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Thursday, 14 January 2010: Right, here we go again, with the rescheduled Carling Cup Semi Final First Leg match between Blackburn and Aston Villa. The snow fouled things up last Tuesday, so now it is time to head to Ewood Park to see where this tie takes the two teams. Kick off is at 8pm. The other semi final between Manchester City and Manchester United, which was also postponed, will play their first leg next week. So it is time for Blackburn or Villa to get one foot in the door of the first domestic Cup Final of the season. The two teams are far apart in terms of position and form at the moment.

When they met in the FA Cup on January 2nd, Villa ran out 3-1 winners against 10 man Blackburn, making harder work of the win than was probably necessary. Still, they got the job done, and the Carling Cup offers a little respite from the pressure of the Premier League, in which they are just three points out of the drop zone and haven’t managed a win in nine matches. Big Sam Allardyce must really be feeling the pressure at the moment. Blackburn’s current woes were compounded on Monday night, when Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez hit a cool hat-trick against Rovers, sinking them 4-1 in the league. Blackburn then, in all fairness, looked pretty woeful. It was not a performance that would have instilled much hope that there is better times ahead in 2010. Mind you, Manchester City looked great and took full advantage of their weaker opposition.

Whether Blackburn will be able to field any kind of first team strike force on Wednesday night will remain to be seen. Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts both are struggling with injuries, and El Hadji Diouf is serving a suspension. As this match represents half a step over the threshold to a Cup Final, Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill will be sending out the big guns, after resting most of them for the FA Cup victory over Rovers. On even par, Aston Villa should be strong enough to beat Rovers, and when you pile on Blackburn’s current misery, it should make the task even easier for Villa. But this is a Cup semi final and anything can happen. Blackburn probably won’t go at it so lamely as they did against Manchester City, they simply cannot.

With the home advantage, they need to take as much as they can away from the game. It won’t be easy, and Villa will be strong favourites. They need to take at least a draw back to the second leg at Villa Park, but they will have to overcome their big drop in form and a big goal scoring drought to do that.

BETTING STATS

Last 5 Head to Head
Aston Villa 3, Blackburn 1
Blackburn 2, Aston Villa 1
Blackburn 0, Aston Villa 2
Aston Villa 3, Blackburn 2
Aston Villa 1, Blackburn 1

Last 5 Matches Goals
Blackburn – 5 For, 12 Against
Aston Villa – 6 For, 5 Against

Last 10 Matches Form
Blackburn – W0, D6, L4
Aston Villa – W5, D2, L2

Match Prices:
Blackburn to win: 2/1 at Stan James
Draw: 12/5 at Totesport
Aston Villa to win: 6/4 at 888Sport

Tip: Aston Villa -1 Asian Handicap – 3/1 at Bet365

Liverpool v Reading, Anfield, Wednesday, January 13th. Can Reading “do a Leeds” and cause a major upset in this year’s FA Cup? Credit where it is due, they were probably the better of the two teams when they met, with Steven Gerrard having to come to Liverpool’s rescue to claim a 1-1 tie. With the January transfer market, it will be interesting to see what, if any, changes Rafa Benitez makes to his team. That is the important factor, the team. He has signed countless squad players, just not enough of them are real quality first team players. This was again highlighted in the draw with Reading, and now they have to dig just a little bit deeper again to avoid being out of everything for this season. Liverpool aren’t going to the Premier League, they are out of the Champions League, they are out of the Carling Cup, and it will really make sorry reading for Benitez and the Kop, if they crash out of the FA Cup in the third round.

They would have had a good testing warm up on the weekend in a Premier League fixture against Tottenham, but that got abandoned due to the adverse weather. Now they have to come from a cold start to beat the lowly Championship side, but at least they will have the backing of the home fans this time around. The grit that got them through the first encounter, will probably translate into enough for them to beat Reading in all honesty. It usually is the way when it comes to cup replays like this. The underdog will usually give the bigger team a run for their money in the first match, but if the top side can at least scrounge a draw, they usually pull through in a replay.

Liverpool have seen a couple of players go, with Voronin and Dossena leaving Anfield, but there has been no movement coming back so far. Whether the money is there to make big signings is another matter, and if not, Benitez is going to have a real battle on his hands all season to keep up a challenge for a top four finish. One other departure has been Tom Hicks Jr from the Anfield board. After alleged disputes with a fan, the director stepped down. The board has been under pressure from Liverpool fans to get out of the club, including Tom Hicks Sr and George Gillett, who took on a lot of debt to buy the club, leaving their financial status in not too great a condition. Fans are unhappy about the current status of the football club, and the apparent inability to do anything to change it.

Still, all that’s for the boardroom discussions, and it is on the pitch where the football will be focused on Wednesday night. Reading are just one place out of the drop zone in the Championship, after winning just one home game all season. No doubt they will be going to Anfield and playing with all of the heart they can, and they have performed much better on the road so far. In the first encounter, they exposed a lot of Liverpool’s fragilities. If they can produce that again it will be a good entertaining match, with questions being asked of the home side. However, one needs to think how hard it really is to cause upsets, and how often they happen, even to struggling Premier League sides. Liverpool need the win, as a chase for some domestic silverware will keep the Wolves from Rafa Benitez’s door a little bit longer.

Liverpool to win: 2/9 at BetFred
Draw: 6/1 at SkyBet
Reading to win: 14/1 at Paddy Power

The FA Cup replays swing into town on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the survival of three Premier League Clubs still not certain. First up, let’s take a look at Birmingham v Nottingham Forest. Despite how well Birmingham are going this season under Alex McLeish, they aren’t heavy goalscorers and that has been plaguing them. They are on a fantastic unbeaten run in the league, but Nottingham Forest managed to hold them to a draw in the third round of the FA Cup. That will explain the replay then. Birmingham, who held Manchester United to 1-1 draw on the weekend, will be happy enough to have taken this fixture back to St Andrews, but will be disappointed at having to have to play another game. They would like to consolidate their loft position in the Premier League, and replayed cup games won’t help with that. With most teams out of action because of the snow, Nottingham Forest ran out 3-1 winners over West Brom in the Championship on Friday night. That was a huge game, as Forest, with the win, leap-frogged West Brom into second place in the race to get automatic promotion to the Premier League. This will still be a tough challenge for Birmingham, as Forest are more free-scoring than their Premier League opponents, and Forest haven’t lost on their travels this season in the league. Definitely a potential banana-skin for Birmingham.
Birmingham to win: 10/11 at Bet365
Draw: 5/2 at SkyBet
Nottingham Forest : 7/2 at Totesport

Coventry v Portsmouth could be an even more dangerous match for the Premier League side. They tied at 1-1 at Fratton Park, and now, bottom of the league Pompey need to pull off a salvation act to give them something to cheer about. Mid-table Championship side Coventry go into the match on the back of a league win, and Sunderland await the winners of this tie in the fourth round. Highfield Road will be awash with a giant killing act, even if Pompey are in all sorts of problem, it is still the chance to claim the scalp of a Premier League side. Looking at the balance of things, should be a close match, but Portsmouth have let go a little bit this season when it has come to cup games in the Carling Cup, but this FA Cup tie will still be a pressure game for boss Avram Grant. Be advised that “outright markets” on these games will likely just apply to the 90 minute result with your online bookmakers.
Coventry to win: 7/4 at Totesport
Draw: 5/2 at SkyBet
Portsmouth to win: 13/8 at Bet365

Other Tuesday night FA Cup Third Round Replays are:
Bristol City (13/8) v Cardiff (13/8) at BetFred
Derby (11/10) v Mill wall (5/2) at Bet365
QPR (11/8) v Sheffield United (2/1) at Coral

Despite all the tragic surroundings involving the Togo team ahead of the African Cup of Nations, the tournament is still pressing ahead, with its opening game on Sunday between hosts Angola and Mali. The events may be a little overshadowed by the horrific scenes at the border, on which gunfire fatally opened up on the Togo team bus, which has led to the Togo team withdrawing from the competition. They would have opened their account against Ghana on Monday, but it is not to be. The tournament pressing ahead, seems to be a positive move in the face of adversity. It would be all too easy to cancel everything, but, as the old axiom goes, the show must go on. While a lot of thought will spared for the victims involved, positivity comes from moving on and the tournament now has a big chance to unite everyone.

Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast will be strong favourites to lift the cup, and the draw has thrown together in a group with team mate Michael Essien’s Ghana, though in Group B. They place a nice style of football, and with Togo’s withdrawal, it leaves them and the Ivory Coast as clear favourites to qualifying, with Burkina Faso being the only other team. The African Cup of Nations does provide some great football, and hopefully it will not just be remembered as the tournament which Togo pulled out of for tragic reasons. The colourful Cameroon side will be entertaining and dangerous as well, and they should have a comfortable qualification from group D, with on Tunisia who should be able to challenge them.

While a winner of the tournament is not going to come from Group A, which includes the hosts Angola, Egypt and Nigeria square off in Group C, which should be entertaining. Egypt are the current holders of the African Cup of Nations trophy, and will be looking for a big tournament again, seeing as how they have nothing to do in the summer, after losing out on qualification to the World Cup to bitter rivals Algeria. Algeria are of course, in England’s World Cup 2010 group, and it will be a good chance to assess the unknown quantity, and there will be members of the England management watching them at some point (though it won’t be Fabio Capello himself).

So who to look at when making a bet? Well, this will depend on whether you like betting on favourites or not. To be honest, looking at the state of affairs for the African Cup of Nations, there doesn’t appear to be an outright favourite, but there are three teams which are on a very close par. No surprises that they are the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Cameroon. There are World Class players on show for all of them, with a lot of players from Europe, including the Premier League. If anything, the draw is going to heavily favour Ghana and Ivory Coast, because they will have to play their quarter final matches against the teams from the weakest group, Group A. That should influence things a bit, and while smart money will probably go on Ivory Coast, look for good prices on Ghana and Cameroon, even if they are each way bets.

African Cup of Nations Outright Winner:
Ivory Coast – 9/4 at SkyBet
Cameroon – 11/2 at SkyBet
Ghana – 6/1 at Ladbrokes
Nigeria – 17/2 at Expekt
Egypt – 9/1 at William Hill

The African Cup of Nations is often rife with controversy because of the timing of the tournament. The loss of top African players does have a major impact at clubs around Europe in the month of January, but the African Cup of Nations kicks off on January 10th, awash with a wealth of top talent. Group B is arguably the most interesting, as it contains Didier Drogba’s Ivory Coast, and Michael Essien’s Ghana. Both nations are tipped to provide a lot of strength at power at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and following this tournament will give a good impression of what the rest of the world can expect.

England will have some vested interest in the tournament, as World Cup 2010 group opponents Algeria are contesting. Egypt are also involved, and England will be playing a friendly match against them at Wembley on March 3rd. But it is the big names which will grab all of the highlights, with the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt and Cameroon looking amongst the strongest contenders to lift the trophy. If, for example, the Ivory Coast make it the final, then Chelsea will be without strikers Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou for pretty much the entire month of January. With other players from the Premier League such as Emaneul Adebayor, Song, Eboue, Yakuba and Toure, there is plenty of well known names to watch out for.

The tournament is being held in Angola, and all of the teams are there, ready to go. As hosts, Angola open the African Cup of Nations on January 10th, with a match against Mali. The 16 teams will be looking to make a final appearance on January 31st. January 15th could be the big day to watch out for in the group stages of the African Cup of Nations, as that is when the two power houses of the Ivory Coast and Ghana go head to head. There will no doubt be some interest in the possibility of another Egypt v Algeria clash, which was so hotly contested in World Cup Qualification. The two teams had to go to a play-off after finishing their group with identical records. Algeria, amidst scenes of crowd troubles, won the day, making it to the World Cup.

Egypt will look to do better in the quest for the African Cup of Nations trophy, which looks not too unlike the World Cup. Held every two years, the tournament has grown in stature on the world stage, and it is the Egyptians who are the current holders, after beating Cameroon 1-0 in the 2008 Final. The football played is often attack minded and open, and because of the rivalries from the continent, are very passionate. The current holders open their account against Nigeria on the 12th. The top two from each of the four groups, progress into the quarter final stage.

GROUP A: Angola, Mali, Malawi, Algeria
GROUP B: Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo
GROUP C: Egypt, Nigeria, Mozambique, Benin
GROUP D: Cameroon, Gabon, Zambia, Tunisia

African Cup of Nations Betting

Outright Winner:
Ivory Coast – 5/2 at Stan James
Ghana – 5/1 at Bet365
Cameroon – 11/2 at BetFred
Egypt – 9/1 at Paddy Power
Nigeria – 10/1 at Stan James

Top Goalscorer
Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) – 9/2 at Paddy Power
Samuel Eto (Cameroon) – 5/1 at Blue Square
Matthew Amoah (Ghana) – 12/1 at 888Sport
Frederic Kanoute (Mali) – 14/1 at Blue Square
Emauel Adebayo (Togo) – 14/1 at 888Sport

Betting Advice: Make no mistakes, the Ivory Coast are a strong side, and should cause problems at the World Cup, despite being lumped in the Group of Death along with Brazil and Portugal. But as strong and as powerful as the Ivory Coast are, the same can be said of Ghana. They are a fluent, fast moving and free scoring team, with players from all over Europe. They may not have the big names stars much beyond Michael Essien, but they are a force to be reckoned with, both in the African Cup of Nations and the World Cup 2010. Their star striker Matthew Amoah is worth a good bet, even each way on finishing as top scorer.

SkyBet are backing England to win the World Cup, with a great money back guarantee. SkyBet will refund all outright bets on any of England’s rivals for the World Cup, if John Terry stands there and lifts the trophy on July 11th. Yes, if England win the World Cup in South Africa, SkyBet will return losing stakes placed on any other nation to win. You will automatically be entered into this, as soon as you place a bet on anyone other than England to win the World Cup. This is a nice feature, for as an England fan placing a bet on Brazil for example to win the trophy, you’re going to win either way. If England win you’ll get your bet refunded, and be dancing in the streets, if Brazil win, then you will at least have some winnings to console yourself with.

SkyBet is loaded with features to fill your every betting desire. Football dominates of course, simply because Sky brings the best of the English Premier League into your living rooms, and they are able to back that service up with a fantastic sports book. One interesting feature in the football section of their sports book, was a Transfer Special section. What was found in here? A list of high profile players, and selections to choose from, where the punter thinks they will be playing next. An example is Liverpool’s Fernando Torres. The bet is, where will he be after the Summer 2010 Transfer Window? Liverpool are 1/2, Chelsea and Man City are both 6/1 or perhaps it’ll be one of the Spanish giants, Barcelona 7/1 or Real Madrid 8/1. This is a fun section, worth exploring if you have your inside tips!

There are some great football promotions to add a little spice to your online experience. Check out their Soccer Saturday Super Six competition, which runs weekly. SkyBet will present you with six matches and all you have to do is guess the correct scores for each. One guy won the £5,000 prize last weekend, for six correct FA Cup Third Round predictions.

SkyBet also offer concessions on their betting, as another football promotion, in a FairPlay award which benefits the punter:

• The most notable one here is their correct score bet. If your correct score prediction is correct at 90 minutes, but then someone goes and scores a late injury time goal to mess it up, SkyBet will refund your stake as a free bet! That could save a lot of stress from seeing a last minute winner go in.
• They do a similar thing with their First Goal scorer bets. If the player you back to score first gets taken off in the first half with scores at 0-0, then you’ll get your stake refunded as a free bet.
• The same refund stands if a player backed to be top scorer in any English or Scottish League transfers to a different league.

An extra bonus for a couple of the above bet concessions, is that SkyBet enhance their odds on first goal scorer and correct score markets for two hours prior to kick off of one of their televised matches. Want to watch Sky Sports? Then SkyBet makes that easy for you to, as account holders who are also Sky Sports customers can watch Sky Sports right online. All you need to do is enter the promo code in your SkyBet account, make a bet and then SkyBet will contact you with details of how to receive their service right on your PC for free!

SkyBet’s online betting service, is definitely one worth checking out, and they sum everything up nicely with their tagline “it matters more when there is money on it.” Perhaps there are fewer truer words spoken when it comes to sports betting. If horse racing is more your thing, then SkyBet offer special daily Extra Values on their horse racing book, with some races features for little extra incentives like 5 places for an each-way bet, instead of the normal three. Check out their promotions page for bonuses on their live racing.

Poker? Casino? Games? Yes, they are all there as to be expected. Their Sky Vegas section really is excellent, and you can got lost in there for hours playing games, including a penny arcade. They have their own promotions in there, as well as a welcome bonus, so it is worth exploring and seeing what is on offer for yourself. The same can be said of their Bingo section, which is also excellent and extensive.

But their Sports Book is where SkyBet really shine, and they genuinely do challenge for some of the best market prices around, without question. A wide range of sports are covered, and some non-sporting ones such as politics and TV and Film Specials. It’s all there, driven by a left hand menu, so you don’t have to go searching too hard for the bet that you want. Under the tennis, Andy Murray was found at 11/2 to win the forthcoming Australian Open. With all of the major sporting events happening this year, from the Winter Olympics, to the World Cup, to the Cheltenham Gold Cup, to the Six Nations, you can be assured of fantastic service with SkyBet.

Everything is backed up with great stats and form, so whether playing games or browsing the sports book is your thing, SkyBet has it all. You can even combine all your gambling favourites, by playing casino while watching Sky Sports live on your computer, keeping an eye on the live in-play betting while you. Excellent service, highly recommended and to top it all off, they offer you a very nice welcome gift. SkyBet will give you a free bet up to the value of £10 when you place your first bet (a single or each way) on a new account!

A to Z of Festive Football Tips

With the busy football schedule over the Christmas and New Year period, and I’m sure that you’ve heard Arsene Wenger pitching up about it all, it is time to look at an A-Z guide of what you could do with your betting options.From Premier League betting, to World Cup Betting to Types of Bets available to help you get the best returns from your wagers, it is all here for your perusal, right at your fingertips.

A = Accumulators and Asian Handicaps. The accumulator is much favoured in the world of horse racing, but it has translated well into the world of soccer. With an Accumulator, you make selections on your betting slip, and you need them all to come in to have a great pay day. This is like a multiple bet such as a Trixie, but without the full coverage. Either all your selections win, or you won’t. Asian Handicaps with Bet365 predominantly, is a popular way of betting on soccer matches. It offers the punter only a win/lose scenario, by allowing teams to start with handicap (a strong team will have a -2 goal handicap to start the game for example). This allows for better odds than normal fixed odds betting.

B = Boxing Day. With nothing much to do on Boxing Day while the children play with packaging and aptly, the cardboard boxes that their gifts came in, it is generally time to hit the pub and cheer on your team in the big Boxing Day fixture list that comes every year. This is prime time for sports broadcasters to get their viewing figures up, and the Bookies usually cash in on such a busy day of sport. This season the stand out fixture is seventh placed Birmingham (7/1) vs Chelsea (4/9) at Victor Chandler. The Blues from London will be looking to come through the festive period unscathed, as Mancehstser United are hot on their heels. Head on over to BetFred for a great service and selection on Boxing Day matches.

C = Chelsea. What can they win this year? They are favourites for the Premier League 8/11 at BetFred and are firm contenders for the elusive Champions League title 4/1 at Coral that the Stamford Bridge crowd would so desperately love to get their hands on. The festive period will be a big test of their potential and character, as they need to get over a mini slump if they are to withstand the challenge of Manchester United. Christmas and New Year fixtures, can usually make or break teams, and you will no doubt hear terms such as Boxing Day hangover, should any of the big four lose.

D =  Draw No Bet. You need this betting option in your arsenal. Not THAT Arsenal, but the one you have at your disposal through your online bookmakers. If you have never noticed this little gem sitting around in the “more” section of a betting market, then take some time to check it out. What does it mean, no bet? It sounds negative but it’s not. Say for example you backed Burnley to Draw No Bet against Arsenal with Stan James, it equates to the fact that you want Burnley to win, and if they do great! But if they only manage a memorable draw, then you will at least get your stake back. The odds may be shorter than backing a Burnley outright win, but at least you’re not totally out of pocket when the game ends in a 1-1 draw, such as it did.

E = Europa League: Following Liverpool’s dismal Champions League campaign, this is the tournament in which they will be playing in come the New Year, along with Premier League buddies Everton and Fulham. All of the third placed teams in the groups from the Champions League join up with the confusing format of the Europa League in the Spring. It seems a little unfair for all the legwork done by the teams in there from the start to suddenly have teams like Liverpool and Juventus turn up in the draw, but there it is. The big clubs attract more revenue and interest, and that’s the way UEFA like it. Liverpool are 7/1 to win it outright (although they haven’t even been seeded for the draw), Valencia and Juventus are both 12/1 all at 888Sport.

F =  First Goalscorer. Remember there are twenty outfield players on the pitch at any given time, and substitutes can have a major impact if a game is still at 0-0. First Goalscorer is tough to nail, sure there are favourites, but remember that goals come from everywhere. So, instead, let’s look at Fabio Capello. Can he win England the World Cup in 2010? SkyBet will give you any lost outright bets on the World Cup, if England do win it, as well as offering the price of 11/2.

G =  Goliath. Like a Canadian’s big brother. David’s nemesis, the Goliath, as the name would suggest, is a monumental bet to try and pull off. Involved in it, is the process of making eight selections, with full coverage on all available doubles, trebles plus everything from a fourfold to a sevenfold bet, and all topped off with a 8-bet accumulator. As with any multiple bets, all you need to get some kind of return is two correct punts, as that will at least ensure that you nail a double. Notoriously difficult to land, imagine trying to correctly call eight Premier League games on Boxing Day. You’ll need more than a slingshot to try and bring down this monster bet. You can only back the favourites so far, and even then, those aren’t always bankers, but at least some results will bring some rewards. Check out Gamebookers for some good festive Goliaths.

H = Half Time/Full Time. An interesting little bet to be taken generally when you have boned up on your team stats. A team, more likely than not, will have a higher percentage of goals within a certain time frame of the match than others. If your team is a slow starter, then you could, for example, take a punt with Sporting Bet on a Half Time/Full Time bet, where you say Draw/Sunderland, intimating that you think the game will be a draw at half time, and Sunderland will win in full time. If your team likes getting ahead in the first half, back them for Half Time and Full Time results. It adds an interesting twist on the static fixed odds bet. Naturally, if you go for a Chelsea/Portsmouth type of bet the odds will be big for a reason. A lower team is unlikely to overturn a deficit against a top side.

I = Italy. The defending World Cup Champions. Why are they being ignored so to retain their title? 13/1 at Expekt is a little bit down the pecking order. Primarily is that domestic teams from England and Spain are considered to be at a higher level than what Serie A is at the moment, but that is debatable. There is hardly any more team as efficient as the Italians when it comes to producing top flight international football. They are organised, generally defensively sound, if lacking a little creative passion for attack. They drew an easy group in the 2010 Wolrd Cup Draw, drawing New Zealand, Slovakia and Paraguay, and it is hard to not expect a tournament-ready Italy to progress at the top of that. They still have the backbone of some veterans such as Cannavaro, and they always have the wonderfully named Gianluigi Buffon to stop anything that slips past the narrows cracks in the Italian back line. Boss Marcello Lippi is something of tactical genius and can turn a game on its head with crafty substitutions. Definitely worth an each way bet, and as we’re on the letter I, try Interwetten.

J = January 2nd/3rd sees the wonderful excitement of the FA Cup Third Round. There are four non-league teams left in it this year, Barrow, Forest Green Rovers, York and Luton Town. Of course, none of those are going to win it, but Forest Green is 13/8 at SkyBet to progress the furthest out of them (they have an away tie at Notts County on Sunday 3rd). No guesses as to who the favourites are. Yes, all the big four are leading the way in terms of favourites, with Chelsea 4/1 at Totesport,  Manchester United 9/2 at Boylesports, Liverpool 13/2 at 888Sport and Arsenal 7/1 at BlueSquare. It will be unlikely that anyone outside of the big four will win the tournament, and looking at the recent history will attest to that. A decent outside bet to look for, will probably come from the field of Tottenham, Aston Villa and Manchester City.

K = Kilmarnock. We head north to the Scottish Premier League to fill the letter K. The best bet that can be taken on Kilmarnock, for they are clearly not going to win the Premier League, is to take a pessimistic (but tempting) 10/1 at Stan James on them to finish bottom. Where are they at the moment? Second from bottom, a meagre four points ahead of bottom side Falkirk. Not a bad punt at all, but clearly a long way to go in the season, but they are undergoing a keeper crisis at Killie at the moment. Anyway, it was a good segway to get the odds for the Scottish Premier League in the list, and so looking towards the top of the league, who is there? Surprise, Surprise it is Rangers and Celtic. So who are the Bookies favouring this year? BetFred have the Hoops at 8/11 and Rangers at Evens.

L = Lucky 15. Expecting the letter L to be dominated by Liverpool? It would be somewhat fitting, but let’s move on with the Red’s demise and look at a Lucky 15. If you’ve ever sat in the pub listening next to the table of guys studying the pull-out section of the newspaper specific to the horse racing, then you undoubtedly will have heard people speculating over a Lucky 15. What does it mean? Well, not surpisingly it is putting a wager on a bet which is covered by 15 outcomes. A Lucky 15 is drawn from four individual selections, and is a little different from a Yankee, as the Lucky 15 involves single bets, whereas the Yankee (which is also four selections) does not. So, the Lucky 15 is a total of four singles, four doubles, 6 trebles and an accumulator. As you need only one selection to come up on this, most bookies will offer bonuses on a Lucky 15. Labdrokes, one of the UK’s most popular Bookies for horse racing, will see you right with a Lucky 15.

Carry on reading directly below for the second part of our festive football betting guide:

Welcome to Part Two of our Festive A-Z guide to the world of football betting. There is some exciting FA Cup betting to enjoy in the New Year, as well as looking ahead to the Champions League, and of course the big highlight of 2010, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Here, along with some betting jargon explained, is the second part of your handy guide to betting on football over the festive period.

M = Manchester City. Aha! Thought you be reading about the Red side of Manchester? Well, while the smiling Alex Ferguson’s men are 23/10 at Totesport to win the Premier League, their city rivals are having a peculiar season. Manchester City spent big in the summer and have only managed to play their way to drawing precisely half of their 16 league matches so far. People were expecting a little more punch from the light blues, but it hasn’t happen. They beat Chelsea one week, and then get hammered by Tottenham the next. Boss Mark Hughes must be a seriously frustrated man, and he’ll be hoping his side can pick up maximum points from their festive games against Stoke and Wolves. They are hovering around the top six, and need to build some kind of momentum to be taken more seriously. 888Sport are offering some great Manchester City special bets involving the amount of trophies they will win this season. Ironically, the shortest odds is 3/10 to win nothing.

N = Newcastle. The Toon Army are hoping for a speedy return to the Premier League, and will hope that rivals Middlesbrough (who visit Newcastle on December 20th) don’t. Newcastle are currently a healthy 7 points clear of second placed West Brom (with two automatic promotion places up for grabs) and are looking in good shape. It has also just been announced that St James’s Park has been put forward as a potential World Cup venue for 2018 should the tournament head to the UK, which may have had Paul Gazza Gascoigne partying in the streets. Chris Hughton is the man in charge of Newcastle at the moment and is leading them to great things by the looks of it. It is a welcome change to the horror of relegation from the Premier League which they endured. They are 5/6 at Victor Chandler to win the Championship, 1/4 at SkyBet to get promotion.

O = Over/Under. A great market to take on the goal scoring department. The standard default for this market is 2.5, meaning that you back a match to finish under or over 2.5 goals. Who scores half of a goal, you may be wondering? Decimals are used in betting to negate the chance of a draw (or a push), leaving just two outcomes instead of three. With the starting market at 2.5, there can only be a winner and a loser. This is a betting option which can be used to your advantage by doing a bit of homework. Top teams like Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool will score a lot more goals than teams like West Ham and Bolton. Look at a league to determine how many goals the home team have scored, and how many the away team have conceded. This is usually a good starting place for this. On Boxing Day, there is a game between West Ham and Portsmouth, the bottom two teams in the Premier League as they stand at the moment. Now, they are likely in that position because of one or two reasons. Either they can’t score enough, or they concede too many (or both). Portsmouth have only netted 15 teams so far in the league, so does that suggest all of their games will be low scoring? Not necessarily, as they could get trounced by a good team. But look at their recent games have seen that they have tightened up at the back, making West Ham’s life even more difficult. So it will be down to the punter to decide what the total goals will be. Clearly if you plump for an Under 4.5 then the odds are going to be very low. Check out Unibet for some good Under/Over betting.

P = Paraguay. No, not going for the obvious Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo Road-show here, but are instead going for a tip for the dark horses of the 2010 World Cup. Paraguay are the kind of team that you would want to pull out of the office sweepstakes to be honest. They had their best ever qualifying campaign and made the last 16 on two of their previous three World Cup outings. They look better and stronger than ever though, with some good attacking bravery, which led to them having the joint most victories in the South American qualifying zone (they tied with Chile). Paraguay finished a very close third behind Brazil and Chile respectively and that should put them in good stead. Football fans in England will be familiar with the name of Roque Santa Cruz, and he is part of a deadly trio which could make Paraguay a real handful at the 2010 World Cup. 80/1 at Expekt shows the extent of their challenge, but they should get out of their group and make an impact. So look out for them.

Q = Queen’s Speech. Ok, technically nothing to do with football, but you can still have a punt on it all the same. If you think you know what she will talk about first, then you can get some money down on it. Favourite price is 2/1 at Paddy Power on her talking about the economy first. Ok, ok, so back to the beautiful game. Q? Queens Park Rangers? Mid table mediocrity in the Championship. Queiroz (Carlos) is the best bet to go with here, as that will lead us nicely into Portugal (of which he is the manager). After making qualification a monumental struggle, they found themselves drawn in the Group of Death for the World Cup alongside Brazil. They are 10/11 at Totesport to qualify from the Group (same price as the Ivory Coast). If you want a further bet, then they are way out at 28/1 at Totesport to win the tournament itself.

R = Real Madrid. Can the new era of Galacticos go where the old regime could not? They have lost a little ground on leaders Barcelona though, especially after their defeat to their main rivals for La Liga title. Cristiano Ronaldo of course is the big name when one thinks of the new Real Madrid, but their entire side is decked out with an embarrassing array of talent. They should go deep into the Champions League competition too, after finishing four points clear of AC Milan in their group. They are an attacking force to be reckoned with, but have shown vulnerabilities. Are all the pieces in place just yet to challenge Barcelona on both the domestic and European fronts?  They are 6/1 at BetFred to win the Champions League, and 2/1 at SportingBet to beat Barcelona to La Liga title.

S = Spread Betting. A means of betting which is more popular in North America, but still is worth finding out about. Spread betting is a form of a handicap, which doesn’t care so much about the result of match, more on how the game is going to play out. Using Total Amount of Bookings as an example, the spread on this may be set at 4 (usually there will be 0.5 to eliminate the outcome of a draw on a market). With that in place you have the chance to sell (if you think the final total will be less) or buy (if you think the final total will be more). Spread Betting has the potential to lose more than your initial stake. If you buy at £1, and there are 7 Bookings, you will lose your initial stake x3 = £3. If you sold at £1 and the game finished with no bookings, then you would win your initial stake x4. So the more right you are, the more you win. The more wrong you are, the more you lose. There are some variants to this on UK markets, which do take simple win/loss scenarios after setting a team to overcome or hold onto a handicap. Sporting Index holds great markets for Spread Betting.

T = Trixie. A good multiple bet to enjoy, and to get yourself familiar with the whole process. For this you just make three selections, and have coverage from three doubles and one treble. You need two out of the three selections to come up in order to get some returns, and although it is just one selection less, it is far easier than pulling off a much coveted Yankee (see Y). Learning when to use a Trixie can make betting on the weekend’s Premier League games a little more fun, and give you some kind of back-up if the unexpected happens in one game. Of course, the less favourites you pick, the better the prices will be, but it is a good way to try and pick up some returns at least. Boxing Day for example has no real outstanding bankers, so it will be a good time to employ it. Try Totesport for some Boxing Day action.

U = Underdog. With the FA Cup Third round happening over the weekend of January 2nd and 3rd, there is hardly a setting more appropriate for the Underdog to have their day. The FA Cup’s reputation is built upon the building blocks of romantic underdog victories in the competition. Plus underdogs always have the greatest prices, and make for a good payday when it happens – which it is good to note, is rarely, hence the prices set. So who is there to look out for in the third round? There’s not a great of enticing games to be honest, but there are four non-league teams in action. Relegation threatened Reading from the Championship host Liverpool. League One side travel to injury ravaged Everton, and Manchester City have a tricky tie against Championship team Middlesbrough. Watch Unibet for some good FA Cup betting action at the turn of the New Year.

V = Valencia and David Villa. Who? Why? Aha! The Spaniards represent some good betting opportunities, although they may be flying under the radar in the company of their more illustrious Spanish rivals, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Although they are pushing on well and competing near the top of La Liga, the best price on them to win it is an incredible 50/1 at Coral, simply because of the strength of the big two. They are however, in the Europa league and are second favourites to win it at a price of 12/1 at Bet365. David Villa, one of Spain’s star strikers, is favourite to be top scorer at World Cup 2010 at a price of 10/1 at Victor Chandler.

W = World Cup 2010. Oh yes, the betting markets are flooded with options already for the big tournament in South Africa next year. You can get odds on the outright winner, which currently stands as Spain 9/2 at Bet365, Brazil 11/2 at Bet365, England 11/2 at SkyBet and Argentina 10/1 at Blue Square. But there are also plenty of other entertaining fields to partake in of course, and you can already take individual match prices at most bookmakers. Top scorer, Name the Finalists, To Reach Final, All Seeds to Win Their Groups, Top Africa Team etc are just some the fun you can already have betting on the FIFA 2010 World Cup.

X = Xavi (or Xavier Hernandez i Crues to officially name him) is 80/1 at Boylesports to finish as the World Cup 2010 top scorer. Great player that he is, and playing for Spain, he’ll likely be there in the final, that probably won’t happen. But Spain he does represent, and therefore there is a fair chance that the Barcelona genius could be a triple winner in 2010. This is a bit of tenuous link to X (other than this, it was talking about X Factor), so anyway, perhaps this is a cool treble to work on as far as Xavi is concerned. He could Win the World Cup with Spain 9/2 at Victor Chandler, win La Liga with Barcelona 9/20 at Sporting Bet, and win the Champions League 7/2 at SkyBet. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Not if you are a Real Mardrid or England fan, no.

Y = Yankee (and York). Wanted to put in a little bit about York, as they have a big day out in the Third Round of the FA Cup on January 2nd against Premier League side Stoke. The Blue Square Conference side will be hoping for the major giant killing act of the round. If York fans want to dream big, they are only 5000/1 at Ladbrokes to win the FA Cup this year, or 10/3 at BlueSquare to be the non-league side to progress the furthest. Anyway, a Yankee is a four selection bet, which is comprised of 6 doubles, 4 trebles and an accumulator. From experience, picking four correct selections is tough, but this is still a popular bet to take. You need two of the selections to come up to get some return on your action.

Z = Zlatan Ibrahimovic – Thinking there would be a struggle for the letter Z? Not here, the giant Swedish striker, who makes club teamate Lionel Messi look even more minute than he is, is plying his trade with Barcelona this year and looking to make a major impact. He got the chance to shine against his old team Inter Milan in the Champions League group stage, but failed to make an impact in either game by finding the back of the net. He also will not be at the World Cup as Sweden stuffed up their qualifying campaign in the final stages. Well, he is out at 28/1at Coral to finish top scorer in the Champions League, but there is better odds on him finishing as top scorer in La Liga, where he is 7/2 at William Hill. Ibrahimovic has 11 goals in 13 appearances in the league so far.

Some more pieces of advice that might give you a helping hand when it comes to football betting!

1)  Back No Goalscorer rather than 0-0

Anyone who has ever backed the goalless draw on the correct score market rather than No Goalscorer on the 1GS market needs their head testing! Bookmakers offer these outcomes at the same prices, yet you can back the latter and still win your bet if the game finishes 1-0. That’s because own goals don’t count as far as First Goalscorer betting is concerned, something that was in evidence when Newcastle won 1-0 at Sheffield United earlier this season. Ryan Taylor’s shot deflected off Chris Morgan and flew into the net, although no further goals in the game saw No Goalscorer settled as a winner.

However, it’s worth noting at bet365 that they offer a ‘Bore Draw Money Back’ offer, where losing correct score, HT / FT or scorecast bets are refunded if the game finishes 0-0.

2)  Watch out for dead rubbers in the Champions League and Europa League

We’re coming towards the end of the group stages of both competitions, so it’s worth treading carefully when backing short-priced teams. After all, last season, we saw eventual winners Barcelona lose 3-2 at home to Shakhtar after Pep Guardiola decided to rest his entire first team. Similarly, Inter lost their remaining two group games last term against Panathinaikos and Werder Bremen, with Jose Mourinho concentrating on the domestic league instead. Although both of these teams are scrapping for their lives this time around, it’s worth noting that Lyon, Sevilla, Manchester United, Chelsea, Porto and Arsenal are all safely through to the last sixteen. Even if their respective managers field strong teams, there won’t be that level of intensity you get from a team that need the points.

Similarly, there are plenty of teams in the Europa League group stages who will be playing in the knockout stages. Shakhtar, the victors over Barca last season, might take their own turn at being complacent after achieving maximum points from four matches. They will be joined in the final 32 by the likes of Salzburg, Sporting, Galatasaray and Werder Bremen. With many sides resting players for this competition in the first place, teams don’t need an excuse to take it easy as we approach a hectic fixture schedule.

3)  Keep a note of players on a scoring spree

Like many sports, football is very much a game of confidence and this is especially true for strikers. It’s not a coincidence to see a forward scoring for five consecutive matches, only to fail to hit the net in the next half dozen matches. Although the media focus will clearly be on Jermain Defoe at Villa Park this Saturday, it’s better to keep a note of players who are scoring on a consistent basis, not just at home to Wigan. Earlier this campaign, Darren Bent embarked on a scoring run of five matches and last Saturday’s goal against Arsenal could trigger something similar. Equally, Emmanuel Adebayor got his goal at Anfield on Saturday and has two home matches to start putting a run together.

Click here for last week’s tips and good luck!

Sports betting week 2 - 8 November

Date	Sport	Org.	Venue	Event
24 Oct-15 Nov		FIFA	Nigeria	U-17 WC
3-4 Nov		UEFA	Europe	CL - Group stage
5 Nov		UEFA	Europe	EL - Group stage
6-8 Nov		DFB	Germany	Bundesliga
7-9 Nov		FA	England	Premier League
7-8 Nov		FIGC	Italy	Serie A
7-8 Nov		RFEF	Spain	Primera Division
7-8 Nov		FFF	France	Ligue 1
4-9 Nov		WTA	Bali	Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions
7-8 Nov		WTA	Reggio Calabria	Fed Cup Final (Italy - USA)
2-9 Nov		ATP	Basel	Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel
2-9 Nov		ATP	Valencia	Valencia Open 500