Sport is made for betting

Bloody hell, I go out for the day for my wedding anniversary and come back to find Nadal has been beaten! With him and Djokovic out, that really opens it up. Federer's quarter of the draw is quite straightforward, but I don't think that entitles him to be 2.26 to win the title. Fernando Gonzalez should not be double Andy Murray's price, he's a much better player on clay than any of his opponents so far, and their h2h is split 1-1, albeit a while back.

Tonight the Horseplayers Association of North America (HANA, the American punters' rights lobby group) is targetting a stakes race at Churchill Downs for their pool party . The Pool Party, or buycott, is designed to make track owners sit up and notice the lobby groups have some power, and that tote punters in the US are sick and tired of high takeout margins. Support the cause, you can bet into the US pools via most UK bookmakers.

Now for people in the UK this mightn't seem a big deal, but in Australia, you've never been able to get a fixed-price off-course on harness and greyhound racing, with the exception of a handful of feature meetings. Smaller gallops tracks really take the piss with book percentages, so the tote has always been the more favoured option because of the strength of the interstate pools. Will TABCorp be setting all their own prices in advance, or just waiting for the track bookies to do all the work for them? We'll fix everything Betfair will be loving this - one of the big things holding back their Aus racing volumes is the lack of early fixed-odds markets. If prices will be available early, not just 15 mins before the race when the first call comes from the track, then Betfair's markets will fire up, particularly from international customers who have long demanded early prices to trade from and use to lay-off. Fair play to TABCorp for doing it, considering they've made a...

Two more bets today. Women 0.5pt Larcher de Brito 3.5 to beat Rezai Price just too big here, impressive win over Zheng last round while Rezai was lucky to get past Hercog on Wednesday. Men 1pt Soderling 2.75 to beat Ferrer The Swede was flying last week, and while not as damaging this week, he hasn't dropped a set. Ferrer was lucky to get past Kiefer and is starting to get found out by the rest of the tour.

These guys do a pretty good job already of shooting themselves in the foot, but Patrick Smith of the Australian manages to give them more of the lambasting they deserve for their pig-headed ignorance of how the modern world works. If idiots like this lot ran the world since time began, we'd still be living in huts thinking the world was flat. NSW racing fights for life Here's the deal Bob Bentley - don't blame the corporate bookmakers and Betfair for the damage left behind by the incompetence and arrogance of NSW racing administrators. The money they've pissed up the wall on legal fees fighting forlorn cases would fund at least two months of city racing. Every other state is doing just fine, but NSW has created the mess it's in, nobody else... Bill Saunders also weighs in with his views Something doesn't quite add up When publicly-elected officials go on ego-stroking campaigns wasting money with little regard for the consequences, they really should be hung out ...

Fighting back after an awful day - Kiefer went close, managed to trade out for a nice position, but it still didn't cover the rest. The scoreboard says 0-5. Women 1pt Cirstea to beat Cornet 2.6 This is a play against the French headcase mostly - her R1 match had 16 breaks in 22 games, that's woeful. Cirstea is good enough, although her form hasn't been brilliant. 2pts Wickmayer to beat Stosur 2.2 Have been following the Belgian for several wks now and profitably too. On a great run and with stronger clay experience than the Aussie. 1pt Kutuzova to beat Martinez Sanchez 2.75 Another I've had some wins on this year, solid player well suited against the flair of the Spaniard and has a strong 10-4 record against lefties. 1pt M.Gonzalez to beat Seppi 3.0 Good R1 win over Fish, backing up last wk's form, while Seppi won less than 1/3 of his 2nd serves in R1, a licence to tee off. UPDATE Better results today, 2-2, +0.6. Kutuzova blew a one-set lead unfortunately.

Like a few tomorrow, here goes: Hradecka to beat Suarez Navarro 3.1 The Czech has almost halved her ranking this year and is underrated. The Spaniard has a lot of hype about her since her performance in Melbourne, and while she deserves to be favourite, she shouldn't be this short. Hradecka belted her R1 opponent, she's running hot after reaching the final in Strasbourg last week. Rus to beat Shvedova 2.8 The Dutch teenager is maturing well and starting to make her mark against the older women. Like Shvedova, she has won through qualifying. The gap between them in ranking isn't that much and winning 14 of her last 18 has her in a nice rhythm. Hercog to beat Rezai 2.8 Really like this Slovenian teenager, 25-3 this year on clay, beat Kleybanova R1. Rezai hits the ball really hard, but with blustery conditions forecast, she might find it harder than normal. Lay Ferrer vs Kiefer at 1.15 The Spaniard is starting get found out on the tour, he is limited but does what he got very,...

Anyone else get this email this morning? What a shocker! Nadal at 2.75 to win the French Open? Pig's arse! If they were in the UK they'd cop a severe blast for false advetising and deservedly so. Someone should be sacked for a massive balls-up like that. The men's prices are obviously for Wimbledon. Have been hearing weird things about behind-the-scenes issues at Pinnacle of late. Not the sort of things you want to hear about a book which has had a very high reputation for several years.

I'm not contracted for any match previews this fortnight, apart from my outright one which can be found on Punting Ace, so here are my bets for Tuesday. 1pt Benneteau (v Tsonga) 3.0 Benneteau leads the h2h 3-1 and made the final last wk in Kitzbuhel. Tsonga rarely plays on clay, although he did manage to beat two infrequent clay players last week in Dusseldorf. When two players from the same country play, I'd rather be on the outsider too. 1pt Voskoboeva (v Mirza) 1.95 Voskoboeva beat K.Bondarenko last week in Warsaw, reached the quarters. Mirza is terrible on clay and is rarely fit. Has the talent when all the planets are in alignment though. 0.5pt Reynolds (v Monfils) 6 Just taking a punt on the unhealthy state of Monfils. He has chronic knee problems, and looked terrible last wk losing to Baghdatis.

Poor performance from Wawrinka against an ordinary Frenchman. Didn't appear injured in the limited coverage I saw. Not much done at 1.01 but plenty close to that. Five sets on clay takes a long time. The match isn't over yet, if Stan comes back, Devilder has been matched at 1.07 and below for £130k.

So the fire sale is about to start at Newcastle. What a bunch of over-priced, injury prone hacks they have up there. Owen, Barton, Smith, Duff, Viduka - all out the door, and then there are all the fringe players who added nothing to the squad. Mike Ashley, you've done the business world proud - you've taken a big club which should be capable of competing for a place in Europe and sent them down to the Championship. Boro go down, no surprise, they couldn't score to save themselves and not replacing Mark Schwarzer was a huge mistake. And West Brom kept it interesting until last week, but were effectively gone months ago. What do we think the relegation market will look like for next season then? Hull will have second-year blues. They started like a house on fire and then soon got worked out. As much as I love to see underdogs to stay up, they have a hell of a lot of work to do to stay up. Wolves and Brum qualified comfortably and should have some cash and experience of previ...

Their marketing budget must be pretty healthy if they can afford to sponsor at the Monaco GP. Being French-focused, to sponsor in Monaco makes a lot of sense after all - different laws, but essentially the same country.

Once again, our American punting friends are encouraging action on a specific race, in order to lobby for more respect from racing authorities. The race is Canterbury Park Race 8 - details and free formsheets to be found here . It runs at around 11pm UK time. More power to the punter!

It has been a crazy week here so apologies for the lack of updates - it won't happen again :) This week I've been busy. NRL previews French Open title previews here Monaco F1 preview IPL finals preview

Technically they are licensed in the Isle of Man, but one look at the site tells you that 188bet are an Asian bookie. Bolton and Wigan both sponsored by the same firm, and club shirts, not that these two clubs sell a great deal, will only contain the logo on the adult versions. 188Bet agrees soccer sponsorship deal first It's not that rare for two clubs to be sponsored by the same firm - it has happened in Scotland for years. So the big UK firms of Ladbrokes, Hills, Corals etc aren't prepared to sponsor English football, allowing the likes of SBOBet (West Ham), 188Bet (Bolton and Wigan), Mansion (Tottenham), BoyleSports (Sunderland), Wolves (Sportingbet), Bet24 (Blackburn and Leeds), 32Red (Aston Villa), 888 (Middlesbrough), Fulham (Betfair) and Blue Square (Conference leagues) into 'their' local space in recent years. Plus there's all the action on the continent with bwin, Interwetten, bet-at-home and Unibet getting involved in team sponsorships as well. Heard a ru...

1. Norway 2. Iceland 3. Azerbaijan Magnificent :) Note how high the volume was relative to this morning's post. Getting in early enabled me to keep laying over and over without additional risk. I love these big markets with national pride and low-moderate liquidity. There were only two countries I didn't manage to lay - Israel and Croatia, who must have been really bad!

I think I've earned a pat on the back with this one - best laying effort for a long time. Take a look at my posts on NASCAR for advice on how to trade a market like this. Bit-by-bit, plenty of margin, try to lay the field. But you must get in early, when the fat margins are there. FWIW, I've laid Norway and the UK for small in the winner market.

.. don't let anyone tell you any different! I liked this one today, I'd seen her win at Yarmouth last year (she threw the rider going to the stalls, ran a lap of the track and still won the race!) and marked her down as something special. She did come up quite short today, I was hoping for 5/1 or so, so the drift didn't surprise although it was bigger than expected. Officially 4/1 out to 13/2 on course, but she didn't play up at the gates so the layers were barking up the wrong tree.

One thinks that this journo didn't have to try too hard to get this story, sounds like this bloke is more of a glory-seeker rather than a hardened gambler. The journo also has little clue of how gambling works outside Vegas. A tennis gambler looks for a fix With thanks for OnThePunt for the link.

This has been in the pipeline for a while but I was asked to keep quiet on it to protect my source. Paddy Power take control of Sportsbet Ireland's leading bookmaking firm Paddy Power, mooted to be a bidder for TAB licenses in Australia, has purchased a 51 per cent stake in Northern Territory-based Sportsbet. Racing Post reported that Paddy Power had paid an initial €27.2 million for the majority stake in the company established by the Tripp family. The tricky part here is that Sportsbet own nearly 20% of IAS, who are up for sale as well. It's all go in the Australian betting market at the moment. Sportsbet, based in Darwin, was the original sports bookmaker in Australia. It was founded in the late 80s by Bryan Clark who sold the business a decade later. It has since changed hands a couple of times before the Tripp group purchased it and improved it significantly. And now they've been able to cash in on their hard work. Paddy Power buys Sportsbet stake, shares rise It sound...

I decided it was time for a change in decor, so bear with me while I get all the colour scheme and gadgets right!

Canbet sold to Yin Khing Investments for $1million Hardly a surprise, Canbet has been a lemon for sometime. Back around 2000, Canbet was flying. Licensed and run from Canberra (hence the name), it was a leading brand for betting on US sports, betting tight margins and trading the American way - copy the Vegas line and move it when everyone else does. Move the price a few cents and the scalpers come in to balance up the books. But then they got too ambitious and tried the same formula on European and Australian sports. They failed dismally. They moved the operation to the UK to gain more European clients and make better use of the timezone, but all the while, employing little resource at risk management and trading. A sportsbook valued at over US$20m was going downhill fast. Then along came tighter regulations in the US, forcing Canbet to cut all their ties with American customers, who had been the entire reason the business was profitable. IASBet came along soon after and bought Canbet...

The Australian marketplace continues to change. You can bet on interesting times ahead for bookies Paddy Power are going after Sportsbet by the way, not Sportingbet as mentioned in the article. Betfair take on the Dutch govt with help from the internal markets commissioner for Europe. EC's Charlie McCreevy threatens Dutch over 'Betfair bias' Prosecutors are recommending jail terms for former Juventus directors in the Serie A match-fixing scandal which saw them relegated to Serie B. Jail terms requested in Italy match-fixing case TABCorp actually make some sense, calling for Australian govts to scrap the ridiculous state anomalies and have gambling taxes set nationally Tabcorp wants national control of taxes on betting Wowsers opposed to everything that might remotely be fun strike in India (to be honest, it is really cheesy) India’s IPL hit by govt’s ‘gambling and betting’ slur Finland asking for trouble from the EU over gambling Finland debating online gambling advertising...

Well, it might explain his erratic performances. French star Gasquet fails drugs test So talented, but so flawed. Oh well, won't be seeing him on the circuit for a while then....

As promised. This track is so conditioned to being a procession, it's not funny. F1 preview

Australian rugby league IPL cricket - Delhi v Mumbai There'll be some F1 stuff from me late on Saturday as well.

Or should I say point-shaving, as that makes it sound cleaner? With American sports betting all being about the points spread, this does make it much, much easier to get away with manipulating a result. Sports bribery charged in University of Toledo scandal Also worth noting at the bottom of the article, the same two crooks faces charges for race-fixing, yet the law they are prosecuted under is 'wire fraud'. How about robbing other gamblers of a fair contest?? More on point-shaving from Xavi of OpenSports blog While you keep gambling underground and unregulated, this stuff is bound to happen and continue to happen.

So far there haven't been too many consistent teams - well, apart from Kolkata who are just rubbish. Flintoff and Pietersen proved to be over-priced flops (gee, who'd have thunk it?) and veterans like Gilchrist, Hayden, Kumble and Tendulkar have shown that the short game is not necessarily a young man's game. The end-of-season pitches are showing their age and the average score has been decreasing. This week has kept the airports busy with the English and West Indian players flying out, and the Aussies about to arrive once they are finished in Dubai. For the Cricinfo update at this stage, click here Delhi still look the team to beat, hopefully Deccan return to form on the back of Herschelle Gibbs scoring runs. My 25/1 each-way for most runs was looking good for at least some return until his last few innings.

I'd never tried trading on (ice) hockey before. There's an 8 second delay on Betfair with no market suspension when there's a goal, but on the flipside, limited liquidity means the potential margins are much better. Thought I'd have a dabble because it was on TV while I was up late studying. Started by offering a book at about 115%, then worked a position from there. Never really had a big risk against me, the tie has to be worth laying when you have an average of five goals per game. Logic says it's highly unlikely a playoff game will trade like a 0-0 football game. Sergei Ovechkin scored a hat-trick for the Washington Capitals, who came back from 0-1 and 1-2. I've got a new hero :)

100/1 shot wins the Grand National, now a 50/1 shot (on track, 150 or higher on Betfair) wins the Kentucky Derby. What a year for bookmakers! Calvin Borrell let Mine That Bird drop out to a long last, the leaders went ridiculously fast and Borrell weaved his magic through the field, stuck tight to the rail, went around just one horse and streaked away by 6.75 lengths. Borrell is a genius, he weaved a similar path to win in 06 on Street Sense. Who said pace on dirt meant everything? Pace figures are over-rated, pace maps (rating how the horses will sit in the race and how fast they will go) are much more important. On a side note - that means a massvie rollover, over $600k for next Wednesday's Pick 6 at Churchill Downs. Start doing the form!

Once again American politicians are showing their hypocritical attitudes to life and wanting to interfere with the lives of their citizens. Minnesota, a state famous for being freezing cold and.... um, not a lot else, are now planning to force ISPs to block all online gambling sites. Minnesota orders block of online gambling sites In an effort to block online gambling sites from Minnesota residents, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Alcohol and Gaming Division (AGED) has asked 11 national and regional telephone and Internet Service Providers to prohibit Minnesota-based computers from accessing nearly 200 online gaming sites. In an announcement made Wednesday, the AGED said written notification of this request has been served to AT&T Internet Services, Charter Communications, Comcast Cable, Direct TV, Dish Network, Embarq, Sprint/Nextel, Frontier Communications, Qwest, Verizon Wireless and Wildblue Communications on Monday. When asked why AGED was seeking to block online gam...