Online Betting News

Sky Bet has installed former East17 front man Brian Harvey as 2/1 favourite to win ‘Making Your Mind Up!’ and go on to represent the UK at the grand final of Eurovision in Helsinki on May 12th.

The three 7/2 co-second favourites are Big Brovaz, ex Atomic Kitten Liz McLarnon, and Justin Hawkins, former lead singer of The Darkness, who has joined forces with his long-term friend and vocalist Beverlei Brown.

Cyndi, a newcomer to the UK music scene, who is hoping to win over the public with her ballad ‘I’ll Leave My Heart’ is quoted at 5/1, while outsiders of the field at 12/1 are Scooch, who scored four top 20 hits in the nineties and are hoping to make a comeback with ‘Flying the Flag (For You)’.

Sky Bet is quoting 20/1 for the UK to win Eurovision, 10/1 to come last and 25/1 for the UK to receive no points. It’s also 2/1 that the winner of ‘Making Your Mind Up!’ score a number one UK single with the song.

For the first time in seventeen years, Phil Taylor is the outsider to win a match and Sky Bet make him 11/8 to beat Dutch master and PDC world champion Raymond Van Barneveld (even money) when they meet on Thursday in Sheffield in the Holsten Premier League darts tournament.

Barney is 4/9 to score most 180s and 8/15 to score over 3.5, having thrown eight last week against Jenkins. Taylor is 3/1 to score most 180s and 5/6 to score over 2.5, having only produced three maximums in his 8-2 win over Peter Manley.

Sky Bet quote 4/6 for Van Barneveld to get the highest average and it’s 8/13 for him to average over a hundred, while Taylor is quoted at 8/11 to do the same.

13-time world champion Taylor has won this event in both 2005 and 2006 and has remained unbeaten throughout. Both Taylor and Van Barneveld remain unbeaten this year and both have 6 points currently. Van Barneveld came back from three sets down to beat Taylor 7-6 in the enthralling PDC world final in January. He has gone on to beat Taylor 3-0 at the Masters of Darts in the Netherlands earlier this month.

Sky Bet’s darts compiler, Craig Ibbotson, said, “The last time Taylor was an outsider was when he beat Eric Bristow as a qualifier in the Embassy World Championship on January 13th 1990, to claim his first world title. However, the tide is turning now and where punters used on rely on Taylor to win at all costs, they now see Van Barneveld as the new force in darts.”

Amir Khan is even money to hold a major world title by the end of 2008, according to Ladbrokes.

Khan took another step towards the top with his quickest pro win, a 55-second KO of normally durable Frenchman Mohammed Medjadi on Saturday night.

The Bolton fighter is now 12/1 at Ladbrokes to be crowned the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.

While Khan was making short work of his opponent, fellow Olympic medallist Audley Harrison suffered a huge setback as his world heavyweight title dream looked to be shattered beyond repair by a crushing knockout at the hands of Michael Sprott.

Ladbrokes spokesman, Nick Weinberg, said: “The contrast between the two Olympians could not have been any more stark on Saturday night. Whilst Harrison’s career looks over, Khan’s goes from strength-to-strength.

“He needs to get a few 12 rounders under his belt, but looks on course to hold a major belt by the end of next year.”

Paul Casey looked back to his best in the recent Accenture Match Play, but can he carry that form into this week’s Johnnie Walker Classic?

The English star is 12/1 to lift the trophy in Thailand, however Ernie Els heads the betting at 5/1

Sebastien Loeb is still odds-on across the board to retain his world drivers’ title in spite of the champion failing to finish a rally for the first time in over a year in Norway.

Bet Direct rate the Frenchman an 8/15 shot to secure a fourth successive crown but Hills are less convinced, making him a best price of 10/11 after the running of the season’s three winter rallies.

Loeb got off to the best possible start to the season, blitzing the Monte Carlo Rally in January and finishing a creditable second behind principal rival Marcus Gronholm in Sweden two weeks later.

But the Citroen man made an uncharacteristic mistake in the championship’s other snow rally, falling foul of a snowbank and losing 18 minutes on his way to 14th place in Norway.

Gronholm went on to finish second, less than ten seconds behind his Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen, and that pair now head Loeb in the standings by six and four points respectively.

The experienced Finn is only 11/10 to add to his championship titles of 2000 and 2002 with Hills, but Bet Direct offer 15/8, while his younger compatriot is available at 10/1 with the Wigan-based layers.

Petter Solberg, who debuts the long-awaited Subaru Impreza S14 at the next round in Mexico on March 9th, is now 14 points worse off that Gronholm and is out to 40/1 to regain the title he won in 2003.

That rally, the first gravel event of the calendar, is likely to provide a crucial pointer to the rest of the season as the championship protagonists compete on the loose surface on which nine of the remaining 13 events will be held.

Loeb’s new C4 appears to have a clear advantage on asphalt but has yet to come under scrutiny on either rough or fast gravel roads, while the Frenchman’s strangely erratic driving last time out suggests that he was trying to over-drive his car - something he never had to do in the Xsara WRC.

And with Hirvonen emerging as the first team-mate since Richard Burns to provide a genuine intra-team challenge to Gronholm, the action this season may yet turn out to be less predictable than last year’s fare.

Solberg always goes well in Mexico and if the Banbury team can provide the Norwegian with a machine to match his talents, we could be seeing a four-way scrap on some events.

Bet Direct make Loeb the early 8/11 favourite for that event, with Gronholm 11/8, Hirvonen 9/1 and Solberg 10/1

In the last eighteen runnings of the Grand National Master Oats (1995) and Moorcroft Boy (1994) were the shortest priced favourites both being returned at 5/1. There have been seven 7/1 clear favourites in that time including the winners Hedgehunter (2005), Earth Summit (1998) and Rough Quest (1996) while 10/1 co favourites were returned in 2004 and 2001.Clan Royal is currently 7-1 clear favourite with VC Bet and their PR Manager Neal Wilkins believes their will be a contraction in those odds in the weeks leading up to the Aintree showpiece.

20   Sir Rembrandt

Recent injury worries shouldn’t hamper 15/8 Guillermo Coria’s ace clay court winning run when he serves it up at this week’s Hamburg Masters.

“Pavel was unlucky to come up against a Moya in possibly his best form ever in Rome and the Romanian has every chance to come through what looks the weakest quarter of the draw before a likely face-off against Coria.”

Black Jack Ketchum has now been eased out to 7/4 to win the Ladbrokes World Hurdle after trainer Jonjo O’Neill revealed he could be pulled out if the ground at Cheltenham remains heavy.

Last month’s Byrne Bros Cleeve Hurdle at the track, run on heavy ground, was the scene of the gelding’s first ever racecourse defeat when he was a lifeless fifth behind Blazing Bailey.

O’Neill was unable to find anything medically or physically wrong with Black Jack Ketchum, and with the ground currently soft on the Old Course and soft, heavy in places on the New, he is definitely hoping for things to dry up.

“If the ground was like this he won’t run,” said O’Neill at a Cheltenham media gathering.

“We wouldn’t punish him in bad ground. We would love to come here, we want to come here, but it is not the end of the world and there is always Aintree and Punchestown.”

And this news has prompted the sponsors to move his odds out to 7/4 while they have also seen support for 2005 World Hurdle hero Inglis Drever (4s from 9/2), Adrian Maguire’s Celestial Wave (9s from 10/1) and Nicky Henderson’s Temoin (20s from 25/1), all proven soft-ground performers.

David Williams, spokesman for Ladbrokes, said: “We still firmly believe that Black Jack is the class act in the race, but all the vibes from the racecourse suggest it could be softer than than we all expected.

“He clearly didn’t enjoy conditions last time out and all the recent money has been for the proven soft ground specialists. We’ve had to shorten them up accordingly.”

World famous internet betting exchange Betfair has established Australian markets on their site to the benefit of punters everywhere.

But ever since Betfair recieved a license from Tasmania the naysayers that do not want a betting exchange in Australia have been trying to thwart the English based company.

Betfair has received a lot of criticism down-under from both traditional bookies who believe the site takes away business and the government, who are unbale to tax the massive turnover generated.
So the news wasn’t good at the start of December, as the anti-gambling brigade scored a big victory when the West Australian parliament passed a law making it illegal in the state of Western Australia for anyone to use a betting exchange account.

The Betting and Racing Legislation Bill bans the operation of exchanges and specifically prohibits West Australians from using them.

For those that wish to contravene the laws a possible two year jail sentence awaits or a steep fine of $10000 AUD.

The two biggest players in the world game clash in Premier League Darts.