Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew
The Road to Riches Weekend of 14th-15th June
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Bath, Chester, Leicester, Sandown and York and over the jumps at Hexham and Uttoxeter. Royal Ascot next week!
- Cricket, England’s test series against India begins in Leeds next week
- Rugby Union, the Gallagher Premiership final between Bath and Leicester
- Formula One, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal
- Golf, The Travelers Championship on the USPGA Tour.
- Tennis, ATP HSBC Championships at the Queens Club and the Halle Open
Royal Ascot
Neil’s Royal Ascot package for next week (Full Package 17th - 21st June 2025) is live for subscription costing £199 Here
Free Tip
Bath v Leicester Gallagher Premiership final 3pm Saturday
In the regular Gallagher Premiership season Bath finished 11 points clear at the top ahead of Leicester, undoubtedly strong favourites here to win their first Premiership title in 29 years having lost last year’s final to Northampton, and the biggest favourites for a single final game since the dominant Saracens team of 7-8 years ago.
Were they to do so they would be the sixth different Premiership winner in the last six years and produce a treble this season: the Premiership Cup and the European Challenge Cup have already been secured. All of this just three years after they finished bottom of the league and fortunate to avoid relegation.
This season has been a culmination of a process of huge investment under owner- entrepreneur Bruce Craig that has seen the recruitment of a playing squad including a marquee player such as Finn Russell, attracted back from the riches of Racing92 in the French Top 14.
Bath won 14 of 18 Premiership games this season with both the most potent attack and conceding the fewest points before beating Bristol at home in the semi-final last weekend 34-20 from 13-6 down at half-time. Bristol started the game like a steam train but with their depth and dynamism, Bath have staying power. They scored 4 tries in 19 second half minutes. They've now scored 56 second-half tries in the Premiership and conceded just 18.
Leicester finished 8th last season, their first since the coaching team left to join England. Under Australian coach Michael Cheika in what will be his only season in charge the Tigers recovered to finish second this season with the second-best defensive record in the league (a very good press/pressure defence). This year the playing style has developed to attach a more potent wide attacking game onto their traditional strengths in the forward game and the kicking/territorial game marshalled by fly-half Handre Pollard. The mid-season recruitment of Adam Radwan the then Newcastle winger has given them a cutting edge.
They beat Sale 21-16 in last week’s semi-final despite an off kicking day from Pollard.
With Cheika leaving this is also the end of a playing era for the Tigers. 100+ International cap players Cole and Youngs are retiring and Pollard and Montoya are playing elsewhere next year.
Bath are 9.5-point favourites to win here (Bath 1-4, Leicester 3-1 outright), down from -10.5 when prices went up after last weekend. They’ll hope for a fast and open game and even though Leicester have a more rounded style these days they’ll be focussing on field position, forward power and defence.
I expect Bath to win, and three weeks ago these two teams, both at full strength, met in Leicester with Bath winning 43-15. Bath scored 19 unanswered points in the last 13 minutes to break open a 24-15 game with a breakaway from an opposition line-out and an interception try, to produce a flattering winning margin. Nevertheless even without their second half mistakes in that game Leicester need to withstand Bath’s huge second half strength that they have shown consistently all season.
10 points Bath -9.5 points at Evens Bet365, 10/11 generally.
Attack.
The Gallagher Premiership has been much maligned since 2022 when the collapse of three teams in one season plunged the league into a crisis.
It’s been a difficult time since for the domestic competition. Promotion and relegation remains absent with only one of the 12 Championship sides able to meet the demands of stadium criteria which only exist in rugby and big wins suggested that the depth and quality across the league was lacking.
That has continued even recently. Last month Saracens put 75 points past Newcastle Falcons and Gloucester slammed the Exeter Chiefs 79-17.
However exciting close games with attacking rugby are becoming much more commonplace. Leicester Tigers beat Sale Sharks 44-34, Northampton Saints beat Bristol Bears 48-31, and the Bristol Bears completed the league-double over table-topping Bath in Cardiff winning 36-14.
Simultaneously, after several years of being mostly uncompetitive in the European Champions Cup without the salary cap flexibility afforded to the French teams and the Academy pipeline available to Leinster, Northampton went to Dublin and beat Leinster as 33-1 single game underdogs in the semi-final of this year’s competition against a side containing 12 British Lions, a double World Cup-winning Springbok and an All Blacks regular to make the Champions Cup final. Fellow Premiership side Bath have also reached a European final in the Challenge Cup.
The Premiership is beginning to rebuild the image of the English game.
TNT Sports have been so entertained by the rising attacking outputs that they’ve signed on for another five seasons until the end of the 2030/31 season. Around that, viewing figures are back on the rise, with this season posting an 11% increase on this time last year and a 22% increase on the 2022/23 season.
In an era of declining TV deals across most sports other than football, it is understood that the new deal with TNT is significantly larger than the current one, which will greatly help the clubs, too.
The new style of attacking tactics is bringing people back to rugby, which will again pump money back into the clubs.
80,634 turned out for Harlequins’ annual ‘Big Game’ event this year, and in May 51,095 went to Cardiff for Bristol v Bath and 60,000 watched Harlequins with Gloucester.
The big one for this is the showpiece Premiership Final, and it was confirmed a month before the game that it had sold out before the end of the regular season for the first time in the competition’s history.
The English league is by no means perfect, though. Promotion and relegation have virtually gone out of the window despite there still being systems in place for it, and it’s far too easy to qualify for the Champions Cup, with eight of the 10 clubs involved entering the premier competition.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st June 2025. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £65,960 All bets have an ROI +2.55%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £69,960, a 1649% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 7th-8th June
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Chepstow, Doncaster, Epsom including The Derby, Lingfield and Musselburgh and over the jumps at Hexham and Worcester.
- Football, England’s World Cup Qualifier in Andorra on Saturday
- Cricket, the England T20 series against the West Indies continues on Sunday in Bristol
- Golf, The US Open at the Oakmont Country Club next week.
- Tennis, ATP Libema and Stuttgart Opens
Royal Ascot
Neil’s Royal Ascot (Full Package 17th - 21st June 2025) is now live for subscription costing £199 Here
Free Tip
England v West Indies First T20I, Durham Friday 6.30pm
After the 3-0 England ODI series win comes a three-match T20 series beginning Friday in Durham before moving to Bristol and Southampton ahead of the start of the India test series on 20th June.
Unlike their travails in the ODI format England have been a much more consistent team in the T20 game, currently third in the ICC World rankings. The West Indies rank 5th, which is consistent with them having a deeper team in T20s being able to call on various global franchise game participants and being able to field a much more experienced XI in most T20 series.
England beat the West Indies 3-1 last November away in T20s, then lost 4-1 in India in February.
Jamie Overton is ruled out with a broken finger so England go into this mini-series with a 14-man squad containing four recent IPL players including an IPL winner in RCB’s Phil Salt, alongside Jacks, Buttler and Bethell.
At the time of writing for player market betting purposes I will take a stab at what the England line-up will be on Friday night.
I alight on:
Salt, Duckett, Buttler, Brook, Bethell, Jacks, Dawson, Carse, Rashid, Potts, Mahmood though that might be a spinner-long and a seamer-short given a mixed weather forecast.
The West Indies have recalled Jason Holder and Andre Russell to give their T20 team a much more experienced look compared to the current ODI team. Sherfane Rutherford came back from the IPL to score a 71-ball 70 at the Oval on Tuesday and Test captain Roston Chase is also in the squad. Of the big guns only Nicholas Pooran is rested.
In the Top England batsman market we have:
Buttler and Duckett 100/30
Salt 7/2
Jacks 4/1
Brook and Banton 9/2
Bethell 9/1
Bar 28/1
We have to accept that the shorter the format, the higher the variance, but also in most matches there is a huge premium on selecting from batsmen in the top 4.
Phil Salt has spent the last two months at the IPL, opening the innings and hitting from ball one. Having returned home last week for the birth of a child he flew back for the IPL final in Ahmedabad on Tuesday and I assume is on the way to Durham for the first game of this series.
In the 2025 IPL Salt batted 13 times, 403 runs at 33.5 and a very high 176 strike-rate with four fifties, 48 Fours and 22 Sixes. Therefore he’s recently had a “top batsman” winning type of score in 1 of 3 matches.
In his T20I 43-match career (1,193 runs at a strike rate of 164) he has 8 scores of 50+ so 1 in 5 so his recent form is better than that which makes sense. He’s beginning to hit his prime.
Of the others in the England top five:
Duckett is only 17 matches into his international career in the format, just 2 fifties. Jos Buttler has 27 scores of 50+ in 134 matches, Harry Brook 4 in 44, Jacob Bethell 2 in 10.
10 points Phil Salt Top England batsman at 4/1 with SkyBet, 18/5 BetVictor, 7/2 Bet365, 100/30 Ladbrokes/Coral, 16/5 William Hill.
edit
It has just been announced after I sent this through that Salt will miss the series on paternity leave, so time to pivot.
This will mean Banton will probably open with Duckett, with Buttler and Brook to follow
New prices are
Buttler 3/1 in a place, as short as 9/4 elsewhere
Duckett 100/30 in a place, 5/2 generally
Brook, Jamie Smith and Banton 4/1
Jacks 9/2
Bethell 17/2
I'll take Brook (who nearly came in for us last weekend in the ODI) as an alternative to Buttler and the openers. Hoping he gets enough overs at the crease, in any case if he gets a start he will score very quickly.
10 points Harry Brook Top England batsman 1st T20I 9/2 StarSports 4/1 SkyBet, Bet365, 7/2 William Hill
Electric
So far this F1 season McLaren have won seven of nine races, and Oscar Piastri five of them with the team offering the best package including a notable advantage in engine cooling efficiency.
Now they have announced that they are to leave the all-electric Formula E series at the end of this season. The decision comes in the wake of McLaren's commitment earlier this season to enter the world endurance championship, with its centre-piece the classic Le Mans 24 Hours, from 2027.
McLaren entered Formula E in 2022 when they took over the Formula E team run by Mercedes, who quit the series after winning back-to back world titles with Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne.
The decision to exit reflects McLaren's desire to focus on the highest-profile parts of their motorsport portfolio, and acknowledgment that they cannot compete in everything.
It also resonates with the company's history as previous winners of the Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans, motorsport's so-called triple crown. The decision to enter WEC makes them the only company competing across these three motorsport championships. McLaren have set themselves the target of winning the triple crown again.
IndyCar provides an additional presence in the US market beyond the country's three grands prix in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas, as well as an entry in the Indy 500, the country's biggest race.
World Endurance gives McLaren access to the prestige of Le Mans, as well as a direct marketing link to the company's road-going, high-performance sports cars. Many of McLaren's road-car market rivals, such as Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini, are also competing in WEC.
Formula E is a world championship but it is struggling to maintain a significant public profile and grow its audience. While Formula E gives brands a chance to market sustainability as a message, the same now applies to F1. F1 already uses highly efficient hybrid engines, and from next year the electrical part of the power unit will increase to supply about 50% of the total performance. F1 is also switching to fully sustainable fuels.
McLaren will look for a new owner for the Formula E team.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st June 2025. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £65,960 All bets have an ROI +2.55%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £69,960, a 1649% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 31st May-1st June
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Chester, Haydock, Lingfield and York, over the jumps at Stratford and on the all-weather at Southwell
- Cricket, the England ODI series against the West Indies continues on Sunday in Cardiff and the start of the Vitality Blast this weekend.
- Formula One, the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona
- Golf, The Canadian Open on the USPGA and the KLM Open on the DP World Tour.
- Tennis, the French Open continues
Royal Ascot
Neil’s Royal Ascot (Full Package 17th - 21st June 2025) is now live for subscription costing £199 Here
Free Tip
England v West Indies 1st ODI, Edgbaston, Thursday May 29tht 1pm start
This series sees three ODIs then a T20 series ahead of India test series beginning at the end of June
The England squad for this series sees a new captain in Harry Brook and included 5 IPL players now minus the injured Jofra Archer.
England’s ODI fortunes have declined substantially since the 2019 World Cup win and they are now down to 8th in the ICC ODI rankings. The West Indies rank ninth.
These rankings are important because only the top 8 rankled teams qualify directly into the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa. Were England to lose their next two ODI series including this one, they’d fall below that threshold. At 1/4 (West Indies 7/1) England look quite skinny in the single game win market.
West Indies beat England and Bangladesh at home last year and warmed up for this series with three games against Ireland. They lost the first chasing 303, then their batting really took off scoring 352 in the second game which was rained off at half-way then amassing 385 in the third game that they won. It’s a relatively inexperienced team with, as ever, a lot of their bigger name players lost to permanent spots on the global T20 franchise circuit.
England’s batting line up for the first game (Duckett, Jamie Smith, Root, Brook, Buttler, Bethell, Jacks with Banton in reserve) looked exceptionally strong beforehand, more so than a bowling attack (minus the recently injured Atkinson) of Carse, Overton, Saqib Mahmood and Rashid where only leg-spinner Rashid can be called an established white ball specialist. Death bowling and defending totals may be a problem. Only 3 pace bowling options in a 50 over game is in England is unusual. That puts a lot of pressure on 20 spin overs from Rashid, Root, Jacks and Bethell.
Looking at the odds for England top batsman:
Root 3/1
Duckett 100/30
Buttler 9/2
Brook 5/1
J Smith 5/1
Bethell 10/1
Jacks 11/1
Usually I tend to focus on Joe Root as one of the England ODI batsmen that can play the format, a “glue” player who can build an innings while others can go too hard “T20 style” but the odds have him as favourite in a very competitive line-up. 3/1 doesn’t scream value.
Jamie Smith at 5/1 opening the batting has to be an option, however he struggled at three in earlier ODIs.
Seeing Harry Brook batting four at 5/1 though is an eye-opener. He has 816 runs in 26 ODIs so far including a hundred and five fifties. A couple of new ball wickets and this price would really be a runner.
10 points Harry Brook Top England batsman 5/1 Bet365, BetfairSportsbook, SkyBet (4/1 elsewhere)
Expansion
The BCCI are considering expanding the IPL season to 94 matches and adopting a full home-and-away format from 2028.
The IPL expanded to a 74-game campaign in 2022 when Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants entered the competition. There are no plans for any new franchises to join the league when the new media rights deal begins in 2028. The number of IPL games a season was stipulated to increase to 84 this year according to the IPL's 2022 media-rights contract (worth US$6bn across a five-year cycle, giving it the second-highest price-per-match valuation of any sports league in the world, behind the NFL) but has remained at 74 for the fourth successive year.
In the short term expansion has not proved possible because of the limited availability window of overseas players and their commitments to ICC International events. The future tours programme (FTP) means the IPL's window from mid-March until the end of May is set in stone for the next two years, but details of the next FTP are due to be decided next year.
Thus the IPL is an outlier, for now, in the a global trend of of growth in sports leagues and events: football's World Cup and Champions League have both swelled in recent years, while the Club World Cup is growing from seven matches to 63.
Within the IPL schedule a significant change has been the dramatic decline in the number of double-headers. The past two seasons have seen only 12 games played in the afternoon slot, less than one in six; back in 2011, that proportion was more than one in three. The result is a longer IPL window, with the season now stretching past nine weeks. Players much prefer evening games in more comfortable conditions but the decline in the number of afternoon games owes primarily to the decline in broadcast ratings for games that start at 3.30pm local compared to 7.30pm, around 30-40% percent lower for the earlier-starting matches.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 8th February 2025. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £68,468 All bets have an ROI +2.71%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £72,468, a 1711% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 24th-25th May
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Beverley, Catterick, Goodwood, Haydock, Salisbury and Windsor and over the jumps at Cartmel
- Football, the final weekend of Premier League fixtures includes Manchester United v Aston Villa
- Rugby Union, the ERCC final in Cardiff between Bordeaux-Begles and Northampton on Saturday.
- Cricket, the resumed IPL continues and England’s ODI series against the West Indies begins next week
- Formula One, the Monaco Grand Prix
- Golf, The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village on the USPGA and the Austrian Open on the DP World Tour.
- Tennis, The French Open begins on Sunday
Royal Ascot
Neil’s Royal Ascot (Full Package 17th - 21st June 2025) is now live for subscription costing £199 Here
Free Tip
European Rugby Champions Cup Final
Bordeaux-Begles v Northampton in Cardiff Saturday 2.45pm
After the weekend we will either have a first-time winner in Bordeaux or Northampton, bidding to win just their second major European crown since 2001 and the first English side to reach the final since 2020. It’s D-Day for the column’s ante-post bet on Bordeaux at 8-1, where the each-way has handed at 1/3 of the odds. Bordeaux-Begles are 7.5-point favourites to win this year’s ERCC title.
In some ways this final is a refresh that the Champions Cup needed. In the last four years Toulouse, Leinster and La Rochelle are the only teams to make the European Cup final.
Bordeaux-Begles are second in the French Top 14 with 16 wins and 8 losses. Bordeaux are a famed attacking team, marshalled by captain and scrum-half Maxime Lucu and with the best pair of wingers in world rugby to take advantage of the many opportunities created. They top the charts in this season's competition in clean breaks, metres gained, tries and points, while also excelling defensively with the highest number of turnovers won (75), the best lineout success rate (91%), and the fourth best scrum performance (98%).
Damien Penaud has an incredible 12 tries in the competition this season (and 21 clean breaks on 61 carries!) but was injured in the semi-final. It would have been a big swing factor if he was absent, we have to assume he's back to 100%.
Just as threatening, on the left wing, is Louis Bielle-Biarrey with 31 tires in 27 games this season including 8 tries in this tournament.
The 35-18 win over Toulouse, six-time champions, in the semi-final as underdogs was excellent, albeit a Toulouse side missing not just Dupont but Ramos and others on the day.
Bordeaux’s weakness can be in defensive structure. They conceded 554 points in 24 Top 14 games (leaders Toulouse have just conceded 417) and in the ERCC in seven matches this season have allowed 154 points or 22 a game.
Northampton have had a disappointing domestic season in the Gallagher Premiership, sitting 8th with 8 wins in 17 games. They too have had defensive problems, allowing 27 points a game in the top flight and 25 a game in the ERCC.
Their 37-34 semi-final win over Leinster in Dublin as 33-1 underdogs for the single game was the biggest shock in rugby since Japan beat South Africa in the 2015 World Cup in Brighton. An incredible heroic result that no one saw coming!
They, like Bordeaux, have star power in the backs with three of their four British Lion selections in Alex Mitchell, fly half Finn Smith controlling games and winger Tommy Freeman who has scored 9 ERCC tries this season (and 19 clean breaks on 76 carries). Then of course there is 20-year-old number7/8 Henry Pollock with 7 ERCC tries so far.
This final pits the structured, homegrown talent of Northampton against the flamboyant, attacking flair of Bordeaux. If the Saints can harness their youthful energy and maintain discipline, they stand a strong chance. However, if Bordeaux’s backs find space, they could turn the game into a try-fest.
I think there is every chance that the points total for the game approaches 70-80 points in a game with 8-10 tries. The game points total is over/under 55.5.
15 points Bordeaux-Begles-Northampton over 55.5 points at 10/11 Bet365, 5/6 BetVictor
Anglo-Welsh
An article in the Times has floated a radical Anglo-Welsh Rugby Premiership idea to revive the financial stricken regions in Wales that would involve demoting three current English top-flight teams to the Championship.
With Cardiff the latest club to feel the financial pinch/administration, resulting in their recent emergency takeover by the WRU, the article called on rugby officials to revisit the ‘secret’ Anglo-Welsh plan worked on by the clubs without the knowledge of the RFU and WRU that was quickly shelved at the start of the professional era in the mid-1990s.
Theoretically, with so many clubs in both countries struggling and only solvent because of wealthy owners, the time could be right for English and Welsh clubs to join forces, creating a top-flight involving seven Premiership clubs and three from Wales and a Championship that would include the excluded three English Premiership clubs and Newport.
Any Anglo-Welsh league would require immediate financial assistance for Wales but the stronger the Welsh contingent of teams, the better the competition.
The plan postulates a championship (second division) with the winner guaranteed a promotion play-off against the lowest-placed of the English Anglo-Welsh teams. Currently the Gallagher Premiership has been a closed shop with no promotion/relegation.
A generation ago New Year’s Day fixtures at Cardiff Arms Park between Cardiff and Bath would pull crowds of 15,000+. That was when the game was amateur with little in the way of marketing and no broadcast deals.
If a combined league ever came to pass, the long term hope would be higher salary caps, attracting a wider range of top-class players and being able to compete with the Irish and French sides in Europe, which the Welsh clubs in particular currently have no chance of doing.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 8th February 2025. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £68,468 All bets have an ROI +2.71%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £72,468, a 1711% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 17th-18th May
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Doncaster, Newbury, Newmarket and Thirsk and over the jumps at Bangor-on-Dee and Uttoxeter.
- Football, Premier League fixtures include Aston Villa v Tottenham
- Cricket, the IPL continues and England’s Test summer begins next week against Zimbabwe at Lords
- Formula One, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola
- Golf, The Charles Schwab Challenge on the USPGA and the Soudal Open on the DP World Tour.
- Tennis ATP Opens in Geneva and Hamburg.
Royal Ascot
Neil’s Royal Ascot (Full Package 17th - 21st June 2025) is now live for subscription costing £199 Here
Free Tip
F1: Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Sunday 2pm
McLaren have won five of the first 6 races of the 20-25 F1 season and Oscar Piastri four of them to lead the early Drivers Championship standings, all good so far for the 8-1 each-way ante post bet the column has.
He is now 8/13 in this week’s season long market, Norris 15/8 and Verstappen 8/1.
By some distance McLaren have the quickest car this season, the last before the major regulation overhaul ahead of the 2026 campaign.
After the last Grand Prix in Miami multiple checks by the FIA have given McLaren's under-the-spotlight rear brake design the all-clear as a clever but legal concept. It gives
McLaren an advantage in the way it can manage rear tyre temperatures better than any other team. The inability of rival teams to fully understand what McLaren is doing has prompted some to question whether it may be operating in a grey area of the regulations.
So far, as was the case in previous inspections the FIA has conducted, McLaren's design fully complies with the regulations and that it appears to be simply a clever design.
Imola this weekend is the first of a European race treble with Monaco and Spain following g in successive weeks. It is a high-speed track that boasts several long straights where high speeds can be reached, demanding optimal aerodynamic setup for maximum straight-line speed. The weather forecast is very good, thus reducing the likelihood of unexpected event variance and McLaren has a decent chance of a 1-2 given its speed advantage.
Behind McLaren in the pecking order come Red Bull (specifically Verstappen who can drag a relatively inferior car around a single lap to qualify top 2-3 on a routine basis) then Mercedes ( according to team boss Toto Wolff they are 30-35 seconds behind a McLaren over a race-long 55 laps), Ferrrari and Williams.
This is of course reflected in the race winner market for this weekend. The McLaren pair Norris and Piastri are 11/8 each of two, Verstappen 6/1 and 14/1 bar three.
Where Piastri has the advantage in the heat of the battle is that he is so cool-headed. Twice this season Verstappen and Norris have seen races compromised by their first corner tangles, fighting for early supremacy and Piastri has been there to pick up the pieces.
16 points Oscar Piastri to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at 11/8 William Hill, Betfair Sportsbook/Paddy Power and Skybet (5/4 elsewhere)
One-sided
Although the entertainment factor is high, there has been concern this IPL season that very flat pitches and the Impact player rule are creating contests that are too one-sided.
Scores in excess of 200 have already been breached x times in the 2025 IPL with Sunrisers Hyderabad piling up 286 in their first match of the season. A 300 score cannot be too far away.
We have already seen the Impact Player rule coming in, so every team is potentially playing an extra batter, especially while chasing or even batting first. All teams are going with the batting depth because they have now an opportunity to change the batter and call a bowler while defending or vice versa.
The Impact Player rule is an entertainment factor and games change a lot, but that these 250 scores are being made is not only because of this rule change, but also because of the way the pitches are being made.
This has led to bowlers adopting and honing newer tactics such as wide Yorkers and slower bowl bouncers but with a few exceptions (Punjab Kings defending 111 against 95) it has been hard toil for faster bowlers in particular all tournament.
The risk is that the variety inherent in the T20 game is diminished to a constant diet of high scoring matches and not the range of games on different types of pitches that keen watchers would prefer to see, if not the casual fan.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 8th February 2025. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £68,468 All bets have an ROI +2.71%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £72,468, a 1711% increase.
