Sport is made for betting

The Scoop6, biggest ever rollover, biggest ever publicity for the UK Tote. Yet they priced up more than £4m on new money in the pool at 50/1. OK, some of it may have been to generate a bit more PR, but it just shows they don't understand what they have on their hands. Rollover jackpots are enormous. £5m pools brings out the people with no idea about racing, and suddenly gets them excited about the sport. So why doesn't the Scoop6 pool open for betting before Saturday morning? Surely it can open on Friday as soon as the fields are ready? Why not open it overnight online. This bet has international appeal - to force them to wait until the UK shops are open just misses a massive opportunity. The UK tote is such a poor cousin of all the other totalisators around the world. They have a fantastic product in the Scoop6, but they promote it poorly. Where is the advertising of the place fund? You'd be lucky to find any mention of it anywhere. Great product, but they don't do a l...

I'm a proud and patriotic Aussie, but one thing I cannot stand is cocky players who expect life to be a cakewalk for them, showing no respect for their opponents or the fans that support them. This week's prime examples are: Australia Rugby League team - thrashed every team in the prelim rounds, thought the final was going to be a walk in the park, and totally embarrassed by New Zealand. Egg on their faces and entirely deserved. As a Victorian, I can quite proudly say I really don't care about rugby league, and this only furthers that belief. Andrew Symonds - a walking timebomb who thinks he can do whatever he likes rather than play the role of a professional sportsman. Dropped from the Australia cricket team recently after various issues, mostly relating to alcohol and a poor attitude, he gets caught up in a bar incident immediately after his first game back after several months in the wilderness. This bloke is a liability and does not deserve to wear the baggy green. He h...

They say it's impossible to pick, but that's the beauty of it. A pool of around £5m will be on offer to the punter(s) who land the winner in each of the six selected races on Saturday. We've put together a few syndicates in our office to land the big one, but in all honesty, it's going to be bloody hard. After all, if there are 12 runners in every race, it means there are just under three MILLION combinations to cover! But you've got to be in it to win it. If you use your Betfair account, you don't pay commission on it (or premium charge) if you win, but you do receive credit for the commission points. Good luck!

Australian corporate bookmakers have been screaming for years how they would be prepared to pay for the right to bet on racing, but expected a fair go in terms of advertising in the respective states. Now it's happened, Victoria is the first one off the rank to introduce a product fee based on Gross Product rather than turnover. Racingandsports article The fools in NSW will try to implement their anti-competitive legislation and waste even more money getting beaten in court, meanwhile Victoria is getting on with it and dealing with the new dawn.

And they're not the only European bookmaker sniffing around in Aus either according to rumours. ...Paddy Power, with 245 outlets throughout Ireland and the UK, has established an office in Australia and its senior executives will be in Melbourne this week. Read the full article here

A reality check in amongst all the hysteria in recent years from Australian racing administrators who were simply trying to protect their cosy lifestyle rather than having any concerns for the welfare of the paying punter... Embrace the enemy Competition makes the world go around, any business which can't deal with it deserves to shrivel up and die. Private businesses do not need government protection.

Racing Victoria's new boss wants to embrace the future rather than deny that the sun will still come up like those muppets in New South Wales.... HeraldSun article Kudos to you sir, let's hope it is more than just words.

The global economic crisis is now being blamed on the hedge funds.... how about people start worrying about fixing it instead of focusing on who to blame for a change?? Hedge funds need regulation My favourite saying... whatever excuse you make, the result is still the same. So get on with it, and focus on the future!

Check out the latest Betfair INPLAY newsletter , and be sure to read the Strategy of the Month section. It's the most popular feature in each edition, and this month's new system is a great one, even if I say so myself....

Bill Saunders of the Virtual Formguide with a brilliant article disecting the latest hysteria from TABCorp in the light of their first battle with competition since they began 40 yrs ago... Boohoo, you're not a government agency anymore TABCorp, so you have to face the real world like everyone else. Stop playing the industry saviour card, all you care about is shareholder profits, nothing more. Read the article here . The wagering landscape has changed forever in Australia in favour of the punters. Monopolies deserve to crumble. There is very little danger of Aus totes ever going broke, it is pathetic scaremongering just like they said the world would cave in if Betfair ever landed in Australia, the spring carnival would be called off, corruption would be everywhere, yada yada yada.... such boring vitriol that these muppets should be held accountable for.

ThoroughbredNews article Massive news for racing sponsorship in Australia...

This is massive if the rumours are true! Age article MELBOURNE Racing Club refused to be drawn yesterday on whether it was about to sign a lucrative sponsorship deal with global betting exchange Betfair. MRC chief executive Warran Brown played a straight bat to talk of an imminent deal, but offered a "watch this space" teaser. The possibility of Sandown racecourse becoming Betfair Park by Saturday was a subject Brown skirted around.

The great man won't get his no.1 spot back, not with a performance like today. Up a set against Gilles Simon and looked to be cruising, and then Simon's amazing stamina came through again... Laying the shorts has very little risk involved... Big numbers traded at very short odds.

Boohoo, the track was too hard so we tried so set up the race for the stable's main chance. Doesn't Aidan O'Brien get it? Team tactics in racing are banned just about everywhere, and most certainly in Australia. Punters bet on individual horses and have the right for those horses to run on their own merits. Team riding or cheating, is there a difference? Once again, a high-profile topweight, Septimus, has flopped miserably, joining the list of Drum Taps, Oscar Schindler, Double Trigger and Yeats. The VRC stewards grilled the jockeys and trainer but it would make little difference anyway - with the flat season effectively over in the Northern Hemisphere, a suspension would mean diddly squat. Article from The Age Here's the deal Aidan - Australia is a dry continent, and it doesn't rain every day. Horses there run on dry tracks. If that's too hard for you, then stay at home where team tactics robbing punters blind are allowed. The likes of Luca Cumani, Dermot Weld ...

When will these clowns ever learn? Monopolies and self-righteous bureaucrats thinking they are exempt from the laws everyone else has to comply with. Bill Saunders lets rip yet again at RacingNSW. Virtual Formguide article

It doesn't get any better than this. Well, actually Derby Day (last Saturday) is the best day of racing in the world IMO due to the quality in every race, but the Cup is the race everyone talks about. And in the best city in the world, Melbourne, they even get a holiday for it. Brilliant. Who will win it? It's a tough race this year, with eight raiders from Europe, some very handy Kiwis and an Australian contingent markedly weaker than any year I can recall. The Europeans want to make it a genuine staying test, with the Ballydoyle support staff (can't say pacemakers!) ensuring the race will be run at a steady clip. I can see a lot of runners going hard early and trying to sit up close. Some will have to be parked wide for the trip... Septimus is the class horse, but over the years, the class horses such as Drum Taps, Oscar Schindler, Double Trigger and Yeats have been sent home with their tails between their legs. Big weights in handicaps bring class horses undone. I think ...