to bet on the Euro 2004 matches after hitting the jackpot last weekend. A Norwegian client collected almost a quarter of a million Kroner after one of his local football teams, Hønefoss, scored during injury time of their game against Ørn-Horten to land the fifth and final leg of his soccer wager. And an Australian punter picked up well in excess of $100,000 after successfully predicting the outcomes of three Australian Rules football matches and three football competitions, including last weekend's National Soccer League Grand Final between Perth and Olympic that the Glory won handsomely. 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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