Sportsbet Blog

How good is it to have Tiger Woods back? Unless you’re one of his competitors obviously – what he did to Sean O’Hair at Bay Hill yesterday has got to leave a very big impression on a relatively young golfer. Although O’Hair is the owner of two tour titles he was unable to hold his nerve yesterday, squandering a five shot lead over the rampaging man in red.

Finding Form With The Flatstick

It wasn’t completely his fault…Tiger’s Scotty Cameron putter had a lot to say as well, draining putts down the stretch that would drive a heart through the toughest of men. He sank a 26ft birdie putt at 15 to draw level with the 26 year old, before sinking a 16ft birdie putt in failing light on the 18th to claim his 66th career title.

Up until yesterday Woods had looked steady in his return from a potentially career threatening knee injury without looking close to his dominating best. But as is his style, a little drama was all it took to bring out the competitive animal in the world’s greatest golfer.

Tiger Hits His Straps At Best Possible Time

And what a time to find that sort of form, a week out from The Masters. Bay Hill is one of Tiger’s favourite playgrounds having won there on five previous occasions. He could not have asked for a better event to play at leading in to the first of the years majors.

It’s funny, I was just looking at the odds for The Masters yesterday after players had finished their third rounds and it looked like Tiger might struggle to be in contention on the final day. I noticed Woods was at about $3.50 to win at Augusta the following week, with Mickelson his closest rival just under the $10 mark. My immediate thought was that those were ridiculous odds even for Tiger. He’d not really shown enough to warrant such a price.

Hold on a second while I remove my foot…there that’s better. The bookies (as is often the case) had it about right.

Although I do think that when it comes to Tiger they are so scared of being burned they immediately offer the lowest possible price they can get away with. With his victory over the weekend they have all the justification they need to offer such a low price.

So can you even consider betting against Tiger to win this week at Augusta?

Of course you can, but as always when you bet against him, you are taking a risk. On the other hand you aren’t really getting value for your money if you do place a wager on him.

What to do, what to do…

Well one thing you can do is look for bookies that offer a market on who will win with Tiger taken out of the field. I had a quick look tonight and couldn’t see anyone offering it just yet, but once the bookies have their markets framed a little later in the week it may be worth checking out.

It’s amazing to think that in the sport of golf, traditionally considered one of the toughest to dominate week in week out, a man who has just come back from surgery is priced so low in the markets that it makes it almost impossible to bet on him. And yet he is so good that punters who have been burned in the past are scared to back against him.

This then forces bookies to offer manufactured markets based on him not being considered to encourage punters to bet, something that is usually only seen in team sports such as the English Premier League where the big 4 are often taken out to create a separate market.

What About The Aussies

Geoff Ogilvy can’t be in much better form, if I’m going to risk some money against Tiger, I might as well do it on an Aussie. Adam Scott is struggling, Allenby hasn’t won in the U.S since 2001 and no other Aussies really impress.

Apart from the betting, all eyes will be on The Shark, as he takes another stroll around one of the world’s great courses. It will be good to see him in action and all the fans will be hoping he can show at least some of the form we saw at Royal Birkdale last year.

Crooksy

After a five month wait The Formula One season is set to begin all over again on Sunday with drivers today gearing up for their final qualifying sessions in Melbourne.

Two Seasons Of Intensely Close Competition

The last two seasons have produced the most thrilling conclusions in the history of the sport, and in both years it was Lewis Hamilton who was at the centre of the action.

In 2007 the young Brit went within one point of doing what is considered an impossible task – claim an F1 title in your rookie season. He was pipped at the post by his Finnish rival Kimi Raikkonen who was the epitome of Scandinavian composure, winning the last two races of the season to leapfrog the British rookie and claim the title by a single point.

2008 once again saw an incredibly close race, with the consistency of Hamilton’s performances seeing him needing just a top five finish in the final race to snare his maiden championship win.

Things could not have been more tense for the 23yr old, who rounded the final bend in sixth place but was able to capitalise on a poor choice of tyres by rival Timo Glock to clamber up into fifth position and claim the season title…by a single point.

Will 2009 Match The Epic Showdowns Of The Past Two Seasons

So expectations are obviously high for another close championship in 2009. This will be the final season under the current points scoring system where drivers are awarded points for finishing anywhere in the top 10. The new system will see the F1 title going to the driver with the most race wins, and the governing body had originally planned to run with the new format this year. It was met was such fierce opposition from drivers and teams that it has been pushed back until 2010, and will force a major rethink when it comes to strategy and teamwork.

But for now the title will in effect go to the most consistent driver, and Hamilton has shown that to be one of his strengths in his first two seasons at the top.

Performances in testing have been a little underwhelming for the Brit this year, but the good news is that so far none of his rivals have handed in any electrifying performances of their own.

In an interview yesterday Mark Webber commented on how level the competition seemed to be at this stage. “It is literally us, Toyota, Williams and BMW” Webber said. “We have all at certain times, done the business. And the Renault as well”.

Who will do the business this year?

In a bit of a surprise a resurgent Jenson Button has come back from obscurity to be installed as favourite to take the Australian Grand Prix at odds of 4/1. He is closely followed by Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen with last years champion well back in the betting at this stage.

Crooksy

If you had of looked at the betting markets for the English Premier League just over two weeks ago, you’d have seen that Manchester United were about as short as you can get in a race with 19 other challengers and a dozen rounds yet to be played. They were seven points clear of their nearest rivals Liverpool and to make matters even more difficult for their opponents they had a game in hand as well.

How could last year’s champions of Europe possibly lose from there?

Flash forward to the present and we have been given a great example of how quickly things can turn around in sport. It all began with Liverpool’s 4-1 thumping of Man U in Manchester, a game bookies had given Benitez’s men little chance of winning. It was followed up the very next weekend with Liverpool hammering top 4 candidate Aston Villa 5-0, and the shock loss of United to Fulham – their first back-t-back loss in the EPL since 2005.

All of a sudden Liverpool’s rich vein of form has seen them firm from 11/1 in to 5/2 in just two weeks. Manchester remain favourites at 4/11 as they are one point clear of Liverpool with a game in hand over the rest of the field. Chelsea are in third spot a further 3 points back.

So what has gone wrong for Man U…and what has gone right for Liverpool?

Liverpool’s Resurgent Combination Up Front

The key for Liverpool over the past few weeks, has been the partnership between home town hero Steven Gerrard, and the prodigiously talented Spaniard Fernando Torres. Gerrard has been in imperious form of late scoring 6 goals in his last 3 games and is putting himself forward as a candidate for FIFA Footballer Of The Year.

His combination with Torres definitely raises the performance of the rest of the team, and this has been obvious since the Spaniard’s return from injury. With such strikepower up front the rest of the team understands that if they do their job well, the goals will come and over the past few weeks they have delivered on this.

The Problem For Manchester

Having assumed such a commanding lead at the top of the table, all the talk over the past few weeks had been about the possibility of them claiming an unprecedented five titles in the one season. This may have led them to take their eye of the ball so to speak.

In interviews with many of the players after their defeat to Fulham, there was a definite air of surprise about what was happening, which is often an indication that some complacency had slipped in to their camp.

Obviously they are trying to manage their resources in their bid to claim Cup victories in Europe and at home, but they will need to pick up their act once the season regular resumes at the conclusion of the upcoming round of international friendlies.

Manchester’s Opponents Will Be On Liverpool’s Side

They play Aston Villa straight up, with Martin O’Neill’s men currently lying three points outside of the top four. A loss to Manchester would put a huge hole in their drive to qualify for the Champions league next year and will give them the greatest possible incentive to win.

Then there is the fact that the majority of teams in the competition (with the obvious exception being Everton) would rather see Liverpool claim the title, and you have a situation where all of Manchester’s opponents will be gunning for their head.

The next couple of months are going to make for some very interesting viewing.

Crooksy

Footy tipping has become a serious past time with some people spending many hours studying the stats and ins and outs for each game to get an advantage for the weekends games. I’ve followed a few different tactics and stuck by them for the year to see if they are more successful than others.

Let the Bookies do the work for you!
The bookies know best so look at the odds for each game and go for the favourite every time, odds are you will come out on top.

They employ full time staff to assess each game very closely and change the odds as injuries or late inclusions happen pre game so make sure to check the odds and place your tips as close to the start of the game or the tipping cut off point as possible. If there is a game where both teams are paying the same odds go with the team with the higher ladder position, this was my rule I stuck at to get my tip.

The bookmaker method worked well and with least fuss as the tips were ready to be placed without having to research each game of each week.

Follow the Pros
There are heaps of celebrity tipsters that live and breath football. People like Rex Hunt and Mike Sheahan in the AFL always have there tips on the Internet, radio and in the newspapers. They are the ones that truly know how the game ticks and can usually pick the underdog winners. They have a big footy profile and this pressures them to be accurate as they are expected to know who is likely to win.

Follow your head, not your heart
When I first started tipping I couldn’t bring myself to tip against my team, this was a big mistake. Tipping my team when I knew they were going to be doing it tough cost me 4 or 5 games throughout the year which was very costly come the end of the season. Follow your head and look at it as a win-win situation if you tip against your team and they end up losing.

Taking all these tactics into account I found tipping with the bookmaker favourites a sure way to being on top or near to it. When a underdog does come up and win at least you know if anyone tipped them that they will most likely tip other non-winning underdogs through the season and not be a threat come the end of the year.

The best place for tipping online is at Sportsbet. Its free to enter and the winner get $250,000. They have heaps of prizes including weekly cash prizes totaling a massive $1,000,000. If you decide to bet with Sportsbet they give you a 100% free bet bonus on your first deposit up to $200.
To join Sportbet Million Dollar Tipping checkout their site here

Sportsbet Prize Table

Newlands Stadium, Cape Town 3rd Test Aus vs Sth Africa

South Africa have moved into the most commanding of positions in Cape Town, with their batsmen having displayed an absolute disregard for the talents of newcomers Bryce McGain and Andrew MacDonald.

At the close of day 2 McGain was staring down the barrel of owning one of the least desired of test records – the worst ever economy rate in a test innings. And while he was able to avoid that distinction by the end of the innings it will provide little joy having been taken for 149 runs from his 18 overs.

Unfortunately for McGain this may well end his chances of a trip to England later this year, and Australia will go back to the drawing board in their search for a tweaker.

Andrew MacDonald did not fare much better and at one stage was hit for four consecutive sixes by A.B DeVillers – only the third time in test cricket that has been achieved.

In the end the South Africans racked up their highest ever total against the Aussies and finished the third day in style by claiming the wickets of Phillip Hughes and Ricky Ponting, leaving the visitors needing a further 336 runs just to force the Proteas to square up for a second innings.

Of the bowlers Siddle was the standout, managing to concede just over two runs per over amidst the carnage going on around him. Johnson was the leading wicket taker with figures of 4-149.

The Australians will now turn to Katich to take his overnight score of 44 well past three figures, and Michael Hussey will be looking to remind people why he is such a vital cog in this Australian middle order. We are about to discover how much fight there really is in this Aussie outfit.

In Other News

IPL Looking At A Move To South Africa

With The Champions Trophy tournament having been shifted from the sub-continent to South Africa after the recent events in Pakistan, the IPL is now seriously considering a similar move.

Apparently IPL officials have been shopping around for security cars and it has also been noted that the IPL has made approaches to a South African security firm to negotiate the procurement of a fleet of armoured SUV’s and specially fitted buses.

While no announcement has officially been made, these preparations would seem to indicate that one may not be too far away. The preparations come amidst recent revelations that Sachin Tnedulkar & Sourav Ganguly were targets of a kidnapping plot organised by a Kashmari Separist organisation in 2007.

Tendulkar At His Sublime Best

Speaking of Tendulkar, the supreme batsmen of his generation was at it again in NZ, notching his 42nd test century with his 160 in India’s first innings against the Kiwi’s in Hamilton.

Tendulkar was his usual modest self, downplaying his innings claiming he was a little slow to get going.

“But once the new ball was taken I was timing it much better,” he said, while pointing out that “every hundred is not fluent”.

He was then straight back into the thick of the action taking a low catch at slip to dismiss opener Tim McIntosh. Tendulkar was adamant the catch had been taken and while the Kiwi’s disagreed they blamed only themselves for their poor showing so far in this test. They will resume play still requiring 166 runs to get past the Indians with 7 wickets in hand.

Crooksy

This picture has Caption Competition written all over it!

So here it is! The best caption will get a $50 free bet voucher thanks to Sportsbet.

When talk of tennis turns to Rafael Nadal one of the things that immediately springs to mind is his dominance over the majority of his opponents and in particular Roger Federer. Watching him play it is hard to imagine that any player could dominate this Spanish superstar.

One player who has managed to gain an advantage over Nadal recently is the Argentinian David Nalbandian. In there previous two meetings he has beaten Nadal in straight sets, losing a combined total of just 7 games in those 2 matches – two more dominant displays against Nadal are hard to recall.

So when Nalbandian raced to a 6-3, 5-3 lead at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, the tennis world was beginning to wonder what voodoo magic was at work to give him an edge over this seemingly indestructible giant of the game.

Then came the fightback.

Despite being down five match points Nadal never lost his self belief. And knowing that he surely had their last two encounters in the back of his mind made this display all the more impressive.

He took the second set in a tiebreak, broke the will of his opponent and stormed home to take the final set without dropping a game.

It is this mental strength that sets Nadal apart from all his contemporaries – especially Federer. The Swiss maestro is perhaps one of the best frontrunners the game has ever see. Give him a sniff of victory and his confidence is displayed in his outrageous shot making ability.

But get him behind the eight-ball as we saw earlier this year in Melbourne and you can almost see the fear of defeat in his eyes as he pulls back on his shot making and steers the ball around the court praying for a mistake from a man who makes few.

And so this tournament is steering its natural course towards another clash between the world’s top ranked men. Other players such as Andy Murray and Juan Del Potro are staking their claims with some impressive tennis but the expectations are for a Nadal, Federer final.

With Federer having had a full month of rest, and Nadal doing it tough with a knee injury, perhaps this is a chance for Federer to regain some confidence ahead of the mid-season majors beginning with the French and followed soon after by Wimbledon.

The women’s side of the tournament has seen almost all the big names sent packing early with Ana Ivanovic and Vera Zvonereva the only two household names left in the tournament.

Most impressive have been the efforts of two players on the rise – 17 yr old Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkov and 19yr old Victoria Azarenka who defeated Dinara Safina, preventing her from joining her brother Marat in as a player who has sat atop the world rankings.

Both titles will be decided over the weekend and should make for some excellent viewing

Crooksy

I’ll start of by saying this – I’m a red-blooded Aussie bloke who loves his homegrown sports. I’ve watched cricket, tennis,  & rugby union live in many different parts of the world. I’m an NRL fan, love the swimming and will watch pretty much any sport where there is an Aussie involved in the action (except maybe hockey…I just can’t get into it)

But my favourite yearly sports tournament is the NCAA college basketball championships in the U.S, colloquially known as March Madness. Now obviously if you have no idea about basketball, or you can’t stand the sport, this tourney may not be your cup of tea.

But bear with me for a minute and I’ll explain what it is that makes this tournament so special.

The Passion Of College Sports

For a large percentage Americans college sports are far more popular than the professional version – and this is especially true for college football and basketball. For example there is a college football stadium in  Michigan known as The Big House, which has not had an attendance of less than 100,000 people since 1975. That just doesn’t happen for professional sports teams

Every Year Is Different

There are over 300 teams that play college basketball At Division 1 level. Each year these teams play their regular season games with the aim of qualifying for the end of season tournament which only takes 65 teams. This means that every year the main tournament is unique.

And with college basketball seeing such a high turnover of players, each year sees different teams as favourites, new teams qualifying and exciting young players emerging. It’s a refreshing change and adds greatly to the unpredictability of this tournament, one of the reasons it is so special

Watching The Emergence Of Superstars

Every year sees new young players emerge who will eventually go on to become superstars of the sport. It’s exciting to see this happen, and to watch these skillful youngsters before they have been tainted by the marketing and the money of professional sports.

Every Game Is Sudden Death

This is a knock-out tournament, so there is something riding on absolutely every game. For many of these teams, just making it to the tournament is a rare occurrence, and you can see how much it means to them as their team strives to progress as deep into the tournament as possible.

Some Of Sports Greatest Rivalries

Some of the rivalries in U.S college sports are hard to explain, stretching back many decades and fuelled by the intense loyalty that college sports creates. Probably the fiercest rivalry in college basketball is between Duke & North Carolina, two powerhouse basketball colleges who are less than 20km apart.

The atmosphere during their conference games is unbelievably intense and is one of the great spectacles of world sport.

The draw this year has set up a possible semi-final clash between these two colleges so keep an eye out for that as the tournament progresses

Speed Of The Game

The college version of the sport is quicker than in the Pro’s, without sacrificing much in terms of athletic ability. For  a non-basketball fan this can often be a more entertaining spectacle.

Aussies In Action?

Last year Australia were very well represented in the main tournament, but unfortunately this year most of the teams with the major Aussie representation did not do so well and just missed out on qualification.

There is one team playing the second tier NIT tournament, St. Mary’s, which fields around five Aussies – they have an assistant coach who’s Australian so he’s recruited heavily from Down Under. It’s worth checking ESPN to see if they have any games televised – their star player is Aussie excitement machine Patrick Mills, a possible NBA prospect later this year.

Betting on March madness is huge business and you can get involved through Centrebet, SportsBet, CanBet or Betfair.

ESPN will be televising many games from the tournament and they are well worth checking out. You may find yourself being draw in to March Madness more than you thought possible.

Crooksy

The Australian Government and lobbyists have been discussing banning free bet incentives in bookmaker advertising. The bans would likely cover all types of media including all print and TV.

When doing some study on the topic I came across an article from a leading newspaper. Its talks about banning free bet incentives from ads and includes comments from Centrebet’s Neil Evans saying “Its the right thing to do”. After reading the article I noticed on the right of the page was a completely contradicting advertisement from Centrebet which made me laugh out loud, check it out here! It features Neil Evans promoting a promo for a “free betting bank”. The banner goes on saying that a $100 free bet will be given!

The ad is randomly placed on different pages of the newspapers site and slaps all what the article has to say in the face.

I really can’t see the government stopping the adverts anyway. The current economic headaches and the downturn in advertising revenue to Australia’s major media outlets has seen bookmakers fill the gap and in some cases hold the industry up.

The issue of free bets in advertising originated from the recent relaxing of advertising laws for corporate bookmakers. Bookies can now advertise in Victoria and NSW to the disgust of TabCorp. The TAB have said that “A national ban on the advertising of free bets is needed”. This is obviously a money grab on their behalf with corporate bookies slowly but surly taking a large share of the TAB’s market.

Senator Nick Xenophon has also commented on the issue saying that he would introduce a private members bill in the next few months to stop the practice of free bet incentives altogether. Little does he know that there are 1000′s of bookmakers outside Australia that welcome Australian residents and offer free bets. As they operate outside Australia there is nothing the Government could do to regulate this. If the bill did make it to Government they would be crazy to allow it and watch the gambling dollars fly out of the country, tax free.

Personally I think free bet offers are good. I’ve had some nice wins from them and its a great way to sample the services of the bookmaker. The main reason that free bets were originally introduced is that the competition between bookmakers become very fierce as they all try to outdo each other for your business. I can only see this as a win for the consumer and can see the offers only getting better for punters in the future.

The Top 3 Biggest Offers are

1. IASbet: A $100,000 Betting Bank to play with on Sydney Cup Day and keep the profit of the day!
2. Canbet: $1000 Free Bet
3. Bet365 $500 Free Bet

The cricketing boards of Australia and South Africa have wasted no time in putting plans in place to take advantage of the growing rivalry between the top two ranked teams in world cricket. From the 2012 season onwards these two giants of the game will square off on an annual basis, avoiding the current situation of back to back test series.

While Cricket Australia has not yet released the exact details of the arrangement, it is understood that each country will host the other every second year, with possible separate tours for tests and one dayers.

One of the big complaints from the South African camp is that there was no time to come down from their historic tour to Australian shores earlier in the year.

The new set-up would prevent this from occurring in the future…but it will also prevent these two teams from competing against each other in a Boxing Day test. The only time South Africa plays away from home over Christmas is when they tour Down Under, and the new arrangement would see tours between the two countries taking place in either Oct/Nov or Feb/Mar.

This is the main drawback of the set-up as the Boxing Day and New Years tests in Australia are by far the most well attended in world cricket, with the possible exception being the manic atmosphere of the sub-continent.

For a cricket fan there is no greater prospect than watching the world’s top two teams battle it out in Melbourne as they recover from the festivities of the previous day. Hopefully some arrangement can be made to ensure this fixture is played by these two teams at least once every four years.

In Other Cricket News

The Australian cricket team have returned from a four day break after wrapping up the series in the second test at Durban. They have arrived in Cape Town where they will play the third test at Newlands Stadium, one of world sports most picturesque settings.

It is amazing to think of the turn around that has occurred in the past fortnight – in both the performances of the team, and the writings of the press. Having been slated by journalists in the month leading up to the series, there have been large mouthfuls of humble pie consumed by journo’s who have already turned their focus to how the Aussies are a near certainty to claim victory in the Ashes later this year.

And while I agree that the team probably deserves to be favourites, I think the past six months in cricket, and the shocking events in Pakistan in particular, have taught us that there are presently no certainties in the sport.

We would seem to have entered a period of more even competition than the cricket world has seen in some time. Australia has been dominant since the late 1990′s, and before that the Calypso Kings reigned supreme for a similar length of time.

Today we have Australia, India and South Africa as rivals capable of snatching victory from their opponents on any given day in any part of the world. Strong in both tests and limited over matches, these teams should generate great excitement in cricket over the next four or five years.

And while England are a step or two off the pace at the moment, a home series where they will attempt to match their mighty deeds of four years ago, should at least give them motivation enough to play above the level we have seen from them of late.

But for now we should just admire the deeds of this young generation wearing the Baggy Green who are finding their feet at test level in a most convincing fashion against the toughest of opponents.

Crooksy