Sportsbet Blog

Keep one eye on the telecast, and the other on Betfair, and make the most of Betfair’s dynamic markets. They’ll be open from when the referee blows his whistle until, well… he blows it again at the end. With opportunities every second, that’s over 54,000 seconds (plus injury time) of opportunities.

Betfair are accepting in-play bets on heaps of sports this summer including the Australian Open tennis, the Australian Summer of cricket and A-League soccer.

As well as having the largest market of in-play bets Betfair also have a summer promo giving you the chance to win Apple Ipods, XBox 360′s and Free Bets just for betting with Betfair!

Betting during a match is easy. Simply make an account at the Betfair website here, then call 1800 TELBET (that’s 1800 835 238) 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to speak to one of their efficient betting staff and place your in-play bet.

For more info on how Betfair works and how to get your hands on a prize checkout their website here or see our Betfair Review.

It’s a great time to be with Sportsbet as they have announced today they will be having a Super Saturday this weekend the 25th of July.

What’s this involve you ask? Around every month or two Sportsbet have a massive free bet promo weekend with six ways of getting some great free bets just for placing a few bets or making a deposit.

Last time Super Saturday was on I took advantage of the the offer called Resurrection Bet. This one is my favourites because if you lose you get a 100% refund of your bet to place on the following Wednesday. For example, if you put $200 on a horse to win and it comes 2nd by a nose there no need to worry, you get your money back! Just make sure you bet on the nominated Resurrection Bet races that are listed on the Sportsbet site and you can’t lose.

For more info on Super Saturday or to join Sportsbet checkout their site.

Here’s some details on the offers available

1. Everyone’s a Winner

You’ll win even if you lose. Sportsbet will refund 10% of your net losses on Randwick racing win, place and each way bets placed from 10am to 6pm AEST Saturday 25 July.

2. Happy Hour

For one mad hour from 1pm to 2pm AEST 25 July you can boost your payouts on 10 win, place or each way bets of up to $200 stake each on nominated Flemington & Doomben races with Sportsbet’s great Happy Hour 20% Bonus offer!

The 20% bonus is also on top of the Best Odds (better than the TAB) available through Sportsbet.

Heres the Happy Hour times for each state

Qld:  1pm-2pm.
SA:  12:30pm-1:30pm.
NT: 12:30pm-1:30pm.
WA: 11am-12pm.
Vic/NSW/ACT/Tas: 1pm-2pm.

3. Fifty/fifty bet

Earn a $50 free bet on each of the four 50/50 bet offer available on Super Saturday. You can get up to $200 in free bets!

4. Funky Fourth

Place an Each Way wager on one horse in any of the nominated Morphettville races and if your horse Runs 4th, your stake will be refunded and you’ll get your money back.

5. Resurrection Bets

Place a win, place or each way wager of up to $200 stake on the nominated Resurrection Bet races and if your bet loses, your stake immaculately resurrects as a Free Bet for ONE DAY only on Wednesday 29 of July.

6. Seeing Double 1st Deposit Bonus

Sportsbet will double the value of their ’1st Deposit’

Make your 1st deposit and earn up to $200 in free bets (2 free bets equal to 20% of the deposit amount up to $200).

With the $10 million upgrades finishing on schedule the Toowoomba Turf Club will be presenting their amazing new cushion track with an action packed program under lights this Saturday.

IASbet’s bookmaker Mark Read identifies the inaugural $150,000 2009 Weetwood Handicap as the pick of the card, stating that the field is arguably one of the best assembled in Queensland this year.
“The pace will be strong from the outset as Wasted Emotions ($3.80) will be pressured at the front by Danzylum ($16.00) and Vocalic ($34.00),” said Read.

“My tip, and I feel strongly about this one, is Voice Commander ($4.80) ridden by the inform Tye Angland. The gelding has been racing very well lately without race patterns and conditions suiting him. He trains on a similar surface in Canberra, and, all factors considered, this event looks to be the ideal race for him.”

Although he has a poor draw at 13 he has the speed to overcome the gate and will be up there come the end of the race.

Voice Commander had a troubled race at a recent run at the Sunshine Coast but he still passed about seven horses and ran home so you can trust that the horse has returned to some former glory if he gets a good run at it.

It could possibly be Voice Commander’s final run in Queensland this year with trainer Nick Olive undecided about his future past the Weetwood Handicap. “He might have one or two starts in the early spring, probably in Melbourne, and then we’ll turn him out and bring him back for the Magic Millions in January.”

Olive also isn’t worried about Voice Commander handling the newly made cushion track under lights and said “I don’t think it will be a problem. I know it’s a bit of a different surface but he’s worked on the Acton track at Canberra his whole career so I don’t think the track will worry him at all.”

IASbet is the place to go for this weekends big race. They currently have an offer where if you make $50 worth of bets you will recieve a $100 free bet. Simply use the promo code BFF100 on the joining page.

There are plenty of betting strategies around but hedge betting is the only and a great way to guarantee a winning outcome from a bet. Basically bet hedging is used as insurance on another bet, but there are only certain times where hedging can be properly used.

Scenario 1.

You place a $10 five team multi bet on the AFL which will pay a profit of $100 if all five teams win. Your bet is going really well and the first four teams win. The fifth and last game, lets say St Kilda Vs Geelong are playing in few hours and you need Geelong to win for the multi bet to pay. This is where you have the opportunity to hedge your bet.

Instead of crossing you fingers and hoping that Geelong wins you can put $50 on St Kilda to win at $2.00 which obviously if they won would pay $100, a profit of $50.

Now you have given yourself two outcomes that both would give you a decent return on your initial $10 bet.

If Geelong wins, great! You win your multi bet and collect $100 minus the $50 you bet on St Kilda to win you still profit $50.

If St Kilda happens to win, its still great! You do lose your five leg multi bet but profit $50 on your second bet for St Kilda to win, minus your $10 multi bet at the start of the day you still profit $40

Scenario 2.

At the start of the year you put $100 on Essendon to win the Premiership at the end of the year, which would pay $1000, a $900 profit.

Essendon have a great year and make it to the Grand Final along with Hawthorn. Essendon are one step away from winning the premiership and your one step from profiting $900.

Instead of hoping Essendon wins the Grand Final you put a $500 bet on Hawthorn to win at  $1.90 which would give you a profit of $450

With this scenario you have guaranteed a tidy profit on your initial $100 bet no matter what the result of the game is.

If Essendon wins then you win your bet from the start of the year and profit $900 minus your $500 second bet on Hawthorn which brings you in a nice profit of $400.

If Hawthorn wins, you still win and profit $450 minus the $100 bet from the start of the year for a $350 profit.

Is hedge betting a good strategy?
Sure, but it depends on the amount of risk you wish to take. Looking at the first scenario if you didn’t hedge the bet and Geelong did win you would have made a profit of $90, but they lose you go home with your tail between your legs and wonder what could have been.

My advice, take a close look at the game and if there is any doubt on a winning result, hedge it. Even if you only hedge half the amount you still guarantee a happy ending either way.

Checkout our free bets section for the latest bookmaker deals that can also be used for hedge betting.

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

Canbet was established in 1995 and licensed both in the Northern Territory and the UK. They are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and turn over around a massive 1.2 billion dollars a year.

In my opinion Canbet would be the best place to go for horse racing bets. They cover all race meets in Australia and around Asia including Singapore and Hong Kong.

They are known for their excellent racing promos.

1. They have 25% cash rebate on losses for each month. This is a first for any Australian bookmaker and a welcome one. For example if you lose $100 on race bets during a month you get a $25 return!
2. Canbet also encourage horse owners and trainers to bet on their own horses in return giving them an extra 10% on all winnings!
3. Another horse racing deal they have is call “protest payout”. What happeneds is if your horse wins the race and a protest is called and the horse is then relegated from first place the win still stands!Its deals like this that keep people going back to Canbet.

They have also made their mark in the bookie industry with a superior support team including a live chat facility, telephone support and super quick email responses.

Canbet cover all Australian and International sports events ranging from the not so known sports like Snooker and Yachting to the high profile sports like the AFL and English Premier League. You would be amazed how interesting Snooker can be to watch once you have some money on it!

Canbet’s sign up bonus is one to take advantage of.Use the promo code FREEBET when signing up and make a deposit of $50 or more and a $100 free bet will be awarded. I checked out the conditions on this offer and found that $50 worth of bets must be made before the free bet is given. Also the free bet winnings must be turned over twice before a withdrawal can be made. As I said in my Centrebet Review earlier, it means if you win $50 from the free bet you must make another $100 worth of bets before you can withdraw any money into your bank account. This is pretty usual for signup bonuses with all Australian online bookies. An easy way to get around both of these conditions is make the bets on markets with really short odds that are almost sure to win and then you will be able to withdraw at any time after that point.

With all the promos Canbet has on offer not only on sign up but throughout the year and the support that is a click away I recommend Canbet. I haven’t had any issues with their services and find their odds among the best.

I gave them a 5 out of 5

For more info on Canbet’s offers or to signup checkout the website here.

Sportsbetblog have received some betting vouchers and we have decided to give them to the people!

Comment And Win!

At the end of each month the Sportsbetblog team will choose a comment made on any of the blog entries on the Sportsbet Blog site and will award the winner with a $100 free bet. We are looking for the most interesting comments that will add to the blog topics.

To enter simply use the comment system on every blog and once your comment has been made you are automatically in the draw for the prize and the more you make the more chance you have of winning!

The winner will be notified by email and will be published on the site at the start of each month. So start commenting and good luck!

Australia’s largest online bookmaker Sportsbet has been around since the early nineties and is credited for being Australia’s first online sports bookmaker.

Sportsbet is known for the ease of use and a fantastic support team including a live chat feature where questions can be answered there and then with a real person. This is a first for online bookmakers in Australia and a very useful tool for newcomers.

Sportsbet put the fun back in betting with numerous features and promotions.
1.    Soccer Super Coach is where you take the role of a soccer Manager and choose the ultimate soccer team from Europe’s best players with a budget of $115 million! The top scorer get a nice $10,000

2.    2009 Million Dollar Tipping Competition where the winners of both AFL and NRL seasons get a cool $250,000. It’s free to enter and the top 500 place getters also receive cash prizes and there are plenty of weekly prizes to even keep the losing tippers interested. I entered this last year and didn’t come anywhere near winning but won $50 during the season for being around 80,000th place!

3.    The promotion weekends that Sportsbet run are usually on a monthly basis and called Super Saturday. They run deals on these days that include 10% refunds on losses, 20% extra on winnings and 100% extra on deposits made on that day.

4.    If you are really unlucky when picking winners at the horse races then Lucky Loser may be what you are looking for. Sportsbet has created an enormous amount of interest where punters can actually bet on horses that DONT finish in the top 3 places. It’s a laugh to actually be willing a horse to slow down as it comes down the straight!

5.    Sportsbet’s free Black Book feature allows you to follow your favourite horses and greyhounds and receive email or SMS notification when your selections are scheduled to race. This is very handy for the serious punter to never miss a race where a favourite horse in running.

With all these products it’s hard to pass up an account with Sportsbet and equally as hard to pick anything wrong with their service. The odds are among the best and they offer a huge range of Australian and international events. However I did find that their credit service a little too easy to apply for it only took a few clicks and $200 was granted instantly into my account, this could catch a few people out so care must be taken.

Like most bookies they have an initial signup bonus. Unlike others, Sportsbet offer a high 100% extra on your first deposit of up to $200. So if you deposit $200 you get a $200 free bet. The winnings of the free bet must be turned over once before a withdrawal can be made. For example if you win $150 from the free bet then $150 worth of bets must be placed before you can withdraw funds into a bank account.

I give Sportsbet 4.5/5

To signup with Sportbet or find out more info checkout the site

Centrebet has been around since 1992 and was Australia’s first online bookmaker. They are licenced and based in the Northern Territory like many other Australian bookmakers and are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange

Centrebet provides the most easy to use website out of all the online bookies. They have a colourful layout that is very inviting and simple to navigate.  Centrebet’s help section is clear and precise, answering all the simple and technical questions. Although they lack a live chat facility they make up for it with quick email support replies.

They have recently launched a new service called Centrebet Mobile. It’s a new and easy way to make bets on the go. All newer model mobile phones can install the Centrebet Mobile software. From there you can login to your account via 3G or Wi-Fi internet and make bets anywhere at any time. I’ve used this service a few times and found it very fast and well worth having for when you’re at the cricket or footy and want to get a quick bet on rather than using the TAB and getting much lower odds.

The main reason I use Centrebet is that they always have a full range of entertainment and quirky markets ranging from TV makerkets like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, to the quirky markets like the sex of a pregnant Celebrity baby! They also have very competitive odds on the main sports including AFL, NRL and horse racing markets.
Unlike other bookies Centrebet also cover a large range of football leagues from around the world for the football mad punter including Denmark’s SAS Ligaen league and Norway’s Tippeligaen league as well as the major leagues of the English Premier League and Germany’s Bundesliga.

The signup bonuses they offer are a great chance to get a kick start with Centrebet. Currently for signing up with them you can get a free bet bonus of double of whatever your first deposit is. For example if you deposit $50 you get a $100 free bet.

I checked out the term and conditions of the offer thinking that they would be very strict. I found that other than the free bet must be used within 45 days after being issued the only other condition worth mentioning is that the free bet must be turned over twice before you can withdraw. This means if you get a $100 free bet you must make another $200 worth of bets before you can withdraw any money back into your bank account. This is pretty usual for signup bonuses with all online bookies. An easy way to get around this is make the bets on markets with really short odds that are almost sure to win and then you will be able to withdraw at any time.

All in all I think Centrebet isn’t the most popular bookmaker in Australia but they do have the most to offer in a clean and well set out site. They are great for people who are just starting out as they explain things in a step by step process. If you have any stories or opinions about Centerbet please leave a comment, I would love to hear them!

I give them 4.5 out of 5

To signup or find out more about Centrebet check out their site.