In play betting - make it pay

It's time now to look at Groups C and D, starting with Group C, the home of outright betting favourites Spain. The Spanish will have a tough time of it winning the tournament and as we discussed earlier in the week, they don't represent great value as an outright wager - however the market is clearly happy to pile into them as potential group winners. The few bits of 4/6 and 8/13 that were offered by the bookmaking community have been gobbled up and 4/7 is now the best price you can have on the fixed odds betting market. while the betting exchanges are no better for those looking to pile into the European and World champions. Victor Chandler are really overdoing it, offering a mere 2/5 about Spain topping the group, while giving standout prices on Croatia and the Republic of Ireland. Earlier this week we advised Italy as a good value outright punt, purely because they may gather momentum as the tournament progresses. However they are extremely unlikely to take any points from playing ...

Today we'll look at the antepost betting for the four Euro 2012 groups, and we'll start our preview with Group A, including hosts Poland, who were one of our antepost tips when we had a look at the outright betting earlier in the week. Russia lead the market with Skybet, Sportingbet and Bodog all betting 6/4 about them topping the group. On all known form, they should do just that, since they are clearly the class act of the field. The Czech Republic have regressed in recent seasons and are nothing like the force they were several years ago, while if the tournament was taking place anywhere other than Poland, the Poles would be bottom of the betting list due to their world ranking of 62. The issue with that world ranking however is that Poland didn't have the chance to prove themselves over a grueling qualifying campaign, as fourteen of the other fifteen nations did. Perhaps they would have impressed us and climbed the ladder if they had the games to prove themselves, since ...

Tonight's Eastern Conference Finals game 5 between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat is possibly the most eagerly awaited game of the season so far, after these two franchises played out an incredible 93-91 overtime game last time out in Boston. The series is delicately poised at 2-2 now, with home advantage the decisive factor in terms of which side gets the result so far. That would point to Miami taking a 3-2 lead tonight, but it's a brave punter who'll bet against the Celtics in a playoff situation. However from a betting perspective, level stakes on the home club would only have you breaking even. Miami in game 2 and Boston in game 4 only did enough to win, they didn't cover the spread in the process, and with an eight point line on offer from most betting firms for tonight, that has to be considered another very real possibility. Sportingbet go 9/2 about the Heat winning the game by 1-5 points and with both defenses starting to look far superior, that looks like ...

Some would argue that the 2012 European Championships have been an in-play betting event for two years now, but with the business end of the competition looming, now represents a great opportunity to have a look at the antepost betting market with a view to trying to isolate which countries could possibly represent the best value. Later in the week we'll have a look at the group betting, but for now we'll focus on the bigger picture and the race to lift the Henri Delaunay Trophy in a month's time. No team has ever won three major international trophies in succession, but that's exactly the challenge facing Spain this month and as favourites in the betting market, best priced at 14/5 with Bodog and Bwin, they have to be discussed. Many analysts expect fatigue to be an issue for the reigning champions, but Vicente Del Bosque is an experienced hand at the wheel and he'll be sure to give his players sufficient rest in the lead up to the competition. With a relatively old ...

Football betting enthusiasts usually either love or hate International match weeks. For some, it’s a chance to exploit a different type of knowledge, be it the different distributions that come into play for matches with an unusual dynamic, or their knowledge of players and standards in countries that normally don’t feature too prominently in the betting world. We’ve covered previously here on betting.com how betting on International Friendlies is a difficult art to master. It’s all the more so on weeks where teams are at completely different stages in their development and preparation – some have a huge tournament immediately on the horizon, others are looking ahead to World Cup qualification already. For example, let’s take England’s meeting with Belgium this Saturday, a game that will be at the forefront of the thoughts of most of our readers here on this site, and not just because of potential betting opportunities. For a moment, put yourself ...

Basketball betting may be a new departure for the good people here at betting.com, but as with any American sport, the statistical analysis available to the general public, and thus the betting public, is excellent. As a result it's very possible to make these trends into friends and to exploit them on a betting in running basis. No game is more perfectly set up for this than tomorrow night's game five between the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat. This Eastern conference semi final series is delightfully poised at two games each, with two home games still to come for the pre-series favourites, the Heat. 6.5 is the betting spread for this game five and momentum is certainly with the Heat after they levelled the series in Indiana last night. Lebron James was even more outstanding than we've come to expect, notching up 40 points, 18 rebounds and 9 assists, but he was ably assisted by Dwayne Wade, who also stepped up to the mark with 30 points. Before this series began, this was ...

It may not be the final that everyone expected, but the meeting of Chelsea and Bayern Munich next Saturday is no less intriguing for that, particularly since it will mark the first time since 1984 that a club will play the Champions League/European Cup final in their home ground - and as Dundee United fans will tell you, if there was any justice, AS Roma would have had no place in that final against Liverpool either. The pre match betting lines make Bayern rough 0.6 goal favourites. A handful of bookmakers bet 5/6 Bayern to win the match inside 90 minutes, while Bwin's odds of 5/11 are the best available for those looking for a wager on Bayern to win the trophy, whether that be in normal time, extra time or by way of the dreaded penalty shootout. In order to ascertain if this betting is correct, the first thing is to discern whether or not this is truly a home game for Bayern, and from what does home advantage originate? In practical terms, the absence of any travelling requirement ...

When discussing betting in play strategy on these pages previously, we've stressed frequently the importance of knowing the aims of the teams on the field. Some of our biggest successes here on this particular section of betting.com have come from breaking down the second legs of matches and assessing the disconnect between the match prices and what constitutes a meaningful result on the field of play. In those instances, when formulating our betting strategy, at least the factors were in play in advance of the match. This Sunday afternoon however, there is the possibility that the dynamics of one game will change due to scores in another - which is a completely different situation. On those grounds, the key element to any betting strategy will be to look at the different potential situations in advance, and take a clinical view of how these would cause the in-play betting market to react. Let's look at the initial match prices and spreads, available from all the leading betting ...

As we've discussed on these pages previously, the central tenet to in-play betting is always the same - forget what the odds were at the start of the event, take in the early stages of the occasion and then after a set period of time, step back and see if what's unfolding tallies with the previously held view that caused the bookies to set their markets up as they did, however that may have been. Sometimes there will be scoring events, like goals, tries, birdies, touchdowns or whatever, and these will distort matters, but even so the biggest advantage the punter has over the firm laying the bets is the ability to set aside what was initially seen as the "accepted wisdom" and to treat the event on it's merits. This is especially true in fixtures where it's difficult to predict what approach will be brought to the event - as is very much the case in tonight's Scottish Premier League tie between Celtic and St Johnstone. As a relatively new enterprise, rest assured ...

A La Liga title that once looked done and dusted is suddenly in the melting pot all over again as Barcelona and Real Madrid compete at the Nou Camp in a crucial El Clasico battle. After eleven wins in succession, Barcelona were in wonderful form before Chelsea's miraculous victory put a stop to their gallop midweek. Real too were going well but found that Bayern Munich were able to produce a performance to upset the apple cart and leave the hopes of reaching the Champions League final in the balance. Certainly neither side could devote as much attention to this crucial fixture as they would have liked. The money in this game is speaking loud and clear. Paddy Power are the only bookmakers still offering 4/6 about Barcelona in their match betting, while 8/13 is the general line across the rest of the firms, most of whomhave had to cut their price on the Catalans this week. Bwin and Boylesports are offering 10/3 about the draw and they will be the bookmakers of choice looking for that ...