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Online bookmaker SportingBet are celebrating the big kick off of the African Cup of Nations with a great football betting promotion. This is your chance to pick up a 10% bonus on your winnings with the popular bookie when you do your betting through their mobile service. When you place a winning match bet on any African Nations Group match through SportingBet mobile betting, the bookie will generously pay you out a 10% bonus on top of your winnings. You really can not ask for an easier way to get a little extra on your Africa Cup of Nations match football betting. This great mobile betting offer applies to any African Nations group stage game, and you will get a 10% bonus on top of your winnings just for betting through their mobile services. The qualifying bets can be placed either pre-match or in-play, as both methods qualify and the odds must be at 1.3 or greater to qualify.

It is the 28th African Cup of Nations with the colourful cup really showcasing the best of the continent. There are a lot of big nations missing from this years tournament, such as holders Egypt, as the balances of power shift within the CAF. However, the Didier Drogba led Ivory Coast are outright favourites to take the honours this year with Ghana tracking behind them. One of the most popular nations for African Cup of Nations betting though has been the colourful and adventurous Senegal who have attracted a great deal of interest in the outright winner market.

So head to SportingBet and get on their mobile service to get a 10% win bonus on any successful group match bet.

Africa Cup of Nations Winner Odds at SportingBet
Ivory Coast 17/10, Ghana 4/1, Senegal 11/2, Morocco 17/2, Tunisia 17/2, Mali 16/1

Your 2012 Australian Open betting can be enhanced with online bookmaker SportingBet who have a great tennis betting promotion running. While British tennis fans will no doubt be hoping that Andy Murray delivers this time around after failing in the final of the year’s First Grand Slam in the previous two runnings of the event. You can earn yourself a free bet on the next day’s play at the Australian Open from Melbourne Park, with Live In Play betting at SportingBet. Place ten live in play bets of £20 each on one day’s action from the Australian Open, and you will earn yourself a free £20 bet to used on the next day’s action. Place ten live in play bets of £50 each or more and you will get yourself a free £50 bet to use on the next day, and if you place £10 live in play tennis bets of £100 or more then SportingBet will give you a £100 free bet. So there is some great free Australian Open tennis bets to get your hands on with popular online bookmaker SportingBet. The bigger you bet on live in play action then the bigger the free bet you can pick up.

As a new customer registering an account with SportingBet, you can earn up to £100 in free bets with the bookie as well. As a new SportingBet customer, you can claim free bets with qualifying bets through your first 30 days of betting with the bookie. When you place a qualifying single bet of at least £10 for example, you will get a free £10 back. Place subsequent qualifying bets on a Double, Treble and a FourFold, and you earn get back in total, £100 of free betting cash. So great incentive for your sports betting with SportingBet. Follow the live in play tennis action from the 2012 Australian Open and put yourself in line for some great free bets!

This year’s Masters Snooker gets off to an explosive start this coming weekend at its new home, the Alexandra Palace, when defending champion, China’s Ding Junhui, takes on former title-holder Ronnie O’ Sullivan in the opening round. ‘The Rocket’ beat Ding in the 2007 final but is increasingly looking a light of former days. O’Sullivan had a poor 2011 and hasn’t won a ranking tournament since the start of the 2009/10 season. The demons he faces on a daily basis away from the table will always make him a risky proposition in ante-post lists, but those willing to take a chance on the hugely talented Essex native at ‘Ally Pally’ can get 6/1 at Boylesports and Ladbrokes. Ding Junhui is 133/10 on betfair for a second win in this prestigious invitational tournament and can’t be ruled out. Asia’s most successful-ever player knocked out Mark Williams and Graeme Dott among others en route to his defeat of Marco Fu in the final at Wembley12 months ago but has frozen on the big stages since and is worth taking on in The Masters with Mark Selby.

It was a case of so near but yet so far last season for the 28-year-old from Leicester after he was beaten in the final of both the German Masters and the China Open. But he’s already gone some way towards making amends by winning this year’s Shanghai Masters and The Masters is his favourite tournament and one in which he’s already been successful twice. The bottom half of the draw appears the weaker and gives Selby a great chance of making it to the final again, with veteran John Higgins (a general 7/1) apparently the biggest obstacle lying in his path. But Selby has a decent record against the former world champion and ended 2012 in decent form whereas the Scot had some indifferent results towards the end of last year. Betfred and totesport offer 7/1 against current world number one Mark Selby winning at Alexandra Palace and that will do for me.

As I’ve said, the top half of the draw looks much tougher than the bottom half but the redoubtable Mark Williams will probably make a bold bid to emerge unscathed and can be backed at 12/1 with Ladbrokes and sportingbet. The Welshman still maintains he was robbed in the final of the Shangai Masters and will be out for revenge on Selby but a tricky quarter-final against world champion Neil Robertson (a general 10/1) awaits if the seedings pan out and he could than face Ding Junhui in the semis.

The Lakeside in Frimley Green may have been eclipsed by Alexandra Palace in recent years but will always be the spiritual home of darts and stages its 27th world championships in 2012, albeit being the less high-profile BDO version of the crown. It’s traditionally a lot more open than the PDC World Championship but Martin ‘Wolfie’ Adams has dominated recently and is bidding for a hat-trick of titles this year. Adams is a general 4/1 to retain his crown and looks to have been handed a favourable draw as most of his likely challengers have been placed in the bottom section of the line-up. ‘Wolfie’ begins a record 18th appearance in the BDO World Darts Championships against Scott Mitchell (100/1 with Boylesports and sportingbet) on the first afternoon afternoon as he bids for a fourth world title of his career and looks sure to give supporters a run for their money again this year but last year’s losing finalist Dean ‘Over The Top’ Winstanley will hope to go one better than last term.

‘Young’ pretender Winstanley was also beaten in the World Masters Final and the fact that he went so close in two major tournaments so early in his professional career suggests there will be a plenty of success in the coming years. The recent Czech Open winner can’t meet Adams until the final and Coral and Skybet have the 30-year-old from Doncaster at 6/1.

Winstanley‘s conqueror in the World Masters Final in September, Scott ‘Scotty 2 Hotty’ Waites, must also go on the short-list however. The Yorkshireman is only ranked seven in the BDO rankings but beat Adams in the semis of the Masters and has since gone on to win the British Open and WDF World Cup Singles, where he beat Adams 6-2 in the final. The one thing that goes against Waites, however, is a dismal record at the Lakeside. He went out at the quarter-final stage three times from 2008 to 2010 and was beaten in the second round last year.

You can never dismiss 2009 champion Ted ‘The Count’ Hankey at the Lakeside but he’s very difficult to predict nowadays and his general 14/1 quote is probably about right. I’d much rather have a punt on Tony O’Shea at similar odds. Adrian Lewis has already done this column’s darts fans a favour this year and O’Shea is fancied to make a mockery of his quote of 18/1 from Skybet for the BDO World Darts Championships.

‘Silverback’ O’Shea beat Gary Anderson in the semi-finals in 2009 before losing narrowly in the final to Hankey but was a shock first-round loser last year when heading the seedings. He has the unenviable record of having reached all four finals of the BDO‘s grand slam of darts but yet to win any of them. A switch to the PDC is rumoured to be imminent so this may well be his final BDO tournament and it would be fitting if he ended with a well-deserved success. On paper, only the champion appears to stand between O’Shea and his hopes of reaching the final so those current odds look inflated.

Incidentally, if you have a match bet with Victor Chandler in the BDO World Darts Championships and your selection records a 170 checkout and loses, you will still be paid as if he had won.

There looks a to be a cracking four-match Test series in prospect when Australia take on India, the action getting under way at the MCG on Boxing Day.

It’s a fascinating clash with Australia a team in transition but showing commendable resilience to win in Sri Lanka and draw a two-match series in South Africa after losing the Ashes earlier this year. They were, however, unable to beat New Zealand at home recently, showing their inconsistency. The Aussies do have some new talent coming through like Ed Cowan, who gets his chance at the top of the batting order alongside David Warner with the Australian selectors finally losing patience with Phil Hughes. Daniel Christian and Mitchell Starc are also in the home squad but Shane Watson and Ryan Harris still aren’t fit and Mitchell Johnson‘s contribution with bat and ball will be badly missed. Question marks, too, about how much longer Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey will be around. Both look increasingly vulnerable against pace and, while their influence in the dressing room remains invaluable, there will come a time when one or the other will be blocking the progress of a promising youngster.

Given the possible susceptibility of the Australian middle-order to fast bowlers, therefore, India will be expecting much of Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan – but therein lies the problem of predicting how this series will develop. Both have been troubled by ankle problems in recent times, indeed Sharma has already been struggling in the Indians’ warm-up games. Without their quickies, it’s very difficult to see how India will take 20 wickets in a match despite the Aussies predilection to self-destruct on occasion. Let’s face it, there is unlikely to be much help for the spinners (though Graeme Swann enjoyed himself Down Under last winter). Likewise, however, how is Australia’s inexperienced attack to bowl out India‘s formidable batting line-up twice? MS Dhoni and his team have bounced back well from their humiliation in England, beating Bangladesh and the West Indies in subsequent series. Their ageing squad isn’t quite ready for the scrapheap just yet on that evidence and I fancy they may just know too much for their hosts, though don’t expect too many close finishes.

India can be backed at 107/50 to win the Test series in Australia with betfair and the 33/1 available at Ladbrokes and sportingbet for a 0-1 correct score could be interesting. I wouldn’t look beyond the 9/2 available at bet365, Skybet and Stan James about David Warner being Australia’s top batsman.

• India to win Test series in Australia at 107/50 (betfair)
• India to win series 1-0 at 33/1 (Ladbrokes and sportingbet)
• David Warner to be top Australian batsman at 9/2 (bet365, Skybet, Stan James)

You can earn yourself a free bet every day with SportingBet at the 2012 PDC Darts World Championship. The bookie is running a very generous promotion which is well worth looking at. You can earn yourself a free £10 bet for every day of the tournament with the popular bookie through live in play betting. Place ten separate live in play darts bets in one day, and you will receive a free £10 bet to be used on the following day’s live darts betting action. The Alexandra Palance in London is the scene for the hottest show on Earth, as Phil The Power Taylor looks to claim his World Crown back from last year’s winner Adrian Lewis. The final is not until January 2nd, but there is a tremendous darts action coming thick and fast as the players scrap it out for a place in the final. Who will prevail? Track your live in play darts betting and earn yourself a free bet for the following day with SportingBet. The qualifying bets must be at a minimum of a £10 stake per bet, and fulfil ten of those in one day and you will receive a free £10 bet to use the following day in your live PDC Darts World Championship betting. The Sportingbet 10 For 10 promotion runs for the duration of the tournament.

Highly popular online bookmaker SportginBet offer new customers the chance to get their hands on £100 worth of free bets. You can earn up to £100 in free bets over the first 30 days of you new account by placing qualifying single, double, treble and 4-fold bets on your new account. Check out SportginBet’s promotion page for more details of qualifying bets.

Lee Westwood is a best-priced 4/1 with Victor Chandler to win his first Major in 2012 after ending this year with a victory in the Thailand Championship. No one would be more deserving of a Major next year than the Worksop-born 38-year-old, who has been at the very top of his profession for more years that anyone cares to remember, but that first success in one of the four big tournaments of the year continues to elude hime. If he could just put together four rounds of the quality he showed in the opening 36 holes in Thailand, there are few in world golf who could live with Westwood. Rounds of 60 and 64 had the prize in safe-keeping at the halfway stage and his final 22 under-par total was seven shots too good for US Masters champion Charl Schwartzel.

Another English golfer still seeking a maiden Major  is world number one Luke Donald. I suspect if asked, the world number one would have traded his five victories in the US and Europe in 2011 for one of the Majors but, at 34, he still has a few years ahead of him in which to gate-crash one of the big ones and can be backed at the same 4/1 as Westwood with Victor Chandler to end his wait next year with the US Masters (16/1) currently rated his best chance with William Hill. You can get 9/4 with Victor Chandler that an Englishman wins a Major in 2012, which on the face of it appears fair value as the likes of Justin Rose, Paul Casey and Ian Poulter have all shown enough to suggest they’ll be thereabouts in at least of the couple of the Majors.

It’s been a traumatic year for Tiger Woods but the former world number one has shown he is no back number over the last couple of months and can be expected to storm back up the rankings again in 2012. He is only 7/4 with Boylesports to win a Major next year and 9/2 with sportingbet and Victor Chandler to top the US PGA Tour money list. Donald can be backed at 12/1 with Skybet to repeat this season’s notable achievement while Rory McIlroy is 9/1 with the same firm. American sensation Webb Simpson is 18/1 with bet365 and Paddy Power. McIlroy is 9/2 with Skybet to top the European rankings and win the Race To Dubai.

Paddy Power Gold Cup winner Great Endeavour certainly isn’t being allowed to rest on his laurels and the grey will line up for the Spinal Research The Atlantic 4 Gold Cup at Cheltenham this weekend just two weeks after another brave run in the Hennessy at Newbury.

The grey will no doubt appreciate the drop back in distance as 3m2f clearly taxed his stamina in the Hennessy but he’s gone up a further 6lb in the weights recently and may be worth opposing now at the general 8/1 as there is every chance that both Quantitiveeasing and Divers, second and third in the Paddy Power, can now turn the tables. The pair are old rivals having finished second and first respectively in a valuable novices’ handicap at The Festival in March. Just under three lengths separated them that day and Nicky Henderson’s charge is now 3lb better off. Available at 7/1 with Boylesports, Coral and William Hill, Quantitiveeasing may just be the more progressive and can finally get his head in front over C&D though Divers certainly shouldn’t be ignored at the general 8/1 as Ferdy Murphy‘s stable is beginning to show signs of a revival after a low-key start to the season.

Great Endeavour is undoubtedly David Pipe’s first choice but the Nicholshayne trainer has four entries in total including the consistent I’msingingtheblues (19/1 on betfair), Matuhi (33/1 0n betfair) and Salut Flo. The latter could be a real fly in the ointment as he looked a very smart prospect early last year before being sidelined by injury. Still only a six-year-old, he may well be capable of landing a nice prize off his current mark and Conor O’Farrell’s claim is worth a further 3lb this weekend. Salut Flo is 16/1 with most layers.

Woolcombe Folly (a general 25/1) looks to have too much weight and is better over 2m but stablemate Ghizao (a general 7/1) deserves another chance as he looked as though the outing would do him good when fourth to Medermit (12/1 with betfred, Boylesports and totesport) at Exeter. Paul Nicholls‘ seven-year-old is 4lb better off in this. Sunnyhillboy, one of three running in the colours of JP McManus, could also be a threat as he was third behind Poquelin and Great Endeavour in the race last year. AP McCoy‘s mount (15/2 with sportingbet) is now 12lb better off with the latter so has every chance of turning the tables as he had a pipe-opener over hurdles at Haydock last month. Sandown winner Roudoudou Ville is improving but this represents a big staep up in class for bet365 and Skybet‘s 14/1 chance, while Irish raiders Roberto Goldback and Finger Onthe Pulse (33/1 and 80/1 respectively on betfair) no longer look good enough at this level.

In the good old days, you always got a couple of those cheesy singles that could only have been written with one thing in mind – to secure that lucrative Christmas Number One spot. And there have been some right turkeys to which, it appears, not even the mosts revered are immune! Madonna and Bruce Springsteen, even Bob Dylan has traded his principles to launch a Festive flop that is right up there in the cringe-worthiness stakes. Some have been that bad that the music stations just can’t resist the temptation to play them every year and as I write, three weeks before Santa’s arrival, the utterly crass Boney M are being invited to reprise ‘Mary’s Boy Child’  yet again on the radio.

Nowadays, of course, Simon Cowell is under the impression that his X Factor winner is guaranteed to have the Christmas Number One. Now I’ve made no secret that I loathe this show and all it stands for so this year I’m hugely relieved to say there is a bona-fide challenger that, although equally manufactured, is at least more in keeping with the true spirit of Christmas. We had Bob Geldof and Midge Ure pricking a nation’s conscience in 1984 and, in 2011, it’s the Military Wives.

Conductor and all-round decent chap Gareth Malone has taken upon himself to prove that anyone, given coaching and encouragement, can make a decent fist of a rousing tune and his latest project has been to encourage, comfort and cajole the wives and girlfriends of British servicemen serving in Afghanistan to produce a song befitting their heroes’ sacrifices. It’s lyrics have been cobbled together from letters sent to and from the front, which is a tear-jerker in itself, but even more impressive is the fact that Malone managed to persuade these natural reticent ladies into appearing before The Queen at the Albert Hall and on national TV. ‘Wherever You Are’ won’t have you on the dance floor as quickly as Slade‘s ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ but it’s as thought-provoking as Chris Rea‘s excellent ‘ Driving Home For Christmas’ and just as poignant as Geldof and Ure‘s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’.

So I urge all decent folk, go and out and buy this single and deprive Mr Cowell of a new Rolls-Royce. Send your pounds instead to the British Legion and other like-minded charities who do such a wonderful job of looking after families who really need support at this time of year and have considerably less money to play with than Messrs Cowell, Walsh and Barlow. And, at the same time, have a bet on the  Military Wives Choir being Christmas Number One at 5/4 with Ladbrokes and sportingbet and earn yourselves a bit extra for the Festive season.

The 3.05 at Sandown on Saturday is peaking some interest, with Kauto Star’s half brother Kauto Stone running in contention in the Tingle Creek Chase over two miles. The Paul Nicholl’s trained horse would bring the trainer a seventh consecutive Tingle Creek title if he comes in first, and Kauto Stone’s odds have been cut drastically with Ruby Walsh now taking the mount. Walsh was pencilled in to take the ride of Tataniano, Nicholl’s other entry into the race. However, Tataniano was ruled out through injury on Friday, an injury which will keep him out for the rest of the season. The race has already lost Nicky Henderson’s Finians Rainbow and now Tataniano’s absence from the race, has naturally prompted a shake up in the betting odds. It means that the favourite Sizing Europe has been cut down to shorter odds, but the biggest movement has been behind him in the market. Kauto Stone, now with Ruby Walsh in the saddle has drawn level with Wishfull Thinking as second favourite for the 3.05 at Sandown on Saturday.

So Sizing Europe goes off as favourite in the race, and the two mile champion chaser looks in good shape for the race. Sizing Europe landed the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival earlier in the year, and has had a pretty consistent year, with a win at the PricewaterhouseCoopers Champion Chase in October. His most recent outing was in the JNwine Champion Chase where he trailed home just over a length behind Quito De La Roque in second place there after a couple of mistakes during the race. Kauto Stone heads into the race on the back of a win in the Ladbrokes.com Chase at the start of November, where he romped home to a pretty easy win by six and a half lengths. He was in fine fetter around the end of the year last year, and should be able to put in a very good contest here. Kauto Stone is jumping well and should have the pace and is pretty solid on soft ground. His win at Down Royal last month really has set up him as a very good prospect here, and he is a Grade I winner.

Wishfull Thinking is going to take an interesting look as well we imagine. The gelding has had breathing issues, highlighted with a poor effort at the Paddy Power Chase recently, but if you can push that to one side, then Wishfull Thinking, out of all the front runners for the Tingle Creek Chase is best suited for the race. He will like a fast pace over the two miles and his chances will have been enhanced with Tataniano’s withdrawal. A very strong, confident runner from the front and will drag the pace along quickly. So those are the main contenders for your Tingle Creek horse racing betting on Saturday. You can talk about of unpredictability from Kauto Stone, but if the unpredictability of Wishfull Thinking’s breathing ahs really been sorted out, then that is the dark horse which is really worth a punt on the nose. The fact that he is trading equal alongside Kauto Stone say s a lot. The bullish form of Sizing Europe looks to be the big genuine chance though and he will be the one to beat.

Tingle Creek Chase Horse Racing Betting
Sizing Europe: 7/4 at Boylesports
Kauto Stone: 3/1 at BetFred
Wishfull Thinking: 3/1 at Totesport
Gauvain: 10/1 at Bet365
Imsingingthelues: 16/1 at Paddy Power
Cornas: 25/1 at Boylesports
Fix the Rib: 100/1 at Stan James

Online bookmaker SportingBet have a great horse racing promotion running for the Tingle Creek Chase on Saturday. If outright favourite Sizing Europe comes home first, then the bookie will refund all losing win bets placed on the race. This is great coverage for the race, making the likes of Wishfull Thinking and Kauto Stone even more attractive propositions. Have a punt on either of those or anyone else in the Sandown field, and if Sizing Europe comes up trumps then you will get your lost stake refunded. SportingBet offer up to £100 in free bets for new customers as a welcome bonus, so a great incentive to head to the bookie this weekend for all of your horse racing coverage.