Category Archives: Major Sports

Modernising the Great Race – Why horse racing has to change

Horse Racing has always been known as the ‘Sport of Kings’. Once the great betting experience for the noble and the affluent, however, horse racing today exists as a sport anyone can access within a few seconds via their smartphone.  

Despite this fact, many of the processes and experiences around horse racing has been overtaken by other sports. From in-play betting on elite soccer in Europe to spreadbetting and Fantasy Sports on the NFL, in some senses, horse racing has been passed on the inside straight.  

That is, until now – and 1/ST Bet.  

1/ST Bet is a fully integrated mobile application and website that help sportsbettors weigh up horse racing statistics with real-time data to make a more informed decision on their investments. But they’re so much more than that, too. They’re a link to horse racing’s glorious past but also act as a conduit to its future, modernizing and revolutionizing the sport for new bettors, whether those are at the racetrack or not. 

Poker on Screen Special: EPT Retro closes with commentary of champions

The end of an era… or the start of a new one? PokerStars ‘EPT Retro’ re-commentaries were invented initially as a way of entertaining poker fans during the early lockdown period of Coronavirus. They may just be remembered for reminding us of the enduring charm of two players who never even sit at the felt.

Since mid-March, the EPT Retro broadcasts have been a real feather in the cap for PokerStars, a site which may retain the largest market share in business terms, but it would be fair to say has contributed less and less for the fans over recent years.

It was never just the amount of content or the huge prizepools that PokerStars offered at their best, it was the level of entertainment. The stars being present was a guarantee just as much as the money, and players such as Jason Mercier and Victoria Coren offered not only great value for money for fans who were playing along while they watched, but an originality in almost every Team PokerStars Pro roster position. These were genuine superstars of the game, but they were also very different people from varied walks of life.

Just those two examples prove the point, Mercier the Christian Floridian with the basketball court swagger and winsome grin. Coren, now Coren-Mitchell of course, the whip-smart journalist and writer, likely to be fanning her tea with a broadsheet at a side-table during play at a final table. 

NFL odds roundup: Week 10 lines & trends

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

It was a no-brainer for the Cincinnati Bengals to pick LSU quarterback Joe Burrow with the No. 1 overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft after Burrow had a record-setting Heisman Trophy-winning season last year. Who was the second-best quarterback prospect in the draft? Some scouts preferred Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa and others Oregon’s Justin Herbert.

With the No. 5 overall pick, the Miami Dolphins took Tagovailoa even though he had some injury red flags over Herbert, who was considered the more prototypical NFL signal-caller but also raw. Herbert went with the next pick to the Los Angeles Chargers. On Sunday at 4:05 p.m. ET, Tua and the Fins host Herbert and the Bolts in what could be the beginning of a terrific rivalry. Tua and Herbert never faced off in college. Miami is a 3-point favorite and has won 20 of its past 24 at home against west coast teams.

The San Francisco 49ers are missing almost an unprecedented number of players due to injury so they will not be repeating as NFC champions or likely even make the playoffs. The Niners partially earned the NFC’s top seed last year with a wild 48-46 victory in New Orleans in Week 14 of the regular season. That proved a crucial tiebreaker for San Francisco, which is back in the Big Easy on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET. The Saints are -9.5 but 2-7 ATS in their past nine at home.

Basketball and sports gambling fans now know start of next NBA season

The NBA is anxious to get things going as quickly as possible in order to continue recovering revenue lost due to the COVID-19 fiasco that forced last season to take an extended break. They were pushing for a December start, while players, on the other hand, initially wanted to have more time between seasons and were trying to convince the league to hold off until January. The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) have now reached an agreement to get things running again, and the news will most likely make basketball fans, as well as sports gambling fans, happy.

The 75th season of the NBA will see its first games on December 22. This is two months later than an NBA season would normally start but, since the previous season only wrapped up on October 12, there was no chance of seeing things get going on a normal schedule. The upcoming season will also see 72 games played, as opposed to the normal 82. 

Part of the reason the players agreed to start sooner, instead of holding out for January, is because of the Olympics. The Summer Olympics were already delayed from this year to next, and getting pro basketball going in December will allow the season to end around the middle of July. This gives NBA players a chance to participate in the Olympics, and several have already indicated that they are planning on going. 

Being able to appear in the Olympics is a big deal for some athletes, but the NBA had to make a couple of concessions in order to get basketball players to agree to the earlier launch. Most notably, team owners didn’t get their way as they tried to convince players to put 25% of their salaries in escrow, suggested as a way to mitigate any further COVID-19 outbreaks, and had to settle for the usual 10%. That money, if the situation arises, would be taken across next season and the following two seasons, but players won’t ever have to give up more than 20%, which would only be considered in a worst-case scenario. 

Professional Fighters League to leverage IBM technologies to innovate next-gen proprietary SmartCage

PFL Teams with Flagship Group Solutions to Deliver Transformative Experiences Using IBM Cloud and Watson Technologies

NEW YORK (November 10, 2020) – The Professional Fighters League (PFL), the fastest growing and most innovative sports league in the world, today announced it will be leveraging Flagship’s capabilities to deliver IBM’s suite of advanced cloud and AI products to enhance the league’s delivery of next-gen SmartCage data and analytics, both live in-broadcast and via the league’s OTT platform, Fight Central.

Flagship Solutions Group, an IBM Gold Business Partner and recognized provider of IBM solutions, managed services, and cloud solutions worldwide, will partner with the PFL to manage, design, and deliver the experience leveraging IBM’s technology solutions. PFL and Flagship Solutions Group will also work closely with the IBM Garage’s unique framework for enabling innovation at speed and scale through a team of leading technologies and multidisciplinary experts, to turn big ideas into tangible results.

PFL’s proprietary SmartCage measures real-time MMA fighter performance analytics along with biometric and positional data providing fans with an elevated viewing experience. Moving forward, SmartCage fight data, called Cagenomics, will be enhanced with Watson machine learning to scour data points and uncover new insights for MMA fans, bringing them inside the cage like never before.

Autumn Nations Cup preview & match tips

The Autumn Nations Cup is set to kick-off for the first time as the Northern Hemisphere tournament replaces tours by Australia and New Zealand due to COVID restrictions.

The eight-team tournament could become a permanent fixture on the international calendar, with crowd restrictions to continue as the U.K. faces another lockdown. The eight teams, split into two groups, includes traditional Six Nations teams, as well as newcomers Georgia and Fiji,

Check out our match tips for the opening round fixtures below.

England vs Georgia

The Jets squeak in a loss to the Patriots to remain undefeated

That was a close one. The New York Jets almost screwed up their perfect record by coming close to beating the New England Patriots in Monday Night Football (MNF). The team is now 0-9 on the season, which is very good news for them as they look to next season. A win would have made it difficult to be able to take the first pick in next year’s NFL Draft and it would have also served no purpose for the current season. Fortunately, the Jets managed to pull off a last-second loss to keep their streak going. 

The Pats were -435 favorites heading into last night’s game – that’s how strongly all the books felt about their chances. However, they didn’t prove they were worth it and got stomped on by the Jets almost for the entire game. It wasn’t until Nick Folk, the Pats’ kicker, put up a 51-yard field goal with three seconds left in the game that New England could claim the victory, winning 30-27. While neither team has been great this season, coming that close to losing to a team that hasn’t won a single game has to be somewhat embarrassing. 

Pats quarterback Cam Newton finally did something he hasn’t done all season – score a first-quarter touchdown. It was also his own, as he ran the ball into the end zone for the score. However, apart from that, he was relatively unsuccessful for most of the game and the Jets would go up 20-10 by the end of the half. The New England defense wasn’t too much better, repeatedly allowing key plays and unable to drop Jets receivers to the turf. 

After the halftime break, the Pats came back and added a touchdown to open the third quarter. However, the Jets, led by quarterback Joe Flacco who was in for the injured Sam Darnold, responded with their own score late in the quarter to make it a 27-17 game. It suddenly looked like the Jets would pull off a win as the teams headed into the last quarter. 

Premier League Review – Gameweek #8

A full schedule of Premier League action has given us some great drama on the brink of the International break. With massive victories for Chelsea, Leicester and Manchester United, the top half of the Premier League table is starting to resemble something like a division with the stronger clubs at the top and the lower-ranked sides near the bottom.  

 

 

 

Is the Premier League on course for another sportsbetting surprise season?

After eight weeks of the Premier League season, there are some surprise names still in and around the top of the table. With what equates to 21% of the Premier League campaign gone for most teams, could there be a surprise winner of the Premier League for the first time in five years? Let’s take a look.  

The Surprise Front Runners  

While there have only been eight games played, the top two aren’t just a surprise, but a genuine shock for some. Leicester City should perhaps be more expected to lead at this stage, purely because they were so strong in the first half of last season, going into 2020 in 2nd place albeit behind a rampant Liverpool side.  

The Foxes have 18 points after eight games, three more than they had at the corresponding stage of their title-winning season. At 28/1, they represent good bet-to-cash out value around Christmas time.  

Masters betting preview: DeChambeau leads odds

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Usually, on a November weekend in the United States the sporting focus is on college football and the NFL. However, the biggest event this weekend is clearly the Masters, the most prestigious of the four major championships on the PGA/European Tours.

The Masters is usually held in early April at Augusta National Golf Club, but the coronavirus scuttled the event back in the spring. The tournament has never been held past the month of April so it will be very interesting to see if Augusta National plays any differently. Certainly, some of that will be determined by the weather. It will look a bit different, for sure, as the azaleas aren’t blooming this time of year.

One thing golf bettors will notice is earlier start times on the weekend both because of television rights owned by CBS and the fact that days are obviously a lot shorter in Georgia in November than they are in April. CBS has obligations to air an SEC game on Saturday evening and an NFL game on Sunday mid-afternoon so the Masters will finish earlier those days. If you are wondering, the Masters uses a sudden-death playoff format. The last one was in 2017 when Sergio Garcia beat Justin Rose.

IPL 2020 Final Preview & Match Tips

Cricket ball resting on a cricket bat on green grass of cricket pitch

The Indian Premier League (IPL) defending champions, the Mumbai Indians, are set to face the Delhi Capitals to decide the 2020 title. The Capitals head into the clash as underdogs against the form side of the IPL competition.

The Capitals were able to scrape into the final thanks to the heroics of Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, in a thrilling win over the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Delhi will be making their first appearance in the final for the first time in 13 years. Stoinis was the man of the match, claiming three wickets, including the crucial wicket of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson. 

Earlier the Australian had helped the Capitals off to a flying start, Stoinis combined with Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan as the pair put on 86 for the first wicket before Stoinis was dismissed for 38.

Surprising blowout in Week 9 of the NFL has sports fans flustered

The Week 9 NFL action on Sunday left a lot of sports fans stunned. Even those who aren’t fans of a particular team and one of the oldest veteran quarterbacks in the league were surprised by a blowout loss that most could have never seen coming. By the time the action wrapped up yesterday, two things were perfectly clear about the 2020 NFL season – anything is possible, and nothing is ever guaranteed.

The Pittsburgh Steelers had difficulty overrunning a team that had expected to put up little resistance. However, the Dallas Cowboys gave their best effort and almost managed to walk away with a win. Cowboys linebacker Vander Esch will have to accept his role in handing his team the loss, as he took a shot at Steelers running back Anthony McFarland, Jr. late in the fourth quarter that gave Pittsburgh great field position and a new set of downs. That single egregious act gave new life to the Steelers, who subsequently punched into the end zone to come from behind and take the win, 24-19. 

The Carolina Panthers found themselves facing the league-leading Kansas City Chiefs yesterday and had some addition help with running back Christian McCaffrey finally able to get back on the field after an injury suffered in Week 2. He picked up 18 rushes for 69 yards and tacked on a touchdown to ultimately make things very difficult for the Chiefs. McCaffrey has proven his value to the Panthers offense by being able to return to the action, and the Chiefs had to fight to win, only taking the game in the final seconds when Carolina failed to convert. The 33-31 score shows how strong the Panthers played against the defending Super Bowl champions. 

The Arizona Cardinals were getting -223 before they suited up to take on the +190 Miami Dolphins yesterday. More than few sports gamblers who decided to back the underdog and rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa are enjoying fatter wallets today, as Tag went on to throw for 248 yards and picked up two touchdowns to give the Fins a 34-31 win that also included a Miami defensive touchdown. The Cardinals had a chance to come from behind with just under four minutes on the clock, but the offense couldn’t move the ball far enough and a 49-yard field goal attempt came up empty.

Packers take an easy win against the 49ers in Thursday Night Football

The Green Bay Packers had fun last night. From the start of their Thursday Night Football game against the San Francisco 49ers, they were in control and never seemed too concerned about the possibility of giving it up. NFL Week 9 got started with a blow-out game that found the Pack keeping the Niners down until just a couple of minutes were left in the contest. The final 34-17 score is only a hint of how badly San Fran was dominated. 

The Niners can’t be totally blamed for getting destroyed – they had to play without several key players, including starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and tight end George Kittle. These two joined a long list of injured Niners this week that also included receivers Brandon Aiyuk, Debo Samuel and Kendrick Bourne, as well as left tackle Trent Williams. Still, hopes had remained that San Fran would at least be able to give the Packers a challenge, but it never appeared. 

It could be said that, perhaps, the Packers decided to show a little mercy on their opponents as the game wore on. With five minutes left in the game, Green Bay was already up 34-3, with virtually zero chance of allowing a San Fran rebound. The 49ers finally put a touchdown on the board, and then were allowed back into the end zone with just seconds left on the clock to at least provide the appearance that this was a harder-fought game than those who watched it will remember. 

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers put up 305 yards, including some impressive direct hits that led to four touchdowns. He and receiver Davante Adams have become the NFL’s tandem team, consistently producing great results. Adams had ten receptions for 173 yards and added a touchdown to his growing list of accomplishments and shared the wealth with receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling and tight end Marcedes Lewis, who combined for the other three touchdowns. 

The Secret Coach: The championship battle

At Calvin Ayre, we love a thrilling league to bet on, and we know a lot of you do, too. While we often give you some advice on which teams to bet on, we largely focus on the Premier League, but this isn’t only because it’s most popular league in the world. 

If we were to include The EFL (English Football League) Championship in our tips, the nest league down, we’d struggle to pick a winner in terms of singles, goalscorers and future markets too. That’s because the Championship is a legendarily difficult division to predict and has made fools of wiser pundits than ourselves. 

One pro who knows all about it, however, is The Secret Coach. We spoke to TSC this week on the brink of another round of Championship fixtures this coming weekend. The action in midweek was as unpredictable as ever, with the 97th-minute winner at the City Ground in Nottingham just one example of how impossible The Championship is to predict. 

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Election Odds tilt for Biden as the slow count continues

As expected, we still don’t know for sure who has won the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. As several states continue to count their votes, and both candidates consider their legal options, we have updated odds from Bodog to consider who has the best shot to win.

When we last considered the race, it was the end of election night, and the odds were erratic as we had no idea who really had a clear path to victory. Things have settled down now, and we’re left with a couple of different clear outcomes.

Outcome #1: Joe Biden holds on to narrowly win

After a very slow count, several states now appear to be leaning in former Vice President Joe Biden’s direction. Battleground states like Wisconsin and Michigan have now gone into his column, and unless Trump makes a comeback, it appears winning Nevada and Arizona will give him barely enough to win the presidency. He could also potentially pick up Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia continues to give him fresh votes, and Georgia, where a slow count in the Atlanta area seems to be getting him closer to winning there as well.

NFL odds roundup: Week 9 lines & trends

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

We’ve essentially reached the halfway point of this very unusual NFL season with Week 9 on tap. The last big player movement date was Tuesday as that was the trade deadline and not much happened. On the bye this week are Cincinnati, Cleveland, the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia. Three of those could be playoff teams (i.e. all but the Bengals).

The marquee matchup is clearly the Sunday night game as Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints visit Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It could be the last time those two future Hall of Famers will ever face off and in fact most likely will be unless they meet in the playoffs this winter. Brady will be back in 2021, but Brees is not expected to be.

It’s also huge in the NFC South as the Saints look for the season sweep and potential tiebreaker. In Week 1, Brees threw for two scores and didn’t turn the ball over in a fairly easy 34-23 victory. Brady’s Bucs debut wasn’t great as he was picked off twice, one returned for a score. What will make Sunday’s game even more intriguing is that it’s expected to be the Tampa Bay debut of former All-Pro receiver Antonio Brown. The Bucs are -5, and they are 0-4 SU and against the spread in the past four in the series.

Election Odds as chaotic as the results

Election night 2020 has turned out to be a nail biter. Hopes of a Biden landslide are out the window, and wagering odds have been all over the place as we start to understand what an election during the Covid-19 pandemic looks like.

As it stands right now, the race is too close to call. But the odds have shifted a lot from when we looked at them yesterday. Let’s look at the timeline of what happened:

7:00 pm ET: Polls close and Biden is heavily favored

As the results started to come in, the conventional wisdom was the results wouldn’t be too far off the mark, and we might see a Biden landslide. Early strong results in Georgia, North Carolina, and later Texas kept his odds strong.

Europa League sportsbetting preview

Some of Europe’s finest may have missed out on the Champions League last year, but they are taking part in the Europa League and so far, that’s been to the benefit of European football’s second choice club competition. 

The Europa League has already enjoyed a solid if not spectacular start to the campaign, with some big wins and a few goals. There have been a plethora of great saves, too, as this highlights package can show you. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYkvYUZr1kc?feature=oembed&w=640&h=360]

This week’s fixtures feature all three English teams, and each of them have sportsbetting opportunities you can back. 

William Hill announce sports book of the year 2020 Shortlist

The five books that will produce the 2020 William Hill Sports Book of the Year have been announced. With tough competition this year, the five chosen books will battle to become the 32nd annual Sports Book of the Year.

Announced every year by William Hill, there is a real prestige in becoming the Sports Book of the Year and the announcement of the shortlist to become the winner was announced earlier this week right here.

William Hill were only too happy to share the news on Twitter:

Here is the shortlist for the @WilliamHill Sports Book of the Year Award 2020!

Genius Sport, Sportradar to continue as NBA data suppliers

Sportradar and Genius Sport are breathing a sigh of relief after learning that the NBA is going to keep both of the sports data suppliers around a little longer. There had been concerns that the league might dump one or the other, especially in light of reduced revenue caused by COVID-19, but the NBA has announced that there isn’t any need to make changes to the existing structure. Both companies have been working with the NBA since just after the U.S. Supreme Court shut down politicians in 2018 when they took away the U.S. Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA).

As a result of the league’s decision, Sportradar and Genius Sport will be able to continue their non-exclusive activity of distributing NBA and WNBA betting data to any licensed sports gambling operator in the U.S. There are now over 20 operators in the country with existing partnerships with the league, and NBA Senior Vice President, Head of Fantasy & Gaming Scott Kaufman-Ross states, “Over the past two seasons Sportradar and Genius Sports Group have been sources for official NBA betting data, which is crucial for authorized gaming operators and ultimately fans who engage with NBA and WNBA games through betting. The U.S. sports betting industry has recognized the value of official data, particularly for in-play betting, and these extensions will ensure operators continue to have access to our real-time feed as sports betting develops throughout the U.S.”

The sports gambling industry in the U.S. is maturing quickly, with now almost half of the states in the union offering some type of sports gambling. A handful more are set to find out if their residents want to legalize the activity through the elections that are going on now, and at least four states could be added to the growing list within the next year. As local governments are scrambling to find revenue that was lost due to COVID-19, the idea of opening regulated sports gambling markets becomes more appealing.

Sportradar Head of Global Strategic Partnerships Steve Byrd adds of the continued relationship with the NBA, “We are pleased to extend our partnership with the NBA for official NBA betting data in the U.S. market. As legalized sports betting expands into more states and grows in popularity overall, this presents us with a tremendous opportunity to continue spearheading cutting-edge NBA feeds and betting products for operators, while redefining the customer experience for the fans.”