Sports Betting Blog

Midweek Champions League preview from Bluesquare. 2nd and 3rd November 2010.

Bursaspor will be looking for their first Champions League goal of the season in Tuesday’s Group C home game against Manchester United. It’s a depleted Red Devils’ squad that travels to Turkey in need of three points that will ensure their progression to the knock-out stages. Rio Ferdinand did not make the plane, presumably after straining his vocal chords whilst sorting out the rules for Mark Clattenburg and his assistant referee on Saturday. Long term absentees Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs will affect the balance of the squad that will meet the usual fiery Turkish atmosphere. Sir Alex Ferguson’s team will be relying on squad rotation to overcome the club who are unbeaten in this season’s Super Lig. In the reverse fixture just two weeks ago Bursaspor were only beaten by one goal to nil and must harbour hopes of getting a point on the board from this home tie. United are the 7/10 favourites with Blue Square for the game, and the draw is a 12/5 chance. Either result will maintain their unbeaten run started with a 3-1 rout of Chelsea in the Community Shield back in August. Plenty of negative comments have been attached to Fergie’s team already this season, following some unlikely draws, but you can’t argue with those stats. Bursaspor are the 4/1 outsiders for the game. Rangers are also big outsiders at 7/1 to improve their qualification hopes with a win at Valencia, who are challenging them for second spot in the group.
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West Brom delivered the shock of the season today by beating Arsenal at the Emirates. It could have been worse for Arsenal as West Brom had their first half penalty saved. Whats unusual about the victory is that West Brom actually out played Arsenal. Usually, teams that beat Arsenal have backs against the wall, defending a single goal. West Brom were 3-0 up at one point and only a late resurgence by Arsenal made the score 3-2 and made it half respectable.
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Some punters are rushing to bet that the early season goal-rush in the Premier League will continue this week, and William Hill are quoting 7/1 that last week’s Premiership total of 37 goals will be exceeded, and 5/2 that a hat trick will be scored during the games – which was a 10/3 shot last week. William Hill have also seen business for their offer of 9/2 for another Premier League scoreline of 6-0 to come up in the next round of games. ‘The early season goal-rush has sparked a rush of bets for it to continue’ said William Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe.

It could well be worth backing individual games to be overs too. Hopefully the rest of the market will not have caught on and there may be some value there.
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After tonight’s stunning 3-0 win over Liverpool, the odds on Manchester City to finish above Manchester United are just 13/8.

Manchester City are now 13/2 to win the Premier League title – and 11/8 to finish above United. ‘City’s display tonight suggests they will be serious title contenders and that United will be hard-pressed to finish above them this season’ said Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe. There were some doubts about how Roberto Mancini could get all the stars playing. However, tonight, they showed they mean business this year.
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Double winners Chelsea kick off their Premier League title defence against newly-promoted West Brom on Saturday evening in what many people will have down as their banker of the weekend. It’s no surprise to see the Blues as short as 1/6 to win this one, with West Brom 14/1 outsiders and the draw 11/2.

While we’ve grown used to seeing Chelsea throwing eye-watering amounts of cash around during the close season, its been very different this year with Ricardo Carvalho’s move to Madrid making him the 5th big name to leave the club after Joe Cole, Michael Ballack, Juliano Belletti and Deco.

With only Yossi Benayoun’s arrival and the pending transfer of Ramires to balance those losses, the Blues are putting plenty of faith in the players who did so well last year on their way to breaking the Premier League goals record with a staggering 103 for the season.
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The new Premier League season kicks off at White Hart Lane on Saturday afternoon as Champions League debutants Spurs take on a Man City side whose minimum requirement this term must be a top four finish.

At the time of writing, Harry Redknapp has so far defied his ‘wheeler-dealer’ reputation with no significant signings coming into the club over the close season, and it remains to be seen whether he strengthens his squad in time for this one.

A fairly indifferent set of pre-season results could tempt ‘Arry into splashing out, with Craig Bellamy and Scott Parker two of the players strongly linked with the north London club. A 1-4 hammering by Villareal at the Lane a couple of weeks go will certainly have had Tottenham fans perusing the gossip columns with a certain desperation.
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Those whacky Irish bookmakers, Paddypower, always come up with weird and wonderful bets. Usually these are just to generate headlines and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. However, once in a while, there is a bet that’s worth taking.

Paddypower are taking bets on which British TV channel will get the highest peak viewing figures for the world cup final on Sunday. There are two choices, BBC and ITV. Both are being shown on their respective HD channels too. All things being equal you’d expect slightly less than evens for either channel to get the most viewers. However things aren’t equal.

Both channels are showing the exact same game but will have different commentators for the game and different pundits during the build up. Will people prefer Gary Linker and co or Adrian Chiles and his team? Well, I think this is where Paddypower’s odds setters got a bit confused. If that was the only criteria, then the opening odds of 1/5 for the BBC and 3/1 for ITV maybe right.
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After the defeat to the young German side, British Bookmaker William Hill have opened up a market on when England manager Fabio Cappello will leave. Defeat may have been acceptable but a 4-1 scoreline and an inept performance makes it very likely Capello will have to go.

William Hill are offering odds of 5/4 that Fabio Capello becomes a former England manager before the end of the World Cup – and 11/10 that he has gone before the end of 2010. ‘If Mr Capello survives the current media onslaught he could not survive further disappointment at the qualifying stage of the Euro 2012 tournament – and at the moment no one is betting that he can see the tournament out, let alone the year’ said Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe.
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Even though David James did not play any part in tonight’s friendly game against Mexico, British Bookmaker, William Hill make him 4/5 odds on favourite to start as England’s number 1. Joe Hart is second favourite at 6/4 whereas Robert Green is an outsider at 9/2. A William Hill spokesman commented that, “Although neither Green nor Hart did much wrong, Capello has probably already made up his mind who will start the first World Cup game in goal”.

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Chelsea are now just 4/9 to win the domestic league and cup double with Irish bookmaker, Paddypower. An excellent weekend for the champions elect make them red hot favourites for both awards.

Having seen main title rivals Manchester United stumble with a draw at Blackburn Sunday Paddy Power now offer 2/7 for Chelsea to win their first league title in four years with Sir Alex Ferguson’s side slipping to third in the betting at 6/1 from 5/2. Arsenal are in-between at 5/1 with their season arguably hinging on the North London derby at White Hart Lane on Wednesday. Even so, the title is Chelsea’s to lose now.
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The FA Cup would appear to be Chelsea’s to lose following the exit of Arsenal this weekend.

With Arsenal joining Liverpool and Manchester United on the FA Cup sidelines Paddy Power now have Chelsea the 6/4 favourites to win the FA Cup with apparent cup specialists Manchester City their nearest rival at 10/3. City are 12/1 to complete the Cup double this season ahead of the Carling Cup semi-final against neighbours United on Wednesday.
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William Hill are now 1/3 that David Beckham will be on the plane to South Africa, following a good display in-front of the England Manager but the odds suggest that he will not be part of the original starting eleven with Hills offering 2/5 he is not . Patrick Vieira looks set to join Man City and Hills expect City to carry on adding to their squad offering 14/1 that they bring in just Vieira but 5/2 that five or more players join City in the January window. Leeds fans will be disheartened to see that star striker Jermain Beckford is now 8/15 to be a Newcastle player come February.
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