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Aussie
Rules
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Centrebet Capers
RUGBY LEAGUE The first of three tests between the Kangaroos and Great Britain kicks off on Saturday night at Wigans JJB Stadium and judging by comments from both coaches this promises to be one bone crunching affair. Anderson has freely admitted that the Kangaroos have lost some aggression with the retirement of Gorden Tallis, while Great Britain on the other hand have gained through Adrian Morley’s experience in Australia, which along with Barrie McDermott may now boast the more fearful pack. Betting commenced with the Kangaroos opening at $1.50 and our first wager of $10,000 from a NSW client, Great Britain at $2.50. However during the course of the night our Northern Hemisphere clients arose from their slumber and were keen to take the $2.50 on offer, and while not huge sums there was certainly plenty of them. The handicap on this game is 6½ points at $1.90 and as early exchanges may indicate this will prove to be an extremely lively betting affair with the ashes more in the balance than at any stage in the last 20 years. Chris Anderson has remained single minded in his approach to coaching the Kangaroos, let’s see if the players can perform in a similar vain. RUGBY UNION Well we're down to the business end of the World Cup with quarter final matches this weekend and there have no surprises with the top eight seeds making it through. Betting has still been brisk on the Webb Ellis trophy with England and New Zealand sharing the top line of betting at $2.50, however it has been the Wallabies who have eased, $5.25 from $4.75 after a disappointing 17-16 victory over the Irish in Melbourne last Saturday, this is despite the fact we laid two separate bets of $10,000 at the $4.75 just prior to kick off. France on the other hand have been all the rage after their second string team proved too classy for the much improved Eagles from the USA, with one wager of $10,000 at $10 from the UK to win the cup. South Africa and Ireland have remained solid at $23 and $41 respectively, while Wales at $331 and Scotland at $501 are given little hope by the bookmaking and punting fraternity alike. Last week proved to be another betting bonanza commencing on Monday with the Japan v USA game and culminating on Sunday evening with the last of the pool games, New Zealand and Wales. Bookmakers had to wait until the thirty second game to get a favourite beaten as Georgia went down 24-12 to Uruguay which was immediately followed by Canada proving too disciplined for Tonga, prevailing 24-7. While Georgia and Tonga were favourites it was the outsiders the punters wanted with over $80,000 bet on Uruguay at the 9½ points start at $1.90 while Canada was backed from $3.25 into $2.35 with the handicap firming from 7½ to 4½ at $1.90. All in all over $200,000 was placed on the Canucks at either the win of handicap price in what proved to be a windfall for punters. Nevertheless it was the final three games which created the most betting activity commencing with Australia v Ireland on Saturday, our first wager being $100,000 at $1.10 on the Wallabies to win the game which was followed by $20,000 on Ireland at 19½ points start at $1.90. We managed to force the Wallabies in, giving 18½ points start, with one Australian client placing $20,000 at $1.90. Punters could not see either of the Sunday favourites going over with England opening 73½ point favourites and New Zealand 48½. Our first wager was $10,000 on England giving the start from one of our UK clients but the money did not dry up there, eventually starting 76½ at $1.85. Nearly $200,000 was placed on England alone on this game which was matched by the money for the All Blacks, that line touching 52½ before money for Wales eventually arrived from Europe, one client from Italy placing €10,000 at $1.90 on what proved to be an inflated start. It can only be said that if betting on the quarter finals reaches those proportions then Centrebet is in for one busy weekend. CRICKET Well the Australian bandwagon is back on track after 3 wins on the trot in the space of five days. After belting New Zealand last Wednesday, It was India's turn on Saturday in Mumbai. Once again our Indian punters backed Australia, with two bets of $20,000 at $1.60 being taken. Australia batted well in posting a score of 286, and India were not without hope of scoring the runs until Tendulkar was dismissed by Michael Clarke. Clarke followed this scalp with another three to deliver career best figures and another comfortable victory to Australia. Two days later it was New Zealand's turn again, and this time they made a far better fist of it. Support for Australia in the betting was there again with $20,000 at $1.36 and $30,000 at $1.33 being the bigger bets. After a shaky start, (4/21 and 5/68) New Zealand's innings got back on track and they posted a score of 258. Australia in reply were 4/65 and despite a solid partnership between Clarke and Bevan, were still in a lot of trouble late in the innings. Once again though they were able to get across the line thanks in no small way to the fielding of the New Zealanders who dropped 4 catches during the innings, two of which were in the last over. There are four matches left in the series before the final, with the next match set down for Thursday involving India and New Zealand. Support for India has been good with one bet of $10,000 at $1.53 from an Indian punter. With the stronger showing by New Zealand recently though, there have been a number of bets at $2.45 for them and it would not surprise to see that increase closer to the start time. On the home front, Victoria have managed the impossible by taking outright points against Queensland at the Gabba for the first time in twenty years. This will no doubt breathe life into the competition and return the faith shown by one punter from Melbourne who has had $1000 at $6 for Victoria to win the competition. GOLF Centrebet golfing punters have sure been on a roll in recent times and the Chrysler Championship was no exception with one client backing Retief Goosen to win over $60,000 at $26. Goosen was never headed after taking the lead with a five under par 66 second round, and although challenged by the incomparable Vijay Singh on the final day, managed to maintain his composure for a comfortable three shot victory. Singh was backed to win over $70,000 by another client from South Africa so it was young up and comers, Briny Baird, Chad Campbell and Tim Petrovic who were forlornly left to fly the flag for Centrebet, none of whom were able to make inroads on Goosen and Singh. This week we head to the Champions Club in Houston Texas for the season ending Tour Championship won last year by the Worlds number two player Vijay Singh. This event has further significance this year as Woods needs to win this event and Singh finish outside the top three for Woods to head the Money List for the fifth consecutive year, a feat never done before in the history of modern golf. Anything less than victory for Woods hands the title to Singh, but that task is made increasingly more difficult as this is a field worthy of a Major. Including Mike Weir, Jim Furyk and Davis Love, all striving for victory and perhaps Player of the Year honours as voted by their peers. Best backed have been Singh at $7, Love at $15, Choi at $34 and Australian Stuart Appleby at $41, all to win over $50,000 by last weeks successful punter, however the winner of this event will no doubt earn his money. The European Tour saw up and comer Swede Frederik Jacobson win his third event of the season in capturing the Volvo Masters Andalucia at Valdarrama, Spain, on the fourth play-off hole from local Carlos Rodiles. The win catapulted Jacobson to fourth on the Volvo Order of Merit and completed the best ever season on tour by a Swede. This week we remain in Spain for the Seve Trophy, a match play event similar in format to the Ryder Cup, with ten players representing Continental Europe and Great Britain/Ireland. Great Britain/Ireland has been well supported at $2.25 to retain the trophy won two years ago at Druids Glen in Ireland, but this task will be made all the more difficult being played in Spain. Centrebet will be offering all matches on all formats during the four days of competition as well as leading points scorer for each team. MOTOR RACING The V8 supercars series crosses the Tasman this week for the annual event in New Zealand. Local favourite Greg Murphy is once again expected to provide a strong challenge to overall series leader Marcos Ambrose. Murphy has a great record at Pukekohe winning all 3 races in 2001 and picking up a 1st and a 2nd last year. The Moto GP season came to an end last week in Valencia with Valentino Rossi once again standing on the top of the podium. With Rossi announcing his departure from Honda after the race, next season promises to be a lot closer if Rossi does join the Yamaha team as expected. Rossi with Honda has totally dominated the class for the last 2 seasons. In 32 races he has won 20 times and in that period just once has he failed to make the podium. It will be fascinating to see whether Rossi can continue to dominate the sport or whether like many champions before him, he will slip back into the pack on an inferior machine. FOOTBALL The hottest pre-season favourites for a major football league ever! That is the prestigious honour that Centrebet's soccer odds compilers bestowed upon Rosenborg when they opened our book on next year's Norwegian Tippeligaen championship. With one spot in the 2004 competition still up for grabs - Oslo giants Vålerenga ($1.55) play off over two legs versus Division One minnows Sandefjord ($2.45) for the 14th and final berth - we are taking bets at $1.03 that Åge Hareide’s side secure next term's title and extend their championship-winning sequence to 13. Rosenborg are European soccer's most dominant domestic club, hence the reason that we are offering generous odds about the Trondheim team's rivals, with Bodø/Glimt ($21), Sogndal ($21) and Stabæk ($21) leading the chasing pack. Norway's perennial football champions have won 12 straight national titles and that is a record that only Latvia's Skonto can match. Such is Rosenborg's domestic dominance that Centrebet's football odds experts draw a collective deep breath whenever they lose, especially when the UEFA Cup hopefuls slip up in front of their Lerkendal supporters against one of Norway's lesser lights. Precisely happened on Saturday when Arne Vidar Moen scored Tromsø's injury-time winner to complete a rare seasonal double over the champions and, more importantly, stave off relegation. The shock result - Tromsø were $6.75 to collect three points - consigned Aalesund to the drop and put Vålerenga's top-flight status in jeopardy. It was Tromsø's first Tippeligaen victory since September 28 and annoyed our punters who took short odds of $1.37 that they would go down automatically. You do not need to be a genius to deduce that Centrebet could have done without the English Premier League top three - Arsenal ($1.70 to $1.65), Chelsea ($1.95 to $1.85) and Manchester United ($1.30) - registering weekend wins and there was also good money for Liverpool, both before and after the kick-off of their match against Fulham. The Reds were $4.35 when we suspended our in-running service with ten minutes on the watch at Loftus Road. Some punters got very excited when Danny Murphy scored from the spot in the game's dying moments. Until next week, good punting. For further information contact Gerard Daffy at Centrebet on 08 89555800 or centrebet@centrebet.com.
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