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

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

Posted on 11 Jul 2025 07:45 in Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew

Coming up this weekend

  • Horse Racing, On the flat at Ascot, Chester, Hamilton, Newmarket, Salisbury and York.
  • Rugby Union, the British Lions series in Australia continues this weekend against an Invitation AU/NZ team in Adelaide.
  • Golf, The Open Championship next week at Royal Portrush.
  • Tennis, ATP Los Cabos, Swedish and Swiss Opens

 

We have just added the Qatar Goodwood Festival (Full Package) - 29th July - 2nd August 2025 to our website here.

 


Free Tip

Vitality T20 Blast Worcestershire Rapids v Leicestershire Foxes 2.30pm Sunday 13th July

Leicestershire, long one of county cricket’s basement sides, are one of the stories of the 2025 domestic season, miles clear at the top of Division Two of the County Championship. They are also still in contention for the knockout stages of the T20 Blast.

They won their first two games in the tournament and four of the first six in the North Group but recent results have slipped with only two wins in the last five matches, but importantly beat a side above them Northants on Thursday night to remain in touch with fourth place with three games to go.Worcestershireare in 6th with five wins from their twelve matches.

One of the factors that is key to this game is that it is being played at New Road in Worcester, famous for being sited on a flood plain and from which the club is looking to relocate at some stage. Pitches at New Road have been difficult across all competitions this summer, spring floods have led to limited preparation time and tricky conditions, notably variable bounce.

In this tournament first inning scores are 155,143, 159 and the outlier 201-5.

This could be an issue for Leicestershire whose T20 top six of Patel, Budinger, Shan Masood, Rehan Ahmed, Kimber and Cox have only made seven scores of 50+ in their eleven games.

In a potentially modest scoring match lets look at the performances of those individual batsmen in the Blast this season.

Budinger 329 runs at an average of 30, High score 56, strike rate 162, three fifties and 14 sixes in 54 boundaries.

Masood 234 at 26, High score (HS) 45* Strike rate SR) 130

Patel 192 at 17, HS 51 SR 136

Kimber 193 at 21, HS 51 SR 179 (12 sixes)

Rehan in just 7 matches 225 at 45, HS 64 SR 137

Budinger opens the batting, has the most runs at the highest average of any of the full-time players at the best strike rate.

The odds in the Leicestershire top batsman market are:

Shan Masood 3/1

Patel 100/30

Rehan 4/1

Budinger 9/2+

Kimber 5/1

Hill 13/2

Cox 8/1

In the context given above, Budinger looks a value price in an un-prolific line-up.

10 points Sol Budinger Top Leicestershire batsman at 19/5 with BetVictor, William Hill, 9/2 Bet365


Testing, testing.

England could play seven home Tests in 2027, the highest number in a summer since 2022, under plans being considered by the England & Wales Cricket Board.

The ECB is considering its home schedule for 2027 and what Test programme should be played before the five-match Ashes series. In 2019 and 2023, the last two home Ashes summers, England played a one-off Test against Ireland before the series.

England are now poised instead to play a two-match series against opponents before the next Ashes. The opponents have yet to be finalised, with Sri Lanka and West Indies two prime candidates. Both teams would be expected to be more competitive than Ireland in 2023, who were thrashed by 10 wickets at Lord’s.

Any decision about whether England will schedule seven home Test matches is interconnected with discussions about the 2027 World Test Championship final. England hosted the 2021, 2023 and 2025 finals. However there is a strong desire in India to host the 2027 final, and a feeling among many global administrators that it cannot always be held in England. Should the 2027 final be played in India, it could take place in late March, which would free up space in the English summer for an extra Test.

The ECB remains keen to host the World Test Championship final and many see it as the ideal location, given its climate and time-zone are best suited to the June slot it has occupied in its first three cycles.

England staged seven Test matches a summer for the bulk of the 2000-18 period. Seven home Tests were also scheduled for 2021, but India withdrew from the final Test – which was instead staged in 2022, ensuring that England played seven home Tests that year instead. But in the current Future Tours Programme, which covers the 2023-26 summers, England are playing only six home Tests each season.

Reintroducing seven-match home summers would be a strong indication of England’s commitment to the Test game at a time when the format is under threat.

Scheduling an extra Test in 2027 could also bring an extra high-profile game to a northern venue that summer. There has been widespread at the lack of any northern venues for the Ashes series in 2027. The five venues that have been awarded Tests against Australia that summer are Edgbaston, Lord’s, Trent Bridge, the Utilita Bowl and The Oval. Playing a two-match series prior to the 2027 Ashes could also have significant consequences for the World Test Championship. England have not reached the final in any of the three editions of the tournament.

England are effectively penalised for playing five-match series against both Australia and India in every cycle of the competition.

Conversely, South Africa qualified for this year’s final after not facing either Australia or England in the 2023-25 cycle. Under the current terms of the World Test Championship, each country plays three series at home and away over the cycle, with the two teams who acquire the highest percentage of points contested reaching the final.

If England played a two-match home series in 2027, they would play four multi-match series at home over the 2027-29 cycle. One of these would therefore not be part of the World Test Championship.

The 2027 Ashes could thus potentially not count towards the 2027-29 cycle, with Australia potentially being one of the two opponents that England did not meet in Test Championship clashes during that campaign.

Occasionally scheduling Ashes series outside the World Test Championship framework could potentially ensure a more equitable set of opponents among the nine competing sides.


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 5th-6th July

Posted on 3 Jul 2025 09:10 in Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew

Coming up this weekend

  • Horse Racing, On the flat at Beverley, Carlisle, Haydock, Leicester, Nottingham and Sandown
  • Cricket, England’s test series against India continues with the second Test at Lords next weekend
  • Formula One, the British Grand Prix
  • Rugby Union, the British Lions series in Australia continues this weekend against the Waratahs in Sydney.
  • Golf, The ISCO Championship in Louisville and the Scottish Open.
  • Tennis, Wimbledon continues.

Qatar Goodwood Festival (Full Package)

We have just added the Qatar Goodwood Festival (Full Package) - 29th July - 2nd August 2025 to the website here 


Free Tip

Vitality T20 Blast North Group Durham v Notts 6.30pm Fri 4th July

After a break for a couple of rounds of County Championship matches (with the Kookaburra ball, by and large run fests) the second half of group matches in the T20 Blast begin this weekend.

In the North Group Durham were unheralded pre-season, 33-1 in ante-post markets but are currently 3rd with 5 wins and 3 defeats behind leaders Northants and (only on net run rate) Lancashire.

Notts are sixth with four wins from nine matches, still in with a shout of hitting the top four needed to make the knock-out stages with a run from this point onwards.

Durham’s strength in this format is their canny and experienced bowling attack. New Zealander Jimmy Neesham, seamer Ben Raine and spinner Nathan Sowter are all T20 specialists and up top is England seamer Matt Potts too.

So far in this tournament their figures are as follows:

Raine 7 matches 16 wickets at an average of 12, economy rate 7 runs per over.

Neesham 8 matches 14 wickets at 16, 8.3 economy.

Parkinson and Sowter the spinners 20 wickets in 16 overs at 18, economy rate 7.

The batting line-up is less robust, with combined only 5 fifties and a single hundred in their eight matches to date.

Returning to the bowling attack Ben Raine was injured in the Championship match earlier in the week at The Oval. He was hobbling when he came out to bat (at number 11) having left the field after ten overs bowled in the first innings. Yes I was the one who sat through Surrey making 820 over the first two days of the match. I expect him to miss the match.

In the Team bowler market prices are

Foulkes 5/2

Neesham 11/4

Potts 11/4

Sowter 3/1

Parkinson 100/30

Neesham is a veteran of 83 T20Is and has played in the Blast for six teams. So far in this Blast he has had innings with the following results:

3/34, 3/29, 2/31, 2/29 and 2/29 in 8 innings.

So he has been  in contention in the Top bowler market whether outright or shared in more than half of the innings. With Raine most likely absent I think he should be favourite in this match.

10 points Jimmy Neesham Top Durham bowler 100/30 SkyBet, 11/4 Ladbrokes/Coral, 23/10 William Hill


Club world.

The inaugural Club World Championship in rugby will take place in Europe at the end of the 2027-28 season.

Plans for a 16-team global competition were approved before the Champions Cup final after at least five years of discussions. The new event will replace the knockout stage of the Champions Cup every four years.

The Premiership, United Rugby Championship and the Top 14 have agreed to move their domestic finals forward in 2028 to make room for a Club World Championship to be held as the climax to the season. Super Rugby Pacific will also adjust their season dates.

The 16 teams would comprise the eight qualifiers from the 2027-28 Champions Cup pool stage and the top seven in Super Rugby Pacific, which includes teams from New Zealand, Australia and Fiji, plus one invited Japanese team. The proposed format is four pools of four teams, with two semi-finals and a final.

The first two editions of the global tournament, in 2028 and 2032, would be held in Europe. The intention is to take the knockout games to a “destination venue” such as Barcelona.

The competition would slot in between the rescheduled domestic finals and the summer leg of the Nations Cup, the new biennial international competition that will begin in 2026.

The idea of a showdown between the champions of the north versus the champions of the south dates back to 1997, when the Auckland Blues played Brive. Rugby league’s World Club Challenge began in 1976 and FIFA’s Club World Cup was first contested in 2000.

Scheduling has always been a major stumbling block for rugby’s authorities. But the prospect of unlocking new revenue streams has persuaded the leagues to make it work.

The reputation of the Champions Cup has taken a dive in recent years. The format has been problematic and EPCR made a hash of negotiating a new television deal, turning down a £14m offer from TNT Sports and eventually signing with Premier Sports, a channel with a far smaller audience, for £6m.

The tournament is rescued every year by the drama and quality of the knock-out matches. The last four finals have been epic contests. Northampton Saints’ semi-final victory over Leinster this year was one of the matches of last or any other season. EPCR has agreed to sacrifice that once every four years. In its place, rugby supporters will find get an answer to the question of which club team is the best in the world.

This year’s qualifiers from Europe would have been Bordeaux Begles and Northampton Saints, who contest Saturday’s final, plus Toulouse, Leinster, Munster, Toulon, Castres and Glasgow Warriors.

The top seven in Super Rugby Pacific this season were the Crusaders, Brumbies, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Reds, Moana Pacifica and Blues.

 


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 28th-29th June

Posted on 26 Jun 2025 11:43 in Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew

Coming up this weekend

  • Horse Racing, On the flat at Chester, Doncaster, Lingfield, Newmarket and Windsor on the flat and on the all- weather at Newcastle
  • Cricket, England’s test series against India continues at Edgbaston next week
  • Formula One, the Austrian Grand Prix
  • Rugby Union, the British Lions series in Australia continues in Brisbane next Wednesday against the Reds.
  • Golf, The John Deere Classic on the USPGA Tour and the BMW International Open on the DP World Tour.
  • Tennis, Wimbledon next week

Free Tip

F1 Austrian Grand Prix Sunday 2pm

FI returns for the summer European race season beginning in Austria this weekend.

After Norris’ late race error in Canada, Piastri’s championship lead is 22 points over his team-mate with Verstappen a further 21 points behind.

Ten races into the season Piastri has won 5 races Norris and Verstappen two each whilst Russell/Mercedes got on the board in Canada.

With 14 races to go in the season Canada was far from a fatal blow to Norris' title hopes, but it makes his life much harder against a team-mate who on balance has had the edge on him so far this season.

The Austrian Grand Prix at the relatively new Spielberg track is the shortest on the calendar and only has seven real corners. Three consecutive DRS zones from the last corner all the way to Turn 4 mean there is always plenty of overtaking action, and this should be a McLaren race given their straight-line speed.

Especially important is turn 3, a ninety-degree right-hander at the end of a long straight and DRS Zone which year after year has seen overtaking incidents and controversy. Given that both Verstappen and Norris are somewhat less pragmatic than Piastri, at the margin there is the possibility of more drama at this corner this year. Russell won in Austria last year after Norris and Verstappen collided there while contesting the lead.

I regard it as a decent chance that the top three (McLaren x 2, Verstappen) don’t all make it home without incident. As such I am interested in each-way opportunities but only at those firm that offer three places. The betting market splits between 1/3 1,2 and 1/5 1,2,3. The firms offering the latter include Bet365, William Hill and BetVictor.

Odds for the race are as follows:

Piastri 7/4

Norris 9/4

Verstappen 7/2

Russell 8/1

Bar 16/1

Given the risk of incident in front of him, I do like the 8/1 each-way Russell. We do need that third place though.

10 points each-way George Russell 8/1 (1/5 1,2,3) Bet365, William Hill, BetVictor

 


Is Bazball growing up?

I had England as favourites before the test series against India. They don’t lose many series at home (only three out of 33 since 2008) and for a visiting side to win in England generally requires a settled team. With two great champions in Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma having just retired, India have not got that settled side.

We’ve just seen a fantastic first test in Leeds, England chasing 371 to win in the final session. They logged their second highest successful run chase in men's Tests and the tenth highest Test run chase of all time.

Ben Duckett’s brilliant 149 was the cornerstone of a remarkable run chase, comfortably the finest innings Duckett has played. His Test average (437) is now better than England openers of recent vintage - Atherton, Strauss and Gooch, and neck and neck with Trescothick.

England have now chased down a target of 250+ six times in McCullum/Stokes/Bazball regime Tests, as many times as all other teams combined.

This compares to the following from recent notable teams:

Dhoni's India - 4

Lara's West Indies - 3

Ponting's Australia - 3

India lost from 430-3 after the first four sessions, with collapses of 7-41 and 6-32 in their lower order batting in the two innings and they fielded poorly with multiple dropped catches and with completely unthreatening support bowling. They became the first Test side in history to lose a game where they had five centurions.

No England captain has chosen to bowl first more often than Ben Stokes and England have gone onto win 8 of those 11 Tests. He probably made the wrong toss decision on Day 1 but helped by India’s mis-steps and the excellent controlled run chase got the win anyway.

During the game England had a much more measured approach at times, particularly digging in to see off India’s one world class bowler Jasprit Bumrah. In a sense therefore we were watching Bazball, previously attack at all costs in all situations, grow up before our eyes. If this persists, it will make England a much more formidable team ahead of this winter’s Ashes.

Given that Bumrah is expected to play only two of the four remaining tests and how average the rest of the India bowling looks it is hard to see anything other than a England series win this summer.

 


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 21st-22nd June

Posted on 19 Jun 2025 20:57 in Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew

Coming up this weekend

  • Horse Racing, On the flat at Ascot, Ayr, Haydock, Lingfield, Newmarket and Redcar and over the jumps at Bangor-on-Dee.
  • Cricket, England’s first test against India continues in Leeds
  • Rugby Union, the British Lions series in Australia begins in Perth next Friday against the Western Force.
  • Golf, The Rocket Mortgage Classic on the USPGA Tour and the Italian Open on the DP World Tour.
  • Tennis, ATP Mallorca Open and Rothesay International Championships

 


Free Tip

Surrey v Middlesex Vitality T20 Blast, Friday 6.45pm (Live on SkySports)

A London derby in the South Group of the T20 Blast on Friday night at the Oval.

Middlesex sacked their coach Richard Johnson this week and have a terrible record in this competition over several years. Before this season they hadn’t won a game for two years. Bolstered by the recruitment of Kane Williamson as an overseas for this competition this season they are only slightly improved with just a two wins and a tie in their seven games so far. Thursday night saw a one run winn against Essex.

Unsurprisingly Surrey are heavy favourites to win this game. They began their campaign with a loss away to Somerset but have won five of their next six games to climb to top in the South group table just ahead of Somerset who have a game in hand as I write. Surrey’s most recent wins were at Hampshire on Tuesday and home to Sussex on Wednesday.

Surrey have a very experienced star-studded team of experienced T20 franchise/International players.

The current batting line-up (even missing Pope and Jamie Smith with England and the injured Dan Lawrence) reads: Jacks, Sibley, Roy, Sam Curran, Evans, Tom Curran.

Sibley apart it’s a bit “boom or bust” but on good pitches at home good-to-high scores are a likelihood such as the 210 scored on Wednesday night.

The bowling line-up is probably the strongest in the competition. Jordan, Sam Curran, Santner, Topley and Nathan Smith is a highly skilled T20 bowling attack, four of whom have taken 8-12 wickets in the competition so far in around 20 overs bowled at averages of under 20.

For a number of years Jason Roy opened the batting for England in both white ball formats and travelled the world playing franchise tournaments from the IPL, BBL to Asia and the Caribbean.

12 months ago as he hit his mid-thirties his 170-match England career appeared over and the franchise opportunities began to recede as his form had fallen off. There was still the occasional explosive inning but these were rarer amongst the failures. Flaws in technique against the moving ball mean he is far better on flat tracks where he can trust his eye for power-hitting.

This season he has been playing more for his original team Surrey, even in the 4-day County Championship for the first time in six years.

His form in this season’s Blast began very strongly with three fifties in five innings. He is the third highest scorer in the tournament with 265 runs in seven innings despite two failures this week.

Odds for Surrey top batsman are as follows, led by Jacks back from Mumbai Indians and England duty.

Jacks 5/2

Roy 100/30

Sibley 4/1

S Curran 9/2

Evans 13/2

Bar 10/1

With the all-rounders starting at number 4 in the line-up, this isn’t a particularly deep line-up. If Jacks/Roy or both come off they’ll outscore the more pedestrian Sibley. Both Jacks and Roy can be inconsistent but the better value is Roy.

10 points Jason Roy top Surrey batsman at 100/30 with Bet365 and Ladbrokes/Coral, 16/5 William Hill

 


Trade Wars

2025 has been a year of Geopolitical uncertainty, trade wars and tariffs. In Cricket, the global game and particularly the crowded worldwide franchise T20 circuit has begun to see disputes of its own, particularly with the Pakistan Super League going head-to-head with the IPL on cricket’s calendar during T20 circuit's availability window where no International cricket coincides with franchise competitions.

The T20 ecosystem is now so complex that we're seeing the introduction of what economists call non-tariff barriers (For Pakistan players these have existed for some time with reference to the IPL). Hence Corbin Bosch, having broken an agreement with to plkay for Peshawar in order to be in the Mumbai Indians squad, is now persona non grata in the PSL for the next 12 months.

This mirrors the sanction imposed by the IPL on players who bail out of lucrative contracts at short notice notably England’s Harry Brook who pulled out of the IPL just before it started this year and now has a two-year IPL ban.

The BCCI being the BCCI, and the IPL being as important as it is rewriting the regulations whenever is convenient is certainly possible in the future even if one thing that appears very unlikely to change is seeing a Pakistani player in the IPL.

For T20 International quality players, sporting frequent flyers like no other, they move on from India and Pakistan to T20/Hundred tournaments in the Caribbean, USA and England before the summer is over and then onto South Africa, Australia and Bangladesh in the autumn and winter. Lucrative it certainly is, career-lengthening it probably isn’t.


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 14th-15th June

Posted on 12 Jun 2025 09:13 in Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew

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.

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