Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew
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.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 10th-11th May
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Ascot, Haydock, Leicester, Lingfield and Nottingham and over the jumps at Hexham and Warwick.
- Football, Premier League fixtures include Liverpool v Arsenal
- Cricket, the IPL continues
- Golf, The PGA Championship at the Quail Hollow Club in North Carolina
- Tennis, The ATP Italian Open continues
Royal Ascot
Neil’s Royal Ascot (Full Package 17th - 21st June 2025) is now live for subscription costing £199 Here
Free Tip
Punjab Super Kings v Mumbai Indians 11am Sunday in Dharamsala
The third of three games in this IPL in the Himalayan venue of Dharamsala, where conditions can favour seam bowling and the second of the games so far this week was both rain affected then abandoned due to a power fault in the area.
That said scores of 236-5 and 110-1 after 10 overs suggest that the Dharamsala pitches so far this year are not as helpful as they can often be for the bowlers.
These are the penultimate group stage games for both teams, and both are well set for to reach the knockout stages. Punjab are 3rd with 7 wins 3 losses and two no-results and Mumbai 4th with 7 wins and 5 losses. A loss here for either puts their hopes of qualification for ther knockout stages in serious jeopardy.
Mumbai lost their first four games this year then then won 7 in a row to go temporarily top before losing a tight one to Gujarat on Tuesday.
For Punjab key players are batsman Shreyas Iyer with 405 runs at 50 and a strike rate oif 180. A new captain this year, his game has gone to another level. A new Captain taken game to new level. In the bowling ranks leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has 14 wickets at 24, including a hat-trick whilst left arm quick Arshdeep Singh has 16 wickets at 19, all taken with the new ball in the opening powerplay including 3-16 last time out.
For Mumbai, Rohit Sharma has had a disappointing tournament so far, 300 runs in 11 innings. The batting line-up has been instead led by Suryakumar Yadav with 510 runs at an average of 63 at a strike rate of 170 batting at four with three fifties. Currently he is the top run scorer in the tournament.
The bowling line-up has the huge advantage of fielding Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah in tandem. Boult has 18 wickets, second in the competition alongside Hazelwood, at under 20. Bumrah was injured at the start of the tournament but has recovered to take 13 wickets at 16 and under 7 runs an over. All-rounder Hardik Pandya also has 13 wickets.
Odds for the game have Mumbai 8/13 favourites, Punjab (the home team, but at a secondary venue) 11/8 underdogs.
Various possible player bets here. For Punjab Iyer at 3/1 is a solid favourite in the top batsman market, Arshdeep at 9/4 on the short side in the bowling market.
For Mumbai Yadav is 11/4 top batsman and Trent Boult over 3/1 top bowler behind Bumrah at around 9/4. It is Boult that appeals given his form in this year’s IPL.
10 points Trent Boult Top Mumbai Indians bowler at 31/10 BetVictor, 11/4 Ladbrokes/Coral (more firms to follow)
Workload
England have appointed Harry Brook to their white-ball captaincy. Brook will lead a talented group of players who had gone stale and lost confidence under the Jos Buttler.
Brook is the best young batsman in the country, guaranteed a place across formats. He has leadership experience having overseen last summer’s 3-2 ODI defeat by Australia. He also captained Northern Superchargers in the 2024 Hundred.
Brook and coach Brendon McCullum can now look ahead to reshaping the 50-over team ahead of the 2027 World Cup in South Africa. In their favour there looks to be a strong possibility that the domestic schedule will change from 2025 moving the 50 over competition out of a direct clash with the Hundred in August to begin in April thus offering the opportunity for Hundred players to develop in 50 over cricket. Currently no England players play any 50-over domestic cricket and their skills, different to those required in T20s, have fallen behind.
Brook was chosen ahead of Ben Stokes, who would have been a stopgap option with concerns about his physical workload playing three formats or appointing a specialist white-ball captain from outside the current group such as Sam Billings and Sam Curran.
There are potential downsides to Brook’s appointment, primarily that overworking the brightest young English player could affect his form across all three formats. The biggest 2025 priorities for England are the five-Test series against India at home this summer and an away Ashes series in Australia this winter. England need Brook at his very best and fully focused on Test cricket to stand a chance of winning both. Over-playing and/or a loss of form is the big worry for an important player. There will be a need to manage Brook’s workload over the next few months very carefully. As well as six Tests, one against Zimbabwe and five against India, there are six ODIs against the West Indies and South Africa and another nine T20s against those opponents and Ireland this summer alone.
Brook himself has begun the workload management process by withdrawing from the current IPL, forgoing a £590,000 fee and likely to lead to a multi-year ban from the competition.
In the event of Brook being rested England need an able deputy. No decision has been made on this yet but ideally it should be someone who is a white-ball specialist. Phil Salt is the name that jumps out for this role, even if his ODI form has not been great of late.
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 3rd-4th May
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Doncaster, Goodwood, Newmarket (Guineas weekend) and Thirsk and over the jumps at Hexham and Uttoxeter
- Football, Premier League fixtures include Chelsea v Liverpool
- Rugby Union, European Champions Cup Semi-Finals
- Cricket, the IPL continues
- Formula One, the Miami Grand Prix
- Snooker, the 2025 World Championship final
- Golf, The Myrtle Beach Classic and Truist Championship on the USPGA Tour and the Turkish Open on the DP World Tour
- Tennis, ATP Italian Open
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 Semi-Final
Bordeaux v Toulouse 3pm Sunday
A word about the other semi-final first. At 5.30pm on Saturday Leinster host Northampton in Dublin as 21.5-point favourites after winning their first two knockout games in this tournament this year by a scarcely believable 62-0 and 52-0, the first times any teams have been kept pointless in 257 Champions Cup knockout games!
Our ante-post bet on Bordeaux made last October has ended with the toughest run-out possible with holders and Top 14 leaders Toulouse and then, theoretically, Leinster ERCC runners up for each of the last three years.
This semi-final is being played at the Matmut Atlantique stadium, home of Bordeaux in Ligue 1 football.
Bordeaux and Toulouse were drawn into the same pool this year and both won 4 games out of 4 against English, Irish and South African opponents. Bordeaux won the pool by gaining one extra bonus point compared to Toulouse, ending up as the top seed for the knockouts, Toulouse the fourth seed.
In this year’s top 14 in France Toulouse are top and Bordeaux third, dropping from second with a home loss to La Rochelle last week with a rotated side.
In the ERCC knockouts this year Bordeaux have scored 90 points in two games running in six tries in each of the home games against Ulster and Munster.
This is very “on brand” for a hugely exciting team where winger Damien Penaud has scored an incredible 12 tries in the competition so far, and Bielle-Biarrey has 6. The side will attack from anywhere.
The potential downside is the defence which conceded 60 points to Ulster and Munster. Certainly a soft underbelly that will need to be much better to get past Toulouse.
Toulouse in the knockouts beat Sale 38-15 then crept past Toulon away 21-18 from 12-0 down. If it is close late on, which it might be, they have the trump card of goal-kicker Thomas Ramos top scorer in the competition this year with 87 points and an 85% kicker.
On netural territory, albeit in Bordeaux’s home city, Toulouse are -4.5 here. Their stronger defence in what is likely not to be a game of runaway attack on both sides is likely to see them home to another Toulouse-Leinster final
15 points Toulouse -4.5 points to beat Bordeaux at 10/11 generally
Les Lions
The British and Irish Lions could be set to face France with talks at an ‘advanced’ stage between the two parties
Ahead of the tour to New Zealand in 2029 the Lions and their counterparts, the French Rugby Federation (FFR), are looking at potentially staging a couple of one-off Tests before they head to the southern hemisphere.
It would be similar to the Lions fixture encounter with Argentina later this year which takes place in Dublin on June 20, eight days prior to their first game of the 2025 tour in Perth against Western Force on June 28.
They have met once before, although it came in a non-capped friendly in 1989 in which the Lions edged to a narrow 29-27 triumph.
Should talks continue to move in a positive direction, the main issue will invariably come around player availability, given that the contest is likely to take place in mid to late June.
That means the encounter will be hosted outside of World Rugby’s international window in July, while it could also clash with the French domestic final. This year, the Top 14 showpiece event goes ahead on the same day the Lions play the Force in their tour opener.
Organisers may therefore have to either convince the FFR to release their top players for the Test or come to an arrangement whereby those involved in the Top 14 final will not be selected.
France tend to use the mid-year internationals as a development tool and rest their main stars, like they will do when they play the All Blacks in July this year.
None of those who feature in the Top 14 final on June 28 are expected to be included in the squad while other key individuals could also stay at home irrespective of how far their clubs get in the league play-offs.
It has long been suggested that the Lions should consider facing France, not just as a one-off game but as part of a three-Test tour. However, there are no plans currently to interrupt the schedule which sees them face Australia, New Zealand and South Africa on rotation every four years. This could feasibly be a step towards that, though, should the Lions and FFR confirm these one-off Tests.
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.
