Sportsbet Blog

Disgraced golfer Tiger Woods finds himself in a peculiar spot this weekend going in to the Players Championship. After a dismal display at Quail Hollow where he uncharacteristically missed the cut the bookies have given him his longest tournament odds in almost 3 years with Sportsbet willing to pay $8.00 if he can take out the title. This amazing payout comes in spite of Tigers unprecedented run of 258 weeks as the games number one ranked player and could be a great time for punters to cash in. Tiger has undoubtedly been under a lot of pressure of late with experts saying that it is showing through in his swing. But you can never ever right off the man that is quite simply the greatest golfer of all time and with Sportsbet offering you up to $200 in free bets on top of these great odds it is an opportunity that you simply can not miss.

Tigers amazing odds caused me have a little look around the sporting world to see if there was any other good outside bets going around and found a couple that could tickle you taste buds. The French Open Tennis tournament is nearly upon us and we find the usual suspects Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer pitted in as hot favourites paying $1.40 and $4.50 respectively. Novak Djokovic is third favourite at $13, but what about Aussie open finalist Andy Murray? You can find him further down the list with Sportsbet offering a whopping $51 for him to take out his first major. While I seriously don’t think that he will win a small bet on him making the final could be well worth it.

Another good looking bet is $6.50 for Australian F1 driver Mark Webber to win the Spanish GP. His Red Bull car has looked the business this year and with a little bit of luck he could very well be sitting a top of the podium. But watch out Lewis “Doughnut King” Hamilton.

The last weekend of August sees us head off to Spa for the F1 Belgian Grand Prix. This comes one week after the recent foray around the streets of Valencia. Funnily enough, it may have been the dullest race of the season that has decided the result of the formula one championship. In Valencia, Red Bull was unable to score any points while Brawn GP took a win plus a few points.

Jenson Button ($2.84 for a podium finish) now leads the championship by 18 points of team-mate Rubens Barichello. To be realistic, Rubens Barichello ($27 for a Qualifying/Winner Double) is unlikely to challenge Button for the championship lead. It was only because of a poor start by Jenson Button coupled with a bit of bad luck that led to a disproportionate gap between the Brawn drivers. Button was only a fraction off of Barichello’s pace and his fastest lap was a few hundredths of a second quicker than Rubens. With the Formula 1 Drivers Championship now Button’s to lose, BetFair is paying odds of $1.59 for Jenson Button to become the 2009 driver’s champion.

The 2009 Belgian GP will be all about carrying last week’s form forward for the boys at Brawn GP. They were able to regain the upper hand over challengers Red Bull in Valencia and will be looking to consolidate their championship lead. Brawn GP is tipped to win the 2009 Constructors Championship and Betfair is paying odds of $1.47. The main challengers for the two Brawn drivers will once again be Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber. Vettel’s championship race is all but over after using two of his three remaining engines in Valencia. The Spa-Francorchamps circuit is renowned for the stress that it causes on engines with the majority of circuit time being at full-throttle. This will benefit the teams with a more reliable vehicle.

My tip is, Raikkonen and Hamilton ($5.10 for Pole Position) will hold the advantage at Spa as the slow exit from La Source is a perfect place to hunt down opponents for those cars equipped with KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System).The driver’s that are able to get to top speed the quickest will have the advantage with the long, uphill drag to Eau Rouge. This is then followed by the one kilometre long Kemmel straight.

Red Bull ($3.30 for the Constructors Championship) was considering fitting KERS to their cars for this race, but it has now been confirmed that it won’t happen. The hope that they could get it set-up and running nicely on their cars in time was foolish. I would not be surprised to see a podium of KERS users.

For the likes of Mark Webber ($5.50 for a Win), this is a very important race. He will need to take points out of Jenson Button if he wants any chance at winning the 2009 drivers title. I see this as unlikely after last week’s disappointing performance. However, Red Bull has proven that they are fast in the wet and the Spa circuit is notorious for providing poor weather conditions.

There are also a large number of drivers who will be racing for their futures on Sunday. Nico Rosberg has been impressive this season and will be looking to build on his streak of points finishes. Kazuki Nakajima will need to start winning some points if he wants to be driving next year and Kubica has raised his game since BMW announced that they would be pulling out of Formula One. Kubica may be lucky enough to secure himself a drivers’ seat at Renault, Toyota or even Williams next year if he can score some points this weekend. Jarno Trulli has been dumped by Toyota and needs to pull something out of his sleeve if he wishes to continue racing. Fisichella and Heidfeld are two more drivers who are in desperate need of a points finish.

The rookies, Grosjean and Alguersuari both performed reasonable last week and Luca Badoer showed everyone why he hasn’t had a driver’s seat since 1999. There are rumours circling that Ferrari may use their last driver change after the race at a Spa.

My prediction is a podium consisting of Jenson Button in first place, Kimi Raikkonen ($2.52 for a podium finish) in second followed by Lewis Hamilton in third.

After the accident that placed Felipe Massa in hospital, Michael Schumacher was being touted as the driver to replace him at Ferrari while Massa recovers. In the end, Luca Badoer ($34 for a win @ SportingBet.com.au) was selected as the replacement. With all this excitement, people have been talking about little else and there is much anticipation for this weekend’s European F1 Grand Prix to be held around the streets of Valencia.

While the comeback of the retired legend German legend is not going to be happening (at least for now), the matter of the 2009 drivers championship is back into discussion. This years’ battle for the championship has been very interesting up until the month long break and should continue to be very competitive.

The question on many people’s minds is will Brawn GP be able to regain the early season form that seen an amazing debut season start for the team? Without the benefit of any mid-season testing and restricted development time, can Brawn fix up all their bugs in time for the grand prix in Valencia?

Ross Brawn, team principal and technical brain, is convinced that one of the modifications that have been made to the car has been seriously detrimental to the cars ability to get heat in to the tyres. The problems that Brawn GP has faced have seriously hampered the grip level of the vehicle that saw Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello ($34 for a win @ SportingBet.com.au) dominate in the opening rounds.

The Spanish home crowd will be happily cheering as their national hero Fernando Alonso and his team, Renault, have been given the green light to race in Valencia on the weekend. It was a possibility that Renault would not compete after an incident in the Hungarian GP that saw them incorrectly fit a wheel to the Spaniard’s car, which later came off further around the track. Renault was able to win the appeal which they made to the FIA after a ban was imposed.

The race organisers, along with the home fans will most certainly be happy to see that the ban has been lifted. Romain Grosjean will also have a smile on his face as he is set to make his formula one debut after the sacking of Nelson Piquet Jr. after the Hungarian GP.

After taking a win at the Hungaroring before the month long break, McLaren will be looking to continue with the improvement that they have made since the start of the season. Lewis Hamilton is tipped to be the outright winner this weekend with odds of $3.25 at Sporting Bet.

McLaren is believed to have the best KERS system in the field and they were able to use it o great effect in Hungary. KERS is looking to be the main weapon in the arsenal of McLaren this weekend as overtaking opportunities will be few and far between.

Last year’s maiden grand prix in Valencia showed that overtaking was next to impossible. The teams whose drivers are equipped with the KERS system will be looking to use it to maximum effect off the grid to make up a few extra positions.

For those that get caught behind as a result of this will be suffering a major setback as they may find themselves trapped behind another driver slower than them with no passing opportunity.

In my opinion, anyone not running KERS will more than likely be running light, as they will be looking to hold position off of the grid and possibly make a fast getaway to take an early lead.

My prediction for the podium finishers gives first place to Lewis Hamilton ($3.25 for a win), second to Jenson Button ($8 for a win) and third place to Sebastian Vettel ($3.75 for a win @ SportingBet.com.au).

Sportingbet are covering the F1 round this weekend and give new customers a offer hard to refuse. Simply make an account with Sportingbet and deposit $30 or more and they will credit you with a $100 free bet that can be place on this weekends race!

It has been an unforgettable year for Australian Formula 1 driver Mark Webber. For years he has been carrying the tag of ‘the unluckiest man in racing’ driving cars that simply weren’t up to scratch. But in 2009 his luck seems to have changed as his team, Red Bull Racing, and new comers Braun have over taken the likes of Mclaren and Ferrari to become the top teams in the competition.

Braun are the surprise leaders and are storming away with the constructors championships, but with Red Bull taking first and second in Britain there is no doubt that are catching. Mark Webber made his fourth podium finish behind team mate Sebastian Vettel and will go into the next race in Germany full of confidence and fully expecting to take out his first F1 victory. But can the Australian really pull it off? God Knows the guy deserves it and with the Red Bull car absolutely flying at the moment there is no reason why he can’t.

The only downfall for him may be that his team mate Sebastian Vettel is ahead of him in the drivers standing and the Red Bull team may go with a stratergy that suits him rather than Webber. But if Webber can make pole and then just keep his cool in to the first turn it will be his race to lose. Go to Sportsbet now for your free bet on Red Bull pulling in Braun in the Constructors Championships it is well worth a little punt.

While we are all hoping that Webber can produce some magic in Germany we also hoping that he can keep it up in to next years championships in Melbourne, which is now back on after some doubt over the F1 season for 2010. It was looking as though there could be two seperate factions when eight of the top teams including Mark Webbers Red Bull team decided that they would pull out of F1 in 2010.

The decision to quit had come after F1 bosses decidied to cut team spending to just $40 million for next season, but with the likes of Ferrari and Mclaren regularly spending three times that the decision had caused alot of unreast. But after last-ditch talks between FIA president Max Mosley, FOTA chairman Luca di Montezemolo and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, an agreement was reached that commits the teams to the sport until 2012. It is great news for racing fans and great news for Webber who can now take his competetive team to Melbourne and put on a show for his home crowd.

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