Tag Archives: #sportsgambling

Harvick leads odds for NASCAR Atlanta race

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

The NASCAR Cup Series makes its only visit of the season to Atlanta on Sunday for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. Atlanta Motor Speedway, which opened in 1960, is 1.54 miles in length so the race will be 325 laps. There will be no qualifying or fans in attendance. This was originally scheduled for March 15 but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 will be the first professional event in Georgia since the pandemic began.

Assuming seven-time points champion Jimmie Johnson follows through on his plans to retire after this season – more than a few drivers have changed their minds in that regard – then this will be JJ’s last trip to Atlanta. Notable because his four wins (2004, 2007, 2015-2016) are tied with Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Bobby Labonte for the most in this event. Johnson also won another race in Atlanta when it hosted two per year. His average finish at the track overall is 12.0, which is fourth-best among active drivers. Johnson is +1100 to win again Sunday.

Kevin Harvick also has had plenty of success in Atlanta with eight Top-5 finishes and two victories in 29 total starts. He dominated this race in 2017 in leading 292 of the 325 laps but a late penalty for going too fast exiting pit row sent him to the back of the field. Harvick would win the next year and is the +450 favorite for Sunday.

Five Premier League transfers that would shake up the betting action

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

It’s looking ever more likely that the Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be leaving The Emirates this coming summer, with less than a year remaining on his contract come the close of the current 2019/20 season.

If he is to depart North London, Aubameyang, who was joint-top goalscorer last year and is many people’s tip to win the Golden Boot outright this year at 3/1 would be hot property at any price. With Arsenal declaring that it would take the astonishingly low sum of just £20m to prize their top scorer away, clubs such as Real Madrid (5/1), Manchester United (6/1) and even Liverpool (20/1) are keeping their chequebooks at the ready. A cut-price move with almost no drawback? Prepare for his departure.

Declan Rice

Eric Hendricks, Bucking Broncos and the Rooney Rule – Is the NFL Failing Black Athletes?

It’s been a week in America that has seen the racial divisions threatening to tear the country apart spill over not just from the White House into the streets, but to the football field, too.

With anger, frustration and an overwhelming sense of injustice consuming many American citizens, the ‘Justice for George Floyd’ movement has seen the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter become an automatic trending topic again.

With the resumption of discussions around race in sport, many have called not only for the violence to end, but for voices within the black community to be listened to more, such as Colin Kaeprnick. Earlier this week, a call for the Minnesota Vikings to sign Kapernick and end his three-year ostracism from the sport he loves was made by former NFL executive Joe Lockhart.

Now, Minnesota Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks has denounced the NFL’s current stance and pushed for more action.

COVID outbreak drops the ball on two Super Rugby teams

The Covid-19 outbreak has forced rugby union into a corner, claiming the playing futures of two Super Rugby franchises. The Sunwolves and Jaguares face permanent exile from the southern hemisphere competition, leaving the remaining Super Rugby scrambling to get back on the field in a restructured format.

The Tokyo-based Sunwolves have had their departure from Super Rugby accelerated by the pandemic. Rugby Australia was examining a proposal to include the Japanese side in a revised Australian-based competition. Restrictions on international travel and a strict 14-day quarantine period meant the Sunwolves wouldn’t be ready for a July 3 kick-off.

 Rugby Australia Interim CEO Rob Clarke expressed his disappointed with the outcome:

 “We all agree that this is not the way we wanted or believed that the 2020 Super Rugby season would play out when it kicked off back in late January, the impact of COVID-19 has been unprecedented and unforeseen.”

Betfair walks away from Japanese racing

Australian online bookmaker Betfair has been forced to withdraw Japanese racing from its betting exchange, after pressure from the Japanese Racing Authority (JRA). The Japanese Racing Authority had expressed their strong opposition to Betfair offering a customer a bet on a horse to lose, citing integrity risks.

The dispute with the JRA had wider ramifications for the Australian horse racing industry, with the JRA threatening to stop Japanese horses from racing in Australia, as well as restricting Australian access to Japanese races.

This is the second time in the last 12 months that Betfair has come under scrutiny from racing bodies in Asia. Betfair was forced to withdraw wagering on Hong Kong races, after the Hong Kong Jockey Club voiced their displeasure.

In a cease and desist letter, the Hong Kong Jockey Club considered “that betting exchange platforms pose unique and fundamental threats to the integrity of racing.”

The seven deadly tennis sins that shocked the world

In the modern tennis era, millions of fans look up to heroes such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. But there are also dozens of players that fans love to hate, and there is a whole audience of tennis aficionados who love nothing more than a scandal.

One of the simplest games in the world, tennis can get very complicated. From on-court tantrums to off-court fights, attacks between points and grudges that last years, these are the seven deadly tennis sins to watch out for and the scandals they have brought our way over the years.

Cheating 

It’s impossible to mention tennis without referring to the match-rigging scandals that threatened to envelope the game at different points in history. Russian player Nicolay Davydenko was accused of cheating back in 2008 and a subsequent investigation by the BBC detailed 82 emails Davydenko was allegedly by an Italian sportsbetting syndicate. Davydenko was once called out by an umpire for not ‘showing his best efforts’ on court in a now-hilarious argument.

UFC 250 Odds: Roundup of the Rest of the Card

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

Because of the coronavirus pandemic and other issues, there has been plenty of shuffling in the UFC in recent weeks. For example, Saturday’s UFC 250 card from the organization’s Apex facility in Las Vegas was originally to be staged on May 9 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The two top men’s fights on Saturday’s card are both from the bantamweight division. The bout immediately preceding the main event is between Raphael Assuncao (27-7) and Cody Garbrandt (11-3). They were to fight on March 28, but Garbrandt pulled out of it due to kidney problems. That card didn’t go off as scheduled regardless due to the coronavirus.

There is no current champion in the men’s bantamweight division as Henry Cejudo surprisingly retired after defending his belt at UFC 249 on May 9 with a TKO victory over Dominick Cruz. Assuncao ranks No. 5 in the division and Garbrandt ninth.

UFC 250 Title Odds: Nunes vs. Spencer

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

It’s not too often that a women’s fight headlines a major UFC card, but that will be the case Saturday night from the organization’s Apex facility in Las Vegas with a featherweight bout between two-division champion Amanda Nunes and Felicia Spencer in the main event of UFC 250. Once again, no fans will be in attendance or this would have been held at T-Mobile Arena in Sin City.

Jon Jones is considered the baddest male mixed martial arts fighter on the planet and is the UFC’s pound-for-pound king. Nunes (19-4) is the female version of both. She has become the new Ronda Rousey of the sport in terms of the most dominant and most popular fighter on the women’s side.

The 32-year-old “Lioness” is from Brazil and hasn’t lost since way back in September 2014 at UFC 178 to Cat Zingano. Nunes won the 135-pound bantamweight title in 2016 with a first-round submission of Miesha Tate, and added the featherweight belt in 2018 with a stunning first-round knockout of another female all-time great, Cris Cyborg – Nunes was a +140 underdog. She became the first woman to become a two-division UFC champion.

How the Premier League’s Golden Boot is the Best Futures Market to Bet On

The race to win this season’s Premier League title may effectively have been over since Boxing Day 2019, but there are still EPL futures markets to bet on. One of the best is who will be the season’s top scorer and win the Golden Boot.

First off, let’s look at the ten leading goal scorers and some statistics from their seasons so far.

Player

Goals

Teams of the Century: Chelsea 2016/17

It seems like a lot longer than three years since Antonio Conte led Chelsea to the most recent of their sixth top-flight title. If it seems like an improbable achievement now, then in the summer of 2016, it must have seemed like a pipe dream.

The Blues had put up one of the worst title defences in post-war football, finishing a frankly disgraceful 10th, 13 points behind Southampton in 6th place, and a million miles behind eventual champions Leicester. Mourinho paid for the shambles with his job, and when Antonio Conte came into the job in the summer of 2016, he made four big signings in £40m Michy Batshuayi, £23m Marcos Alonso, returning player David Luiz (£30m from Paris St. Germain) and £30m N’Golo Kante.

Clearly the most important of the two signings, Kante’s cut-price arrival from reigning champions Leicester got Chelsea off to a great start in the league, with three straight wins at the start of the campaign against West Ham (2-1), Watford (2-1) and Burnley (3-0) getting the West London side off to the perfect start against easy opposition.

At that stage, however, Chelsea encountered the first tricky spell of what would be ultimately be an amazingly successful season. A scrabbled 2-2 draw at Swansea was followed by consecutive league defeats. A home defeat by Liverpool was followed by another defeat, and this time a resounding one away at Arsenal. It was a humbling 3-0 display that saw Chelsea ripped to pieces by half-time.

AFL is set to kicks some goals with a successful resumption to the 2020 season

Australian Rules Football (AFL) is bravely hoping to follow in the footsteps of the NRL, with a resumption of the 2020 season confirmed for June 11. AFL bosses are in the unfamiliar role of having to play catch-up with the National Rugby League (NRL), who enjoyed monster TV ratings after a being first footy code in the Australian market to return to the field on May 28. Following that success, the AFL is hoping that a sports starved public will deliver them a badly needed TV ratings win.  

With state border restrictions still in place, interstate sides are being relocated for the remaining 17-games of the season. A hub style set-up has been created in Queensland for the opening four rounds. West Coast, Fremantle, The Power and the Crows, will move to Queensland to square-off in a round-robin series against the Gold Coast Suns and Brisbane Lions. 

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan stressed that the league will release games in blocks of four to six rounds “to maintain flexibility as the situation continues to evolve.” The AFL boss was adamant that the 17-round season could be completed, with the Grand Final to be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in “mid-to-late October.”

 As border restrictions are eased across Australia, AFL bosses are hoping that the four interstate clubs in Queensland will be able to return to their tradition homes in Perth and Adelaide.

Busch tops board for Supermarket Heroes 500

Odds courtesy of OddsShark.com

After racing last Sunday and Thursday at the mammoth 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to a very different type of atmosphere and layout this Sunday at the short-track Bristol (Tennessee) Motor Speedway for the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500. It’s the first of two scheduled visits this season, with Bristol also scheduled to host a “playoff” race on September 19.

Unfortunately, one aspect of Bristol, which opened in 1961, will be missing this time around and that’s a very large, raucous group of fans because none are allowed in attendance due to the coronavirus (also no qualifying). Bristol Motor Speedway is the third largest sports venue in America as it can hold more than 160,000 people.

The track is right near the Virginia/Tennessee state line, and in 2006 Virginia Tech and the University of Tennessee played a college football game there with 157,000 people in attendance. That shattered the NCAA record.

Could Colin Kaepernick make a comeback amid American race riots?

With the George Floyd race riots lighting up Minneapolis in a blaze of fire, retribution and racial tensions are diving a proud City. With the NFL coming back in Autumn, the former NFL executive Joe Lockhart has used a column in CNN to argue that Colin Kaepernick should come back to American Football and in particular the Minnesota Vikings. 

It’s been almost four years since Colin Kaepernick threw a pass in the NFL, and since he left the San Francisco 49ers in the fallout from him taking the knee in protest at the powers that be. The national anthem, to many, hasn’t sounded the same. Kaepernick, however, hasn’t played since, despite showing off exactly how physically fit he still is with a range of workout videos.

America is a country that stands divided on the race riots, and on the side of George Floyd, many people have looked to Kaepernick for leadership. He hasn’t let them down, funding a legal defense team to help protestors know their rights and even setting up a Twitter page dedicated to coordinating efforts on their behalf.

What Lockhart argues football fans could really do with is Kaepernick back in his quarterback role on the field, in some ways to unite Minnesota and give the various factions a leading light to guide them through what are clearly very difficult times.

Has home advantage gone? How the Bundesliga should guide your EPL bets

With the English Premier League due to restart on June 17th, the German Bundesliga has been seen in many quarters as the guiding light by which other European leagues can return to action. From empty stadiums to testing facilities, England, Italy and Spain have, to a degree, all followed the Germans into this new world of soccer action.

Could the greatest leg-up for the English Premier League be in regard to the sportsbetting tip that could change how we look at the return of the biggest domestic league in the world?

Since the Bundesliga came back, well over 40% of matches have resulted in away wins such as this 3-0 thrashing of Schalke by F.C. Augsburg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvpxYM4tlyMVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Schalke vs. Augsburg (0-3) | Bundesliga Highlights (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvpxYM4tlyM)

Premier League soccer to restart next month

Germany’s Bundesliga may have been the first major soccer (or football, depending on which side of the pond you’re on) league to get back into action, but it soon won’t be alone. The UK’s Premier League announced yesterday that it now has a plan to resume games, and it should make soccer fans extremely happy. Not only will the season resume in a few short weeks, but every match is going to be broadcast live. Anyone suffering from soccer withdrawal will now be able to get a massive fix. 

The Premier League will have been suspended for a total of 100 days when players finally get back on the field on June 17. The league’s “Project Restart” will have two games played on that day, with the rest of the season running almost non-stop starting two days later. The first contests will be Arsenal against Manchester City and Sheffield United against Aston Villa. 

Richard Masters, the Premier League’s CEO, throws out a word of caution designed to keep everyone from getting overly excited, since Project Restart relies on the input of health officials and teams’ adherence to health policies. He explains, “Today we have provisionally agreed to resume the Premier League on Wednesday, 17 June. But this date cannot be confirmed until we have met all the safety requirements needed, as the health and welfare of all participants and supporters [are] our priority.

“Sadly, matches will have to take place without fans in stadiums, so we are pleased to have come up with a positive solution for supporters to be able to watch all the remaining 92 matches. The Premier League and our clubs are proud to have incredibly passionate and loyal supporters. It is important to ensure as many people as possible can watch the matches at home. We will continue to work step-by-step and in consultation with all our stakeholders as we move towards resuming the 2019-20 season.”

NFL decides to hold off on adding booth referee this season

As the NFL continues to work toward a launch of the regular season this September, there are still a lot of issues to be worked out. One major issue has to deal with different rules and how they’re implemented, and team owners are expected to virtually get together today to go over the changes. With the revelation that the league already screwed up in trying to manage the pass interference challenge rule, which has now been scrapped, perhaps the owners can come up with a better solution that can easily be put into play. Heading into today’s call, they’ll have one less item on the list, as the NFL has scrapped plans to add a booth referee to the games. 

The pass interference challenge was designed, in part, to make up for the egregious error performed on the part of the officiating crew during the playoff game between the New Orleans Saints and the LA Rams in the 2018-19 season. The NFL has already admitted to being a major failure with regards to that rule, and will try to work out an alternative. The booth referee, or sky judge, was initially created to be that replacement; however, it won’t be added to the rulebook for the upcoming season.

According to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, “Both ‘sky judge’ proposals are being withdrawn prior to tomorrow’s virtual meeting on rule changes, sources say. Expect the NFL to still test some expanded booth-to-official communication system in the preseason. But no officiating personnel added for 2020.” He adds, “Adding a booth umpire/senior technology advisor could’ve supplanted last season’s controversial pass interference replay rule, which wasn’t renewed. But questions persist about how far that person’s power should extend. Competition committee supports further analysis.”

Peter King of NBC Sports chalks up the rule’s demise to lack of preparation on the part of the league. The eye in the sky was first discussed several years ago, and then revived after the Saints playoff debacle. Early last month, talk of the additional referee became more serious, but the league hasn’t been able to figure out how to come up with a plan of attack. Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive VP, told King, “The concept of the eighth man in the booth has some merit. But we just don’t have the pipeline [of officials] today. Can we get there? Yes. But today, it could be a challenge.”

Chasing the Champions League

With the imminent return of the English Premier League, who will prevail from the final nine weeks and reach the promised land of the UEFA Champions League places?

Odds courtesy of oddschecker.com

Manchester City look almost certain to join Liverpool in the group stages of next season’s Champions League, as long as they can overturn a pretty tricky matter of the two-year ban they’re currently appealing. Let’s imagine that they do escape that punishment, however. If that’s the case, then it’s going to be any two from a good five or six sides. Who can make the top four and reach the Champions League?

Leicester City (2/9)

Betfair Australia inks pricey National Rugby League betting deal

The National Rugby League (NRL) is drawing criticism for a pricey new betting rights deal with online betting exchange Betfair Australia and for the league’s plans to resume play with fans in the stands.

On Tuesday, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Betfair Australia, a division of Australian casino operator Crown Resorts, had come to terms on a deal that will officially allow Betfair to offer wagers on NRL matches.

The paper claimed that Betfair had broken off talks with the NRL in February over the issue of rights fees. This week, Betfair Australia CEO Tim Moore-Barton groused that the NRL deal he’d signed was “four times more expensive” than the operator’s pact with the Australian Football League. The net result is that betting exchange customers will face higher commissions on NRL wagers than other betting markets.

Betfair is far from alone in feeling gouged by the NRL, which reportedly charges bookmakers the highest fees of any Aussie sporting body. As a result, bookmakers tend not to promote their NRL markets with the same enthusiasm they apply to other sports on their roster.