online sports betting news

There’s been an exciting development at Paddy Power this season, with the Irish bookmaker thinking outside the box to come up with their ‘Last Man Standing’ competition. Customers pay £10 to enter and have to predict a Premier League team that will win each weekend. If their prediction is correct, then they go through to the next week, although the team(s) that you have previously picked are now unavailable. Each competition continues until there’s only one person left and they will scoop a minimum £10,000 guaranteed prize fund. However, it’s likely to be much larger than that with the event starting to get increasingly popular.

Therefore, you might start off with a Manchester United or Chelsea, although there are pros and cons to selecting these teams right away. Naturally, the top two in the Premier League stand the best chance of winning matches this season, although if you’re prepared to take a risk or two at an early juncture, then you could be selecting the Red Devils or the Blues when other contestants have to decide between a Stoke, a Fulham or even a Bolton.

Paddy Power also give you the option to include the draw on one particular week. For example, you might have gone for Blackburn and the draw last week against Liverpool. However, it’s not worth going for the draw insurance in the first week of the competition as the bookie will give you a free entry into a new competition if you go out in the first round.

Therefore, I have gone for Birmingham City against West Ham as my first pick in the competition. Alex McLeish’s team are looking good at the moment and perhaps I can take advantage of their winning run before it comes to an end. That will leave me with the big teams over Christmas and hopefully Aston Villa can produce an upset at Old Trafford or Chelsea can keep stuttering at home to Everton.

Paddy Power also give you the chance to set up private ‘Last Man Standing’ tournaments with your friends, which is the same idea as playing a freeroll poker tournament. However, like the public competitions, it pays to think long-term when playing against other people. While some of the hot favourites might look enticing now, it is great to have the top teams still available for selection after a handful of weeks. These competitions generally involve hundreds of players so you’ll have to stay in for over 10 weeks to get your hands on the loot!

Everyone’s favourite Irish firm (unless you prefer Boylesports) have also come up with an exciting cashback special on the Liverpool v Arsenal match this Sunday. Steven Gerrard and Cesc Fabregas are two of the best midfielders in the world and, if either of them score the last goal of the game, they will refund all losing First / Last Goalscorer, Correct Score and Scorecast singles on the match.

Among our favourite bookmakers to deal with are bet365, who are getting bigger and better every year. They are one of the world’s leading online gambling groups and have over 3 millions customers in 200 different countries. Over 1000 people are now employed by bet365 and they currently rank as the UK’s 7th largest private company.

There is plenty to like about bet365, who offer all new customers a 100% deposit bonus when they register. However, while lots of other bookmakers also provide generous starter offers, the Stoke-on-Trent company take other great lengths to offer customers a top-class service.

Over 5,000 events streamed live every year

It’s the free live streaming of sporting events that has been making waves for bet365 in 2009. In October, the bet365 website was the only place where UK customers could watch Ukraine v England completely free of charge. That is just the tip of the iceberg, with this bookmaker showing over 5,000 events every year. A cursory glance at the site reveals that they are planning to stream soccer, tennis, basketball, volleyball, badminton, darts and snooker in the next seven days.

However, let’s not forget that bet365 are a bookmaker first and an online sports channel second! Therefore, you can expect all of the live streamed events to have accompanying live odds and its In-Play betting which is the real jewel in the bet365 crown. It appears as though they aim to be covering at least one event at any given time, so you will find live betting at bet365 at least 80% of the time when you visit the website.

Check out the 100% Euro Soccer Accumulator

Whether you’re betting before or during an event, you will find competitive odds at bet365, whose football coverage is very impressive. Leagues from around the world are covered in a comprehensive fashion and we found an excellent promotion available for the Premier League, Serie A, Primera Liga, Bundesliga 1 and Champions League. If you like placing accumulator bets, then bet365 will pay you a bonus on top of any winnings that you receive. Customers can get a 5% bonus for a winning treble, while there is 10% added to a winning 5-fold. If you really fancy striking it rich, there is a whopping 100% bonus available for a winning 14-fold!

We also unearthed two more football offers at bet365, something that’s easy to miss with the live streaming and in-play odds occupying so much of the homepage. The Bore Draw Money Back promotion means that you get insurance from a match finishing 0-0. Any correct score, HT / FT or Scorecast bets are refunded on a soccer game if there are no goals. It’s ideal if you think a match is going to be tight and want to back 1-0 to either team, while a correct score multiple bet also means that bet365 is a welcoming place to visit.

Finally, for those of us that like football stats, it’s well worth checking these out at bet365. In the left-hand menu, you can launch ‘Soccer Stats’ and fill your boots with football data. It’s especially good for judging a team’s form and also for analysing total goals bets.

Click here to open a bet365 account today and enjoy a first-class football service.

Back Your League Team!
Backing your team can really pay off with 888Sport as they are offering a free £10 bet when you sign up with them and put your money where your loyalties rest. You will no doubt have a favourite football team which you regularly back with your bets, so here is a chance to earn some rewards for choosing your team. After you have deposited a minimum of £10 into your account, and have selected “Your Team”, you will be on the way to your reward.

All that is needed to qualify for the free bet is for you to back your team by making a wager of at least £10 (which can be done in the form of smaller, multiple bets). If you lose that bet, then 888Sport will refund the stake for you. This is limited to a maximum of £10, and the bet needs to be above evens, but it certainly could be a nice bonus for seeing your team lose, if you’ve backed them to win!

This applies for teams from the English Premier League, Scottish Premier League, Spanish La Liga, French Lique 1 & German Bundesliga. You only have until the end of August 2009 to take advantage of the Choose Your Team promotion.

Want even more rewards for signing up and Choosing Your Team? Then read on…

Free Champions League Bet
You can also get a free £5 bet on the outright winners of the Champions League, when you make a £10 bet or more on the outright winner of a league. This does not have to be the team you have chosen as your own, but you need to have chosen your team to opt in to the promotion. Once you have made the bet you’ll get rewarded with the Free Champions League £5 bet.

Free Team Shirt!
Yes, 888Sport will give you a team shirt of your choice! This can be claimed when you have wagered over £250 during the course of four separate weeks. This offer expires on October 31 and applies to games from the above mentioned leagues as well as full international matches. Once that is done you will get your team shirt in the mail!

£50 in Free Bets
Sign up for a new account, Choose Your Team, and claim money for free bets too! It is as easy as that to be eligible for all these rewards. When you place a bet of a minimum of £15, 888Sport will credit you £15. Make nine more bets of at least £15 and you will get another £15. Place 5 more bets, again of a £15 minimum and you will gain £20 free. All of these rewards are in the form of 888Sport bet tokens, for you to use on their site.

With these being time limited offers from 888Sport, they will need to be snapped up quickly. Choose your team and start earning your rewards today!

Matched Betting with Free Bets – this practise is a device by Bookmakers to entice more customers. And why not? The more customers they get, the better it is for all concerned. Bookies and punters.

Always read the conditions of each free bet offer. You’ll nearly always be restricted to one free bet per household. The same restriction will apply to each P.C. So don’t be quick to show your mate how it’s done, on your P.C.  Show him, but on his own computer. Almost all bookies state that the free bet must be placed on an event where odds no lower than EVENS (2.0  decimal), are offered.

Matched Betting is simple.

To entice you to open an account your bookmaker will offer you a free bet up to a specific limit. Whatever you stake on your first bet, he will give you a bet of an identical stake, once your initial bet has been settled. Assuming you bet £25.00 on your first bet, the bookie will settle your bet and, usually, within 72 hours he will credit your account with £25.00. All nice and simple. 

What we want to do is make good use of the free bet. To do this you also need an account with a Betting Exchange (i.e. Betfair).

The idea is simple. For your initial bet you BACK, with your hard-earned cash,  your selection with the bookie and LAY it with the exchange.(Again with your cash). Usually you will make a very minimal loss. This is quite acceptable. When your account has been credited for your free bet, you repeat the above sequence but this time you don’t use your own cash to finance your BACK bet, just for your LAY bet. Basically, you’re having four bets but only paying for three.

A fair example of such a bet would be;
 
Back bet £100 @ Evens (2.0)  Lay bet £100 @ 2.01  Lay bet wins, so you lose  £1.00
Back bet FREE @ evens         Lay Bet £100 @ 2.01  Lay bet wins, so you win   £199.00
 
On these four bets you’ve laid out £300. and been returned £398. A nice risk-free profit of £98. (Less the Exchanges commission).
 
The figures I’ve used are nice and easy to play with and I’ve used them just to show what can be done. There will always be variations but  your profit will always be there.
 
On some occasions there will even be some nice little ARBS when you’re making your bets which will change that small possible loss, on the initial bet, into a small but acceptable win. Of course if an Arb presents itself for your second bet, fill your boots.
 
Thursday 4th December. Blue Square offered these Back odds. Betdaq Lay odds.
Macclesfield v Bury   Back Bury @ 2.63  and Lay  @ 2.53.   A nice little bit extra to be made.
 
This kind of opportunity whilst not being too regular, still isn’t rare.  You just need to spend a few minutes of your time looking.  
 
LINKS.  
 
www.bet72.com
 
www.bonusbonanzamethod.com
 

And as to currently available free bet offers – you’ll always find them on our free bets page.