Christmas Betting Odds

Latest Christmas Betting Odds 2012

The latest Christmas Betting Odds  including categories such as Number One Single, White Christmas, Which soap will get the most viewers at Christmas?, Christmas #1 Video Game, and the Colour of the hat The Queen will wear. 

Christmas Number One Single 2012:

Artist	Odds	Artist	Odds
The Justice Collective	2/5	James Arthur	7/4
Will I Am	33/1	Rihanna	100/1
The Pogues	100/1	The Choir	100/1
Gabrielle Aplin	66/1	Bruno Mars	66/1
Olly Murs	100/1	Alistair Griffin	100/1
One Direction	100/1	The Killers	100/1
Emeli Sande	100/1	Girls Aloud	100/1
Labrinth	100/1	Kylie Minogue	100/1
Coldplay	100/1	Lucy Spraggan	100/1
Spice Girls	100/1	JLS	100/1
The Script	100/1	Little Mix	100/1
Carly Rae Jepsen	100/1	Rod Stewart	100/1
Alicia Keys	100/1	One Pound Fish Man	100/1
Alt J	100/1	Muse	100/1

Clearly The Justice Collective for Hillsborough is the most favoured song to be the Christmas Number 1, Followed closely behind by X Factor Series 9 winner, James Arthur. The More unlikely contenders for the title are One Pound Fish Man, and Carly Rae Jepsen, both at 100/1.

White Christmas

City	Odds	City	Odds
Chicago	5/6	Manchester	5/2
Cardiff	6/1	Berlin	11/8
Dublin	11/4	Paris	10/1
Boston	11/8	Derry	3/1
Madrid	14/1	Glasgow	2/1
Belfast	3/1	Barcelona	22/1
New York	2/1	Cork	5/1
Rome	50/1	London	5/2

Which soap will get most viewers?

Which Soap Will Get Most Viewers?
Coronation Street	4/1
Eastenders	1/7
Emmerdale	20/1

Christmas Number 1 Video Game

Here we look at which Video Game will be Number 1 in the Video Game Charts 

Black Ops 2 (1/20)	Skylanders Giants (20/1)
Borderlands 2 (25/1)	Fifa 13 (8/1)
MoH: Warfighter (25/1)	Just Dance 4 (25/1)
Assassins Creed 3 (12/1)	New Super Mario Bros. (25/1)
WoW: Mists of Pandaria (33/1)	Far Cry 3 (12/1)

Queens Hat Colour

Colour	Odds	Colour	Odds
Blue	3/1	Apricot	6/1
Yellow	7/1	Pink	8/1
Cream	9/1	Green	10/1
Purple	14/1	Black	16/1
Brown	16/1	White	16/1
Grey/Silver	20/1	Orange	20/1
Turquoise	20/1	Black + White	25/1
Gold	25/1	Red	25/1

Finally there are the odds available on Big Ben failing to chime due to being frozen solid, these odds are at 100/1. 

Sauber sign Hulkenberg for 2013 F1 Season

Sauber have named Nico Hulkenberg as one of their signings for the 2013 Formula 1 Season. After making his debut in 2010, he said "It's a well placed team and very competitive"
The hot favourite for the second Sauber signing is Esteban Gutierrez, their Mexican reserve driver. Another possible candidate is former Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari after having a strong season in 2011.
Alguersuari is also a candidate to replace Hulkenberg at Force India, he has the knowledge of Pirelli's 2013 tyres, after being the company's official test driver this season.

In other news, Kimi Raikkonen scored Lotus's overdue victory with style after holding Ferrari's Fernando Alonso at bay at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday evening.

For more Formula 1 news and Betting Tips, head over to sports.gamble.co.uk where you can view articles on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix etc.

Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson has been called off

Why are things in the world of boxing never simple? At the start of this week the British Boxing Board of Control were threatening to ban anybody involved in the fight between David Haye and Dereck Chisora and now the fight between Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson has been called off due to the American testing positive to a banned substance.

Boxing is one sport that I really do love but there always seems to be some sort of controversy surrounding the sport. If it’s not something surrounding the betting, it’s somebody testing positive for a banned substance. Maybe the boxing authorities should take a leaf out of the Athletics World Anti-Doping Association and hand out life time bans for anybody testing positive to a banned substance?

The Khan v’s Peterson fight was one fight that I was really looking forward to. I had already backed Khan to win on points at 6/5 and I was very confident that I was going to see a return. This was one fight that was going to be a proper war with both fighters keen to make an impact after the controversy surrounding their first fight. Would Khan have won back his WBA and IBF world titles from Peterson? In a simple answer, yes but it wouldn’t have been a push over.

One thing that these fighters don’t think about before taking a banned substance is the impact on the fans that have brought tickets to watch the fight. It’s been reported that 5,000 plus fans were going to travel over from the UK to Las Vegas to watch the fight but with the fight now cancelled, would these fans get a full refund on their travel and hotels costs?

Another person you’ve also got to feel sorry for is Amir Khan. He’s been training hard for this fight for the last four months and with the fight schedule to take place only next week, , it now too short notice to bring another boxer in.

2012 John Smith’s Grand National

The excitement of the 2012 John Smith’s Grand National is building up nicely. The runners have been declared so all that is left for me now is to try and pick out that elusive winner. I’ve spent the last week or so looking at the big race trends and thanks to these I’ve managed to put a line through a lot of the runners. The main question is – Who’s going to win?

My form at picking National winners in recent years has been pretty successful (apart from not backing Mon More at 100/1 in 2009) so hopefully I can continue this trend this year. I’ll be siding with three horses on Saturday and thanks to BetVictor paying six places, I’ll hopefully see a return.

My main selection or as some people say their five star pick is the Alan King trained horse West End Rocker. Ideally I would like to see the rain come for this horse but even if it doesn’t West End Rocker still has form on good ground. He’s currently trading at odds of 10/1, which I think is a very reasonable price, and with BetVictor betting the race to six places, I’m positive that I’ll see a return.

My next selection is Becauseicouldntsee (16/1). The Noel Glynn nine-year-old ran a great race when finishing second in the Kim Muir Chase at the Cheltenham Festival and with no doubts about the trip; he is expected to run a huge race. The only worry I’ve got with this selection is that his jumping can sometimes let him down. If he can find some sort of rhythm early on, he could reward backers at a very attractive price.

The final horse I’ve backed is the Nicky Henderson runner Shakalakaboomboom (16/1). I backed the Henderson runner at very attractive odds prior to his run in the Sky Bet Chase at Doncaster and am now thinking if I should lay some part of this bet off.  On the positive side, the ground is likely to be in his favour (good) and Henderson himself expecting a big run.

If you are looking to back a horse at much larger odds then I couldn’t put you off backing The Midnight Club (33/1) or Planet Of Sound (33/1).

If the Midnight Club can reproduce the form he showed in 2011 then I expect him to be battling it out at the end. He has previous form at Aintree having finished sixth in this race in 2011 (went into the race as the 15/2 favourite) and with him being trained by Willie Mullins, it would take a brave man to put a line through his name.

If the rain stays away then Planet Of Sound could be a great bet at the price. He is a former Grade 1 winner (Punchestown Gold Cup in 2010) and having finished second to Carruthes in the Hennessey Gold Cup in November 2011, it proves the capabilities of the Phillip Hobbs horse.

If you are still unsure who to back in the National then you may want to have a look over the Grand National previous race trends on Gamble.co.uk.

The Masters

Golf betting is not one of my speciality sports but The Masters is one golf event that I do like to have a bet in. This year’s competition looks to be a very wide open affair with a number of players coming into the tournament in great form. The two main players that have captured all the headlines leading into the tournament are Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy but at odds of 5/1 and 13/2 respectively, I’ll be looking at other players to back.

One player that I really do like is the 2010 champion Phil Mickelson. Lefty is 12/1 to win a fourth green jacket and having recorded nine top-10 finishes at the Masters since 2001, it proves Mickelson’s love for the Augusta course. The other bonus about backing Mickelson is that his preparation going into this event has gone really well. He started off by finishing 24^th in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at the end of March and then followed this up with a fourth place finish at the Shell Houston Open last weekend. Can Mickelson win a fourth Masters? I certainly hope he does.

Another player that appeals to me is Adam Scott at 35/1. He finished second in this event last year and having shot a 67 in both the third and fourth round in 2011, when others were really struggling, it demonstrates his capabilities. He had seven top-10 finishes in 2011 and when he won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2011, he shot the lowest first round score (62) by a tournament winner in the history of the event.

If you are looking to back a player at much larger odds then I couldn’t put you off backing K J Choi (70/1), Gary Woodland (125/1) or Henrik Stenson (175/1).

Remember to check your bookmakers place terms if you are having an each-way bet. Paddy Power, Stan James and Boylesports are all paying the first six places where others are only offer the first five.

You can also find some general golf betting tips on sports.gamble.co.uk

2012 Grand National

Now that we’ve got the Cheltenham Festival out of the way my attention turns the 2012 Grand National which gets underway on the 12^th April. The Grand National meeting is very much similar to the Cheltenham Festival with a host of high profile races all leading up to the main race – John Smith’s Grand National on the Saturday.

If you are unfamiliar with the Grand National or if you are thinking about having a bet on the Grand National for the first time, you may find it a very daunting prospect with so many runners entered into the race. The one big bit of advice I can give anybody who is new to betting on the Grand National is to look at horses that appreciate a true test of stamina and have no questions marks surrounding their jumping.

Another piece of information that can help you draw a line through a lot of the runners is to use past trends on the race. The National is rich in stats so having looked at all the stats available for the Grand National, I’ve come up with some important factors which could really help you in deciding which horses to back.

Grand National Trends

Age 8 to 12 year olds - You have to go back to 1940 to find a horse younger than 8 to have won the Grand National and in the last 87 years no horse older than 12 has won the race

Weight 11 stone 5lb or under - Since the war only five Grand Nationals have been won by horses carrying more than 11st 5 lbs and two of those were by Red Rum

Won over three miles or more – Gay Trip in 1970 was the last Grand National winner who hadn't previously won over at least three miles

Won a valuable race – The last 10 winners had all won a race worth at least £17,000.

Run a minimum of 10 Chases - Each of the last 10 Grand National winners had run at least ten times over fences before the start on the big day at Aintree

Run in the last 50 days – In the last 28 years all winners had competed at least 50 days prior to their winning race.

Handicap Mark – For the last 20 running’s each winner has had a handicap mark of 136-160

As you can see there are a lot of factors surrounding past winners but you have to remember that stats are there to be broken so not ever winner will fit in to each factor.

I will be looking at the runners and riders closer to the time but if you are looking to keep up to date with all the latest sports betting news, you may find this Grand National 2012 article an interesting read.

Golden Day for Synchronised

Synchronised ridden by Tony McCoy takes the big race on the final day of the Cheltenham Festival, the Betfred Gold Cup.

The Jonjo O’Neill charge powered his way up the Cheltenham hill to take first place from The Giant Bolster in second and last year’s winner Long Run in third.

Cheltenham 3.20  

1st  Synchronised 8-1 

2nd  The Giant Bolster 50-1 

3rd  Long Run 7-4F 

Kauto Star, who was bidding for a third Cheltenham Gold Cup title was pulled up by jockey Ruby Walsh with still half of the race to go.

Synchronised is 8/1 with Paddy Power to win the 2012 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

As much I as wanted Long Run to win back-to-back Gold Cups, I did have a small each-way bet on Synchronised thanks to this Day 4 preview.

The final three races are very open affairs. I shall be having a couple of small each-way bets to make sure that I finish the 2012 Cheltenham Festival with some profit. The horse I’ll be looking towards in the Foxhunter Chase is Salsify and in the Martin Pipe race and I fancy Toner DOudairies to run a big race.