Thunder and Storm

A 90th minute penalty saw Football Elite’s one short list selection Getafe win 4-3 today at 3.0. After trailing 2-3 to Sevilla with 76 minutes gone, it wasn’t looking too promising, but luck evens out, and today it was my (our) turn.

The Sports Betting Professor’s baseball selections are looking a little brighter with seven winners from the last nine since Thursday, and with the Los Angles Angels currently leading the New York Yankees by four runs (8-4) in the eighth inning, it’s looking more like eight from the last ten. With six of these eight winners starting as underdog, now might be a good time to start following the selections with money. Actually, last Thursday might have been a better time to start! Small stakes only, for a bit of fun and added interest.

In the NBA play-offs yesterday, he also had a winner with the Milwaukee Bucks easily covering the -1 spread at home to the Atlanta Hawks. No selections from today's four games where wins by the Spurs and Jazz would put the higher seeds in both series in serious danger of elimination. I also have a feeling that all is not well with the Lakers these days. Oklahoma City have all the momentum right now, and the Lakers are looking vulnerable having been backed as low as 1.05 to win the Series after going 2-0. Game Five is always key, and if Kobe Bryant continues to struggle, the younger Thunder could well eliminate the number one seed in the West.

Also soon to be elimnated in the USA is the repressive Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed in 2006.

Two Democrat Representatives (Barney Frank and Jim McDermott), are leading a group that proposes to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which is set to go into effect June 1. Their plan would legalize and tax online gambling.

"We have an activity going on illegally in this country and we’re pretending it doesn’t exist," McDermott said. Internet gambling "people have said 'We want to be legal and we’re certainly willing to pay taxes,' and we need the money. On every count, this is a net positive."

“American adults want to be able to do what they want with their own money without the government interfering,” Frank said.

You think?

As a poster on the Betfair forum commented:

An English-speaking nation of over 300 million suddenly being allowed to gamble on here should lead to interesting times

except that the 300 million figure can be reduced to those with Internet access (86.8 million homes) and then adjusted for the 79% who are "Christian or Muslim" and who obviously won't be gambling with their chances of going to heaven by, well, gambling. Would they? Surely there are no hypocrites in the religious community.

And in Australia, from 250 to 1.01 in the blink of an announcement (although someone knew several days ago it seems)

Melbourne Storm were stripped of premiership wins in 2007 and 2009 and fined $500,000 for breaching the NRL's salary cap by $1.6 million over the last five years.

The NRL also ruled Melbourne will not earn any premiership points in 2010. Sportingbet Australia reacted by slashing Melbourne's wooden spoon odds from $250 to $1.01.

"Melbourne have gone from $251 to $1.01 for the wooden spoon in the space of six hours which has to be the biggest betting move in history," Sportingbet Australia's chief executive Michael Sullivan said.