Tag: "Betfair"

Cheltenham Head-to-Heads: World Hurdle

Big Buck’s is the talking horse in the World Hurdle betting and while one of our men likes his chatter, another is prepared to take him on “I wouldn’t discourage a bet at 9.2 as a trading option, but surely if you wanted one horse on your side in a battle against Big Buck’s, it wouldn’t be the awkward, head-in-the-air, too-clever-for-his-own-good Tidal Bay,” Will Hayler on Howard Johnson’s World Hurdle hope Graham Cunningham : I like Big Buck’s and I cannot lie. But I don’t like him enough to take 1.7 about a repeat success in this day three showpiece and Tidal Bay looks a likely candidate to trouble him now that he has found his way back to hurdling again. The problem with taking tight odds about Big Buck’s before any of his races is that you always have a strong suspicion that his tendency to idle for a brief spell as the pace increases will see him lengthen to a certain degree in the in-play market. Simon Rowlands made this point forcefully on betting.betfair.com last month and punters have various options at their disposal to try and capitalise. L

Mar 11, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Europa League Results: Misery continues for Liverpool

Away defeats for the Premier League’s two representatives hand favouritism to Juventus “In Lisbon, Benfica look primed for a home win and were matched at 1.07 to defeat opponents Marseille. But with 91 minutes played Hatem Ben Arfa conjured up a priceless equaliser to put the tie back in the balance. “ Liverpool suffered more away day anguish with Europa League defeat to Lille today. With the scores locked at 0-0 and just five minutes left on the clock, the Reds looked to have done enough at the Stadium Lille Metropole. But they encountered a Hazard, namely Edem Hazard, who put the ball past Pepe Reina to hand the French outfit an invaluable lead while also condemning Liverpool to the second away defeat of the week. The home win was an in-running 9.6 shot. It’s not all bad news for Liverpool fans though, Rafa’s Reds are still the 1.9 favourites to qualify .

Mar 11, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Timeform 1-2-3: March 12th

Four jumps meetings, but two of Jimmy Cooper’s three fancies come on the polytrack at Wolverhampton. “It’s significant George Baker takes over now that Drum Major is back up in trip, and he’s off a mark fully 10 lb lower than when second in a much better handicap at Newbury last summer” The Mark Johnston all-weather juggernaut rolls on and he should have another winner in the 6.50 at Wolverhampton courtesy of Gargano . Having rejoined the stable this year, Gargano immediately took off with back-to-back wins in January, and he improved more still when second to the thriving Spruce at Lingfield last time. That effort looks even better now in light of the three winners to come out of the race, and Gargano has only the badly-handicapped Clear Sailing to worry about to get the early lead

Mar 11, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Ligue 1 Betting: Back Les Verts to bring Lyon back down to earth

Just because Claude Puel’s Lyon knocked Real Madrid out of the Champions League in midweek doesn’t mean they’ll have things all their own way in the derby against St Etienne on Saturday night, writes James Eastham. Best bet: Monaco v Bordeaux over 2.5 goals @ 2.38 . Recommended bets: Back St Etienne +1.25 Asian handicap at Lyon @ 1.95; Le Mans v Nice over 2.5 goals @ 2.40; Monaco v Bordeaux over 2.5 goals @ 2.38. St Etienne +1.25 at Lyon (Saturday, 8pm UK time) Lyon produced one of the biggest upsets of the European season by knocking Real Madrid out of the Champions League on Wednesday night but the players have only a few days to recover before facing St Etienne in one of the most hotly-contested derbies in France. Lyon are unbeaten against their local rivals in 16 years but St Etienne are one of the few sides in Ligue 1 playing well enough to challenge Claude Puel’s hosts.

Mar 11, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

La Liga Preview: See the stars? Ignore them

Tobias Gourlay suspects that the stars are not a good form guide and looks beyond the Big Two to find the value in this weekend’s Spanish-football markets. Recommended Bets: Back Barcelona/Barcelona at 2.16 v Valencia; back Real Zaragoza +0&+0.5 at 2.0 v Racing Santander; back Sevilla at 1.72 to beat Deportivo La Coruna A 2-2 draw for Barcelona in Almeria and a 92nd-minute winner for Real Madrid allowed Los Blancos to finally close the gap to the reigning champions.

Mar 11, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Over/Under 2.5 Goals Column: Old Trafford and Anfield in-focus

Ed Nicholson looks at a pair of key fixtures for two of the giants of English football “Given the return of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand to the heart of the United defence there must be every chance that Edwin Van der Saar will keep yet another clean sheet. If that was the case, we are asking the home side to score three times or more, which I feel is unlikely given the way that Fulham will be set up to play.” Manchester United v Fulham United looked toothless without Wayne Rooney last weekend when ultimately they were lucky to come away from Molineux with all three points. Much was expected of Dimitar Berbatov, but he looked poor and didn’t get into enough penetrating positions to score a goal. The Bulgarian is a frustrating figure and although he will score goals given the ammunition he is given, he is not one to rely on when thinking of being with the over 2.5 goal option. Undoubtedly Berbatov is better suited to playing at Old Trafford when all thoughts are on attack, but he still lacks confidence and if he was leading the attack I would be far happier to be layer rather than a backer of the over 2.5 goal option. United though, despite that 0-1 victory, are scoring in the league with 27 goals in their last ten – comfortably the most of any team in the league. At home they now netted 39 times and no team have conceded fewer than their total of eight. Their last six home league matches have been over 2.5 goal affairs (11 out of 14 in total), and they have not conceded a home goal for no less than 609 minutes

Mar 11, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Cheltenham Head-to-Heads: The Champion Bumper

Neither of our men has a strong shout on the winner of the Champion Bumper but once again they’re looking to Ireland for their likely bets “I would have to be interested in laying Al Ferof win and place at 11.5 and 4.5 . Reading between the lines of Paul Nicholls’ recent comments at the preview evenings, I get the feeling this race is being taken in at the wishes of owner John Hales rather than the trainer,” Will Hayler on his Bumper bets Graham Cunningham : The good news is that I have a very rewarding system to pass on as regards the Festival Bumper. But the bad news is that it will only bear fruit for those able to grab a good spot against the paddock rail in order to inspect some of the finest jumping prospects from both sides of the Irish Sea. Year after year this eagerly-awaited contest unveils a string of young hopefuls who have everything it takes to make the grade over hurdles and last year’s renewal featured a stellar selection headed by Dunguib and backed up by a supporting cast including Rite Of Passage, Quel Esprit, Morning Supreme and Shinrock Paddy.

Mar 11, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

League Two Betting Preview: Make or break March

When you eat a sandwich, the best bit is in the middle. In similar fashion, gamblers should not just look to the obvious games at top or bottom for their weekly bets, but to the play-off hopefuls, writes Ian Lamont. “Back John Sheridan’s men at 1.85 at home to Port Vale, whose boss Micky Adams outlined a few weeks ago what his side needed to do to reach the top seven.” Northampton have taken a fair while to come to the boil this season. Yet now they sit near the top of the form table, arguably at the best time of year to kick on

Mar 11, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Cheltenham Handicap Focus: Tuesday

One thing which many punters do at Cheltenham is to look for the “plot horses” – those which have been running down the field and now look well treated, but the truth is that the handicaps at the Festival are so competitive that doing so means possibly missing the cut and the vast majority of winners are those who arrive at the track in demonstrably good form and I’ll try to narrow down these races each day to find the real value. “Theatrical Moment is a novice who needs to improve his jumping but he’s getting better with each outing and has impressed by the way he’s travelled in his few chases to date. He was the top bumper performer in the UK a couple of seasons ago and has a touch of class about him. He’s also versatile regarding tactics which is a benefit here.” 14:40 William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase (3m 1/2f) The Wiiliam Hill Trophy is always a classy handicap chase and five previous winners have gone on to win the Gold Cup itself, the last being Charter Party back in 1986. This year’s renewal looks well up to scratch with eight of the runners rated 150 or more. Historically, it’s been very difficult for fully exposed handicappers to win this and those with such high ratings rarely have any secrets from the handicapper, so I’ll pass over those in that group which include the well fancied Niche Market, Razor Royale and The Totherone. The first two mentioned probably left their chance behind with tough races in the last few weeks anyway. In looking for the winner of this, I prefer to look at a horse who has had less than a dozen races over fences and may still have a bit of improvement in him (I’d say “or her” but the only mare to have won this was subsequent Gold Cup winner Kerstin over half a century ago, and she had only 10-5 that day), and it’s a race in which novices have done well (Wichita Lineman, Dun Doire and Fork Lightning have all won in recent seasons)

Mar 11, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
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