Hopes Clipped

NSW: Now Stop Winning

Geoff's draws have been one of the better performers in the Friendly Tipster Table (3.21% ROI from 129 selections) and his selections this week are:

Swansea City v Liverpool - England (3.6); West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal - England (4.2); Cesena v AS Roma - Italy (3.8); Ajaccio v Lyon - France (3.3) - all bet3000
Honefoss v Odd Grenland - Norway (3.25); Lillestrom v Brann - Norway (3.4); Sandnes v Rosenberg - Norway (3.6); IFK Gotenburg v Malmo - Sweden (3.3) all expekt

Cricket Betting Blog wrote:

I too believe that the FA Cup is now a 2nd class tournament, I remember only too well how it was the biggest prize you could win when my team, Coventry City, won it in 1987 - what has happened to them since? :(

The line that I usually trot out during this debate in the pub, is that years ago teams rushed back their best players from injury to play in FA Cup games, such was there importance. These days, the best players don't even get put on the bench at some clubs, let alone start, let alone rushed back from injury.

Yes, whatever happened to Coventry City? Did they have 'best players' to rush back from injury? Didn't they used to be a First Division team? :)

I'm pretty confident that there is no one alive who would has ever, said with any credibility, that the FA Cup was 'the biggest prize you could win' but it remains the biggest prize that most teams can 'realistically' win! 

From New South Wales comes a report on the forum that Betfair is no longer allowing traders there to back and lay the same horse (at least not in the same race). Apparently you can back OR lay, (and presumably in a two horse race, back - or lay - both entries) but no longer can you trade out all green (or red). Bizarrely they appear to be making the announcement by phoning people and telling them to stop, or risk their account being cancelled, rather than by updating their software. Whether the 'rules' apply to traders living in New South Wales, or betting on events IN New South Wales isn't clear to me, (I suspect the former), but unless this policy makes its way out of NSW, it's of academic interest only. However, it is an example of how quickly the 'rules' can change. One minute you're a full-time horse-race trader in Sydney, the next you're Up The Swanee. With in-play betting under close scrutiny from the Gambling Commission (integrity, fairness and openness concerns), should that ever be banned, there will be a lot of unhappy people around.

Not that I am too happy myself right now. I managed to drop close to four figures on the Clippers v Grizzlies game, but at least the loss offsets the previous day's win and keeps that Premium Charge down! Both Los Angeles teams now have a game seven this weekend. Lakers host the Denver Nuggets with Ron Artest back from his suspension, and the Clippers travel to Memphis where they will lose. Their body language indicated as much, but no markets up yet.

There are markets up for Serie A, and some strange ones at that as noticed by Scott. Genoa v Palermo has the draw at ~2.74, and the Under 2.5 is at ~2.47. Under 3.5 is around 1.67. 2-1 anybody?