online sports betting news

There are just two weeks until the Cheltenham Festival, when the horse racing betting fans go wild, If you are already keenly studying Horse Racing Betting form ahead of the fantastic festival, then it will be worth checking out both Bet365 and Ladbrokes. Both of these online bookmakers have raced to the head of the pack, offering a “Non Runner No Bet” option for the festival. This covers all races at the Cheltenham Festival, and so if you have a punt on a horse with either Bet365 or Ladbrokes, and they are a non-runner, your stake will be winging its way back to you.

Totesport, as part of their website redevelopment, have now made an already excellent Horse Racing coverage even better, by linking up directly with the Racing Post. What does this mean? Totesport have integrated the in-depth analysis, verdicts and form straight into the race-cards on the online bookmakers website. This could be crucial when planning your betting strategies ahead of the Cheltenham festival, as the bookmaker teams up with one of the leading, and most trusted resources for Horse Racing news and form. This is just part of Totesport’s ongoing development on their website, which also includes direct betting links from their homepage to your betting slip. There will be a phase two of the all new Totesport sports betting website coming soon!

Paddy Power have also gotten their noses in front for the Cheltenham Festival, focusing on a special promotion for the Supreme Novices Hurdle. This is curtain raiser for the horse racing festival, and punters are always keen to get off to a winner, by betting heavily on this one. The promotion for the Supreme Novices Hurdle all surrounds Dunguib, priced at 4/5. If the unbeaten Irish favourite wins, then Paddy Power will refund all lost outright winner bets.

Carling Cup Betting often leans towards the underdog having their day in the sun at Wembley. Aston Villa start Sunday’s Carling Cup final as underdogs to Manchester United, and SportingBet are covering the event with a couple of great cash back promotions. Have a little extra coverage to back up your bets is great, and online Bookmaker SportingBet are stepping to the fore once against with two stake refund offers, one for lost First Goalscorer bets, and one for Correct Score bets.

The First Goalscorer refund will apply if Man Utd goal machine Wayne Rooney finds the back as last goalscorer, then all losing first goalscorer bets will be refunded. With the form Rooney is in, and pretty much being United’s sole source of goals, and with their penchant for popping up for late winners, this is a great promotion to jump on.

The Correct Score market refund will apply if Villa’s James Milner scores the last goal of the match. If the England World Cup hopeful buries the final goal and it messes up your correct score prediction, then SportingBet have you covered, as they will refund all lost stakes on the correct score market.

Will favourites United hang on the Carling Cup they won against Spurs last season? Can Villa top a great season for them, by creating an upset at Wembley. There is plenty of coverage on Sunday’s big match at SportingBet, and new account holders can get a £25 welcome bonus. Head on over to this excellent online bookmaker for your sports betting and check out the submarkets for the Wembley final, along with these fixed odds outright winner odds (for 90 minutes):

Manchester United to win: 3/4
Draw: 12/5
Aston Villa to win: 16/5

Jose Mourinho, aka "The Special One" brings a special refund offer at Centrebet. Chelsea are gearing up for their big match against Inter Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday night, heading into battle against the familiar figure of ex-boss Jose Mourinho. Centrebet are drumming up interest with a great offer on the Inter Milan vs. Chelsea game, by offering a refund on all losing correct score bets if Mourinho’s men win 1-0. That’s right, because of him being famed for 1-0 results while he was at the helm with the London club, and Centrebet will reward if it happens again. So if you are backing a Chelsea win by the score of 1-0, and Inter finish the match as 1-0 winners instead, you will get a refund on your stake for the losing bet.

Highlighted Correct Scores at Centrebet
Inter to win 1-0: 7.00
Inter to win 2-1: 10.00
Chelsea to win 0-1: 7.20
Chelsea to win 1-2: 10.00
Draw 0-0: 7.20
Draw 1-1: 6.00

So join up with Centrebet today to take advantage of this offer ahead of the big match on Wedneday.

The new look 888Sport is worth popping across and taking a look at. The familiar orange and black theme is still in place, but the site looks streamlined and immediately practical. First thing you can’t miss on the home page, is the listing of the most prominent, Live In-Play action, and while you are on there home page, announcements will pop up when a goal has been scored in the football for example. If you want to get into more detail over the live betting, then clicking through will present you with an excellent screen for your selection, listing the in-play opportunities, as well as having a menu to switch to other live sports.

In celebration of their new look, 888Sport are offering everyone free bets! Yes, it’s true! Up until the end of February, the online bookmaker is giving away unlimited free bets, ranging from £8 to £88 (in keeping with their name!) One lucky winner will get £888 worth of free bets from this promotion. The best thing is that you don’t even have to do anything other than place bets to be eligible for these rewards. When you place a minimum of 8 bets during February 2010, 888Sport will reward you with a free £8 bet. If you are a heavier better, then by making 88 bets in February, 888Sport will reward you a free £88. Everyone who has then qualified for their free bets, will be thrown into a hat, and one lucky winner will bag the big prize package of £888 worth of free bets. This promotion is limited to February 2010, so you need to get in quick and register on the site before February 28th.

One of the most notable things about the new look 888Sport is the clarity in its layout. The betting options are extremely clear, and the punter isn’t going to get lost or confused navigating around and adding selections to their betting slip. Their sports book is just as easy to navigate, driven by a simple expandable menu, which is really quick to operate. But along with all this, there are some great betting prices to be found around the site. Dropping by the Formula One season, there is a nice 10/3 price on Lewis Hamilton to the win the Driver’s Championship in 2010. Coming out of retirement, Michael Schumacher is listed as a decent 9/2 bet.

One of 888Sports great football promotions, is their “Choose Your Team option” on eligible matches. If a late goal during a match, late being described as from the 88th minute onwards, stops your bet on the match from winning, then 888Sport will give you up to £20 free in refunded stake. The minimum bet if £5 and needs to be on the “To Win” market, or Last Goalscorer or Correct Score markets. So if your selection gets ruined by one of those heart breaking late goals, at least you will have some compensation to ease the pain. Check out 888Sport’s promotion page to see the list of eligible games this promotion is applied to.

888Sport provide a great online sports betting service, which is concise, fast and looks good. The make over the site has received looks to have done wonders for an already professional service supplied. There is the usual casino, poker, bingo and games to entertain the punter was well while they are awaiting their sports betting. 888Sports enhance their online betting experience, by giving the punter a truly wonderful stats service. Just click on through the betting stats, and you will see results, standings, form and everything else you will need. This service is extended across all sports in their sports book, which can help you with your betting strategy.

Sports betting news, betting statistics and free bets, combine for a great service from this online bookmaker. There is good quality sports betting to be taken advantage of on the site, and take some time to explore their promotions for some extra bonuses. If there’s one more thing worth mentioning, then it is their generous sign up bonus. When you open an account and place a bet of at least £15, 888Sport will return the favour by crediting your new account with a free matched bet. When you make 10 bets of at least $15, the online bookmaker will give you another £15 credit. Do five more bets in the same way, and you will be in line for their final reward of a free £20 bet token to use. There are the four simple steps to earning up to £50 worth of free bets when opening a new account with 888Sport.

There are some immediate rewards for opening a new account with Boylesports. The initial rewards is up to £20 free when you make you first bet. Just open an account with the online bookmaker, make an initial bet on that account, and Boylesports will match it, up to a value of £20. That is just the welcome handshake to welcome you over the threshold, and once you are inside you will be greeted with more opportunities for bonuses, most notably through Boylesports’ generous cash back specials. It is worth keeping an eye on Boylesports, so that you can take full advantage of their daily and weekly cash back specials.

There are some great cash back specials to jump on ahead of the new sporting week. Firstly, if you get in quickly, there are Even Handicap Odds on England’s Six Nations game against Italy. The price can be taken for Italy (+16) or England (-16), which equates to the same thing. This applies to Match Handicap only and not alternatives. Over in the world of Premier League Darts, if any player checks out on a maximum 170 finish but loses the match, then Boylesports will refund all losing bets on that player. In the Bobsleigh of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, if Ireland finish in the top 10 of the two women event, all losing outright bets on the market will be refunded.

As well as offering guaranteed best prices on their horse racing markets, Boylesports often run cash back races, which generally means that if you horse comes in second, you will get your losing win single stake back. Keep an eye on this excellent bookmaker’s site to capture all of the promotions that pop up on a running basis. Boylesports is an excellent place to stop by for your online sports betting. Their sports book is awash with opportunities, from American Football, all the way down the alphabetical list of sports to the Winter Olympics. A nice solid bet in that field, is Canada Women to win the Ice Hockey at 1/2. This is the Canadian Ice Hockey team which just beat Slovakia 18-0 in their first group game.

The Boylesports site looks great, with a blue theme, and the sports book is organised into three parts. First of all there is great racing section, which brings you everything you will ever need to make a bet on the horses. Their clear listing of races is backed up with easily clickable form guides. The racing section has a Racing Radio, an excellent Racing Form and Racing Results guide, with clearly presented information to cast your eye over when making your selection. There is also virtual horse and greyhound racing to enjoy if you are waiting for the next big race to start.

Live In play betting is one of the important features of an online bookmaking site, and Boylesports certainly doesn’t fall over in that department. It is everything you would need, clear, concise and quick to load and update on prices. Boylesports provide great coverage on their Live In Play betting. All of the major football markets are covered very well too, with plenty of action coming from across the domestic European league. There are plenty of different coupons to chose from, and it is easy enough to get to any country from football market menu down the left hand side, which dominates the sports book when it is expanded. There are usually weekend bonus accumulators to take advantage of, and an interesting Mythical Match Betting selection, in which you decide which of two teams will score the most goals in their respective weekend fixtures (these are teams not playing against each other). There’s also a great soccer stats section as well.

Overall, Boylesports provide a generous welcome bonus, and a pretty good online sports betting experience once inside. It is a full and rewarding online experience, without being over the top or confusing to navigate. There are options of poker, casino, lotteries and skill games to enjoy as well, there different sections running their own special bonuses. But even if its just sports betting that you stick to, it’ll be worth it to take advantage of their welcome offer and enjoy betting with Boylesports over the busy week ahead, which sees the return of the Champions League.

Sky Sports ‘Super 6′

For some, this competition will feature in your weekend betting routine, at least it does for us. The rules of the competition are simple; there will be six matches, all of which kick-off at 15:00 GMT (The kick-off time will be the same for each weekend Super6 fixtures), and YOUR CHALLENGE is to correctly predict all six scores of the matches selected to win a cool £100,000. However, that’s not where the money winning spree ends, no, even if you correctly predict a few correct scores, you’re in with a chance of claiming some of the other prizes on offer. For instance, were you to correctly predict 5 correct scores and no-one else had surpassed four correct then you would bag a sweet £5,000 just for making a few guesses and would also become the weekend’s top Super 6′er.

• If you finish with the highest amount of correct scores for the weekend, but share the honour with other players, then the winner will be decided on who picked the correct first goal minute, or whoever was closest. By this; you will be asked to predict when (in minutes) the first goal will be scored out of the six games selected for Super6 purposes. This will only come into affect if two or more players finish with the highest amount of predictions for the weekend and will then be used to decide the winner in a tie-break question fashion.

There are other prizes up for grabs, mainly in the form of free bets which are distributed at the end of the month for the highest scoring player in a calendar month. There’s also an overall prize of £20,000 for the Super 6′er of the year which is basically awarded to the player who guesses the most amount of correct scores through the season.

It all sounds so simple but, believe me when I say this, it’s so damn difficult! To this day, with this season being Super Six’s second stint, according to our recollection, there has been just the one winner of the £100,000 top prize. Jonathan Kilpatrick is the man we all envy as he correctly predicted all six correct scores during the boxing day fixtures and grabbed himself the biggest Christmas present of his life when he took home £100,000 just for guessing a few scores on a bitter cold Boxing Day afternoon. That could be anyone of us and it’s reason alone to have us all believing that we too can be the next Super6 ‘top dog‘.

If my brief summary of the competition isn’t enough, or you simply didn’t understand a word I was saying, then why not log on yourself or register your details if you’re a new player. It’s absolutely FREE to enter, and plus, SkyBet, whom provide all the prize money, are doing a special promotion where you receive a FREE £5 Bet when you activate a SkyBet account and bet £5 on any sporting event, this being done in accordance with adding your Super6 details when prompted. This isn’t compulsory, which means you don’t have to take advantage of SkyBet’s offer to play Super6, but it’s beneficial if you’re a punter.

Simply log in or sign up today and all the information you need will be on the website, ranging from; prize info, weekly and monthly leaderboards, pundits opinions and rules on how to play the game.

Sky Sports Super6 – Click here to go directly to their website… Good Luck!

My Super6 Weekend Predictions (13^th February):

Barnsley 2 – 0 Plymouth Argyle

Coventry City 2 – 1 Queens Park Rangers

Leicester City 2 – 0 Scunthorpe United

Middlesborough 3 – 0 Peterborough United

Derby County 1 – 1 Birmingham City

Reading 1 – 3 West Bromwich Albion

First Goal: 4 Minutes

One of the main featured promotions on Coral, is the irrepressible Jeff Stelling, who contributes to the online bookmaker, by making suggested selections for the weekend’s football action. The specials from the Coral contributors are automatically set up, so you just have to click on their special bet to add it to your slip. This is a great way to get set up for the weekend, usually running in the form accumulators, or three games selections. As with anything it’s a risk, but it feels good backing selections made from someone as prominent as Stelling, who is close to the game.

Coral’s on going reward for customers, is one of the more unique ones online. Coral offer a 10% cash back each month, on the monthly aggregate losses of your bets with them. This is applicable to all sports and gaming, and represents some great value for the account holders. Having used Coral for years, from personal experience, this is a nice little bonus at the end of the month if things haven’t quite panned out. The offer is extended to all new customers, as well as existing ones, and they are the only online bookmakers to extend this generous 10% offer.

Coral run a great online bookmaking service, with plenty of promotions happening over a busy site. There’s a great column of all the sporting headlines which are happening around the world, down the left hand side of the screen, so you are unlikely to miss anything. Their sports book is great, with submarkets on spots like football, reaching as far as the eye can see, or so it seems on some occasions. They are very good with getting their ante post markets up, and they also offer Guaranteed Prices on their horse racing. Making selections and adding to your betting slip is easy, as everything is laid out clearly, and prices can be seen in either decimal or fractional odds.

For quick navigating, there is tabbed menu bar which can take you to All Events, Today’s Events, Live Betting or Football, Horse Racing or Greyhounds. This really makes finding the right selection in a market easy, and most importantly quick. A punter will easily be led into a flash-driven Live Betting section, which covers all of the major sports, as to be expected. Coral’s Live In-Play service is neatly laid out with all the options for betting, right to hand. Even if you click on a cricket match for example for Live Betting, there is a ticker bar running across the screen keeping you updated with scores from other sports. This way you won’t miss any other of the live action.

The Coral website is loaded with other gambling opportunities, from Casino, Poker, Lotto, Bingo and an awesome Virtual Sports section. If you are looking for something to place a wager on while waiting for real life action to start, then you can find virtual football, virtual horse racing and virtual dogs to play with. Along with their 10% Cashback, Coral really have the online sports betting and gambling world, all packaged up in a very neat bundle. Check out the Coral homepage and you will be lead easily into the world of an excellent online bookmaker.

SportingBet are back with their pretty awesome monthly stake race. After successfully running all last year, the competition, which rewards punters with free bets amongst other things, is back to enjoy! Not only are there free bets up for grabs from this great online bookmaker, there are also some great prizes to get your hands on. The best in technology gadgets from TV’s to laptops and handy-cams can be won with SportingBet, along with tickets to go and see Premier League matches. This is a wonderful way to get extra rewards from hopefully your successful betting with SportingBet.

Entry into the draws could not be any simpler. Whenever you put a pound on a selection from SportingBet’s great sports book, you would normally earn a point towards the draw. However, the ante has been upped by the bookmaker, and punters can earn extra bonus points for every single pound which is put on a multiple bet which is a double or above! It all works on a sliding scale, so, for a single £1 bet, you earn yourself one point. For a double, you’ll earn yourself two points, for a treble three points and so on. The top 150 people who have accumulated the most points, will be rewarded at the end of the month.

So, even if you have missed out on the first couple of days of February, you can easily catch up and make up some ground on the leaders, by playing multiples. SportingBet are one of the leaders when it comes to offering bonuses on their sports book markets and in other areas of their excellent online bookmaking service. It will also be a great time to take full advantage of their most generous welcome offer of a free £50 matched deposit. Yes, just sign up for a new account, and make at least a minimum of a £10 deposit, and SportingBet will match that total up to a value of £50.

Explore the SportingBet website for yourself and you will find plenty of ways to be rewarded, and ways to add a little extra incentive of some of your bets. There are good Live In-Play services to enjoy, as well an extensive sports book. With plenty of horse racing to look forward to, with the Cheltenham Gold Cup in the not too distant future, as well as the kick off of the 2010 Six Nations on the weekend, getting on board with SportingBet as early as you can during the month of February, will help your chances of getting on the winner’s board in their February Stakes Race. Free bets and potentially tickets to the Premier League await you!

An update on my Bet for Haiti Fundraising efforts (with grateful thanks to the first donations which have come in!). Thankfully Manchester was on my side this weekend, as I backed City to beat Portsmouth and took Manchester United in plus Asian Handicap against Arsenal which paid off. I can also thank Wayne Rooney for raising some funds for the cause, as I backed him as anytime goalscorer with Bet365. Not everything went to plan in terms of Betting for Haiti over the weekend, as some bankers let me down.

Here the list of winners and losers so far, with most recent wagers at the top.
*Indicates Live In-Play Bet

Ali Carter to beat John Higgins – Lost
Phil Taylor to win Players Championship – Lost
Wayne Rooney Anytime Scorer – Won
Man Utd +0.50 Asian Handicap – Won
St Louis Blues Money Line – Lost
Roger Federer to win Australian Open Final – Unpatriotic yes, but the bet won!
Ottawa Senators -1.5 Handicap – Lost*
Ronnie O’Sullivan to beat John Higgins – Lost*
Real Madrid to win – Won
Chelsea to win – Won
Trixie: Laura Robson to win (Won),  Roger Federer to win (Won), Inter Milan to draw (Lost)*
Egypt to win – (Won)
Nigeria to win – (Lost)
Trixie: Serena Williams to win (Won), Deportivo La Cornua to win (Won)*, Flamengo RJ to win (Won)*
Nikolay Davydenko to win – Lost*
Chelsea to win: Won
Victoria Azaranka to win: Lost*
Nashville Predators to win: Lost

22 Bets, W12, L10. Things seem to be hurting in the Live In Play betting department, where only 2 of the 7 have come in. Bet365 offer such great Live In-Play services, that it is pretty hard to stay away from. Also a couple of what I thought would be bankers have gone down, notably in the snooker and darts, with Ronnie O’Sullivan and Phil Taylor letting the team down a bit. The one bet that hurt the most was a Live In-Play bet on Inter Milan when they were 1-0 to Juventus in the midweek cup game. I took them to get a draw at odds of 3.20 and yes, they equalised…only to go and score a heartbreaking injury time winner.

Still, with all the ups and downs of the bets so far, the funds going towards Haiti are still breaking even at the initial £20 deposit. With a busy sporting weekend ahead of football and then the Six Nations, will be looking to push on and start getting some extra funds.

If you would like to donate to Partners In Health Stand for Haiti cause, then please visit here, and again thanks to for the first donations to have come in. Every little helps, and it will be greatly appreciated.

Check out online bookmakers SportingBet for some great bonuses on the weekend’s football action. With the big game of the weekend taking place on Sunday at the Emirates between Arsenal v Manchester United, this is a great chance to back up your bets with some great offers from one of the leading online bookmakers. Games between Arsenal and Manchester United are usually feisty affairs, with a long history of rivalry between the two teams, and there’s usually a war of words between the two managers Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson. This is the added spice which can lead to strong tackling and desperate challenges.

Fortunately SportingBet offer “Red Card Refunds”, which means that if there is a red card flashed by the Ref, then all losing bets on any 90 minute market will be refunded. SportingBet’s Red Card Refund applies to all Premier League matches over the weekend. This is a wonderful bit of added security for those big rivalry matches.

If you are a fan of the Accumulator Bet, then SportingBet’s Accumulator Refund could be your best friend. This offers some consolation for those Accumulators of yours which fall agonisingly short. If your accumulator on the weekend’s football (the accumulator must have a minimum of 5 legs) loses by just one leg of the bet, then SportingBet will soften the blow by refunding your stake. This is a great deal to take advantage of, as sometimes the unexpected does happen to ruin what looks like a dead cert Accumulator.

Visit SportingBet’s excellent online sports betting service, and you will find plenty of bonuses and promotions to keep you happy in your betting. All of this is made all the much better by the fact that SportingBet offer a superbly generous free £50 welcome offer. Just deposit a minimum of £10 in your new account, and SportingBet will match that initial deposit, up to the value of £50.