Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew

The Road to Riches: Weekend 13th-14th June

Posted on 7 Jun 2015 10:31 in Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew
Coming up this weekend
 
- Football, England's UEFA European Championship qualifier in Slovenia on Sunday, part of a busy schedule of Euro 2016 qualifying games this weekend. Also the opening weekend of the Copa Aerica 2015 in Chile
 
- Cricket, Sunday sees the third game in the five match England-New Zealand ODI series at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton
 
- Racing, on the flat at Bath, Chester, Musselburgh, Sandown Park,York, Leicester and Lingfield Park. Over the jumps at Hexham
 
- Tennis, ATP Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart and the WTA Topshelf Open, Den Bosch, Netherlands. The grass court season and the run up to Wimbledon begins with the WTA Nottingham Open
 
- Golf, Ahead of the US Open next week the USPGA Tour's FedEx St. Jude Classic at TPC Southwind, Memphis. European Tour: Lyoness Open at the Diamond CC, Atzenbrugg, Austria.

Free Tip of the Week :
 
The US Open takes place next week at the Chambers Bay GC near Seattle. As a preview of Neil Channing's coverage of the event across main and sub-markets, here are his initial thoughts on an outright winner: 
 
"Next week is going to be all about Royal Ascot but I do also plan to spend a fair bit of time looking at the US Open, one of golf's four majors. These big events are always the ones that attract me to having a golf bet. I'll be putting something up on the site for free late on Wednesday but for now I'll give you one outright bet for those of you looking for something to entertain you in between betting numerous horse winners.
 
The US Open makes it's first appearance at The Chambers Bay Golf Club. This links course is going to provide something different from the tight fairways and deep rough that is the usual US Open fare. Essentially this is an Open Championship in the US. The course is long (it will be somewhere between 7300 and 7800 yards in total) and the terrain is undulating, as are the massive greens. It is still uncertain exactly how the course will set up but the governing body, the USGA, like par to mean something in this tournament and the word from the herd is it will be fast and running here.
 
So who should we be staking our hard (or not so hard in some of your cases) earned on? Well although it may appear a course for the bombers I'm not so sure, I'm putting emphasis on precision iron play, consistency and experience. I think the dry conditions will make the ball run for miles and patience should be vital.
 
Jim Furyk might not be the most prolific winner in the field but he ticks a lot of the boxes for this venue. He has four top 4 finishes from nineteen starts in the Open Championship, he is currently No.1 in the 'proximity to the hole' statistic on the PGA tour, 8th in driving accuracy and 23rd in scrambling and once you combine those skills with a wise old head, I think 'Gentleman Jim' might show a few of these young thrusters how its done.
 
I'm having 7 Points each-way Jim Furyk at 40/1 1/4 12345 generally available."
 

Heuristics
 
Heuristics are mental shortcuts that ease the load of making a decision. Examples of this include using a rule of thumb, an educated guess, an intuitive judgment or a gut feeling and of course they are present for all of us in betting.
 
Common heuristics in betting are:
 
Sunk Cost
 
People are compelled to justify a commitment by increasing the cumulative investment despite the potential cost going forward outweighing the potential benefit. This is commonly described as ‘throwing good money after bad’ with a bet that has a high probability of incurring a large cost rather than taking a certain immediate, but smaller loss.
 
Diversification
 
With relation to betting, punters tend to invest more when the opportunity appears to be more diversified. A good example would be backing the draw and the away team based on the perception of a more diversified bet, as opposed to simply laying the home team. There isn’t, however a logical reason why you should bet more, unless the EV is greater.
 
Anchoring
 
Without realising it, individuals are anchoring their estimate of an outcome to a totally arbitrary point. The anchor is taken as a working hypothesis, a starting point from which the individual is reluctant to move too far away from.
Anchoring is widely exploited in marketing and is very relevant to betting. Handicaps and spread values can influence your judgements, providing the anchor on which your expectation is derived.
 
Gambler's Fallacy
 
People tend to believe short sequences of random events are representative of longer ones, ignoring the fact that these events are statistically independent.
The gambler’s fallacy is closely related to the Hot Hand Fallacy, which is the belief in streaks of good/bad luck. Where someone experience what seems like an atypical sequence of events, they infer some special significance i.e. I am on a hot streak, or my luck is out.
 
Availability bias
 
A tendency to attach greater significance to events that are easier to recall for example a high-scoring game rather than a 0-0 draw. In football bettors tend to over-estimate the frequency of events like red-cards and corners, because they are important and easily recalled. This impacts perceived probability and betting behaviour. It is linked to bettors commonly favouring the Over in Totals markets, or buying on a Spread, as availability bias leads them to wrongly conclude that it is more likely than in reality.
 

Royal Ascot 16th-20th June 2015
 
The full five day Royal Ascot package featuring all of Neil Channing's analysis and details of the bets that he is having is £199.99
Royal Ascot (Full Package) 16th - 20th June 2015
£199.99 Sign Up Here

Bet365 -  DEPOSIT £200 and get £400 to bet with at Royal Ascot

Bet365 - still offer the best sign up bonus of all. If you don't have an account you need one for Royal Ascot. Deposit £10 or more and get a 100% matched amount to bet with up to a max of £200. – This is not a just free bet, stakes are returned on winners. So deposit £200 and get £400 to bet with at Royal Ascot. - CLAIM NOW

Channel 4 will be showing every race live so the Bet365 Price Promise and Channel 4/1 Offer will apply to every race throughout the five day spectacle -

Bet365 Channel 4/1 Offer – Back any winner on Channel 4 and get a FREE risk free bet to the same stake (Max £50) on the next race. If your risk free bet wins at 4/1 or more you qualify for another....Bet365 also have great promotions and enhanced place terms during the festival that you just can not afford to miss out on as well as best price guarantees– CLAIM NOW

Bet365 will constantly update their prices for all races shown live on Channel 4 to ensure that they offer the best price on every horse running and offer BOG (best odds guaranteed) on all races. Open your Bet365 account here


Wimbledon 29th June-12th July 2015

All tennis that we have covered since our launch in Feb 2013 shows a +9.96% ROI and a £1158 profit at £10 a point (up to 28th May 2015)

If you had bet £10 a point on all the 5 Grand Slams that Nigel Seeley has covered for Betting Emporium you would be winning £2971.30 with an ROI +18.79%

French Open Tennis subscribers betting £10 a point won £1810 with an ROI of +43%

Match betting on the French Open 2015 alone showed a profit of over 71points and a +ROI 19.27%

Wimbledon ( 29th June - 12th July 2015)
£50 Sign Up Here

Sign up to Brodders' tips:
 
All Brodders bets since January 2014 are currently showing a ROI of +4.37% (1210 bets) (at 28th May 2015)
 
Betting £10 a point would be showing a profit of +£6283.80
 
May 2015 was Brodders' 3rd best month on record
 
May 2015  points bet 1468   profit 202.29    ROI +13.78%
 
Subscription to Brodders' write ups, analysis and bets is £50 a month. You can join at any time
 
Subscribe here

Bookmaker reviews and advice
 
Getting the best price available is very important for all those who take their betting seriously.
 
Please open an account with all those bookmakers on the page on this link that you do not already have an account with using the links provided.
 

Betting Emporium results
 
The detailed results page has been updated as have the spreadsheets with the detailed bets. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
 
£10 per point on every recommended bet since launch in Feb 2013 would be winning £11,380.10 (as at 28-05-15)
 
All bets have an ROI +3.31% and Horse Racing has an ROI +13%

There is also a Frequently Asked Questions Section

The Road to Riches: Weekend 6th-7th June

Posted on 31 May 2015 13:29 in Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew
Coming up this weekend

- Football, the UEFA Champions League Final, Juventus v Barcelona in Berlin on Saturday. International friendlies including Republic of Ireland v England on Sunday

- Formula One, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal

- Racing, The Derby at Epsom the highlight of a programme including flat meetings at Doncaster, Lingfield and Musselburgh and over the jumps at Uttoxeter and Hexham

- Tennis, the final weekend of the French Open

- Golf, USPGA Tour: The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village GC in Ohio and European Tour: Nordea Masters, PGA Sweden National in Malmo


Free Tip of the Week :

After a big strategic error from Mercedes denied Lewis Hamilton a pole to flag victory in Monaco a fortnight ago, the general expectation is that he will bounce back and win this weekend in Montreal at the Canadian Grand Prix, and the best price on him doing so is 4/6. He has a superb record in the race, and only once has a team-mate out-qualified him in eight starts. The high speed, low downforce circuit is tailor-made to suit Hamilton’s driving style.

I wonder if there may be value opposing him this weekend though. Last year both Mercedes cars hit problems in Canada with Energy Recovery System ( ERS) failures. Hamilton had to retire after the knock-on loss of engine braking caused the rear discs to overheat. Abu Dhabi apart, where Rosberg had ERS failure in the final last race of last season, the Mercedes cars have been extremely reliable since.

However delve a little further and there are signs that Mercedes is having to push to keep a rejuvenated Ferrai behind. In Bahrain this year, both Hamilton and Rosberg suffered brake problems after Mercedes opted for better aerodynamic performance and pace over cooling capability. Also, brake temperatures remained a concern for Mercedes in Monaco according to Hamilton’s race radio.

In Canada, Mercedes could once more have the performance advantage to sacrifice a little pace to prevent a recurrence of brake issues. This is a race though that, more than most, tends to produce a surprise or two and heavy brake wear  ( on a track mainly comprising long straights and chicanes ) tends to be a factor.

Ahead of this weekend’s race Ferrari and Honda have become the first manufacturers to carry out in-season development work on their engines. Having already made major progress since 2014, substantially closing the deficit to Mercedes, Ferrari have spent three tokens (of ten available for 2015) ahead of this race.. That in theory should allow them to put more pressure on Mercedes. It is crucial that Ferrari are close to Mercedes in Montreal to force the world champions to push hard in the race, rather than being able to control the pace and temperatures from the front.

As Mercedes tech boss Paddy Lowe said on Tuesday: "It will be interesting to see whether and how the 'balance of power' is shifted this weekend", specifically referring to how much closer the new Ferrari power unit might bring them to the Mercedes cars. The gap in qualifying has been around 7/10ths of a second recently and there should be around 3/10ths in the power unit upgrade. The gap in races has been less with Ferrari impressive on race pace and tyre wear.

For Canada, racing on the least durable tyres in the Pirelli range (soft and super-soft), we can expect Ferrari to mount a serious challenge to Mercedes in race conditions. Their superior tyre management across a full race distance may again help keep Mercedes in check, and if they do Mercedes will have to risk brake problems by being unable to compromise aerodynamics for cooling.

This combination of a track that is hardest in the area of greatest Mercedes vulnerability and the Ferrari engine upgrade makes Sebastian Vettel an interesting each-way play here. Each way terms are 1/3 the odds for a top two finish and Vettel is 8/1+ in a market with both Mercedes drivers in at 4/6 and 15/8. Of course it's still hard to look past Lewis Hamilton on any Grand Prix weekend, and a Mercedes 1-2 would not surprise but the conditions for some each-way value on Vettel are here.

3 points each way Sebastian Vettel Canadian Grand Prix at 17/2 William Hill (1/3 1, 2) or 8/1 Bet365, Sportingbet, Skybet, BetfairSportsbook

(timezones mean that prices will be down for much of friday evening until after free practice two. Qualifying is 6pm Saturday UK time, the race 6pm Snday UK time)


After England and New Zealand drew the two test series ended 1-1, next week sees a five match ODI series with games as follows:

9th June Edgbaston

12th June, The Oval

14th June, Southampton

17th June Trent Bridge

20th June Chester-Le-Street

On Paper there is a big disparity between the two sides. New Zealand were world cup runners up in February whilst England exited in the group stages. New Zealand also have had a huge advantage in mindset in ODIs, and we saw signs in the recent test series that their aggressive approach, scoring consistently at 5 runs an over, has not changed.  In the Headingley test first innings scoring 350 in 70 overs, where most test sides would take 100 overs plus for that score, created 30-50 extra overs in the game for them to bowl which proved vital with the loss of play due to weather and allowed them to force a win. In the series six Kiwi batsmen had strike-rates of 60+, compared to just two for England. Essentially they were playing one-day cricket over the five day format. New Zealand are a brave side. Under the captaincy of Brendon McCullum they only play one way and their approach in the ODIs will be the same.

New Zealand are an ODI team in their prime. Looking at ODI performances in 2015 only amongst the squad we have:

Guptill 786 runs in 18 innings at 49

Williamson 641 runs in 15 innings at 49

McCullum 608 runs in 17 innings at 35

Taylor 554 runs in 17 innings at 42

Anderson 441 in 15 innings at 34

In the bowling ranks

Boult 30 wickets in 15 games at 20

Anderson 25 wickets in 16 games at 21

Southee 24 wickets in n13 games at 28

All play in the upcoming series, supplemented by the likes of specialists Elliott and Ronchi.

All this is in contrast to England’s squad. Major players are rested, with one eye on a very crowded schedule and upcoming ashes, including Anderson, Broad, Bell and Moeen Ali. In its favour the squad is full of talent. Supplementing the experience of Morgan, Buttler, Root and Finn are some of the most explosive players around the county scene. Hales, Roy, Billings, Willey are all match-winners and point (finally) to England adopting a more modern approach to the ODI game

It is a huge task to ask a young team to overcome New Zealand here though. The probability of questionable weather shortening games gives them a chance of course but the advantage in such home conditions is likely to be negated by the skill of Boult and Southee with the swinging ball.

All this helps explain why New Zealand are a prohibitive 1/2 to win a five game series.


Coverage of the Investec Derby and Oaks

If you have subscribed to anything at all on Betting Emporium since launch then your user account has automatically been set to free for the 2015 Derby write up this weekend, due to be published for 10am Saturday by Neil.

Investec Derby and Oaks 2015
£50 Sign Up Here

Royal Ascot 16th-20th June 2015

The full five day Royal Ascot package featuring all of Neil Channing's analysis and details of the bets that he is having is £199.99

Royal Ascot (Full Package) 16th - 20th June 2015

£199.99 Sign Up Here

If you are new to this site and have not subscribed to anything before you will get the Derby and Oaks for free if you sign up to Royal Ascot.


Sign up to Brodders' tips:

All Brodders bets since January 2014 are currently showing a ROI of +4.37% (1210 bets) (at 28th May 2015)

Betting £10 a point would be showing a profit of +£6283.80

May 2015 was Brodders' 3rd best month on record

May 2015    pts bet 1468    profit 202.29    ROI +13.78%

Subscription to Brodders' write ups, analysis and bets is £50 a month. You can join at any time

Subscribe here


Bookmaker reviews and advice

Getting the best price available is very important for all those who take their betting seriously.

Please open an account with all those bookmakers on the page on this link that you do not already have an account with using the links provided.

 There are literally hundreds of pounds on offer from bookmakers just for signing up through Bettingemporium.com


Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated as have the spreadsheets with the detailed bets. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

£10 per point on every recommended bet since launch in Feb 2013 would be winning £11,380.10 (as at 28-05-15)

All bets have an ROI +3.31% and Horse Racing has an ROI +13%

There is also a Frequently Asked Questions Section

The Road to Riches: Weekend 30th-31st May

Posted on 25 May 2015 10:18 in Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew

Coming up this weekend

- Football, The FA Cup final between Arsenal and Aston Villa on Saturday

- Racing, on the flat at Chester, Newmarket, Haydock, York and Chepstow and over the jumps at Stratford-on-avon

- Tennis, the middle weekend of the French Open

- Golf, USPGA Tour: AT&T Byron Nelson Championship, at Las Colinas, Texas and European Tour: Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Royal County Down GC.

- Cricket, the second Test Match, England v New Zealand at Headingley

- Rugby Union,  the Aviva Premiership final between Bath and Saracens


Free Tip of the Week :

Defending champions Arsenal attempt to retain the FA Cup when they play Aston Villa on Saturday

In previous all Premier League cup final ties, league position at the end of the season has proved a decent indicator of likely success. In 75% of these finals, the highest placed team emerged as outright winners and that trend is expected by odds-setters to continue in this game with Arsenal best priced 4/7 and Aston Villa 6/1 to win in 90 minutes.

Recent finals have been close though. Arsenal needed extra-time to beat Hull City last year and each of the previous seven finals have been decided by a single goal. Perhaps reflecting the importance of the game, of all Premier League contested finals only 29% contained over 2.5 goals in 90 minutes. Five of the seven finals at new Wembley have seen under 2.5 goals and only one, last year’s, over 3.5 goals

Would we expect these trends to continue for this game? Perhaps the easier side to analyse is Arsenal, who over the 2014-15 season scored 1.89 goals per game and for whom in an era of Chelsea/Manchester City domination of the Premier League the FA Cup represents their best chance of silverware. After poor results towards the back end of the season, the form of Walcott and Wilshere in the 4-1 victory over WBA speaks to the strength of depth they have going into this game

Aston Villa are an interesting side to assess. In terms of the bare statistics, the most glaring comparison between Lambert’s Villa and Sherwood’s version appears in the shooting, goal scoring and conceding data. Overall, Lambert’s Villa scored just 26% of the total goals in their games, while taking only 43% of total shots and 38% of shots on target. Sherwood has raised these overall percentages and all three numbers are above 50% during his 13 Premier League matches in charge.

For the season overall Villa scored 31 league goals their lowest ever in a single season. However over Sherwood’s 15 games (with seven wins and a draw) Villa have scored 24 goals, for an average of 1.6 goals a game. Under Lambert in the 24 games in 2014-15 before he left, only12 goals and no less than 15 games in which they did not score

So on the 15 game sample size we have to go at we can see a real change in approach which has seen the introduction of the talented Grealish and the reinvigoration of Benteke, for whom the Cup final may be his final game for the club.

Now all this is not to say that Aston Villa are necessarily value for the game overall but it does suggest that this game may buck the trend of low-scoring finals. In terms of player markets Benteke has scored 12 goals in his last 12 games for Villa, all since Sherwood arrived (three goals in 21 games before that). The whole side plays through him and aims to create chances for him.

Bet365 offer first goalscorer odds and, which is the especially interesting component of the proposed bet, 1/3 the odds each way unlimited places to score anytime. Of course the price reflects that Benteke plays for the underdogs, but the each way part of the bet to score anytime looks very good

5 points each way Christian Benteke First goalscorer in the FA Cup Final 17/2 Bet365 (each way 1/3 the odds unlimited places)


Betting Discipline

Betting discipline is the ability to handle the inevitable losing runs, and to only place bets when you feel you have an edge. Fun Bets or Interest bets are the downfall of many otherwise profitable gamblers, placing bets that don’t meet normal criteria for a ‘value bet’.  It could be a bet on Monday night football just because it’s on TV, even though you have no strong fancy, or it might be a bet on a race at Wolverhampton while you’re waiting for your main bet to run at Newmarket. These type of bets are a drain on, and could even eliminate, the profits you make from your main bets.

Some punters follow a similar line every day. They might go to their local bookies, or sit and watch the racing on TV, but the general policy will be to back a horse for interest in most races. Most punters don’t have the discipline to wait for the bets they think they have an edge with. Having a bet in every race is fine but only if you can find a bet you believe to be value. If you have four or five strong bets for the day and dilute them with numerous fun bets all your good work in coming up with the value selections will be wasted by your lack of discipline.

if you want to be a consistent long term winner than you have to have the temperament and discipline to knock those ‘fun bets’ and bets that don’t meet your price criteria on the head. No matter whether you only bet when your price criteria is met, or if you just bet for fun, you should always get the best price, which means opening as many accounts as possible

There are punters who normally only place bets where they feel they have an edge, and while they could be successful long term; a losing run can often be enough to derail their attempts to make a living from the game. Just because you make money long term doesn’t mean there won’t be periods of short term losses. How you react to these set-backs is vital to your continued success. More often than not the losing run will fall within an entirely expected sequence of results. It’s vital to analyse your results to determine if the results are just due to bad luck or perhaps some variable that might have changed which could explain your lack of success. If however after this analysis you can’t find any reason for the downturn and the results experienced fall within what might be expected in an unlucky period then stick with it, don’t chase losses and don’t lose discipline by backing in areas and at prices different than your normal methods


French Tennis Open (Roland Garros) (24th May-7th June 2015)- by Nigel Seeley

Daily match bets in both the mens and women's tournaments and ante-post bets

All tennis covered since our launch in Feruary 2013 shows a +9.96% ROI and a £1158 profit at £10 a point

French Tennis Open (Roland Garros) (24th May - 7th June 2015)
£50 Sign Up Here

Coverage of the Investec Derby and Oaks

 

If you have subscribed to anything at all on Betting Emporium since launch then your user account has automatically been set to free for the 2015 Derby and Oaks write ups.

 

Investec Derby and Oaks 2015
£50 Sign Up Here

Royal Ascot 16th-20th Jne 2015

The full five day Royal Ascot package featuring all of Neil Channing's analysis and details of the bets that he is having is £199.99

Royal Ascot (Full Package) 16th - 20th June 2015

£199.99 Sign Up Here

If you are new to this site and have not subscribed to anything before you will get the Derby and Oaks for free if you sign up to Royal Ascot.


Sign up to Brodders' tips:

All Brodders bets since inception are currently showing a ROI of +3.81%  (at 28th April 2015)

Betting £10 a point would be showing a profit of +£4925.30

Subscription to Brodders' write ups, analysis and bets is £50 a month. You can join at any time

Subscribe here


Bookmaker reviews and advice

Getting the best price available is very important for all those who take their betting seriously.

Please open an account with all those bookmakers on the page on this link that you do not already have an account with using the links provided.

 There are literally hundreds of pounds on offer from bookmakers just for signing up through Bettingemporium.com


Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated as have the spreadsheets with the detailed bets. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

£10 per point on every recommended bet since launch in Feb 2013 would be winning £11,380.10 (as at 28-05-15)

All bets have an ROI +3.31% and Horse Racing has an ROI +13%

There is also a Frequently Asked Questions Section

The Road to Riches: Weekend 23rd-24th May

Posted on 17 May 2015 10:00 in Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew

Coming up this weekend

- Football, The last weekend of the Premier League season, and the Football League play-off finals.

- Formula One, the Monaco Grand Prix

- Racing, on the flat at Goodwood, Haydock, Salisbury, Beverley and Catterick and over the jumps at Ffos Las

- Tennis, the final warm up events before the French Open: ATP Geneva Open and WTA International in Strasbourg.

- Golf, USPGA Tour: Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial CC, Fort Worth, Texas and European Tour: BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth

- Cricket, the first Test Match of the English summer, against New Zealand at Lords

- Rugby Union,  the Aviva Premiership Play-off semi-finals


Free Tip of the Week :Aviva Premiership rugby Play-Offs

Last weekend the line up for the Aviva Premiership Rugby play-offs was decided with Leicester and Saracens winning to make the semi-finals which take place this weekend. Leicester, who finished 3rd travel to 2nd placed Bath whilst 4th placed Saracens travel to Northampton the top side during the league season. The winners of the two ties meet in the Grand Final at Twickenham in May.

Several years ago Bath began to benefit from the massive investment of owner Bruce Craig both on and off the field. Last year, Bath sat in the play-off positions for the majority of the season only fall away at the end of the season, narrowly missing the play-offs. This year, despite a brief blip after Christmas, they have been one of the two sides in the league that have been consistently excellent, and after their putting 50 points on Gloucester last weekend they have a home semi-final.

Bath used to be seen as a soft touch when the going got tough. They have always had a good set of backs but their forwards were regularly bested. That changed when they came away from local rivals Gloucester last year at Kingsholm with a win from a game that included two red cards, five yellow cards and numerous fights. They were the games that Bath would have lost in the past. Not any more. This year the side has matured further with that more physical a final component for a team that is now one game away from their first ever Premiership final.

Bath’s home game against Leicester will turn on the performance of their forwards against the experienced Leicester eight. Leicester have struggled for much of the season after inconsistency and injuries dogged their campaign until the six nations. They eased into the play-offs with a not-altogether-convincing win at home to a second string Northampton side. After having played so impressively the week before away at Wasps, this performance was another step back, returning to the one-out-runner attacking strategy that had seen their game stagnate so badly this season. It is up front that Leicester need to be in the ascendancy because Bath (who pulverised Leicester 45-0 early in the season at the Rec) have the best backs in the country.

Co-ordinated by England fly-half George Ford Bath have a lot of firepower out wide from the likes of Jonathan Joseph, Kyle Eastmond and Anthony Watson and scored no fewer than 170 points and over 35 tries more than Leicester over the season. Assuming they match Leicester up front Bath should win and advance to Twickenham.

In the other semi-final, Northampton rested players at Leicester last week and face Saracens, a side for whom 4th in the regular season with seven losses represented major under-performance given their squad depth. What Saracens do have though is big game players throughout the side and it is difficult to see either pack being dominant for long periods of the game. This could well be a very close game. Saracens operate with defined patterns of play and play the percentages of field position. Northampton will be favourites at home, but this is a tighter game than prices of 8/13 Northampton 8/5 Saracens implies

Looking at the Aviva Premiership outrights current prices are as follows:

Northampton 6/4

Bath 2/1

Saracens 7/2

Leicester 8/1

As stated above i am confident Bath will beat Leicester. Once they do so they would be sub 6/4 underdogs to beat Northampton in the final and small odds-on to beat Saracens on 30th May at Twickenham

10 points Bath to win the Aviva Premiership at 2/1 with BetVictor, Sportingbet, Bet365 amongst others


NZ v England cricket

The two test England/New Zealand Test series which began at Lords yesterday is the first of the English summer, and a tough precursor to the Ashes for England

After the disappointment of failing to win the three match series in the West Indies, New Zealand are difficult opponents for England at the start of the test summer in early season English conditions. England are a side in flux. They have undoubted strengths, the middle order of Ballance,Bell and Root scored heavily in the Caribbean and James Anderson was the top wicket taker in the series. Elsewhere in the team though there remain question-marks.

Ashley Lyth has come in as Alistair Cook’s opening partner after Jonathan Trott’s unhappy tour and subsequent retirement. Lyth enjoyed an outstanding 2014 with 1489 Championship runs at an average of 67.68 as Yorkshire won their first title since 2001 and will be the sixth post-Strauss Cook opening partner. None of the other five players tried – Nick Compton, Joe Root, Michael Carberry, Sam Robson and Trott – have lasted more than nine Tests.

Anderson apart, the bowling attack has more question-marks than reliability. Broad in the seam bowling ranks for example, supplemented for Lords by Durham’s Mark Wood, flattered to deceive in the Caribbean and in the spin bowling department England have to rely on Ali and Root, with no long term replacement for Swann on the horizon yet

New Zealand are tricky customers, on the back of their excellent World Cup performance. In Boult, Southee and Henry they have an effective seam bowling line up and a batting line up including Guptill, Williamson, Taylor and McCullum is both talented and experienced

So why were England favourites for both the first Test and Series? The answer to this could be the difficulty for touring sides playing Tests in England in May. Perhaps the answer lies in history. New Zealand have won one from their previous eight away series and have failed to win a Test in their last nine attempts in England, but this is a more formidable New Zealand team than any of those line ups.

Perhaps it is due to lack of preparation. The International calendar is so crowded that this has two knock on effects for touring sides. Warm up games are few, and key players are elsewhere. For New Zealand they have played Somerset and Worcestershire relying on players outside the touring party to make up numbers whilst Brendon McCullum, Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Kane Williamson were still playing in the IPL through the warm-up games

This might have suggested that New Zealand might not hit the ground running in the first Test and with it only being a two test series that might have mitigate against backing them at an otherwise attractive 11/5 for the series, and odds-against on a draw no bet basis too. Instead though, having won the toss and bowled on a green strip reducing England to 30-4 the 11/5 looked a big price indeed. Perhaps it was only as the shine came off the new ball, and the excellence of Joe Root and Ben Stokes who led a superb counter-attack that saw England score 324-3 over the rest of the first day, that New Zealand betrayed some red ball rustiness and made the pre-series odds with England favourites make a lot more sense.


French Tennis Open (Roland Garros) (24th May-7th June 2015)- by Nigel Seeley

All tennis covered since our launch in Feruary 2013 shows a +9.96% ROI and a £1158 profit at £10 a point

French Tennis Open (Roland Garros) (24th May - 7th June 2015)
£50 Sign Up Here

Sign up to Brodders' tips:

All Brodders bets since inception are currently showing a ROI of +3.81%  (at 28th April 2015)

Betting £10 a point would be showing a profit of +£4925.30

Subscription to Brodders' write ups, analysis and bets is £50 a month. You can join at any time

Subscribe here


Premier League 2014/15

Premier League Statistical Analysis 23rd-24th May 2015 - write up for the weekend has been published here


Bookmaker reviews and advice

Getting the best price available is very important for all those who take their betting seriously.

Please open an account with all those bookmakers on the page on this link that you do not already have an account with using the links provided.

 There are literally hundreds of pounds on offer from bookmakers just for signing up through Bettingemporium.com


Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated as have the spreadsheets with the detailed bets. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

£10 per point on every recommended bet since launch in Feb 2013 would be winning £10,463.40 (as at 28-04-15)

All bets have an ROI +3.26% and Horse Racing has an ROI +13.49%

There is also a Frequently Asked Questions Section

The Road to Riches: Weekend 16th-17th May

Posted on 10 May 2015 11:09 in Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew

Coming up this weekend

- Football, Two weeks to go in the Premier League season, and the Football League play-offs continue with the Championship second legs

- Racing, on the flat at Newbury, Newmarket, Thirsk and Doncaster and over the jumps at Uttoxeter and Bangor-on-Dee.

- Tennis, ATP and WTA Italian Opens in Rome.

- Golf, USPGA Tour: Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina and European Tour: Open de Espana in Barcelona.

- Cricket, the start of the NatWest T20 blast competition on Friday night


Free Tip of the Week   

The NatWest T20 Blast starts on Friday night running to the end of August. The format of the competition sees the 18 counties split into two groups, North and South. Each plays 14 games, top 4 in each group through to the knockout stages and the final four through to finals day at Edgbaston near the end of the season.

In a tournament that each year lacks the buzz of the IPL and the Big Bash competitions elsewhere much as been made of the recruitment of stars into the tournament this season, with each team allowed to field two overseas players. Brendon McCullum, Glenn Maxwell, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Martin Guptill, Grant Elliott, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Chris Gayle for example will all play in this season's competition. However the playing impact of this shouldn't be over-estimated with most overseas stars only playing part of the competition with International commitments through the summer and only one county, Kent, not employing at least one overseas player.

It is worth remembering that T20 cricket is a randomising format. Any team in this competition can beat any other over the short form of the game, particularly in English weather. The front end of the betting market this year has a familiar feel with 8 teams shorter than 20-1 headed by Notts and including last year's winners Birmingham and perennial strong performers like Essex, Surrey, Hampshire, Lancs, Somerset and Yorkshire. Any of these sides could make finals day but because every side is competitive, none are locks to even make it through the group stages. Form towards the back end of the event is key. Last year Birmingham had won just four of their first eleven games and were sixth in the North Group. Six wins later, they were the champions.

Over a long competition, I prefer to find a side at a price that can mix it with the big boys. Two years ago that side was Northants and after winning the competition then Northants struggled last year, winning only four group games and suffering from major injuries to key players. This time round they look able to compete again having changed the composition of their squad prior to this season. Northants bat right down the order and have dangerous county hitters like David Willey, Steve Crook,Josh Cobb and Adam Rossington in the team backing up the more orthodox batsmen. Richard Levi and Rory Kleinveldt provide international experience alongside the mercurial talents of Shahid Afridi for the first six games of the competition. They have two of the best death bowlers in county cricket in Willey and Mohammed Azarullah, seven of the side can be classed as all-rounders making them one of the best balanced sides and best of all their under-performance last year has meant they are in the market at 25-1 this time round. I would have them in the top eight of the market, all of whom are 12-1 and below, and an under-rated sleeper in a wide open competition.

5 points each-way Northants to win the NatWest T20 Blast at 25-1 (1/2 the odds 1,2) Sportingbet, Bet365, Skybet


Election betting review

When the general election exit poll came out at 10pm last Thursday the numbers seemed unbelievable. The initial figures, which predicted the Tories would win 316 seats, ended up to be an under-estimation and an overall majority was achieved. One pollster, 72 hours before the election, said that the chances of a majority government were now a "rounding error"!

As the night progressed we all adjusted to the fact that whilst forecasts had indeed got some of the most surprising things right the dominant narrative shaping this election – that it was neck-and-neck between Labour and the Conservatives and that a minority government or coalition was the only feasible outcome – turned out to be plain wrong

It is clear that the polls and forecasts had a bad election, the worst for opinion polling in Britain since 1992. As then the British Polling Council will set up an independent investigation into how the polls performed. The political adviser David Axelrod said afterwards "In all my years as journalist & strategist, I've never seen as stark a failure of polling as in UK. "

Overall Betting Emporium made a small profit on its election bets but this was more from accurately predicting the results of some seats and smaller party seat totals and of course a debate winner than getting the big picture right. In that we mirrored the performance of the pollsters. As soon as the exit poll came out, ideas of Labour minority government and Labour most seats bets placed weeks earlier looked highly unlikely and so it proved. Still, we weren't alone, a hung parliament was 1/16 five minutes before the exit poll

The question is why did the polls get it wrong?

The final crop of polls were roughly anticipating a tie and of course afterwards there was some back-fitting of the result to polling expectations. A Survation poll the day before had the result but wasn't released as it was considered an outlier, private polling on both sides was giving a more polarised view than public polls. Apparently on Tuesday the Conservatives received a private poll giving them a majority, but they were "sceptical".

Across the polls there appear to have been several errors:

  1. Labour significantly underperformed compared with expectations set by polls. Support for Labour averaged 34% in the final polls, 3.5 points above the actual result and this was right on the boundary of polling margin of error. The figures for Ukip (12.5%), the Lib Dems (8%), and the Greens (4%) were within the polls’ margins of error. Although the Conservatives’ average in the final pre-election polls (34%) was also roughly three and a half points shy of the party’s actual result, several companies had the party’s share on 35-36%.
  2. The spread of error in the Conservative and Labour results was 6.5 points, compared with 9 points in 1992. The Combined “big two” share of the popular vote was underestimated by 2 points
  3. The Lib Dems’ result was terrible even in their strongholds. The party held on to only eight of their 57 seats, which is in stark contrast with the snapshots provided by constituency polling. In the end incumbency and strong local campaigns counted for nothing. Lib Dem vote share fell only slightly less in seats they were defending, nowhere near enough to save most Lib Dems from a 15 percentage point national decline
  4. Although turnout saw a one-point increase on 2010, the level (66%) was significantly lower than that implied in most polls. 0.7 points of the increase in turnout was accounted for by Scotland (and broadly the pollsters got Scotland and the SNP spot on). Turnout in England and Wales was almost completely unchanged. - this means the opinion of non-voters weighed on polling numbers.

So what might the inquiry find?

1.Past vote weightings in polls ineffective. For example it looked like the polls had overestimated the proportion of UKIP support (and they won 4m votes ) that came from the Conservatives and under-estimated that which came from Labour, with a knock-on effect on estimates of support for the two main parties.

2. Non-Uniform National Swing. The Tory vote was up less than 1% nationally, but up 4% in marginals. More than ever before this was a series of local tactical battles and the link between top level polling and constituency outcomes was more tenuous this election than previously.

3 Shy and lazy voters. Since 1992 polling companies had made attempts to adjust their polling methods for voters reluctant to give their true voting intentions and yet in 2015 there was again an under-estimation of the right of centre vote

4. Overestimated likelihood to vote. It’s always been the case that the probability of respondents actually voting is over-stated. As long as the overestimation is even between parties, the polls will still be right. The problem is that it might not have been. The term "lazy labour" voters has been coined, because 12.2 million labour voters were implied from final polls and only 9.3 million voted.


French Tennis Open (Roland Garros) (19th May-7th June 2015)- by Nigel Seeley

All tennis covered since our launch in Feruary 2013 shows a +9.96% ROI and a £1158 profit at £10 a point

French Tennis Open (Roland Garros) (19th May - 7th June 2015)
£50 Sign Up Here

Sign up to Brodders' tips:

All Brodders bets since inception are currently showing a ROI of +3.81%  (at 28th April 2015)

Betting £10 a point would be showing a profit of +£4925.30

Subscription to Brodders' write ups, analysis and bets is £50 a month. You can join at any time

Subscribe here


Premier League 2014/15

Premier League Statistical Analysis 16th-17th May 2015 - write up for the weekend has been published here


Bookmaker reviews and advice

Getting the best price available is very important for all those who take their betting seriously.

Please open an account with all those bookmakers on the page on this link that you do not already have an account with using the links provided.

 There are literally hundreds of pounds on offer from bookmakers just for signing up through Bettingemporium.com


Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated as have the spreadsheets with the detailed bets. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

£10 per point on every recommended bet since launch in Feb 2013 would be winning £10,463.40 (as at 28-04-15)

All bets have an ROI +3.26% and Horse Racing has an ROI +13.49%

There is also a Frequently Asked Questions Section

<<8485868788899091929394>>Jump to page: