The Road to Riches Weekend of 19th-20th October

Coming up this weekend

• Horse Racing, On the flat at Ascot and Catterick, over the jumps at Newton Abbot and Stratford and on the all-weather at Wolverhampton.
• Football, Premier League matches include Liverpool v Chelsea
• NFL, Week Seven of the new season including New England Patriots at Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium.
• Cricket, England’s Test Series continues in Pakistan with the third Test in Rawalpindi
• Formula One, the US Grand Prix in Austin
• Golf, The ZOZO Championship on the USPGA Tour and Genesis Championship in Korea on the DP World Tour.
• Tennis, ATP Erste Bank and Basel Opens.

Free Tip

Gallagher Premiership Rugby

Bristol v Saracens Saturday 3.05pm

Four rounds into the season and the two two in the early league table meet at Ashtonm Gate. Both teams have three wins and a loss, with Bristol a point ahead of Saracens on bonus points won.

Following on from their fast-attacking approach of previous seasons, which didn’t always lead to wins it has to be said, Bristol have been prolific this season to date scoring 41,24,40 and 36 points the 36 points in a 5 try underdog win at Bath last weekend where a fast start saw them 19 points ahead and eventually winning by 10.

That result might have flattered them, Bath put in an error-strewn performance but full credit for the result of the season so far.

Bristol lost 41-44 Glouc beat Newcastle, Exeter and Bath away 41 24 40 36 points 5 tries 19 ahead. Bath error strewn performance.

In their first season following the departure of Owen Farrell to France there is a faint air of rebuilding about Saracens as young players begin to find their way into the first team. That said they can still field a team full of internationals with Daly, George, Earl, Itoje etc and are a really tough nut to crack in defence.

So far they’ve beaten Sale, Gloucester and Exeter, their one reverse coming in a 178-10 loss to Harlequins, the one game they’ve not put up points (45,35,29 in the three other games)

Odds for this game are interesting. Saracens are 2.5-point favourites and 4/6 outright, Bristol 5/4+. First thing to do was check the weather, Saracens would be favoured by tough conditions but my apps tell me dry with some sun on Saturday, so all set fair for Bristol’s running rugby.

It’s about time I had a rugby winner (Northampton resting players for a local derby in Leicester last weekend, public after I went live, was not on the agenda). The home underdog will do me here, outright

10 points Bristol Bears to win at 7/5 William Hill, 13/10 Coral/Ladbrokes

Crowded House.

There will be no meaningful reduction in the volume of men's county cricket played in 2025, despite more than 80% of players reporting fears for their physical health due to the busy schedule.

A Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) survey at the start of this season found that the majority of players believe the schedule is not fit for purpose but next season each county will still play a minimum of 14 matches in the County Championship, eight in the Metro Bank Cup and 14 in the Vitality T20 Blast.

The PCA are still pushing for changes which would see T20 fixtures more spread out across a week to reduce the number of tight turnarounds, and for uniform three-day gaps between Championship matches.

It feels that the Blast was scheduled through a commercial lens, trying to squeeze as many games as possible into Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Utilising the majority of the week is probably the way forward, trying to spread them out to give that time for recovery, travel and preparation.

The main point of discussion for the 2025 schedule has been around the T20 Blast, and when the knockout stages should be held. In 2023, they took place straight after the group stages in July, allowing counties to keep hold of their overseas playe. This year they took place in mid-September.

This year's Blast schedule was described as "ridiculous" by Kent's T20 captain Sam Billings, who said that staging the final two months after the group stages "just does not make sense". If it remains in September next year it will overlap with England's white-ball series against South Africa.

The ECB has announced England’s international fixtures for 2025 with incoming men's tours from Zimbabwe, India, West Indies and South Africa. The Hundred will be played in August, starting immediately after the fifth Test against India and running until the end of the month.

Of course the fact that the Hundred blocks out August is the essential problem, we have one too many tournament for the months available, marginalising the 50 over competition and reducing the profile of the Blast final weekend.

Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated on 1^st January 2024. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £69,601 All bets have an ROI +2.97%

A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £73,601, a 1740% increase.

The Road to Riches Weekend of 12th-13th October

Coming up this weekend

• Horse Racing, On the flat at Newmarket and York, over the jumps at Chepstow and Hexham and on the all-weather at Chelmsford City.
• Football, UEFA Nations League matches include England v Greece.
• NFL, Week Six of the new season including Chicago Bears v Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Stadium.
• Cricket, England’s Test Series continues in Pakistan with the second Test in Multan
• Golf, The Shriners Children’s Open on the USPGA Tour and Andalucia Masters on the DP World Tour.
• Tennis, ATP Almaty, Antwerp and Nordic Opens

Free Tip

Leicester v Northampton Gallagher Premiership 5.30pm Saturday

In the fourth round of games of the new Gallagher Premiership season this East Midlands Derby, a fierce rivalry, is the highlight.

After a disappointing season last time with an 8^th placed finish Leicester recruited the former Australia and Argentina coach Michael Chieka to become their 8^th coach in just over 7 years.

He takes over a Leicester team with a strong pack of forwards and a defence that only conceded 51 tries across 18 league games second best of the ten league teams.

Over the last few years, either side of and including the spell with Syeve Borthwick and Richard Wigglesworth in charge the tactics have generally been kick and defend, with the likes of Geroge Martin and Ollie Chessum to the fore in the second row and Tommy Reffell and Hanro Liebenberg in the back row. When available the marquee player Handre Pollard pulled the strings.

Cheika’s style won’t be as one dimensional and he’ll try to add more flair to the unstructured parts of the game to give Leicester more of an “all-court” style. He’ll also need to improve the team’s conditioning, they lost several games late on last season when fading away.

So far this season they’ve won two of three games, away wins at Exeter and Newcastle, and lost narrowly home to Bath, though only heroic defence meant it that the game remained close throughout.

Northampton are defending Premiership Champions. They opened disappointingly, losing by 22 points in Bath but then scored 30 to beat Exeter and last weekend 33 points to beat Harlequins. This is more like it for the most exciting side in the country with a very quick, attacking style of play.

In Finn Smith at fly half with Fraser Dingwall, Ollie Sleightholme, Tommy Freeman and George Furbank outside there are a collection of players breaking through into the England team. What Northampton are missing nowadays is a bit of grunt up front with Courtney Lawes and Lewis Ludlam departing for France in the summer.

If they hold their own up front in this game, they should have too much gas for Leicester and I like them to win narrowly.

15 points Northampton to win at Evens widely available

Rebuild.

Former England cricket white ball coach Matthew Mott took England to three World Cups and won one of them, his team beating Pakistan at the MCG less than two years ago plus a semi-final in the T20 World Cup in June. However the 2023 50 over event in India saw a group stage exit and a series of poor performances.

Meanwhile Test coach Brendon McCullum overseen 19 wins, eight defeats and a single draw, and has given them a clear identity that they were sorely lacking. He is yet to win a series against the world's top two. England drew with Australia last summer, and were heavily beaten in India earlier this year.

Now McCullum has signed a new deal as England's men coach which will cover all formats and runs until the end of 2027 Timeframe of new contract includes 2025-26 + 2027 Ashes, 2025 Champions Trophy, 2026 T20 World Cup and 2027 50ov World Cup. The belief is that he can have the same effect as in the Test side on a stagnant white-ball set-up. It also reflects that it has been difficult to recruit from the pool of global cricket coaches in competition with the rewards on offer from the franchise circuit.

Only India play more men's international cricket than England, and England play more Tests than anyone. Their ludicrous fixture list was encapsulated by the 24-hour turnaround between the scheduled fifth-day finish of the recent third Test against Sri Lanka and the start of a T20I series against Australia.

McCullum's task will be to inject some energy into a white-ball set-up which felt desperately low  by the time they were knocked out of June's T20 World Cup. He will watch from afar for 14 games, with Marcus Trescothick in interim charge, then will have a quick tour to India to make his mark before February's Champions Trophy.

The trouble lies further ahead, with a dilemma that is familiar to England's captains and coaches across the past two decades: how can you plan for both an Ashes series, and a World Cup straight after it?

Meanwhile Jos Buttler’s captaincy will be under scrutiny and he has never worked with McCullum.

In the period between Mott and McCullum England are rebuilding using younger players so we can't expect the white ball team to gel, straight away. England are moving on from the Moeen, Jordan, Buttler, Rashid generation and the ODI series against Australia just finished saw Brook, Bethell, Jacks, Jamie Smith, Carse and Potts selected.

The series saw Australia’s 13th ODI win in a row. Only their team of 2003 has more consecutive ODI victories for Australia.

The differences in squad composition can really be seen in the batting where Australia’s contains five of the current test top six including Head, Steve Smith and Labuschagne. Although minus the big three quicks Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood the line-up includes top spinner Zampa and a number of experienced franchise players

They look ready for major tournaments now, whereas England are at the start of another rebuild.

Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated on 1^st January 2024. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £69,601 All bets have an ROI +2.97%

A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £73,601, a 1740% increase.

The Road to Riches Weekend of 5th-6th October

Coming up this weekend

• Horse Racing, On the flat at Haydock, Newmarket and Ripon, over the jumps at Market Rasen and on the all-weather at Chelmsford City.
• Football, Premier League Fixtures include Aston Villa v Manchester United
• NFL, Week Five of the new season including New York Jets against Minnesota Vikings at Tottenham Stadium.
• Cricket, England’s Test Series begins in Pakistan on Monday in Multan.
• Golf, The Black Derset Championship on the USPGA Tour and The French Open on the DP World Tour.
• Tennis, ATP Shanghai Rolex Masters continues

Free Tip

Gallagher Premiership Rugby Bath v Bristol Saturday 3.05pm

The third weekend of the new domestic rugby season brings one of the fiercest local Derbies in the league as second (Bath) host third (Bristol) on Saturday afternoon.

Bath have won their first two games of the season, at home to Northampton (last season’s winners) and away at Leicester. An encouraging start for a team which has recovered from the doldrums of the last decade with new owners investing into the playing squad and following the appointment of South African coach Johann Can Graan two years ago. Van Graan turned Bath around in his first season. The team's improvement in form over the course of the campaign culminated with a 61–29 win over Saracens on the final day, which saw them edge Bristol for eighth in the table and a place in the 2023–24 Champions Cup.

Then last off-season came the marquee recruitment of Scottish fly-half Finn Russell, recruited out of the French Top 14 and he, assisted by the squad depth accumulated the season before, led Bath to a second placed league finish, their highest placing since 2015, only to lose the play-off final narrowly, 25-21 to Northampton.

With Russell pulling the strings Bath are an exciting side, a challenge for all defenses with Ben Spencer at scrum-half, England’s Ollie Lawrence outside Russell and Muir and Cokanisaga talented wingers. In the forwards flanker Guy Pepper is a “coming name” in great form.

Pat Lam has coached Bristol since 2017, and recovered from several fallow years to a 5^th placed finish last season just outside the play offs scoring 80 tries (9 more than Bath in second place) and following 10^th and 9^th place finishes the two seasons before after big squad turnover.

Bath sticking 38 points on Northampton week 1 was notable, and they narrowly missed putting a hatful on Leicester in Week 2, only tremendous defence kept them out.

Bristol meanwhile had a comfortable start, winning at probably the league’s weakest team Newcastle 24-3 before losing a thriller 41-44 at home to rejuvenated Gloucester last weekend, recovering from 41-23 down

If conditions permit this should be another high scoring game where the overall advantage should go to Bath because of superior defence, as both teams will be out to score plenty of tries

11 points Bath -9 points at 10/11 generally

New Formats

The Rugby Championship is set to take place only in alternate years and will not be held in 2026 due to the extended tour of New Zealand to South Africa under plans for ‘Greatest Rugby Rivalry’ tours where the groundwork is well underway for eight-week tours between South Africa and New Zealand every four years rotating through the two nations from 2026.

The impact on The Rugby Championship will be significant. The SANZAAR countries had previously agreed deal extending the Championship until 2030 and the news comes as Australian and New Zealand Rugby work towards their next broadcast deals with the current deal expiring in 2025.

The Rugby Championship would likely proceed in 2027 and 2029 but not 2026, 2028 or 2030 as it stands with every second year devoted to The Rugby Championship and the alternate years set aside for a “tour-like concept”. It is  South Africa’s preference that the ChampionshipC go back to one off Tests rather than two per season but it was suggested in the media that New Zealand wanted to sideline the Championship altogether in those seasons.

The All Blacks tour of South Africa in 2026 will consist of three Tests, four matches against United Rugby Championship teams and a clash against South Africa A. They will also face the Springboks a fourth time at a neutral venue with Twickenham or the United States are listed as options.

International rugby programs are undergoing seismic change, as noted by Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt last week. He said.

“It’s a real mix, world rugby at the moment with the different competitions and agreements that exist. Six Nations is such a solidified competition that the Northern Hemisphere have a very exclusive club there and I know talking to the Georgian coaches they’d love to have a crack at getting into that competition.At the same time, [the new series] is not going to replace the Rugby Championship. The Rugby Championship, as far as I know, is going to continue but it will be truncated in that year.”

There’s alsoplanning and preparation around a Nations Cup that may be biannual and it may be that the teams from the Southern Hemisphere accumulate points versus the Northern Hemisphere.

However the significant revamp of international rugby in the southern hemisphere is leaving one stakeholder feeling left out all over again. While Australia’s leadership are putting a brave face on the new series, Argentinian rugby followers are concerned about what it means for that country. They’ve already lived through being cast aside from Super Rugby  and there’s no doubt The Rugby Championship has helped build the big game quality of the World Cup semi-finalists.

Then there are concerns about the stated World Rugby intention to promote Fiji and Japan as part of the proposed Nations Champ concept.

Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated on 1^st January 2024. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £69,601 All bets have an ROI +2.97%

A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £73,601, a 1740% increase.

The Road to Riches Weekend of 28th-29th September

Coming up this weekend

• Horse Racing, On the flat at Haydock, Newmarket and Ripon, over the jumps at Market Rasen and on the all-weather at Chelmsford City.
• Football, Premier League Fixtures include Newcastle v Manchester City and Manchester United v Tottenham.
• NFL, Week Four of the new season.
• Rugby Union, the Final round of Rugby Championship matches
• Golf, The Sanderson Farms Championship on the USPGA Tour and The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at Carnoustie on the DP World Tour.
• Tennis, ATP Shanghai Rolex Masters

Free Tip

Fourth ODI Cricket England v Australia Lords Friday 12.30pm Start

This is the fourth ODI in this late season five match series. (The ECB now has an agreement with India and Australia that one of the two conducts a tour in at least one format every year).

In the period between the former England white ball coach Matthew  Mott and now coach across all formats Brendon McCullum England are rebuilding using younger players so we can't expect the white ball team to gel straight away. England are moving on from the Moeen, Jordan, Buttler, Rashid generation and this ODI series has seen Brook, Bethell, Jacks, Jamie Smith, Carse and Potts selected.

This series saw Australia reach 14 ODI wins in a row after wins in the first two games of the series. Only their team of 2003 had more consecutive ODI victories. England meanwhile have now lost 10 of their last 15 in the 50 over format after their win in the rain affected game at Durham on Tuesday.

There are understandable reasons why we are struggling in the ODI sphere. Good players are retiring or in the case of Root and Stokes picking and choosing their ODI appearances for major tournaments only. Secondly because of The 100, we've turned our only domestic 50 over competition into a reserve competition, as the two are concurrent. The England players in this squad haven’t played ODIs for nearly a year. Thirdly England have only selected a first choice 11 once in 3 years, prioritising other formats.

The result is that this series has seen a side with eight members of the XI that won last year’s World Cup final in Australia versus a side with Adil Rashid as their leading run-scorer in the format. It’s not hugely surprising that we’ve had comfortable Australia wins!

The differences in squad composition can really be seen in the batting where Australia’s contains five of the current test top-six including Head, Steve Smith and Labuschagne. Although minus the big three quicks Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood the line-up includes top spinner Zampa and a number of experienced franchise players. They look ready for major tournaments now, whereas England are at the start of another rebuild.

In this Australian team Travis Head is the best all-format batter in world cricket, and possibly the next Test opener too this winter with Warner’s retirement.

In ODIs since 2022 he has 1,278 runs at an average of 64 and a strike rate of 121. Only Omarzai and Kohli exceed that ODI average in World Cricket over that time span.

In this series he has scores of 154*, 29 and was then rested. He looks a threat to go big in any innings.

In the Australian top batsman market Head can be backed at 3/1

10 points Travis Head Top Australian batsman at 3/1 widely available

Appealing

Leicester City have won their appeal against a decision that could have seen them punished with a points deduction for an alleged breach of PSR rules.

The Premier League initially referred Leicester to an independent commission in March 2024 for an alleged breach of PSR rules for the three-year reporting period ending in 2022-23, which saw the club relegated to the Championship after a nine-year stay in the top flight. Leicester subsequently questioned the commission’s jurisdiction to hear the case.

Leicester successfully argued that the point of the breach was the end of their accountancy year in 2023, which was on June 30 two weeks after they handed over their membership in the Premier League to Luton Town.

Leicester’s argument was they could not be held for a breach of Premier League rules when they were not a Premier League club at the point of the breach. The decision to move their accountancy year, which they were entitled to do, saved them and ironically relegation helped then helped their situation now too.

The commission had dismissed Leicester’s challenge to its authority, but an independent appeal board has now overturned that decision, ruling in favour of Leicester, who no longer face the threat of a points deduction.

Everton and Nottingham Forest were given points deductions last season for PSR breaches relating to the same accounting period.

By finding these loopholes, it now emerges that the PSR rules are insufficient and potentially unworkable and may have to be re-drawn.

Leicester’s PSR charge was calculated based on the 2022-23 season, where they lost £89.7million the 2021-22 season, and an average of the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns, which were merged due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. After the usual adjustments, the Premier League’s PSR calculation for Leicester was £129.4m, which was £24.4m over the threshold. For context, Everton were only £19.5m over the threshold when they lost 10 points for their first breach, although that was reduced to six on appeal. Therefore, Leicester were looking at a deduction of at least six points before any aggravating factors, such as failing to provide accounts on time and taking legal action against the league, were considered.

The club recorded record losses of £92.5m for the financial year ending May 31, 2022. This came following a £31.2m loss for the previous year. Leicester posted a pre-tax loss of almost £100m for the two Covid seasons.

Leicester did not secure any income from European football in 2022-23 and dropped from eighth in the Premier League table in 2022 to 18th in 2023, which equates to a loss in merit payments of about £30m.

Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated on 1^st January 2024. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £69,601 All bets have an ROI +2.97%

A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £73,601, a 1740% increase.

The Road to Riches Weekend of 21st-22nd September

Coming up this weekend

• Horse Racing, On the flat at Ayr, Chester, Newbury and Newmarket and on the all-weather at Wolverhampton
• Football, Premier League Fixtures include Manchester City v Arsenal.
• NFL, Week Three of the new season.
• Cricket, The second ODI between England and Australia at Headingley on Saturday.
• Formula One, the Singapore Grand Prix.
• Rugby Union, the Rugby Championship Australia v New Zealand and Argentina v South Africa
• Golf, The President’s Cup in Montreal on the USPGA Tour and the Spanish Open on the DP World Tour.
• Tennis, ATP China and Japan Opens

​Free Tip

Rugby Championship Australia v New Zealand, Sydney 6.55am Saturday

Both teams with new coaches Scott Robertson and Joe Schmidt have had difficult first campaigns in this tournament.

Both have won 1 and lost 3 matches, each with a win and a loss against Argentina and losing both matches to South Africa.

For New Zealand, shorn of squad depth with post Rugby World Cup retirements and departures to France and Japan gone are the days teams running the All Blacks close before being well beaten in the final quarter of a match. 

In four Rugby Championship matches this year, the All Blacks have not scored a single point in the final 20 minutes of a Test match. In their last match the Springboks shut them out denying New Zealand a try for the first time in a Test match since Ireland did the same in 2018.

New head coach Robertson has yet to properly stamp his mark on the team seven games into his tenure. The three defeats aside, it still feels very much like the previous regime of All Blacks taking the field, but without the strength in depth required for Tet match rugby in the modern era.

This year, Robertson has only issued seven Test debuts in 2024, a far cry from the 17 that Schmidt has. Only one of those seven has become a regular member of the matchday 23 scrum-half Cortez Ratima who earned just his second Test start in the Cape Town Test match against the Springboks which was his sixth international appearance.

In Argentina Australia had a terrible result in the second test losing 67-27 from 20-3 up in the first half. Joe Schmidt has a major task on his hands cleaning up Eddie Jones’ mess.

While there is a lengthy injury list to contend with, there are still major holes in the Wallabies game. When Angus Bell and Taniela Tupou are propping the scrum is atrocious. Conceding four tries in ten minutes in that defeat is rare for a major nation and could be one or both of a lack of fitness or just players giving up

Strengths one week, have unravelled the next and those inconsistencies can be put down to inexperience but that excuse can only last so long particularly when Schmidt is reluctant to select overseas-based players. For Australia players playing overseas are only eligible for selection if they have played a minimum of 30 Test caps or have completed a minimum of five years’ service to Australian Rugby.

A win over the All Blacks in the next fortnight will buy goodwill and time for the ongoing rebuild but it looks increasingly unlikely. Such is the discrepancy in talent that New Zealand’s current weakness of lack of bench depth might not be an issue, they should be well ahead after an hour in Sydney.

10 points New Zealand -14 at 10/11 generally

A Private Practice.

At the end of August NFL owners voted to approve a proposal that will allow private equity firms to buy a limited amount of stakes in teams.

Until now, NFL ownership rules only allowed for a limited number of approved partners, but not investment firms. The measure stipulates teams are allowed to sell off up to 10% of the franchises to investment firms. Those investment groups must be previously approved by the NFL.

The move means little in terms of outward impact as far as fans are concerned but the additional cash-flow could provide NFL owners with funds to finance stadium upgrades and other facility projects etc

The private equity stakeholders wouldn’t have any voting power, but buying into an NFL team can translate into lucrative earning opportunities. The Washington Commanders sold in 2023 for just more than $6bn. The previous year, the Denver Broncos sold for $4.65bn, and neither the Broncos nor Commanders have ranked among the most competitive teams in the league in recent years The most valuable franchise, according to Forbes earlier this year, is said to be the Dallas Cowboys at over $10bn.

Since the sale of the Commanders to Josh Harris NFL owners began exploring the possibility of allowing for private equity investors because both Denver’s and Washington’s new ownership groups featured a higher number of limited partners than historical ownership structures, which often are owned by one individual or family supported by a limited number of partners.

Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated on 1^st January 2024. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £69,601 All bets have an ROI +2.97%

A £4000 bAnk betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £73,601, a 1740% increase.