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Aussie
Rules
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Centrebet Capers
[Rugby League | RUGBY LEAGUE] After a slow start, the betting on Sunday’s league final reached a crescendo in the final hours before kickoff. All week, we had found the New Zealand Warriors very easy to sell, including four separate $10,000 bets coming from Kiwi land at $2.40. One of those punters had placed $10,000 in two bets the previous week at $5.25 when there were four sides left, so there was no doubt in his mind who was going to win. The Sydney Roosters attracted bets of $40,000 and $20,000 on Sunday at $1.55, and we also took close to $60,000 for them to beat a handicap of 4½ points start. For 65 minutes, we looked a realistic chance of getting the money, but Brad Fittler had other ideas as he led the Roosters to a 30-8 win, which certainly wasn’t indicative of the tough match it had been. It was a good thing for us that the Churchill Medal votes were gathered 10 minutes before the match finished as winner Craig Fitzgibbon ($11) was a good result, while Brad Fittler ($4.50) would have been a complete wipe-out. Fittler is a hugely popular player with punters, as evidenced by the short odds they had to take, and they probably should have been collecting. The “furore” surrounding our bet option on how many penalties would be awarded died down by the weekend, but the publicity it received saw a large four figure sum invested, and even reached English punters! A client from England invested nearly $2000 backing all options over 11 penalties, and although we had the 8-9 bracket favourite at $4.50, nine penalties was a good result. Most people thought it was a great idea, as were all the other “specials” we did, and added another dimension to the game. It didn’t look like referee Bill Harrigan was under too much pressure as a result of people gambling on all sorts of team disciplines (penalties, hit-ups, line breaks etc), and I don’t think anybody really thought he would be. As mentioned in the press, we bet on the same option last year, we also bet on how many “free kicks” there would be in the AFL Grand Final, and of course we regularly bet on how many red/yellow cards will be awarded in soccer matches. In fact the NRL probably should be thanking Centrebet for creating some interest in the final with overseas punters, as those who had a bet on our “specials” offers would no doubt have been watching the big game. It was also a bit hypocritical of one of their spokesmen to say that “the NRL doesn’t support betting on league”. Perhaps he should pay a visit to the NRL site and have a look! The Test between New Zealand and Australia will be played on Saturday in Wellington, and it was a difficult one to price up. Many of the players haven’t played for a few weeks, some will have a “premiership hangover”, and some of the Warriors players had trouble walking properly after last weeks final. Australia have a good side, and have to be favourites and we have installed them at $1.40 or -7½ points. The first bet taken was $8000 from Sydney, but it is worth pointing out that the Kiwis did spring a surprise at home a couple of season ago. In England, St Helens go in as $1.40 favourites to beat Wigan ($2.85) in the English Super League eliminator to see who will play Bradford in the final. [Australian Rules | AUSTRALIAN RULES] The South Australian football final is always on the week after the AFL final, and there is always lots of interest. This year we saw a monstrous upset when Sturt returned to the fold as premiership winners when they had a resounding 47 point win over Centrals. Centrals went in as raging $1.38 favourites, and as well as being popular with straight out punters, we also took bets of $5000 and $3300 for them to beat a 16½ point handicap. One bet of $2000 was placed on Sturt with the start, and only a few small bets to win at $2.90. The AFL season kickoff is still six months away, but over the past week we have laid Essendon ($8) to lose $25,000, Collingwood ($9) to lose $20,000, and outsiders Carlton ($51) and St Kilda ($51) to take out close to $75,000. Already, we have taken more money in the week since the Grand Final than we did last year up until Christmas. For real die-hard fans, you will be able to have a punt on the Hybrid “tests” against Ireland, with the first one due on Saturday night. The Aussies were “creamed” by the Irish last year in both matches in Australia, and their inability to handle the round ball will see them go in as underdogs at $1.90 in Dublin. [Rugby Union | RUGBY UNION] Eastwood are $1.40 to win the Tooheys New Cup, which will be decided at Aussie Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Eastwood have had the advantage of a week off after defeating Uni to go straight through to the final, and Uni had a battle on their hands before beating Randwick 18-12 at the weekend. That was a good betting match, led up by a $10,000 bet for Randwick at $1.90, but we did see late money for Uni when they touched $2. Punters can only see an Eastwood win this week, with bets of $4400, $2000 (twice) and $1600 coming for them conceding 7½ points start, but we rate Uni a strong chance to win as star forwards David Lyons and Dan Vickerman have been released from Wallaby camp to train this week. Vickerman is likely to play, and if Lyons can overcome a leg injury, Uni might just get home. [Racing | RACING] All the horses that have been backed to win both Cups continue to firm, and bookies are running out of places to hide. Fields of Omagh is the new ($5.50) favourite to win the Caulfield Cup after his good third in the Turnbull Stakes. Fields of Omagh was backed to win $100,000 at $13 last week, and now that Damian Oliver has decided to stick with him, he can only firm further. Northerly is $6 second pick (and a bad result), and on current form, it looks as though Magical Miss ($7) is the only danger. Vinnie Roe remains Melbourne Cup favourite at $7, but we have laid Pugin again this week to take out $25,000 at $11, and continue to see money for two other imports, Beekeeper ($17) and Helene Vitality at $17. Pentastic ($17) and Rain Gauge ($13) are the shortest of the locals, but as yet haven’t attracted any big takers. One the Greyhound front, Big Sam Banner is $2.10 to win the “Paws of Thunder” at Wentworth Park on Saturday night. On paper the race looks a match between him and Modern Assassin (bets of $2000 and $1400 at $2.35), but as both can be very tardy early, an upset looms, maybe in the form of Tommy Hand ($21) or Unopposed ($21). [Formula One | FORMULA ONE] Punters are sick of Ferraris, and so are we, so in this week’s Japanese Grand Prix we are going to forget about them! The interest had dropped off anyway, and following the debacle of two weeks ago, we figured not too many would be interested in betting on the race itself, so we will bet on the “best finish” excluding the Ferrari’s of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Juan Pablo Montoya is our $2.50 favourite, and we have already taken $4000 worth of bets, mostly from Italy, for Montoya. Ralf Schumacher is $2.75 (no takers), but we have had money for both David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen at $4.50 apiece. [Motor Bikes | MOTOR BIKES] Brazilian Alex Barros didn’t pick a very good week to record his first victory of the season in Japan at the weekend. Barros landed win bets of €300 at $21, $600 at $14 and $350 at $11 as he held off a late challenge from Valentino Rossi, who started favourite at $1.75. On top of that, Barros also had $4000 placed on him at $3.50 to finish on the podium (from Malaysia), but the “podium finish” book yielded a profit after $10,000 and $5500 was placed on Daijiro Katoh at $1.60, with $6000 also placed on Tohru Ukawa at $2. This week, Barros is $6.50 to win the Malaysian Grand Prix, with Rossi again the favourite at $1.60. We have taken a bet of $3500 at that price, but there has been support for both Katoh and Max Biaggi at $6.50 as well. [Bathurst | BATHURST] Car number 1, driven by the all conquering Mark Skaife and Jim Richards, is the $4.50 favourite to win Bathurst on Sunday. Given the testing course around Mount Panorama, it comes as no surprise to learn that practically all cars in the market have had backing, particularly the Holden's. Car 16 (Richards, Ingall) at $8, Car 4 (Ambrose, Weel) at $11 and Car 17 (Johnson, Radisich) at $13 have all been backed to take out in excess of $12,000 early this week, while some punters with long memories have also found that they think Peter Brock can return after a five year lay off in Car 05 to raise the chequered flag at $23. Betting on Bathurst is always done on car numbers as drivers can change cars, as we found out on Tuesday. Brad Jones and John Bowe (Car 21), one of the race favourites at $11, swapped to the slower Holden, Car 888, which was a $201 chance. We took a few small bets at that quote, and then $100 each way at $51, but it seems as though we weren’t the only ones caught out by the change. Betting will be suspended during trials and the “shootout”, and will be open again Saturday evening. [Cricket | CRICKET] Pakistan looked certain to win the first test, but in a typical “never say die” display, the Aussies, with the help of 11 wickets from Shane Warne, prevailed again. This match had everything, rain, bad light, controversial decisions, dominance by speedsters and spinners, and some heroic batting. Cricket was the winner, and so were we after Pakistan got themselves into the match at the end of Australia’s second innings. Pre match, we had taken bets to the value of $30,000, $12,000 and $10,000 for Australia, which saw them start favourites at $1.55. There was money for both Australia $1.35 and Pakistan $3.50 when they had to get in excess of 300 runs in the last innings, and with a day to go, chasing only 137 runs with seven wickets in hand, we then took bets of $15,000 and $10,000, both from India, for the Pakis at $1.58. Those bets, along with several others, totaled enough to see us have a handy result. The final two tests are in hot, humid Sharjah, where rain shouldn’t present a problem. In the match beginning tomorrow (Fri), Australia are $1.60, the draw $2.75, and Pakistan at $8. All three options have been laid, with the only substantial bet being a $25,000 wager, from Australia, for Steve Waugh’s men. This weekend, the Australian domestic season gets under way, and NSW are $1.75 to win the season’s opener in the ING competition against Qld. No real action to report on from that game just yet, but we have taken a $1000 bet for NSW to win the title at $4.50. Our Pura Cup market is also open, with Qld, who have won five of the last eight Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup competitions the favourites at $2.50. Victoria, now under the guidance of David Hookes, are second elects at $5, with NSW, South Australia and Tasmania on $6, and Western Australia the outsiders at $7. [Golf | GOLF] Charles Howell III returned to form to win last week’s Michelob Open. Howell was $34 in original betting, but the only significant bet for him was $450 at $10 after the second round. This wasn’t an overly busy event as most of the big names were missing, and it’s a pretty similar case in this week’s Invensys Classic, which started last night. David Duval was our $15 favourite ahead of Jim Furyk ($16), who won this event three times between 1995 and 1999. That was enough for us to tip him, but punters have given both a wide berth. Robert Allenby ($21) has been backed to win $16,000 by a Victorian client, a South Australian has backed last year’s winner Bob Estes ($26) to win $20,000, and we have also laid Steve Flesch ($34), Stewart Cink ($51) and veteran Fred Couples ($81) to take out in excess of $20,000 in a series of bets. In Europe, while several players were backed to win big amounts in last weeks Dunhill Links Championship, Padraig Harrington’s win was no good to us after he was backed from $21 into $16 prior to the start, and then we took a $4000 wager (from England) at $3 following the second round. This week, Sergio Garcia goes in as a solid $6.50 favourite to defend the Trophee Lancome in France. Colin Montgomerie ($8), is also a bad result, as is Thomas Bjorn ($13) and Ricardo Gonzalez ($41), who has attracted two separate bets to win $10,000. Two of the “head to head” options have been hit hard with two $5000 bets on Garcia ($1.80), as well as bets of $8000 and £2000 on Adam Scott ($1.85) to beat Justin Rose. Annika Sorenstam easily won the Samsung World Championship, and is $2 to win this week’s tournament of champions. We have taken one bet of $25,000 for Sorenstam, but have also taken $1000 each way for both Se Ri Pak and Karrie Webb, both at $7. [Basketball | BASKETBALL] Fortunately, the first round of NBL was extremely quiet as all six favourites won, five also covering the handicap. Several big bets were landed, including $7000 on Canberra at -3½ against Townsville (won 94-88), $5000 on Perth (-3½) against Melbourne (won 111-105), and $12,000 on Wollongong at $1.60, who also defeated Townsville 116-104. This week’s round started last night (Wed), and the two games played saw heavy betting. Adelaide ($1.50), at home to Wollongong, had bets of $4000 and $3000 placed on them to beat a 4 point handicap, as well as $8000 to win straight out. Canberra were red hot $1.22, or -8½ points, to beat Brisbane, who already look destined to finish bottom of the table. Whilst only a $4000 bet was placed on Canberra at the win price, we did also take two bets totaling $7500 from two Victorian clients for them to beat the handicap. In a low scoring affair, Canberra won 90-77, but the other match saw Townsville score a surprise 17 point victory. Sydney travel to Townsville on Saturday, and all will depend on how imports Williams and Franklin perform. We think the Kings will win, and have them as $1.42 favourites, but the early money has been for Townsville. West Sydney impressed last week, and are $1.06 to defeat Brisbane. Five of the Razorbacks shot double digit scores last week against reigning premiers Adelaide, and two of them weren’t Sam Mackinnon or Aaron Trahair, so we expect West Sydney to easily cover the 15 point handicap. The game of the weekend will be between Cairns and the Kings, who have to back up from the night before. Cairns have attracted $2500 worth of bets at $2.55, but we rate them a strong hope to win, fully expecting the late money to be for Sydney at $1.50. Centrebet will also cover the WNBL this season, and while we don’t expect to see bundles of betting on these games, we have taken three early bets of $1000 this week, two for Townsville at -12½ points in Perth, with the other for Dandenong conceding 13½ points to the AIS. [American Football | AMERICAN FOOTBALL] Favourite punters finally had some good news when eight of the fourteen favourites covered the spread last week, with two outsiders also meeting with good support. Kansas were best backed, with two bets from Australia, each of $15,000, going on the Chiefs giving up 3 points start to the Jets. They “fell” in, winning 29-25, but that’s all they had to do. The New York Giants attracted bets of £7000 and $10,000 to beat Dallas at $1.90, and they did just that, winning 21-13 but we did extract some revenge on one of those punters from England when he placed £7000 on Atlanta at $2.10 to defeat Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers won convincingly 20-6, and are now into $8 to win the Superbowl. The Monday night game invariably sees the favourites firm, but on this occasion the well backed Green Bay firmed from and opening $2.05 into $1.90, and they led practically all night to beat the Bears by 13 points. In early action this week, punters have singled out three sides. We have taken a $10,000 bet (from Melbourne) and a $9500 bet (New Zealand) for Jacksonville at -1½ against Tennessee, €8000 (Germany) for Pittsburgh conceding 3½ points start to Cincinnati, and $8000 (Melbourne) for Green Bay with 4½ points start against New England. Betting to win the Superbowl has opened right up with the early demise of St Louis. Oakland currently are the $6.50 favourites ahead of Philadelphia ($7.50), but there are 12 teams $21 or below. [Soccer | SOCCER] Man United really know how to inflict pain on bookies, and they did it again in the space of five minutes against Everton on Monday. We already had a “truckload” out of Man United to win straight up, and through multiples, before we accepted a bet of €30,000 from Austria at $1.28. Everton gave us a terrific sight, but Man United scored their only three goals in the last five minutes of the game, two of those by Paul Scholes. Seven of the ten favourites were successful, suffice to say the balance sheet looked a shade ordinary at the end of the round, although we did get $45,000 in two bets from Asia for Blackburn to win at $2.20. Tottenham managed to beat Blackburn 2-0. One favourite that saluted which we did win on was Peter Reid being the first manager to be replaced. We opened the Sunderland manager as $4.25 favourite to be the first casualty in the new season, but we took less than $200 for Reid in what was a good result. It’s now Michael Laudrup’s turn to be under the microscope in Denmark. Laudrup, in his first year as coach, was an outsider at $18 when the betting opened prior to the season beginning, but after Brondby’s second home defeat of the season last Sunday to lowly Koge, Laudrup now finds himself under pressure, and Centrebet’s $4 favourite. With the Euro 2004 qualifiers on this week, all of the major leagues are having a weekend off, which means that betting is well up on some of the lower divisions, as well as the cup matches. English fans were out and about early in the week, with bets of $20,000, $16,000 and $10,000 coming for England ($1.72) to win in Slovakia. There are a couple of injury concerns for the Poms, but that hasn’t deterred punters the least little bit. A client from Germany was also in early with €7000 for Belarus ($2.20) to beat Austria, also placing €2000 on the Faroe Islands at the big odds of $9 to defeat Lithuania. The round is dominated by short priced favourites, and from early trading, we will be looking for at least a few of those to go over. 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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