betting - Most popular for September 2007
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International breaks breed vacuous nonsense. Step forward Sky with an "in-depth" survey which
apparently shows that English referees are the best in the world. Really?
For a start, Murdoch's manipulators failed to inform us exactly who they questioned, how many
people were in the sample group, what nationality mix existed, who undertook the poll and how the
question was phrased.
What is the point of these international breaks apart from for the encouragement of xenophobic
neo-nationalists from Serbia to England? All we get is non-competitive, manipulated matches that
are virtually irrelevant in that UEFA (or FIFA with regard to the World Cup) have already
determined who the desired qualifiers are to be. Following the original competition draw, the
arrangement of the match calendar and the selection of the referees, not very much is left to
chance.
When it comes to relationships, there is one undeniable truth. It doesn't matter how attractive a
girl may be, how delightful her personality or how sparkling her conversation; sooner or later, the
bint's going to start to grate.
As a result, a decline in physical intimacy is a natural consequence. After making sweet music with
the same partner for a number of months, it's perfectly natural to want to replace the duet with a
solo.
Out of the first one hundred Premiership matches this season, Sky Television have selected just one
Arsenal game for live coverage (against Portsmouth) and, taking the data up to the December limit
of Sky's disclosures, only the minnows of Wigan, Fulham, Birmingham, Derby, Reading, Blackburn and
Middlesboro are shown less than the Gunners. Why so?
Global betting turnover on live Sky Premiership games is markedly higher than the other Premiership
games.
Usmanov eats babies for breakfast and Abramovich offers financial inducements to the Russians to
beat your national heroes. No matter on your perspective, the new breed of East European owners and
board members in the Premiership are far more entertaining in their degree of psychopathy than the
likes of Louis Edwards, who merely sold poisoned meat knowingly to Manchester schoolchildren.
The Catcher in the Guy
The wife has got to make a meal out of everything. When giving birth, most women are in and out in
a few hours with minimal whining, but the wife had to have ‘complications'. I can't remember the
exact excuse she gave for her extended three-day stay, I think it was something like a rupture, a
breach, or the bed had collapsed.
Creative market analysts love advanced technologies that might provide a competitive edge in the
marketplace. There is only one problem with this reliance - all such technologies are highly
dependent on the quality of the data set and the choice of the key configurative parameters that
the software requires as inputs.
Basically, the ground is defined by "rubbish in, rubbish out".
Well, I'm going to miss him anyway...
The disappearance of The Special One from the English game was matched by the appearance of oodles
of cash to Dietrological Gold clients who were advised on the 66/1 available on Mourinho being the
first Premiership managerial casualty of the new season while everybody else was bleating on about
Martin Jol and Juande Ramos.
Japan v England (1pm BST, on Eurosport) Japan to win: 7/4 Draw: 11/5 England to win: 13/10 The draw
offers pretty good value considering the climate/nerve issues England's women will have to overcome
in their first outing, but we'll have no such balanced advice here. Stick your foam Ingerlund hand
on and wave it in the bookie's face screaming, "England to win!
Skybet loses money. Abramovich loses face. Mike Dean loses the plot.
Far more importantly, Premiership football lost a little more of its soul during yesterday's farce
of an encounter between the American Reds and the Russian/Israeli Blues - it may well have been
spectacular theatre but it certainly wasn't sport.
United won with a goal during the half time break, a sending off that wasn't warranted and penalty
that was highly dubious.
As we posted yesterday, the potential takeover of Arsenal by Alisher Usmanov is as out of order in
footballing terms as His Excellency The Doctor moving in on Manchester City. There is little point
in the Premier League having a fit and proper persons criteria for club ownership if reptilian
psychos are repeatedly able to slip through the net.
Fortunately, from Arsenal's perspective, Arsène Wenger decided to put the record straight
yesterday with respect to his personal attitude to the shenanigans of his former colleague David
Dein.
Germany v Argentina (1pm BST, follow it on Eurosport) Germany to win: 1/6 (BlueSq) Draw: 5/1
(BlueSq) Argentina to win: 12/1 (BlueSq, Ladbrokes) It's barely worth it - 1/6 is the best we can
find and money on anything other than a German win is money down the drain. If you've got £6000
lying around with nothing better to do, mind...
Ghana v Australia (10am BST) Ghana to win: 11/2 Draw: 11/4 Australia to win: 4/9 (all BlueSq) The
Aussies are strong favourites, which means it might be best to hold onto your pennies for this
afternoon's group C match between Norway and Canada. You can get 11/2 (BlueSq) on the Canadians
springing a surprise on the Norwegians.
Four matches today, but we're saying group A is one to avoid: Japan have got Argentina, so the odds
will make small-change betting pointless, and England take on Germany. Patriotic as we are, there's
probably only going to be one result there. You can get the draw for about 10/3 if you're feeling
particularly bulldoggish. Group B might be worth a look though: Sweden are massively underrated by
the bookies, especially given that USA didn't exactly look frightening against North Korea.
So, what is there to tell. The betting on Liverpool isn't massively favourable because of their
position as leaders of the Premier League. As a result, you need to look a little deeper for the
real value. How about 11/10 for the second half to have more goals than the first? You'll get a
price of 11/10 with StanJames and it's not team specific so you're almost getting two bets for the
price of one.
Néa Dhimokratía outrageously won yesterdays Greek elections despite being responsible for
everything that is malignant in the country. The 42% of the population who made the choice of self
rather than anything approaching altruistic concern for the erosion of a true bottom-up democracy
should feel nothing but shame.
The rampant corruption that degrades many aspects of Greek society inevitably spreads over to
football.
Political correctness is an admirable concept. I warmly applaud any school of thought that helps
keep Jim Davidson off the telly.
But while the PC philosophy is sound in theory; in reality, it's beginning to spiral out of
control. My youngest won't be allowed to compete in his school's sports day this year, as the
headmistress frowns upon the notion of ‘losing'.
The departure of Jose Mourinho at Chelsea has led to the expected speculation about the club. But
what does all this mean from a Liverpool perspective? That Mourinho might pop up at another Premier
League team to wreck havoc? Unlikely. That the distress and disturbances at Stamford Bridge might
derail Chelsea's title hopes? Maybe (all bookies have now lengthened Chelsea's odds on winning the
Premier League, with us moving into second spot with a number of them - yeay!
The most disturbing aspect related to the nonsense that was Man Utd against Chelsea was it being
the first instance of a Premiership pre-match betting market passing the £500 million ($1000000)
threshold.
We initially did not expect to see this barrier breached until mid-season but, following Chelsea's
implosion, we astutely posted last week that Sunday would be the day.
Quite a few more Carling Cup fixtures tonight. Here are my predictions for each one: Aston
Villa v Leicester Martin O'Neill will see the Carling Cup as Villa's most winnable trophy,
so I expect him to field a strong Villa team, with Curtis Davies expected to make his debut.
Prediction Aston Villa 3-1 Leicester Blackburn v Birmingham
Depends how much Steve Bruce wants this competition as a distraction.
The Chicken or the Meg
Life is full of little contradictions. When a professional gambler shops around for value, he's
lauded for his shrewdness. Yet when I apply a similar level of financial prudence outside of the
betting arena, I'm considered meaner than a premenstrual Scot with a toothache.
I'm not ashamed to say that I use the same approach with my shopping budget as I do with my betting
bank.
Life is full of little contradictions. When a professional gambler shops around for value, he's
lauded for his shrewdness. Yet when I apply a similar level of financial prudence outside of the
betting arena, I'm considered meaner than a premenstrual Scot with a toothache.
I'm not ashamed to say that I use the same approach with my shopping budget as I do with my betting
bank.
It's that time of the week again, and those of you that can't wait to spend your wages have come to
the right place. The only problem is, there's not a lot of value to be found today. If the Carling
Cup hadn't happened, then you'd find me writing this with greater aplomb because the bookies would
have been offering much better prices than they are today.
