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Aussie
Rules
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Centrebet Capers
[Rugby League | RUGBY LEAGUE] What a final the Super League match between Bradford and St Helens was, and looking at the final seconds of the match, it would seem the Bradford players who gave the referee a "serve" for failing to penalise St Helen's captain Chris Joynt for a voluntary tackle may have got it right. It was a crucial moment as Bradford were close enough to kick an equalizer. They had lots of reasons to cry foul with the video ref agreeing he may have got it wrong disallowing a first half try. Controversies aside, St Helens won 19-18 thanks to a field goal by Sean Long with 59 seconds of the game left. St Helen's started slight favourites at $1.85 with Centrebet, and in fact the prices never changed all week. We recorded a win on the game even though two separate $10,000 bets (from Australia) were placed on the Saints at the $1.85. A bet of $US 5000 came early in the week for Bradford at $1.95, and on the day of the match another English client placed £8000 on Bradford to win. While the game was a great spectacle and they had a record crowd, who was one of the English commentators trying to kid when he said that it was a great match between probably the two best rugby league sides in the world? Hasn't he ever heard of any of the teams in the Australian NRL? [Rugby Union | RUGBY UNION] Auckland provided one of the rugby upsets of the year when they held out Canterbury 29-23 in the first NPC semi final on Friday night. After an early $15,000 bet for Canterbury at $1.20, we found that most rated Auckland a good hope, including a bet of $800 to win at $4.25, and as $9500 bet, from New Zealand, for Auckland with 11½ points start. Waikato barely held on to beat Otago 41-37 on Saturday night in a game where money came for both sides. The handicap and although one New Zealander dropped $12,750 on the minus, there was more in total placed on Otago with the start. The stage is set for an epic final in Hamilton on Saturday. These two met four weeks ago, with Waikato winning 25-16. At home, we have made Waikato $1.90, but the early activity has been for Auckland at $1.85. Some of the bets include $8000, $5500 and $2000, all from New Zealand. The game will be televised "live" in Australia on Fox Sports, and we expect to see plenty of betting from Australian's as well. [Cricket | CRICKET] If Pakistan are the second best cricket side in the world, then the others have a fair bit of ground to make up on Australia! Centrebet paid a small fine when Australia wrapped up the third Test in Sharjah this week, in a series where even the most ardent of cricket followers found it hard to be enthused. The real stuff starts soon with the Ashes series beginning in Brisbane on November 7, followed by a One Day Series between Australia, England and Sri Lanka, just prior to the World Cup. There is already plenty of money being invested on the Ashes series batting and bowling categories, and Ricky Ponting's 150 against Pakistan has seen $1000 worth of bets come for him to top the series at $5.50. The same thing has happened in the bowling with Shane Warne firming from $3.75 into $3.25 behind Glenn McGrath, still favourite at $2.75. Not one single dollar has been placed on any English bowler to win the series aggregates, possibly because some are struggling with injury, and also due to a strong chance that they will only get one shot at the Aussies in each match. Domestically, the two ING Cup games last week saw some spirited betting, with both results going our way. One bet of $10,000 and another of $6600 were just two of the bets placed on South Australia ($1.70 - $1.60) to beat Victoria on Saturday. After getting off to a flying start, SA collapsed to be all out for 192. Victoria only lost two wickets in the run chase, and picked up a bonus point when they got the required runs in 35 overs. One Victorian punter did place $3000 on the Vics when they got to $2.25. On Sunday, there wasn't a lot of betting apart from a bet off a Victorian client of $9400 on NSW at $2.85 to beat QLD. The Bulls, led by Jimmy Maher, smashed their way to 4/287 in their 50 overs. NSW got off to a good start, but the chase proved beyond them and they fell 40 runs short. Only one ING Cup match is on this week, and Tasmania make their debut as $3.50 shots to win at the Gabba against Qld, and without Ricky Ponting, they will need every ounce of luck. South Australia host NSW in a Pura Cup match beginning on Friday, and with Darren Lehmann rushing back from Sharjah to lead them, we had no hesitation in opening SA up as $1.70 favourites. Punters agree, with nearly $4000 going on the Redbacks at that quote. [Entertainment | ENTERTAINMENT] “Rabbit Proof Fence" is our raging $1.20 favourite to win the top prize at this year's AFI awards. Ten nominations suggest that "Rabbit Proof Fence" is deserved of the short quote, particularly in light of the fact "Australian Rules", acclaimed by most critics, failed to get a nomination for Best Direction, which probably rules it out of the Best Film category. Betting is also available on the MTV Europe Music Awards which will be held in Barcelona next month. Kylie Minogue is $3.50 equal second pick with Jennifer Lopez to win the Best Female Award. Pink is the $2 favourite, but there has been a good early push for Sharkira at $6.50. In the Best Male category, three bets of $1000 (two from Norway) have forced favourite Eminem into $1.50 from $2, but there has been some support for Enrique Iglesias at $3.75. Iglasias' song "Hero" ($2.25) and Shakira's "Whenever, Wherever" ($2.25), have easily been the best backed to fight out the award for Best Song. [Basketball | BASKETBALL] Trying to work out the form of the NBL is proving to be a nightmare, with the Sydney Kings the only undefeated side after a month of play. The Kings racked up two impressive victories on the weekend, beating Wollongong by 17 points and then thrashing cross town rivals West Sydney by a massive 28 points which had some already saying it again "this is the year". The Kings task was made a lot easier in that match when Razorback forward Simon Dwight was a late withdrawal with a sprained ankle, which will keep him out for three weeks. Former Alice Springs youngster Gary Boodnikoff continues to impress for the Sydney Kings, and has been averaging 22 minutes per game. Maybe we might see an NBL premiership ring in Alice Springs at the end of the season! The biggest upset of the round was the 117-108 win by Cairns over Townsville, who remain winless. It was an historic win by Cairns as it was the first road double win by the Taipans in their history following a nine point victory over Brisbane the night prior. The success of the Taipans has seen plenty of new accounts opened from that area, and most have been cashing in on the success of Cairns. The two midweek games last night (Wed) saw only money come for both favourites. The televised match was the Sydney v Townsville match, which saw two significant bets, $7500 and $5000, placed on the Kings to beat a 13 point handicap. There was no stopping Sydney as they recorded an impressive 45 point win. Perth were at home to Wollongong, who got to a respectable $2.50 quote after close to $14,000 in three separate bets was placed on Perth conceding 4 points start. This went the way of bookies, when although Perth won 90-87, they failed to cover the handicap. The form of the Victorian Giants has been a revelation so far, and while we give them little chance of beating Wollongong on Saturday night, some punters disagree. We have laid win bets of $3000 and $1500 at $3.25, also taking $7000 in two bets for the Giants with 5 points start. Townsville get a chance to break through for a win on Friday night. Although beaten by Cairns last week, it's worth pointing out that Townsville led by 9 points with a few minutes to go. This has been a relatively quiet betting game, one that we don't really want to get too involved in as we rate this winless Crocodiles as "good things". Cairns go in as well backed commodities against Melbourne on Saturday evening. Qld punters have jumped into the $1.50, led up by a $4000 bet from Brisbane, but a Sydney punter also fancies the Taipans, claiming us for $5500 conceding 4½ points start. [Golf | GOLF] Another PGA Tour event, another winner at bolters odds! Bob Burns staved off a late surge from Tiger Woods to win last weeks Walt Disney Classic in Florida. Burns was $161 in our opening betting attracting two very small bets at $26 after the second round. Burns entered the last round at $10 behind favourite and leader Chris Dimarco ($2.15), and carded 7 under for his first win in 173 starts. Tiger grabbed a share of the lead midway through the last round, but Burns remained steady to get the cash. This week, Phil Mickelson returns from a break to be our $11 favourite to win the Buick Challenge. Apart from Mickelson, most of the players in the betting have been in good form, and have played well in this event in the past. Chris Dimarco, runner-up last week, is the defending champion, and is $23 this week. David Duval, second last year and victorious in 2000, has had a bet of $900 placed each way at $18 from a Queenslander, while fourth pick David Duval, has been backed to take out $16,000 in early trading at $17. A Sydney client has backed both Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby at $31 apiece, to win $10,000 each way, and there has been some interest in Steve Lowery ($34) and Fred Funk ($51). As far as tournament head to heads go, and English client has invested £2000 on Davis Love ($1.85) to defeat Duval, with a Queensland client placing $8000 on Appleby to beat Allenby. Ernie Els won his fourth matchplay from five starts, and although Els and second placed Sergio Garcia were the $5 co-favourites before the event started, both were big winners in our book coming into the final 36 holes of last week’s World Matchplay. Els was $1.75 to win, but we found no interest in either player at all prior to the final round. Els was always in the box seat, leading by 5 shots at one stage, before going on to win 2 and 1. A nice cheque, and quite possibly the European order of merit, is waiting for either Retief Goosen or Padraig Harrington should either win this week's Madrid Open. Goosen won a third hole playoff in this event last year, at the time also winning the order of merit, and is $6 to repeat the dose again. Both Goosen and Harrington have been targeted early by punters, and both have been backed in a head to head match-up. A Queensland client placed $4000 on Goosen at $6.50, also backing David Lynn ($61) to win $15,000. Several other players, including Adam Scott ($14), Miguel Angel-Jimenez ($34) Lee Westwood ($41) and Gary Evans ($51) have been drawing support, along with Gary Orr ($71), who was second behind Harrington in 2000. Jimenez has also had $11,700 (in two bets) placed on him in a match-up with Fredrik Jacobsen. [Motor Bikes | MOTOR BIKES] The wind disappeared from Phillip Island on Sunday, and so did the chances of the two strokes after dominating for 2 days. The smaller bikes occupied all spots on the front of the starting grid, but the better conditions on race day saw only one, ridden by Jurgen Van Goorbergh, capable of finishing in the top 10. Eventual winner Valentino Rossi started favourite at $1.85, and his victory was not a good result with all late money being for the Italian. Alex Barros ($3.50) led for 22 laps, and although Rossi had overtaken the Brazilian, Barros still loomed as a possible winner before running off during the last lap. Garry McCoy's excellent qualifying performance saw him come from $81 into $14, and was backed to take out over $60,000 with Centrebet. McCoy blamed bad tyres for his dismal showing on Sunday, but did enough to indicate he might be "back" as a force on a bigger bike. The 250cc event saw an exciting finish between Marco Melandri and Alfonso Nieto, with the lead changing five times in the last two laps. Melandri won by 7 thousandths of a second from Nieto, not only clinching the race, but also the 250cc title. Punters sorted this race out nicely as first and second carried nearly all of the money wagered. Melandri landed winning bets of £2000 ($2.20), $3000 ($2.15) and $4500 ($2.10), all coming from Italy. Italian punters had a big day backing their countrymen in the Moto GP and the 250cc, and a few also backed Manuel Poggiali to win the 125cc. There is one round of the bikes to go in Valencia, and there will be plenty of interest as Valentino Rossi attempts to win a record 12 races in one season. [Indy Cars | INDY CARS] There has never been a back to back winner of the Gold Coast Indy, or for that matter any driver winning twice, but with five previous winners, and Cristiano Da Matta in record breaking form, this just might be the year. Da Matta won last year, and while the statistics disprove it, that is a bonus to gain a win around the tight Gold Coast circuit. Da Matta opened at $3.50, but two Canadians took that early in the week. The amount only totalled $CAN 750, but both these guys were hard to beat when we regularly covered the Indy Cars. Dario Franchetti is second elect at $5.50, ahead of the popular Paul Tracy, who has come into $7 (from $9), with all of that support coming from Australians. There has also been early money for Bruno Junqueira ($10), Michael Andretti ($13) and Christian Fittapaldi ($13). We suspect that the last two mentioned have been backed by Aussie punters because of their surnames, and while the whole event has been pretty listless early in the week, we can expect things to "crank up" after they begin testing on Friday. [Racing | RACING] Bookies copped a hammering when the two best backed horses, Northerly and Fields of Omagh, fought out the Caulfield Cup last Saturday. There was no way out for Centrebet as third placed Republic Lass was also the centre of solid backing over the previous two weeks. Northerly started $4.50 favourite, but it was hard to begrudge the West Australian champ another win as he carried "the grandstand" and probably raced in the worst part of the track. That now sets the scene for what should be a fabulous Cox Plate. With this being Sunline's last race, the Cox Plate has been everywhere in the media, and we have found that the level of interest has dramatically increased over previous years. When betting re-opened after the final field was announced, Northerly, Lonhro and Sunline shared top billing at $4, but as the week has progressed, everyone has jumped on the Sunline "bandwagon". All the media hype about this being her last race, and the strong chance of a rain affected track, has seen public money force that quote into $3.25. Import Grandera is our worst result, and while we took a $2500 bet last week at $5, he is now out to $7.50. There has been terrific interest in head to head options on the race, with a New Zealand client placing $10,000 on Northerly at $1.90 to beat home Sunline, but all other action on that match up has been for Sunline at $1.80. We have also taken a £2000 bet from England for Grandera ($1.80) to beat Defier, and a $4500 bet for Sunline to beat home Lonhro. The overseas horses continue to firm in the Melbourne Cup, with the two unlucky runners from the Caulfield Cup, Beekeeper and Distinctly Secret, now into $11. Geelong Cup winner Media Puzzle is now into $8, and with the services of Australia’s best jockey, Damian Oliver, is going to be very hard to beat. [American Football | AMERICAN FOOTBALL] Favourite followers fared much better on last week's round of NFL, with 10 of the 14 covering the spread, and one "stand off". Fortunately for us, this wasn't a spectacularly busy round, and one of the favs that did go down, Miami, gave us a good result when beaten 23-10 by Buffalo. An Australian placed the biggest bet on Miami, that being $22,000 at -4½, which was followed by a very rare NFL bet from Asia, $10,000 on the same option. The three teams we mentioned in last weeks dispatches as being the early money sides all won, each covering the spreads. As it turned out, two of those sides, Denver and Detroit, won in overtime. This week, there have been a couple of early "pushes" for two sides playing at home, and each is in receipt of a start. Kanas with 3 start against Oakland was taken by two Canadians who between them invested $8500 on Kansas. A sharp player from Gibraltar gave an indication of what was to come when he placed $4000 on Carolina with 7½ points start against Tampa Bay. Not wishing to "stand" home sides receiving a start, that line is now a "flat" 7, but at this stage there aren't any takers for Tampa Bay. Philadelphia, the Monday night favourite, have already firmed, a sure indication that that will continue. Quite often, the result of that last game can be the difference for the whole round as it is always the busiest in turnover terms, and most tend to leap into the favourites. Philadelphia opened at $1.30 or -7, and immediately a win bet of $8000 and just over $12,000 on the handicap has forced the Eagles into $1.28, with the line now $1.85. Their opponents, the New York Giants, have had a disappointing start to the season having won only three from six matches, but at least two of those have been away from home. [Soccer | SOCCER] Shocks were the order of the day last week on English Premier League, but one punter at least thought that outsiders could win after backing two winners from two bets. The person in question, a new client from England, placed £2000 on both West Ham ($3.75) and Southampton ($4.60), who had 1-0 wins over Sunderland and Aston Villa. Very impressive tipping! There was no stopping Arsenal supporters, who backed the “Gunners” from $1.70 into $1.60. Arsenal were by far the best backed side when betting opened early in the week, and we even took a bet of €15,000 (from Germany) on the day of the game. It was the first time in 30 league games that Arsenal had tasted defeat when Everton beat them 2-1, and then Arsenal came out on Tuesday night and were beaten again, this time in a Champions League game by French side Auxerre. Punters took an absolute battering on that game as Arsenal, $1.33 to win, were coupled up for a small fortune in multiples. Liverpool did the right thing by punters, and the reverse of Arsenal, when they defeated Leeds last Saturday, then came out and beat Spartak Moscow 3-0 on Tuesday. One of our Asian regulars was on Liverpool on both occasions, $25,000 against Leeds at $2.35, and $40,000 against Spartak at $1.70. This weekend, all home sides are favourites, and most have met with some sort of support in early trading. West Ham have been a very good side to Centrebet so far this season as they have been beaten several times at short odds, and they were the first side backed this week when betting opened. The $2.25 for West Ham to beat Everton was taken by three bets totaling €13,000, all from Austria, and then we took a £4000 bet, from England, at $2.20. Bolton, $2.20 to beat Sunderland, have had in excess of $14,000 placed on them, and just on $26,000 has gone on Liverpool ($1.55) to get the better of Tottenham. Liverpool look the major threat to Arsenal as far as title betting goes, and are now into $3.25 behind Arsenal ($1.75). Danish football last weekend saw an unbelievable set of results when not one single favourite won a Superligaen game. The biggest of those upsets from our point of view was when Mitjylland held FCK ($1.60) to a 1-1 draw, but there was also a big bet of 90,000 DKK went down when Brondby ($1.95) were also held to a 1-1 draw by AB. All of those surprise results has seen the upcoming round treated a little differently by Danish clients. There has been no early rush, with only FCK ($2.05), away to Viborg, and Silkeborg ($2.20) at home to AGF, attracting any trading at all. This week is also the final round of Norwegian football, with the title again going to Rosenborg after a rough patch at the start of the season. Brann need at least a point against Rosenborg this week, and with Rosenborg already having the title, Brann have been backed from $6.50 into $5.50. In Division One, a Norwegian regular has placed 40,000 NOK ($AUD 8000) on Hodd ($1.80) to beat Tromsdalen, also placing the same wager on Skeid to beat Raufuss. With Scandinavian soccer coming to end, there is a lot more interest now on Ice Hockey, but more about that next week. 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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