BLOODY LONG ODDS…

Next week sees the start of Big Brother, er 9 - ooh, betcha can’t wait eh! As any BB fan knows, the names aren’t announced until the night, although the good old tabloids are always quick to fire off “exclsives” in the week leading up to it…hey c’mon now, you only have yourselves to blame…if you didn’t buy them, they wouldn’t bother. ok?!

Anyhow, it seems like over the water in the Emerald Isle they can’t wait that long and Paddy Power have already started up a book even before BB9 starts…on Davina clichés! Yup, go here to place your bets on whether the first cliché she uses will be “The time has come…” (8-1 and my personal favourite) or (more…)

Paddy Power To Refund CL Final Bets If Ronaldo Scores!!
A rather interesting offer arrived in my inbox today. Now normally I bin these but this one caught my eye as it strikes me as a bit of a stick-on!

Basically, in a nutshell, Paddy Power are offering your money back on certain bets if Ronaldo scores in normal time during next week’s Champions League final.

Hang on let me just read that again. Hmmm, yep. That’s what it says. Now I’m no idiot, according to my mum, and correct me if I’m wrong, but if Man U score, Ronaldo scores. I mean OK, Scholesy got the emotional goal in the semi, but that was written in the stars back in ‘99, and this Portuguese boy…he’s the man in front of goal. Not to mention he takes all the Pens and FK’s too.

Why are they doing this??! Now I’m taking a punt here, but my guess is Paddy Power see Ronaldo scoring as a dead cert and if everybody punted on him they’d get taken to the cleaners. So, they worked out that refunding certain types of bet would put punters off betting on him. I’ll leave the maths to them, but I’m game!

So anyway, here’s the terms quoted by Paddy Power:

If Ronaldo scores in normal time, Paddy Power will refund ALL losing single pre-match Win-Draw-Win, Correct Score, 1^st/last/anytime goalscorer and Half-time/Full-time market bets on this match.

- Applies to singles placed before kick-off only

-Applies only to Win-Draw-Win, Corrrect Score, 1^st/last/anytime goalscorer and Half-time/Full-time market bets

- Max Refund €300/£200 per customer/bet

- Applies to win part of each way bets only

- Paddy Power football rules apply

- Ronaldo must score in normal time, offer does not apply to extra-time

- Own goals do not count

- Opta Index decision is final.

Er…see you there! Paddy Power…

Stumbled upon an interesting service today that provides all sorts of stats for would-be footie punters on English football. Actually, Stats On Sport provides statistics across more than just footie with Cricket, Golf, Grand Prix…all sorts of sports available. The idea behind the site is to give punters access to just about everything relating to individual matches, team stats, head-to-head stuff and pretty much anything that you could use to make a calculated bet.

Ignoring the fact that the bookie is always right and picking the favourite represents the best chance of winning, the “long shotters” should find this pretty useful I’d say. Just looking at the football stats and you get previews of upcoming games, match data, info on previous encounters between the teams like goals scored, form etc. Can’t see any mention of how many surgical supports Petr Cech has worn in the past season, but I guess (more…)

Came across this audio interview on the BCC today. It’s an interview with Warren Aspinall, ex footie player who talks frankly about his gambling addiction and how close he came to suicide. Clearly been very affected by it and even at 20 minutes, it’s worth a listen.

Supplemental Link: http://www.gamcare.org.uk/

It’s a sad time. The footie season is coming to an end and there’s some 12 long weeks of nothing. Yes I know, Euro2008, the good old European Championships, are looming but England aren’t there…yes we all know the story so let’s not depress ourselves anymore :(

I guess on the plus-side we won’t have to read all about the idiots who can’t handle their drink, but nonetheless, those evenings down the pub, the man-hugs, the testosterone scattering from the ceiling fan and showering the party…we’ll miss them.

And with our top striker Wayne Rooney on the way back to fitness (see pic) it looks like we missed our chance to see “Rooney vs Ronaldo, the Rematch”.

But maybe it’s for the best…Crouchy’s done his best bless, but there’s no escaping the fact that he’s an ugly beanpole with a gorgeous girlfriend, and be honest, we all hate people like that.

So there you go…no excitement for us Brits this Summer but maybe a few bets will make it a tad more interesting. Just looking at Betfair and see they have just launched their Euro 2008 odds and to make it even sweeter, are offering a free £10 bet to punters (more…)