Euro 2008 Football News and Betting » betting

South Africa World Cup 2010- England bring the Becks?

Banter — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:39:49 +0000

So Wednesday night saw England qualify for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa with two games in hand. A record that has never been achieved before by England. With 8 wins from 8 games, you could say it was gr-eight stuff by England, for once the Three Lions fans will be able to enjoy the end of a World Cup campaign instead of sweating intensely. Remember the late late winner by Beckham against Greece and the heroic draw against Italy? Well Wednesday didn’t get the heart racing like those nights, in fact some people might call this England match ‘enjoyable’, yes I did say the words England,match and enjoyable in the same sentence. It was a good performance by Capello’s men and it’s sure to get the English fans checking out the betting odds on England lifting the World Cup.

With all that said and done, everyone’s attention will turn to who should Capello pick for the England squad. The main talking point is to whether to bring the Becks, that’s David Beckham of course. There’s no doubting what positives Beckham can bring to the squad: great delivery from set pieces, experience at international level and someone Walcott and Lennon can learn from. There will be alot of football betting at the World Cup, but it will be a brave person who backs Becks for aplace in the aquad. Most people will argue that Beckham can do a job coming from the bench to either run down time or maybe to deliver that deadly ball in the last minute if the team is looking for a goal. But the question that should be posed is, is Beckham good enough? There are a number of players who can play on the right hand side of the midfield, Lennon,Wright-Phillips,Walcott and Milner although he’s played on the left hand side of the midfield (he has definitely pressed for his squad place).

Also take into account Gerrard,Lampard and the return of Joe Cole, this doesn’t leave space for Beckham, who should get left out to make room for him? Pace is a key attribute in international football and this sis something Beckham doesn’t have, delivery is key but we’ve seen how pacey players like Lennon and Walcott can cause havoc for defences. It’s a conundrum that will have to be contemplated by Capello, he’s always been a strong manager who doesn’t care about name or popularity, but can he and will he really leave out Golden Balls?

Champions League Final- Betting tip & free £25 Betfair Bet

Banter — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:48:27 +0000

So Wednesday’s most anticipated event is finally here…..no not the Apprentice on BBC 1 or the RHS Chelsea Flower show, but the big match between Manchester United and Chelsea (although I hear one manager will be fired.. and it’s not Alex Ferguson, hint hint).

Who’s going to win? The signs are pointing to Chelsea, with the final being in Russia it would seem fitting for Chelsea and Abramovich to win the trophy in his home country. Also Chelsea will have the extra incentive to win after missing out on the Premiership to United and have recently got the better of them in the match at Stamford Bridge. Taking these points into consideration, it might just be Chelsea’s year and with odds of 3.25 on Betfair to win over 90 minutes it seems like a good value bet.

Betting tip: Ignoring everything I’ve said above (as usual), I’m going to tip Paul Scholes to be shown a yellow card during the 90 minutes at odds of 3.3 on Betfair. We already know he is almost certain to start in midfield and just one of Paul Scholes’ special sliding tackles can bring some profit.

UPDATE: Well that was easy!! (I mean the betting tip and not the extra time and penalties part). After 20 minutes Paul Scholes picked up his booking and that meant us picking up winnings, if only all betting was as easy as that!! Congratulations to Manchester United, it’s good to see commited players like Scholes and Giggs pick up their medals, I don’t think many football fans will disagree that loyal players like them fully deserve their glory.

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1. Click on the Betfair link or banner on the sidebar

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4. Betfair will credit your account with a FREE £25 bet, easy!!

FA Cup Final Betting Tip and FREE Bet offer

Banter — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:18:22 +0000

Well it may not be alot of people’s ’prefered’ final, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try and make some money out of it!! I’ve already tipped Niko Kranjcar to be the star man at Euro 2008 and I’m hoping he’ll show that star quality in the FA Cup Final tomorrow.

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Betting tip: He’s already scored a goal at Wembley last year for Croatia and here’s hoping he does the same for the final. Back Kranjcar to be first goal scorer and to score at anytime, juicy odds of 10.5 and 4.5 respectively on Betfair.

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UPDATE: Well Cardiff gave it a good go and if they had scored the first goal, then it might of been a whole different game. But Pompey deserved the win in the end. No winning bet here though, one nice bit of back heal skill from Kranjcar in the match though, lets hope he is saving it all for Euro 2008.

Premiership Fixtures & Betting tips- 10th May 2008

Banter — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:42:00 +0000

After the shocking discovery that Ant and Dec received a British Comedy Award which should of gone to runner up Catherine Tate, Fernando Torres has asked officials to investigate into whether he should of received last week’s Football Writer’s Award(FWA) instead of Christiano Ronaldo. Sources close to Torres claim that unlike Catherine Tate, he is ‘bovvered’.

The last game of the Premiership and for alot of football fans, tomorrow will be nerve wracking.

So Man Utd and Chelsea will fight it out on the last day of the season, Chelsea could finish level on points with Man Utd and not win anything due to a superior goal difference from United. Chelsea fans will be hoping that Shevchenko will have his shooting boots on and score 20 goals against Bolton to make up the difference.

Betting tip:Although the pressure is on, I can see both teams winning tomorrow, back both in a double at odds of 1.38 on Betfair (yes, the odds do look a little skinny!!)

Portsmouth v Fulham- Pompey will be hoping to do the double over Fulham this season. Fulham will be hoping to pull off their great escape trick against a Portsmouth side that have lost the last three games and who have their eye on the FA Cup Final next week.

Betting tip: Although I think Fulham could pull off the great escape, I’ve seen the odds of Portsmouth winning at home currently at 3.35 odds on Betfair and thought this is great value for the home team. Back them to win and a put saver bet on the 1-1 draw (the score from last season) at odds of 7.6.

Tottenham v Liverpool- both teams don’t have anything to play for in this meaningless last game. Spurs haven’t been beaten in five and Liverpool are unbeaten in 6 league games.

Betting tip:Try bet on the draw at odds of 3.5. Also Berbatov could be saying farewell to White Hart Lane, back him to score anytime 2.74 and first goalscorer 6.6 odds, to give Spurs fans and us a great farewell present.

UPDATE: As usual on the last day of the season there was alot of tension and excitement. Fulham managed what seemed the impossible and stayed up to the detriment of Reading and Birmingham. A big congratulations to Manchester United for their 10th title, it almost seems fitting to see their most loyal player Ryan Giggs scoring the goal that sealed the victory(sorry Chelsea fans!!). As for the bets, nothing came off, with Chelsea conceding in the last few minutes, it left me feeling a sick as Reading, Derby and Birmingham fans combined!! But here’s hoping the bad run is out of the way and we’ll make some profit from some betting on the Euro 2008 tournament coming up next month.

Barclays Premier League

Birmingham v Blackburn
Chelsea v Bolton
Derby v Reading
Everton v Newcastle
Middlesbrough v Man City
Portsmouth v Fulham
Sunderland v Arsenal
Tottenham v Liverpool
West Ham v Aston Villa
Wigan v Man Utd

Premiership Fixtures & Betting tips- 3rd May 2008

Banter — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:10:09 +0000

As you may know last Sunday the Times Rich List of 2008 was published, readers will be shocked to discover that the Queen ‘only’ has £320 million, just enough to afford to buy 10 Andriy Shevchenkos and have some change left over to buy Darren Bent. With that type of budget she will have to be even shrewder than Arsene Wenger when he buys his players.

It’s the penultimate weekend of the Premiership and it’s still very much undecided at the top and bottom of the Premiership. Chelsea or Man Utd for the top spot? Are Fulham going to achieve the great escape? and will Derby qualify for the Champions League? (okay maybe not the last question).

Reading v Tottenham- Reading are one point above the drop zone and defeat at home will mean they are almost certain to find themselves back in the drop zone. Reading have conceded 65 goals this term and Spurs have scored 65 goals with the last game between the two teams producing 10 goals, so what does this mean? A 0-0 and Under 2.5 goals of course!! Well on the form I’m in with Premiership betting it will probably happen!!

Betting tip- Even though Reading haven’t scored in 5 consecutive games, I still think with a leaky Tottenham defence and an explosive Tottenham attacking line up we can still get over 2.5 goals. Back Over 2.5 goals at odds of 1.91 on Betfair.

Man Utd and Chelsea will be hoping to get maximum point sthis weekend, if both don’t, then it could open the door for Arsenal to get win the Championship on the final day of the season ( I didn’t see that happening!!). West Ham look to be a bit of a bogey team for Utd and Newcastle have been high on confidence lately, coming back from 2 goals down last weekend shows this.

Betting tip: Tevez will be facing the team he single handedly kept up last season. Bet on him scoring anytime and being first goal scorer.

UPDATE: Well I was right about the Reading vs. Spurs match!! Unfortunately I was right about being wrong!! Only one goal in it, but there were plenty of chances to get more, I hope you backed the opposite to me in this instance. Although Carlos Tevez did produce the anytime goal that I tipped against his old team West Ham. So at least we had one winning bet during the weekend.

Aston Villa v Wigan
Blackburn v Derby
Bolton v Sunderland
Fulham v Birmingham
Man Utd v West Ham
Middlesbrough v Portsmouth
Reading v Tottenham
Arsenal v Everton
Liverpool v Man City
Newcastle v Chelsea

Premiership Fixtures & Betting tips- 26th April 2008

Banter — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:13:28 +0000

This week strikers were the main headline makers, that’s strikers as in teacher strikes as supposed to football strikers though. All the Champions League and UEFA cup games ended up as draws with two out of the four matches having a 0-0 scoreline, I wonder what the odds would of been if someone had predicted that?

Also with the long awaited Wii Fit finally being released in Europe, it has been rumoured that an ‘A. Reid from Sunderland’ and an ‘A. Mido from Middlesbrough’ were one of the first people to receive their pre-orders to get fit during the summer.

Most people’s eye will be on the Saturday lunch time kick off, Chelsea vs. Man Utd, surely the winner in this match will take the Premiership crown? Chelsea haven’t been beaten at the Bridge in the league since 2004, but if anyone is going to test this record it’s Man Utd. This game is another test for Avram Grant, can he do what he did against Arsenal?

Betting tip: I’m thinking that this will end up as a draw (especially since Man Utd haven’t won at the Bridge since 2002), but I’m going to take a risk and back Man Utd to win (3.3 odds). Get your free £25 bet, with Betfair, use the banner below and quote BFB425.

It’s another week which doesn’t inspire betting wise (Dennis??), but looking at the Man City v Fulham game, I think Man City at home will be too strong for Fulham, and unfortunately for the Cottagers defeat will mean certain relegation. In play betters may want like to know that when Man City have scored first, they have never lost.

Betting tip: Back Manchester City to win at 1.91 on Betfair.

Anyone brave enough to back Derby, might like to know that they are currently at 13.5 on Betfair to beat Arsenal….maybe…just maybe…or probably not!! I’ll take full credit if it happens though.

UPDATE: Oh BALLACKS!! Is the quote of the weekend for many reasons. Chelsea deserved their win against Man Utd and advantage seems to have gone to them in the title race. I was thinking to tip Ballack as first goal scorer and anytime scorer, but I had a doubt in my mind, if only I went through with it!! When Ballack stepped up to take the penealy, there was no doubt in most people’s mind that he could handle the presure and score.

Man City were cruising 2-0 in the first half but Fulham made a spirited come back in the second, showing that they will fight to the end for their Premiership status. Unfortunately that meant another losing tip, not a good weekend for the city of Manchester at all!!

Birmingham v Liverpool
Chelsea v Man Utd
Man City v Fulham
Sunderland v Middlesbrough
Tottenham v Bolton
West Ham v Newcastle
Wigan v Reading
Everton v Aston Villa
Derby v Arsenal
Portsmouth v Blackburn

Champions League Semi-finals

Banter — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:17:20 +0000

01/05/2008 Betting Update-At last!!! Some winning bets. The tips to back Chelsea & Man Utd to reach the final paid off(with a little bit of luck). After two weeks of losers in the Premiership it’s good to get some winning tips in. With Chelsea to qualify at 1.88 and United to qualify at odds of 1.6 on Betfair, it wasn’t fantastic value, but hopefully it has landed some of you some profit. Betting on the two in a double at 3.15 to be the finalists was the more value bet and another winner!!

Liverpool v Chelsea

Liverpool play Chelsea for the fourth successive season in the Champions League tonight and with Torres describing tonight’s match as a potential ‘bore’, it may not be a coincidence that the BBC are showing ‘Waking the Dead’ at 9pm tonight. So who will win? Well it’s a very tight one to call, with both teams familiar with each other’s style of play and both managers under some sort of pressure. Benitez seems to have the edge over Grant tactically and the records show that the Champions League is becoming his specialist subject. Alot has been said about Grant not winning the ‘big games’ but he proved alot of critics wrong by beating Arsenal in the league.

Betting tip: Liverpool had that little bit of extra luck against Arsenal in the quarter finals and are always a different class in Europe, but something tells me that over two legs Chelsea can make it through to the final. No doubt a ’special’ effort will be made after Roman reminds everyone that the final is in Russia. Back Chelsea to go through to the final: 1.88 on Betfair.

Barcelona v Man Utd

Many neutrals have said this is the game that draws their attention, both teams unbeaten in the Champions League and a delight to watch when firing on all cylinders. Although I’m not too sure whether Ferguson will allow for such an open game as expected. I will be surprised if Hargreaves doesn’t start the match (if fit), he’ll be important to cut out and break up any Barca attacks. Ferguson for me is more tactically astute than Rijkaard and this gives the edge to Man Utd, Barca have been pretty poor this season in the league but they have put in some good performances in the Champions League.

Betting tip: Go for Man Utd to get to the finals(1.6 on Betfair). Also put a bet to nominate the finalists: Chelsea and Man Utd at 3.15.

Premiership Fixtures & Betting tips- 11th April 2008

Banter — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:43:15 +0000

This week the words extinguished, chaos and anger were prominent in the news headlines (and those were just the ones related to Arsenal’s season..only joking Arsenal fans, just like Konnie Huq with the Olympic torch I’m sure they’ll pick themselves up and finish the season in style). The weekend’s Premiership fixture list doesn’t really inspire me in terms of betting,

Portsmouth v Newcastle- Pompey will be looking to get their first double win over over Newcastle in the league. In running betters will be interested in backing Pompey if they score first, they have a 100% win record when scoring first in games this season.

Betting tip: Defoe will be back in the starting line up after missing the last two games and he will be itching to play and score. The Newcastle defence will surely give him a chance over 90 minutes, go for a bet on Defoe to be first goal scorer and anytime scorer on Betfair (odds of 5.6 & 2.56).

Tottenham v Middlesbrough- Middlesbrough haven’t won at Spurs in the league since 2002. But they have shown that they can upset the big boys like Arsenal and Man Utd this season. Spurs have been inconsistent ever since the Carling Cup win and with the odds of 1.72 for them to win at home, it doesn’t provide too much value.

Betting tip: Do a small bet on a Pompey and Spurs double, currently 3.82 on Betfair.

Also a cheeky bet on Woodgate to score against his old club at anytime, 12-1 odds on William Hills. An great offer for new customers, get a £25 free bet, if Woody scores, you’ll make £300 out of nothing!! See the banner below.

Man Utd v Arsenal-the big Sunday game, both teams will be needing a win to get things back on track. I’m adamant Arsenal will do anything they can to spoil Manchester United’s season.

Prediction: This could end up as a draw just like when they played at the Emirates, letting Chelsea take advantage. I’m going for the draw and 2-2- score prediction.

UPDATE: Well as William Gallas would put it- luck deserted us. After a few weeks of winning tips, none of the bets came through for us this weekend. No goals were scored in the Pompey match, Jonathan scored in the Spurs match but it was the wrong one (Grounds) and the Man Utd match nearly produced the 2-2 draw I predicted (‘hands up’ if you thought it was a great goal from Adebayor?). Only small bets were advised, so hopefully not too much was lost and lets look on the bright side, it could of been worse….we might have backed Derby to win at home!!

Barclays Premier League

Birmingham 1-1 Everton
Bolton 1-0 West Ham
Derby 0-6 Aston Villa
Portsmouth 0-0 Newcastle
Reading 0-2 Fulham
Sunderland 1-2 Man City
Tottenham 1-1 Middlesbrough
Liverpool 3-1 Blackburn
Man Utd v Arsenal

Premiership Fixtures & Betting tips- 4th April 2008

Banter — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:47:57 +0000

So after a week which brought us April fools (no not Nicklas Bendtner) and great Champions League matches(the Coca Cola kid Kazim Richards proving that fizzy drinks can give you that extra pop!!), it’s back to the Premiership.

Arsenal v Liverpool-Saturday at noon brings us the second of the trilogy of games between Arsenal and Liverpool. Lets hope the three games follow the standard of the older Star Wars trilogy with Harrison Ford rather than newer trilogy with Jar Jar Binks!! (Please note: no comparisons are being made between Jar Jar Binks, Chewbacca and any Liverpool or Arsenal players). There’s a possibility that both teams will settle for the draw, especially if both sets of players and managers have one eye on the big game next week.

Prediction: I don’t see Liverpool winning this game and with Arsenal unbeaten at home this season, the draw or lay of Liverpool looks to be the best bet.

UPDATE: WINNING bet, a poor start to the game meant that it was a struggle to watch this reserve match, Liverpool deserved the lead and could of snatched it at the end with Voronin. But 1-1 gave us a good start to the weekend!!

Aston Villa v Bolton- Aston Villa have no points and no goals in the last three games and Bolton have no wins in 7 Premier league matches (makes for an exciting game!). With key players like Jussi Jaaskelainen injured and Kevin Nolan suspended, it looks like Aston Villa will get back to winning ways. The win over Villa last season was only the 2nd time Bolton have beaten Aston Villa in 23 meetings at Villa Park.

Betting tip: back Villa to win at 1.72.

UPDATE: WINNING bet, 4-0 to Aston VIlla giving us the second winning bet of the weekend, Gareth Barry and company ensured it was a pretty comfortable bet for us.

Man City v Chelsea- If Nicholas Anelka plays he will be up against the team who he played 103 games for. Chelsea battered City in the reverse fixture 6-0, somehow I don’t think that score line will be repeated!!

Betting tip: Anelka to score against his old team at anytime and first goal scorer(odds of 2.7 and 6 respectively on Betfair)

UPDATE: LOSING bet, Anelka looked to have won us the bet of anytime goal scorer….only for Nedum Onuoha to clear his shot off the line!!! I suggest we send all our losing betting slips to Onuoha..or maybe not!!

Newcastle v Reading- Newcastle have started to find some scoring form and with Reading conceding 58 goals so far this season, we might get some goals!! The Blackburn game was the first time in 31 away games where the Royals had a 0-0 bore draw.

Betting tip: Nearly double your money with a over 2.5 goals bet, 1.94 odds on Betfair. Also take a bit of a risk and back Reading to win at 5.0.

UPDATE: WINNING & LOSING bet, Newcastle have rediscovered their love of scoring goals and in doing so have given us our third winner of the weekend. The risky Reading bet didn’t come off for us, but we should of know, they have been so poor away from home.

Barclays Premier League-results

Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool
Aston Villa 4-0 Bolton
Blackburn 1-1 Tottenham
Fulham 1-3 Sunderland
Man City 0-2 Chelsea
Newcastle 3-0 Reading
Wigan 2-0 Birmingham
Everton 1-0 Derby
Middlesbrough 2-2 Man Utd

Champions League quarter final betting

Banter — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:48:35 +0000

This weeks it’s the Champions League quarter finals:

Roma v Man Utd
Schalke 04 v Barcelona
Arsenal v Liverpool
Fenerbahce v Chelsea

Looking at the above fixtures, the majority of people may choose to back all the favourites to make the semis: Man Utd, Barca, Arsenal and Chelsea. Although I’m not 100% convinced that will happen. The tie that most football fans will be interested in is between Arsenal and Liverpool.

Betting Tip: Liverpool look to be a totally different team in Europe and I think that over two legs they’ll have a slight advantage over Arsenal and book their place into the semi-finals. Back Liverpool to qualify on Betfair currently at 2.08.

UPDATE: Winning Champions league bet- In the end Liverpool had the quality and luck to get through to the semi finals, proving once again in Europe they are a different class compared to when they play in the Premiership. A big thanks goes to Babel and Gerrard (and of course Toure!!) for doubling our money.

The Man Utd and Barcelona games raise a slight doubt for me. Man Utd have played Roma four times in two years losing only one game, but Roma must still be thinking about revenge after the 7-1 thrashing they received last season. Barcelona are going through are very bad patch at the moment, surrendering a 2 goal advantage last weekend isn’t ideal preparation and with key players such as Messi missing, this tie won’t be as easy as it looks. But Barcelona did prove against Celtic that they can turn on the style when necessary.

Chelsea playing away to Fenerbache in the first leg is a big advantage for them, there’s always a hostile atmosphere when teams play in Turkey. So getting this game out of the way first and then playing at the fortress Stamford bridge should allow them to book their passage safely through.

Predicted semi-finalists:

Man Utd, Barcelona, Liverpool, Chelsea

UPDATED: All four of the semi-finalists were predicted correctly, if only I could do the same with the weekly lottery numbers!!

Just for fun prediction:

Roma, Schalke, Liverpool, Chelsea

UK Soccer Shop have some special Champions League discount codes (expires 6th April midnight ) to use at their store to buy football shirts, boots etc… Use the banner below to get to their store, here are the codes:

OFFER: £5 off all orders over £50
CODE: CL5

OFFER: £10 off all orders over £100
CODE: CL10