England v South Africa ODI series betting
England and South Africa lock horns once again this week, firstly in a Twenty20 match on Wednesday and then for the first ODI of the five-match series.
Kevin Pietersen takes charge of the One-Day side in his first series after his successful debut as Test captain. The Home side will need that sort of form to continue if they can reverse their recent fortunes in ODI matches.
Those of us that have followed England in recent sport betting will know that they were outplayed by New Zealand earlier this summer, but if Pietersen can inflict his aggressive style on the team, their fortunes may well change.
Owais Shah will come into the side after showing some impressive skills with the bat and looks a reasonable bet at 6/1 with Blue Square to be the top England batsman of the series.
South Africa’s captain, Graeme Smith, performed well during the Test series, regularly scoring runs to frustrate England – he is available at 5/2 with Extrabet to be South Africa’s top scorer.
The best odds on England to win the series are 13/8 with Bet365, Boylesports and Paddy Power. With a new talisman at the helm in run-scoring form, this looks like pretty good value.
The Olympics 2008: Team GB to be among the medals
There’s nothing quite like the Olympics to create a sense of national sporting pride in Britain. The country will unite behind little-known sportsmen and women as they are thrust into the limelight in Beijing.
We’ll be on the edges of our seat in front of the men’s Madison event at the Laoshan Velodrome, and jumping up and down with excitement watching the canoeing and by the closing ceremony, there will be some new national heroes.
As a proud sporting Brit, and as someone who bets on sport to make it even more exciting, I’m having a punt on a spread bet with Sporting Index. They have devised a points system for GB and Ireland medals (5 for gold, 3 for silver and 1 for bronze), and are offering a spread of 102-108.
I have bought at 108 with a small stake, which means that every point over 108 (so every medal won beyond a certain number) will earn me some money - that means I’ll be addicted to every minute of the action hoping for our team to be amongst the medals. The risk isn’t too high - every point below 102 at the end of the fortnight would cost me money, but with plenty of medal prospects it’s a reasonable bet.
Of particular interest are the cycling events, the tennis and the diving, but Team GB has a number of strong contenders.
Philips Idowu (pictured above) is the number one in the world in the triple jump, and is one of our bankers for a Gold medal. Other athletics hopes are Kelly Sotherton in the heptathlon and Paula Radcliffe in the marathon, still chasing that Olympic title.
The velodrome will offer much hope for the medals table, with Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and Mark Cavendish all in with a chance.
Andy Murray looks in good shape on the tennis court, and is competing in the singels and the doubles (with his brother, Jamie) so he has another chance of a place on the podium.
We also have Ben Ainslie and the ‘Yngling girls’ in the sailing, Larry Godfrey in archery, Liam Tancock in swimming, Beth Tweddle in the gymnastics, Richard Faulds in shooting, Frankie Gavin in boxing, old favourites Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms in the badminton, and the usually strong rowing teams - all stand a reasonable chance of a medal.
There has been much hype surrounding young Tom Daley in the diving, and although he has said it is too soon for a medal, he could be in with a shout in the synchronised event.
So here’s to the judo, the handball and the table tennis - all will be gripping in the Olympic arena, and I shall be watching the lot.
England’s cricketing nightmare continues
Trailing 1-0 in the series against South Africa, and now completely outplayed on the first day of the third Test, England’s cricketers appear to be in disarray.
Since amassing an enormous score in the first innings of the first Test and failing to close out the game, they have lost their way, lost the second Test and now seem to have lost the plot.
Paul Collingwood and Michael Vaughan urgently need some runs, but disappointed yet again, so it’s to the bowlers we turn.
Monty Panesar will get a hatful of wickets when England get down to the middle order on Thursday - you can back him on Betfair to be England’s top bowler.
I wouldn’t back England to win though if I were you!
It’s all a little bit quiet…
The football and rugby players are enjoying their summer holidays, the cricket team are taking a break between tests, golfers have a Birkdale hangover and most punters are heading for the beach.
There’s not a lot going on in the sports betting world at the moment, hence the lack of updates on here for a week or so.
But fear not, one of the greatest sporting events (the greatest? discuss.) in the world is just around the corner. How many golds will Britain win at the Olympics? Is Phillips Idowu our greatest hope?
There will be plenty of betting opportunity coming up, from spreads on medals won with Sporting Index, to accumulators on the handball first round!
The Open Championship preview at Royal Birkdale
Tiger Woods’ absence this week for The Open Championship means that the rest of the field has their eyes on the prize
Despite the fact that no European has ever won The Open at Royal Birkdale, Sergio Garcia is this year’s front-runner – available at 10/1 with Boylesports, Betfred and Paddy Power - and he’ll be desperate to exorcise the demons that have haunted him since last year’s final-round capitulation.
Having lead by three shots going into the last day at Carnoustie, Garcia fell apart to win nothing but the unenviable title of ‘the most gifted golfer never to win a major’. His performance this year will hang on the quality of putting, which often seems to let him down on the big stage – if he is dropping putts during the early rounds, he should be in contention come Sunday.
Justin Rose (28/1 with Extrabet) and Lee Westwood (16/1 with Paddy Power) will be flying the flag for Britain. Rose returns to the venue of his impressive entrance onto the world stage, where he announced himself with a fourth place finish as a 17-year-old amateur. Westwood arrives on the back of two good performances in majors this year, and his short game is beginning to look as natural as his driving ability. Both have a good chance and are certainly worthy of an each-way bet.
Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Jim Furyk and Ernie Els should all be in contention, but I’m going for an outside bet on Andres Romero at 40/1 with Extrabet. He has played in two Opens so far, and hasn’t finished lower than 8th; his distance off the tee is immense, particularly for a relatively slight man and is ranked 16th on the ‘putts per round’ leaderboard on the PGA Tour statistics website (Garcia is 178th, just to put it in context).
Paddy Power are paying out on the first 6 places at ¼ odds for each way bets just for The Open, so get involved while you can.
England v South Africa preview
England’s cricketers will be back in action this week as the challenging Test series against South Africa gets underway at Lord’s. After a few dull duels with New Zealand, the South Africans will pose a real threat to England’s impressive Home record.
Captain Michael Vaughan, and indeed most of the nation, will be hoping that Kevin Pietersen continues his form wielding the willow, seeing as England’s other top order batsmen can hardly score a run between them.
Both Vaughan and Paul Collingwood, the Test and One-Day captains respectively, will aim to put their indifferent form behind them as they face the strictest examination of their credentials since the Ashes, but the hosts will definitely be underdogs.
In Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, the visitors have a devastating bowling attack that could tear England to shreds. Steyn is being hailed in his homeland as the new Allan Donald, whilst Morkel might be the new Shoaib Akhtar (minus the off-field misdemeanours, of course) with his 95mph deliveries.
England’s armoury is comparatively limited with a significant lack of pace, and only Monty Panesar to strike fear into their adversaries. But Pietersen and Panesar must not be expected to take on the tourists on their own – the rest of the team will need to stand up and be counted after being largely anonymous during recent series.
Andrew Flintoff may feature later in the summer, and although he is likely to miss the first and second Tests, he could still provide the boost that England need. Competition for places will intensify greatly on his return, and given that only Pietersen is assured of his place in the top order, Freddie looming large might be just the sort of motivation required.
It’s likely to be a fascinating contest, and let’s hope England can be competitive. Pietersen will need to be at his best, but Flintoff might just be the unsung hero from the pavilion.
England are available at 9/4 with Boylesports whilst South Africa are 11/10 with totesport
Tour de France betting special
This one made me laugh, so I thought I’d publish the details…
The Drugs Don’t Work!
Tour de France, July 5th - 27th
Back any rider to win the Tour De France with Paddy Power and get your Money-Back if he is banned during the tour for a failed drug test.
Euro 2008 semi final special offers
As we near the closing stages of Euro 2008, Boylesports are still coming out with special offers - see below for the latest!
“Too Klose For Comfort” - Germany v Turkey
Euro 2008 Semi-Final, Wednesday 7.45pm - If Miroslav Klose scores the last goal of the game (90 mins play only), Boylesports will refund losing First/Last/Anytime Goalscorer, Correct score & Scorecast single bets on this match.
“Smart Arsh” - Russia v Spain
Euro 2008 Semi-Final, Thursday 7.45pm - If Andrei Arshavin scores either the first or last goal of the game (90 mins play only) Boylesports will refund losing First/Last/Anytime Goalscorer, Correct score & Scorecast single bets on this match.
Unfashionable Turks can upstage Croatia
Turkey’s second-half showing in the dramatic 3-2 win over the Czech Republic on Sunday showed they are the real deal. Fatih Terim’s men now face a classy Croatia side in the quarter-finals on Friday and soccer betting fanatics shouldn’t rule out another upset.
Turkey’s first two games were far from convincing, despite beating Switzerland 2-1 in their second clash, but on Sunday in Geneva Terim’s men came of age.
After a poor first half and trailing 1-0 at the interval Turkey went 2-0 behind against the run of play, but the Turks kept their composure and delivered when it mattered. Three goals in the final 15 minutes is no mean feat but Turkey were full value for the win after pinning the Czechs on the backfoot with crisp and accurate passing.
Turkey teams of the past would have lost their discipline at 2-0 down, just look at the debacle against Switzerland in the World Cup play-off in 2005 when a mass brawl erupted, but Terim seems to have instilled a strength and self-belief in his squad.
Croatia will be tough quarter-final opponents having racked up three straight wins en route to winning Group A, but they are not invincible and may well be surprised by Turkey’s techical ability.
Slaven Bilic’s men are many pundits’ dark horses for the tournament and they are the 2.04 favourites on Betfair to dispose of Turkey in 90 minutes.
But Turkey are a resilient bunch and will prove tricky opposition for a Croatia team which may now start to miss the goalscoring prowess of Eduardo.
Ivica Olic, Ivan Klasnic and Mladen Petric have all played up front for Croatia so far and although they work hard, especially Olic, none of the trio look top class.
Their midfield has been cruising through the tournament, while the back four have yet to be tested.
Turkey this time around have forward players with undoubted ability and Arda Turan, Tuncay Sanli and two-goal hero Nihat Kahveci can cause Croatia problems.
At 27.0 to win the title Turkey look decent value but the safer bet for football betting professionals is to back the Turks to qualify - the equivalent of a two-horse race - at a tasty-looking 2.8.
By Phil Tomlinson
This week on The Betting Blog
Well, Tiger has proved me well and truly wrong. It just shows what a truly great competitor he is, claiming victory at the US Open despite limping around 91 holes and clearly not playing as well as we know he can.
This week, Euro 2008 enters the knockout stages, with some attractive looking showdowns. There have been some slightly unexpected results in group games, which means some big names will be squaring up.
My two picks, Spain and Holland are both performing well, but Croatia might be worth a punt at this stage as well.
We’ll also preview the rugby at the weekend, with England’s much-changed side facing New Zealand in the second test. There are a few new names, and the bookies won’t know what to expect so there should be some opportunities for us.
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