Posted on 19 Dec 2012 at 21:24 PM by
Lone Shark
Last Sunday's game in Ruislip between Dr Crokes of Killarney and Tír Chonaill Gaels of Greenford and London brought down the curtain on the meaningful GAA action in 2012, leaving supporters with plenty to talk about and plenty of room for conjecture in advance of the 2013 season. Most supporters will of course be concerned for their own team's fortunes but there is also a world of antepost betting out there and here on Betting.com, we thought we'd give our readers a little bit to think about by taking a quick look at the early prices for next season's National Hurling League. All the prices in brackets beside each team are the best odds available in the betting market, with Bet365, Paddy Power and Ladbrokes already up and trading. Kilkenny (11/8) Every hurling preview seems to revolve around the "back or lay" conundrum that surrounds the Cats, and at the price of 11/8, it's hard to oppose the reigning All Ireland and league champions. We saw in the Leinster
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Posted on 19 Dec 2012 at 20:50 PM by
Big Man with Football
Week 15 certainly silenced the doubters with regard to the Atlanta Falcons, as all the pundits who said that their good record was down to their soft schedule were forced to sit back and watch as they blew the Giants out of the water in the Georgia Dome. Now, not alone are they almost certain to secure that all important first round bye and home advantage in the divisional round, the fact that they've come into form at this stage of the season must surely have given them a great mental boost in the run up to the playoffs. They're right in contention once again. They're now 3/1 second favourites in the betting for the NFC outright, with only the San Francisco 49ers ahead of them in the list - hardly surprising after the result on Sunday night at Foxboro. One more win will lock down the number one seed spot in the conference and while their week 17 clash with the Buccaneers at home looks like a veritable betting certainty at the moment, it's also quite possible that they won't
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Posted on 19 Dec 2012 at 16:56 PM by
Match of the Day
There is huge variance between the betting patterns and the betting previews for tonight's Capital One Cup quarter-final at Elland Road between Leeds United and Chelsea. A look through the prediction pieces of the various analysts and commentators in advance of the game would give the impression that Chelsea are ripe for the picking in this contest, while the betting market tells a completely different story. Chelsea were available to bet at odds of 5/6 and even 10/11 in places at the start of the week, but that's all changed as the money has come in for the Blues and they now trade at no better than 8/11 anywhere in the market. Leeds United can now be backed at 4/1 in places, while draw backers can avail of prices up to and including 3/1. Neil Warnock’s side have hit a rich vein of form in recent weeks, winning four of their last five matches and they'll be keen to add Chelsea to their list of Premier League scalps, having already seen off Everton and Southampton at Elland
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Posted on 14 Dec 2012 at 15:28 PM by
Ruck Driver
Technically we're only halfway through the back-to-back series of games between Ulster and Northampton that were expected to decide Pool 4 of the Heineken Cup, but already the bookies have decided that the matter is done and dusted. Of the firms still betting on the outright winner of the pool, 1/100 is the best price available about an Ulster win - an incredible number when we consider that half the games still have to be played, and that Ulster weren't even the favourites to top the pool before a ball was kicked. (Though we will shamelessly point out here that they were tipped up by this column here on Betting.com!) First of all, from an antepost betting point of view - Castres at 25/1 is a crazy price. Ulster still have to travel to the French club, both teams still have two home games to come, and all that's needed for Castres to deny Ulster is for them to win out with maximum points and for the northerners to fail to collect a bonus point in either of their home games.
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Posted on 12 Dec 2012 at 14:26 PM by
Big Man with Football
Once it became apparent that Michael Vick wasn't about to produce another vintage season in 2012, Philadelphia Eagles fans (famous for their limited patience) quickly started shouting for Nick Foles to be handed the starting QB slot with the Eagles. In due course that came to pass and for the first few weeks of Foles leading the offense, it was hard to tell why Eagles fans were so eager to see the rookie QB out of Arizona under center. His performance against the Dallas Cowboys was particularly poor and a very short NFL career seemed to be looming. However we saw a very different Nick Foles last Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and for that reason it may be worth having a small betting investment on the Eagles with a four point head start tomorrow night at Lincoln Financial Field. Admittedly the Buccaneers are incredibly poor against the pass and any quarterback would be delighted to get a shot at throwing against them, but lets not forget that Foles was working without number
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Posted on 08 Dec 2012 at 14:03 PM by
Big Man with Football
We can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that both the Houston Texans and the New England Patriots will be in the playoffs as two of the top three seeds in the AFC. With the Baltimore Ravens slipping out of form just a little at this critical time, chances are that alongside the Denver Broncos, these two clubs will compete for home field advantage and a bye through wild card weekend. Most of the "Power Rankings" that are out there still have Houston on top of the list, but the Patriots are snapping at their heels on the back of a string of very impressive performances. Indeed when we think back to some of their defeats, most notably the home game against the Cardinals, they could easily be the number one team already. However on a strict matchup basis, they mightn't have things all their own way this Monday night against the Texans, and so we're going to make our betting recommendation for the big game and say that the Texans plus 3.5 points at 10/11 (Bwin, Coral
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Posted on 08 Dec 2012 at 13:04 PM by
Lone Shark
Kilcormac-Killoughey manager Danny Owens would never admit it publicly, but his club's dream of winning a Leinster club hurling title at the first attempt got a little bit closer last Saturday afternoon in Wexford Park, when Oulart-the-Ballagh knocked out Leinster and All Ireland favourites Ballyhale Shamrocks in a nail-biting encounter. Oulart-the-Ballagh were the outsiders against antepost betting favourites Shamrocks, but after making a great start the Kilkenny champions fell away late in the game, depleted by the injury to leading attacker and talisman Henry Shefflin. The current match betting prices still have Kilcormac-Killoughey installed as the underdogs for this clash and rightly so, as nothing they've done so far this year compares with the achievement of knocking out a club like Ballyhale. William Hill bet 3/10 Oulart, which is now best price after Paddy Powers cut the Wexford club into 1/4. Powers and Bet365 head the market on K-K, betting the midlanders at 10/3, while
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Posted on 08 Dec 2012 at 12:51 PM by
Ruck Driver
No fixture embodies the group stages of the Heineken Cup quite as much as Munster's home games against leading premiership sides. From the famous miracle match against Gloucester in 2003 to Leicester's famous victory at Thomond Park in 2007 that broke Munster's unbeaten run at the venue, these ties are always a special occasion and well worthy of attention. This evening at 6pm we have another classic on the agenda, with Saracens travelling to the Limerick venue on the back of an excellent home win over Gloucester at the weekend. Munster have already dropped points away to Racing Metro, meaning that they can ill afford to lose this one, while even allowing Saracens to stay within seven could be a fatal blow to their hopes of topping the pool. The bookies clearly expect Saracens to get that losing bonus point at the very least. Most firms are betting Saracens plus three or plus four on their handicap betting market, with Bet365 really standing out and offering Munster minus two
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Posted on 06 Dec 2012 at 17:13 PM by
Big Man with Football
In a league that's so big on parity, there is no way that any team should be a ten point underdog at home, yet the Oakland Raiders are just that tonight against Denver. What's more, when it comes to recommending a bet, we'd have to say that the Broncos leap off the page as one of the bets bets of the entire weekend. Oakland have lost five in a row now and if they aren't good enough to beat the Cleveland Browns in front of their own fans, how will they stop the resurgent genius that is Peyton Manning? Manning is the NFL’s second-rated passer (104.6) and is averaging 292 yards passing per game with 29 touchdowns and only nine interceptions, an incredible performance when we allow for the injuries that kept him out of the game in 2011 and cause so many people to question whether or not he could be effective in Denver. Not alone that, he has made previously ineffective and inconsistent receivers like Demaryius Thomas look like superstars. There are serious questions over
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Posted on 29 Nov 2012 at 16:51 PM by
Ruck Driver
As this article from today's Guardian suggests, for a lot of supporters and players alike, this weekend's international tests are a bridge too far. Where once upon a time, games against Southern Hemisphere teams were special occasions that were to be treasured, they have now become all too common. For example, this Saturday's game between England and New Zealand will be the twelfth match between the two countries in the space of just over ten years. In the same time span, there have been eleven international matches between England and Scotland. Scotland might not be the All Blacks, but there is still something amiss when we see a statistic like that. The England vs Scotland games are heartfelt battles with historical resonance. England vs New Zealand test matches are simply revenue generators in this day and age. But of course, as is always the case, our raison d'etre here on Betting.com is to isolate betting value - and what is our take on this Twickenham test with that
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