An Interesting Day*

The Sports Betting Professor's basketball strategy is to have A, B and C bets, stopping at a winner or after three losers. Since I started following them on 16th March, he's dodged the bullet of a third consecutive loser 4 times, but his luck has run out with a current losing sequence of four.

It's strange that his daily "NBA Update and MLB Picks" e-mail fails to mention this. It opens with "Heck of a day on Sunday going 2-0 and picking up 2.05 units for MLB. We have no play for hoops for Monday, as neither of the games fit the system." A heck of a day? Well, two winners from two games is good I guess, but at an average price of 1.93, nothing to get too excited about, especially when considering that he ended the week with a 7-9 record and an overall loss. At least Matt at Football Elite holds his hands up when results don't go well, but the difference is that Matt has a long-term edge that I don't see any evidence the SBP has.

It's been a fascinating day following the political situation. Cameron has shot out to 1.36 from 1.06 to be the next PM as Clegg ponders his next move, which I think will be to the blue corner. As much as I don't like Cameron and his background of privilege, jumping into bed with Labour would not endear Clegg or his party to many in the country. Consecutive unelected PMs would not sit well. The offer of a referendum on the Alternative Vote system from the Tories should be enough for the Lib-Dems, which makes that 1.36 tempting, but whether such a deal can last for long remains to be seen.

It does rather trivialise politics when it is considered a sport for betting purposes and every bit of news makes us think of the effect on the markets rather than on the country's future!

Meanwhile in the world of finance, one of the best days in years for share holders, with the FTSE100 up over 5% after the EU loan deal. A much needed boost of confidence after last week's misery, but the way the Euro moved against the pound and the dollar suggests that concerns over Greece and the other PIGS have not toally been erased. Not to rain on the parade, but the markets are still well down over the past few days, and more likely to go down again before they go up. In my opinion.

Back to sports, and the Spurs went down 0-4 to the Suns and the one-eyed Spurs (Tottenham) fan which cost me a few quid after a hitherto good week. I expected a better effort from the Spurs and made the mistake of convincing myself that they would come back after falling behind. They never did. No team has ever won a series after going 0-3, and it would be understandable to perhaps subconsciously give up a little after falling behind.

Same scenario later tonight with the Utah Jazz trailing 0-3 in the series to the Lakers and playing at home. The Jazz have scored a total of 14 points less over the three games, so the teams are closer than the series score suggests, and again I think the home team should win tonight. I will not be falling in love with my position this time though.

My half-time back of 4.5 goals or more at 2.12 in the Chelsea - Wigan match was one of the easier wins I've had. Never in doubt in fact, as Chelsea topped 100 league goals. Three sevens and an eight certainly helped!

* “It was an interesting day” —President Bush, recalling 9/11.