The Road to Riches Weekend of 11th-12th November

Coming Up this weekend

- Football, An International Break for the Premier League with England friendlies against Germany and Brazil and the World Cup Play Offs.

- Racing, Flat meetings at Doncaster and Wolverhampton. Over the jumps at Aintree, Kelso and Wincanton.

- Tennis, the Fed Cup Finals in Belarus, Belarus v the USA.

- Golf, On the USPGA The OHL Classic in Mexico and on the European Tour the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa.

- Formula One, the Brazilian Grand Prix.

- Rugby Union The Autumn Internationals begin including England v Argentina, Wales v Australia, France v New Zealand and Ireland v South Africa.

NFL Week Ten

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Coming Soon

Free tip

Rugby Union Wales v Australia Saturday 5.15pm BBC2

The month of Autumn Internationals beginning this weekend represent the start of the International season for the Northern Hemisphere sides and the end of a long season for the Southern Hemisphere teams and a chance for all teams to measure progress half way towards the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Australia have won their past 12 internationals against Wales (including last year 32-8) last losing in 2008 but they arrived in Wales on Monday battle-hardened and buoyed by a Bledisloe Cup victory in Brisbane over New Zealand last month.

The two meet in the 2019 World Cup in Japan. It will be the fourth time they have been pooled together with Wales yet to win. Victory for Australia on Saturday would not only extend the Wallabies’ winning run in the fixture to 13 but give them a psychological advantage before the September 2019 meeting in Tokyo.

Unfortunately for this match Wales are injury hit and do not yet have the depth in their pool of players to withstand such losses.

Wales field an unfamiliar back row with Justin Tipuric yet to train since suffering a thigh injury last month. With the Lions’ captain, Sam Warburton, out until the new year and the player who stood in at openside against Samoa in the summer, Ellis Jenkins, also injured, Wales’s have picked Josh Navidi and Aaron Shingler who have 13 caps between them. In this era where fast ball and winning the breakdown is crucial as the first step to unpicking well-marshalled rugby league style defences the inexperienced Wales flankers have to compete against the excellent Australia captain Michael Hooper, one of the world class players the visitors can field

The scrum-half Rhys Webb, a summer Lion along with Tipuric, is also missing sat out training since suffering a knee injury playing for Ospreys against Clermont Auvergne last month. The selection of Owen Williams at 12 suggests a somewhat conservative “two fly halfs” approach.

Still coached by Warren Gatland, Wales will be spiky and competitive but have yet,over many years under this coaching team, to consistently open up the best defences in their attack with a somewhat prosaic and direct style of play coined “Warrenball”, this despite the talents of Jonathan Davies, Liam Wlliams and the currently injured George North in their back-line.

Australia were at a low ebb after the last World Cup, for example losing 3-0 to England at home two summers ago but have been recovering since with a core of top class players (Folau,Hooper,Genia, Kuridrani to name a few) supplemented by a crop of emerging young players and thus greater strength in depth. Folau misses the tour on a sabbatical but the player who could generate some buzz is NRL convert Marika Koroibete. The former Melbourne Storm winger has four tries in four Tests and looks to have picked up the nuances of rugby defence, and breakdown work, better than any previous Australian rugby league convert.

“We’ll be looking to pick our best side for every Test of the tour,” stressed Michael Cheika this week “These are important matches and we want to be build a consistent, winning mindset and that’s something we want to pass on to next year’s team.”

Their last two games against the All Blacks were significant steps. Firstly they led in the rugby Championship game in Dunedin deep in the second half before losing to a last gasp try, then beating them 23-18 in Brisbane. Anything close to that form here and Wales won’t be living with them for 80-minutes

Yet prices assume a closer game than I do. Wales are were 6/5 a few days ago and have drifted out on the team news, underdogs to Australia at now 4/7 from 8/11. Australia can justifiably be backed at -5 (from -3) on the point handicap at 10/11.

For this column, I think a winning margin of two scores plus is feasible.

6 points Australia to win by 13+ points 8/5 Ladbrokes/Coral, 5/2 Betfred or 12/5 Sportingbet, Betfair Sportsbook

Sitting Up and Taking Notice

The Champions League group stage is now two thirds complete, four games per team played and two each to come and for English clubs the picture is very encouraging indeed. Even before we consider results so far, the Premier League has five entrants this season thanks to Manchester United’s victory in last season’s Europa League but four of the five English clubs top their groups.

Of the 20 matches involving English clubs in the Champions League so far, 15 have been won, four drawn and only one loss, Chelsea in Rome last week.Looking at teams from the other major leagues Spanish teams have played 16, won seven, drawn six times and been beaten three times. The three German teams have so far recorded more defeats than victories – P12 W4 D3 L5.

If our teams were struggling to qualify, it would be discussed non-stop. The reverse is being discussed a bit less even after the stand out result of those twenty games with Tottenham following their point in the Bernabeu with their win over Real Madrid at Wembley. The last time Real lost a group game in the Champions League was October 2012 and only Ronaldo’s late consolation protected their record of only failing to score in only one of 53 group games since that defeat.

Of course it is early days, the likes of PSG and Barcelona lie in wait for later on and the English malaise normally starts in earnest in the knockout rounds, once the gruelling festive fixture programme and lack of a winter break have both taken their toll.

When English clubs made early exits last season Steve McManaman said it was because few Premier League sides were stable enough to permit a sustained challenge in Europe. “Look at last-stage regulars like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich and they don’t change much from year to year,” he suggested. “You just see small nuances here and there, whereas in England the response to an unsuccessful season is often to rip everything up and start again.”

A year ago managers such as Guardiola, Mourinho and  Klopp were rebuilding clubs and squads and Tottenham were still coming to terms with the Champions League. This season every manager in charge of an English Champions League club is now in at least his second season. Guardiola has invested another £200m+ and solidified his defence too, Mourinho has also spent substantially while Pochettino is managing a strong side that is growing in terms of confidence and experience. Of course we can all have doubts about Liverpool’s defence and Chelsea’s squad depth but so far so good

At the same time Bayern have already changed coaches this season, Barcelona lost Neymar and there are rumblings about Zidane at Real. Perhaps not quite a changing of the guard yet, but possibly signs that English representation at the business end of this season’s competition is not a forlorn hope.

Brodders Football Analysis

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If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £40,648 All bets have an ROI +4.01%

A £4000 bank (see FAQ re bank-roll requirements) betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £44,648 a 1016% increase

(correct at 30/10/17)

The Road to Riches Weekend of 4th-5th November

Coming Up this weekend

- Football, Premier League matches include Manchester City v Arsenal and Chelsea v Manchester United

- Racing, The 2017 Breeders' Cup at Del Mar in California. Flat meetings at Newmarket and Newcastle. Over the jumps at Ascot, Ayr and Wetherby.

- Tennis, ATP BNP Paribas Masters in Paris and the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai,China.

- Golf, On the USPGA The Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin and on the European Tour the Turkish Open.

- Rugby Union As a precursor to the Autumn Internationals which start next week the Barbarians v New Zealand play at Twickenham

- Cricket The Ashes tour begins against a WACA XI in Perth.

NFL Week Nine

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Coming Soon

Free tip by Neil Channing

Sodexo Cup Saturday 3.35pm Ascot

From the Ashes?

The ICC intends to create a nine-team Test championship to run from 2019 and feature a final every two years. A competition that goes beyond the rankings system has been a subject of debate at ICC level for some time. The top nine Test nations would play four series at home and four away over a two-year period, with the league table leading into a final that would decide the outright Test champions. Countries would only meet once in each two year league either home or away. The fixtures would then be reversed next time around.

Test match cricket has been in decline and a championship could add relevance to every game and series and casual fans will be able to associate with a league table more than the current complicated rankings which no one reading this could explain how they are calculated!.

The main challenge for many teams in the new Championship will be to win away from home, a rarity in modern test cricket and there will be quite a lot of league table variance based around the fixture patterns. England would currently expect to be high in the table but if the fixtures fall away in India, Pakistan and Australia say, it will be tough to get to the final.

Fundamentally there are a lot of people against change in cricket and instinctively I am one of them, being a fan of five day test cricket but as ever the broadcasters are key here because with the exception of the Ashes it isn’t easy to create narratives that hit home for many series. Traditionalists will say Test cricket should not be about money however growing the game in new areas such as women’s cricket, grassroots and schools takes a lot of funding and that only comes through broadcast deals.

The average Test match currently lasts for 331 overs and sometimes a Test involves a close finish but the majority of matches finish in four days or less which is where the notion that five day test cricket could be removed and replaced with four day tests being discussed currently comes from. Again the idea (as in county cricket) that teams might have to set up results isn’t something the purists like but the bigger picture is scheduling and the amount of money lost on the fifth day when grounds are empty.

Four-day Tests will also be easier to schedule alongside T20 leagues. Currently in England, in part because of the crowded season, the Test is all over the place with games starting on any day from Wednesday to Saturday.

Fnally the move towards a Test Championship is part of an accelerating rollback of the “Big Three” model that was introduced in 2014 and saw India, Australia and England allocate themselves an increased proportion of revenues from global events. A result of this has been lowered standards and slower development from sides like Sri Lanka and the West Indies and a more equitable revenue model may see a broader more competitive Test game develop over the next decade and hopefully played to a larger audience too.

Brodders Football Analysis

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Bookmaker reviews and advice

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Betting Emporium results

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

If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £40,648 All bets have an ROI +4.01%

A £4000 bank (see FAQ re bank-roll requirements) betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £44,648 a 1016% increase

(correct at 30/10/17)

The Road To Riches Weekend of October 28th-29th

Coming Up this weekend

- Football, Premier League matches include Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur

- Racing, Flat meetings at Doncaster, Newbury and Wolverhampton. Over the jumps at Cheltenham and Kelso.

- Tennis, ATP Vienna and Swiss Indoor Opens and the WTA Finals in Singapore.

- Golf, the WGC-HSBC Champions in China and on the USPGA The Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi.

- Formula One, the Mexico Grand Prix.

NFL Week Eight

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Free tip

Pittsburgh Steelers @ Detroit Lions, NFL Week 8 (Sunday Night Football, 12.30am Monday GMT)

Le’Veon Bell is one of the best running backs in the NFL and importantly in a great situation given the offensive strategy of the Steelers. He’s an unusual runner with a lot of patience. He waits and waits on for a running lane to develop on rushing plays, which is a unique style in today’s game.

Bell held out all summer and reported to the team the week before the season started and understandably perhaps stated the season slowly. However he has since come on strong ande now ranks second in the NFL in total rushing yards with 684 on 169 carries. He has scored four TDs and is averaging 97 rushing yards per game. Bell is also a threat in the passing game, as he's totaled 33 receptions for 214 yards.

Bell has 56% of the Pittsburgh offensive touches, the only running back with over half of his team touches on the season and leads the league with 18 touches inside of the 10-yard line. He had 16 all of 2016. Finally he has 137 touches over the past four weeks, 40 more than the next closest player. Alongside his talent the offensive game plans he works in give him high volume opportunities on a weekly basis.

In this match up the Lions are without their top Defensive Tackle, Haloti Ngata, newly on injured reserve. Before their bye week they conceded over 50 points at New Orleans and this looks a prime opportunity for Bell to run successfully. Detroit is allowing 6.7 receptions per game to opposing backfields, 31st in the league

Typically Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s performances away from home are less dependable than at Heinz field. Roethlisberger ranks fifth in the NFL in passing yards this season, going 151-for-244 for 1,745 yards and nine touchdowns. He has thrown eight interceptions, however, so a game plan that gets Bell 25+ touches looks assured.

In three of the last four games, close games with the Steelers ahead, Bell has had 35, 32 and 35 rushing attempts. The exception was the Jacksonville game where he had 15 carries in a game where the Steelers fell well behind and the game situation dictated throwing the ball, and I don’t expect that to be the case here. Overall Bell has 169 rushes in 7 games. His career season high over 16 games is 290 so he is on course to beat that comfortably.

When looking at the touchdown markets here, on the other side of the ball there are factors at play to restrict the scoring potential of the Lions offense. The Lions are likely to be without their number one receiver Golden Tate through injury and in any case Pittsburgh ranks second in the NFL in total defense, allowing 258.7 yards per game. The Steelers' pass defense has been especially strong, allowing an NFL-low 147 yards per game through the air and no more than 65 yards to any one receiver. Their secondary, bolstered by the arrival of Joe Haden (released by the Browns) is talented and deep.

The Lions running game is not that reliable either, certainly for punching in touchdowns in the rushing game in the red zone as it lacks a power back.

As usual I leave discussion of game lines and totals to Neil and instead look at the first touchdown market. A combination of the likely game script for the Steelers away from home and the match up here makes Bell look very attractive.

10 Points Le-Veon Bell first touchdown scorer Steelers at Lions 5/1 Bet365 and Skybet

It’s not All Black

The All Blacks won their fifth Rugby Championship victory in six years this Autumn and of the 20 Bledisloe Cup titles played for so far, New Zealand have won 15 of them.

Clearly the number one side in the world and on course to defend their rugby world cup title in Japan in 2019 their dominance has led to concerns about the competitiveness of International rugby at the very top and whether that might damage the global game.

Sport is a business where a monopoly is not a good thing and at times the All Blacks have looked like the Harlem Globetrotters travelling around looking for someone to play.

Obviously that is not what the IRB, television companies or All Black fans want. They want to be on the edge of their seats every time they go and watch them and not knowing what the result will be.

This isn’t even a vintage All Blacks side yet. Top level rugby now runs in four year cycles with coaching teams attempting to get their sides to peak at the World Cups. In the aftermath of the 2015 world cup the All Blacks entered a rebuilding phase with key retirements such as Richie McCaw and the loss of a number of players to Northern Hemisphere club rugby.

With the introduction of young players there have been some teething problems. The failure to beat the British Lions in the summer over a three test series was a big surprise and then Australia came within two minutes of beating them in Dunedin in September. Then last weekend Australia did the almost unthinkable and beat the All Blacks for the first time in eight games and only the second time in nineteen games.

Even with the Bledisloe Cup decided meaning the game was a “dead rubber” and facing an All Blacks side with six of their first choice XV unavailable, it had the feeling of a important match and certainly an important result for global rugby. Australia, an improving side from the depths of 2016 when beaten 3-0 at home by England, can look to facing the All Blacks as rivals rather than whipping boys

In the short term the result is probably bad news for the Northern Hemisphere sides New Zealand now travel to face on their Autumn tour. “We’ll use the hurt to grow,” coach Steve Hansen said. “A lot of these guys it’s probably their first loss in an All Black jersey. It’s an experience you don’t wash away. You learn your lessons from it and we’ll become a better team for it”

Longer term no one doubts that the players being blooded now won’t be world beaters come 2019. Reiko Ioane for example has nine tries in his first ten internationals. Damian McKenzie at full back is an exciting runner and in the absence of the concussed Beauden Barrett has gained value high pressure goal-kicking experience just to name two stars introduced to international rugby over the past year.

For now though perhaps next time the All Blacks face a top side we can go into the match thinking “will they win?” rather than “how much will they win by?”

Brodders Football Analysis

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This week Brodders published an in depth ante post Champions League write up covering outrights/ groups/ goal-scorer bets

Long term profit over more than three years. Following all bets subscribers are winning £21,490 (£10 a point, average bet £150) +ROI 4.01% (correct at 01/09/17)

Bookmaker reviews and advice

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

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

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

Betting Emporium results

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

If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £38,026.90 All bets have an ROI +3.95%

A £4000 bank (see FAQ re bank-roll requirements) betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £42,026.90 an 951% increase

(correct at 01/09/17)

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

Coming Up this weekend

- Football, Premier League matches include Everton v Arsenal and Tottenham v Liverpool.

- Racing, Flat meetings at Ascot, Catterick and Wolverhampton. Over the jumps at Ffos Las, Market Rasen and Stratford.

- Tennis, ATP Opens: the Kremlin Cup, European Open in Antwerp, Stockholm Open and Luxembourg Open .

- Golf, on the USPGA The CJ Cup at Nine Bridges, South Korea. On the European Tour the Valderrama Masters in Spain.

- Rugby Union, the second round of the 2017-18 European Rugby Champions Cup. Australia v New Zealand Bledisloe Cup in Brisbane.

- Formula One, the US Grand Prix in Austin,Texas.

NFL Week Seven

The cost for sign up for the regular season is now £80

Free tip

Wasps v Harlequins, European Champions Cup Rugby Sunday 5.30pm

Wasps were on the wrong end of some harsh scheduling with a five-day turnaround from an away loss at Saracens in the Premiership for their opening match in the competition at Ulster last Friday night. They have been suffering from a long injury list, which was promptly extended by three more players during the first half in Belfast including the first choice hooker with a dislocated thumb.

A reminder from my competition preview that there is less depth in Aviva Premiership squads this year and increased incidence of injuries is more important than ever. Under an unchanged salary cap, about which the clubs are unhappy, there is upward pressure on player salaries (competition from France, notably) and sides Wasps included have had to cut their cloth and make some tough decisions on releasing squad players. So when they then are without 5-8 players it is going to impact on areas like bench depth.

Ulster’s won 19-9 on a miserable night, which places some importance on Wasps’ home encounter with Harlequins this weekend. Harlequins have already won at the Ricoh this season, 24-21 in mid-September and they are going to have to again after their 34-27 home defeat by the debutants La Rochelle last Saturday.

That game was Quins’ first foray into Europe’s top competition after an absence of two seasons and a familiar tale unfolded. They had lots of ambition, some brilliance but also flakiness and ultimately a defeat against that rare French animal, a side that likes playing away from home.

This game, weather allowing, should be high scoring with attack the strength of both and I think it will be far closer than current odds for the game imply. Best prices are Wasps 1/5 Harlequins 7/2 and Harlequins are +10 on the point handicap. +10 might be my favoured bet but we are after a bit more here. I just don’t think Quins are a 7/2 shot in the game against injury hit opposition.

10 points Harlequins to beat Wasps 2017/18 Champions Cup Pool 1: 7/2 Bet365, William Hill

Get Lucky

Psychologists believe that the human brain understates the influence of luck on events. This can be explained by the theory of hindsight bias in which once something has happened our brains naturally create a narrative to explain it. The brain undervalues the abstract role of luck and instead apportions disproportionate value to actual events.

This bias is evident in sport among those who have a vested interest in the outcome of a game. Fans of teams who have won are less likely to claim their team was "lucky" than fans of teams who have lost are to claim their team was "unlucky".

The influence of luck on a sport is determined by obvious variables such as the number of players, their respective abilities to influence the game, the opportunities to score and the way the game is scored and by random variables such as the weather and pitch conditions.

The way sports effectively manage the influence of luck across a season is through the number of matches played. The more matches there are the larger the sample size, the narrower the margin of error between the actual results and the true variance of the teams, and the fairer the league becomes.

The sabermetrician Tom Tango used a methodology to estimate the role of luck in different sporting leagues. The equation on which this method is built states that the observed variance between teams in a league is the product of variance explained by skill and variance explained by luck.

He calculated the observed variance between teams (the standard deviation of win-loss records for each team) and imagined an "all-luck world" estimating the contribution of luck based on the number of matches per team per season. By dividing the observed variance by the variance explained by luck he estimated the extent to which the variance is influenced by luck. As you would expect as the number of matches played in a league increases, the variance explained by luck decreases.

The results of applying Tango's methodology to recent seasons in major sports are as follows, over 2014-16:

EPL (38 matches per team): 27% Variance explained by luck (VEL)

NBA (82 matches per team) 13% VEL

NFL (16 matches per team) 46% VEL

MLB (162 matches per team) 14% VEL

And within cricket

IPL (14 matches per team) 80% VEL

T20 Blast (14 matches per team ) 72% VEL

T20 cricket is currently highly susceptible to luck. The small number of teams in T20 leagues concentrates talent and narrows the range of win-loss records.

Using Tango's method it is possible to estimate the number of matches per team required by a league for the influence of luck to be less than that of the influence of skill. To give two examples, the "magic number" for the IPL is 56 and for the T20 Blast it is 36. To cricket these are big (unfeasible) numbers hence T20 remains a high variance format for betting.

Brodders Football Analysis

Sign up to Brodders match analysis and recommended bets here for £50 a month. You are free to cancel at any time.

This week Brodders published an in depth ante post Champions League write up covering outrights/ groups/ goal-scorer bets

Long term profit over more than three years. Following all bets subscribers are winning £21,490 (£10 a point, average bet £150) +ROI 4.01% (correct at 01/09/17)

Bookmaker reviews and advice

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

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

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

Betting Emporium results

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

If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £38,026.90 All bets have an ROI +3.95%

A £4000 bank (see FAQ re bank-roll requirements) betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £42,026.90 an 951% increase

(correct at 01/09/17)

The Road To Riches Weekend of 14th -15th October

Coming Up this weekend

- Football, The Premier League returns after the international break including Liverpool v Manchester United.

- Racing, Flat meetings at Newmarket, York and Kempton. Chepstow and Hexham over the jumps.

- Tennis, ATP Shanghai Masters and Opens in Linz, Hong Kong and Tianjin.

- Golf, on the USPGA the CIMB Classic in Kuala Lumpur. On the European Tour the Italian Open in Milan.

- Rugby Union, the start of the 2017-18 European Rugby Champions Cup.

NFL Week Six!

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Free tip

The Cesarewitch, Newmarket 3.40pm Saturday by Neil Channing

The Cesarewitch is nearly as hard to spell as it is to pick the winner but despite the fact it's wide-open and there are 34-runners I feel that we have to have good bets if we stick to the firms that are offering each-way terms of 1/4 123456 or 1/5th 12345678. Historically the horses carrying less than 8 stone 12 lbs have done well in this and I'm going to focus on them to cut it down.

Generally speaking when betting each-way and getting a few places you need to back something solid, to know that it stays the trip and ought to run a race rather than ever risking a "win or come nowhere" kind of profile. I try to avoid horses who are unsuited by the ground, trying a big hike in trip, have a profile of win a race then three of four duck-eggs or massively up in class.

My shortlist was Dubawi Fifty who I may weaken and have a saver on, John Constable who I think is pretty solid and Withold.

Dubawi Fifty has been laid out for this race, he stays 2m really well, he is young and improving and the stable obviously think he has a good mark as they didn't dare run him and risk carrying more here so he has had a little break.

John Constable is way better over hurdles than on the flat but I would asssume that means he is really well handicapped on the flat. He is an absolute certain stayer and if you get a load of places it's hard to see how he doesn't fill one of them.

 Withold was bought for £170,000 about a year ago by a certain Mr T Bloom esquire. Tony moved the horse to Roger Charlton from Charlie Hills and it run about three weeks ago over 1m4f at Newbury where it finished 3rd. Some might say it could "bounce" here, (put in a bad performance after a long break and a good performance), but this is a trainer I trust to get things right. Going into Friday's racing Roger Charlton was on a run of 9 winners from 23 runners in  the last two weeks. The horse stays 2m well and it's a young and improving animal. I think it has the class and a bit up it's sleeve to win this and do it well. You have to fancy the ownere will back it so we shoudn't hang about.

 I can see the argument for having three bets here and I might weaken and do that but it is quite hard to get lots of bets on at the good place terms so I'll stick with just one.

 I'm having 11 Points each-way Withold at 12/1 1/4 123456 with Betfred and Bet365 (I would take 1/5th 12345678 only if I couldn't get 1/4 123456).

London calling

Unfortunately it remains the case that no NFL Wembley game has been contested by two sides with winning records, and so far this year we have had two poor spectacles witith Jacksonville beating Baltimore 44-7 and the Saints beating the Dolphins 20-3 but irrespective of that from sold-out NFL UK Live events over those weekends to sold out attendances the demand for the NFL over here is strong.

The NFL has had many initiatives outside the United States over the years, such as NFL Europe and international pre-season games, but none of those had the impact that London has.The number of people buying the NFL's GamePass product overseas (and a terribly temperamental product it is too this season), attendance (over 40,000 of the seats for all four of the NFL UK games were sold as part of a season ticket package), coverage on Sky Sports and increased focus by the BBC on the NFL are all indicators of sustained growth.

The NFL's ratings in the United States aren't quite what they used to be. While that may be a blip, even if they do start to go up again, it is unlikely to be the type of growth that really moves the needle toward the NFL's revenue growth goals. That's not the case internationally and it is why the NFL is planning its next moves not only in London but other locations such as Mexico, Germany and China.

London will get its own team eventually. While it may not happen any time soon and there are logistical hurdles (tax rates and time zones being the main two) that still need to be overcome, the growth of the game outside the US to this point has been so robust that it's easy to imagine London hosting a team full time at some point.

It will probably take an open-minded owner who finds himself in a difficult stadium situation in his current market, but certainly the economic opportunity of being the only NFL team in Europe would be very appealing to any owner focused on the bottom line.The UK market has proven it is fervent and viable which is a big step in that direction.

Until then, I can continue to amuse myself by trying to identify all 32 teams jerseys on the walk from the station to the stadium and, as happened to me after one of the recent games, will overhear two female NFL fans  talk about their fantasy teams on the tube afterwards.

Brodders Football Analysis

Sign up to Brodders match analysis and recommended bets here for £50 a month. You are free to cancel at any time.

This week Brodders published an in depth ante post Champions League write up covering outrights/ groups/ goal-scorer bets

Long term profit over more than three years. Following all bets subscribers are winning £21,490 (£10 a point, average bet £150) +ROI 4.01% (correct at 01/09/17)

Bookmaker reviews and advice

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

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

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

Betting Emporium results

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

If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £38,026.90 All bets have an ROI +3.95%

A £4000 bank (see FAQ re bank-roll requirements) betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £42,026.90 an 951% increase

(correct at 01/09/17)