Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew
The Road to Riches: Weekend 30th-31st August
Coming up this weekend
- The third weekend of the Premier League season and a full programme of League and non-league football
- The Third One Day cricket International takes place between England and India at Trent Bridge
- The US Open Tennis continues at Flushing Meadow.
- The racing programme includes flat meetings at Sandown, Chester, Bath and Beverley
- Golf sees the final two rounds of the Italian Open on the European tour and the USPGA Deutsche Bank open in Boston as the qualifying deadline for the Ryder Cup looms
Just two days left to enter our free Premier League competition. Closes Sunday August 31st.
$500 in prizes winner takes all. Simply email your prediction of the final Premier League table this year to us and closest wins. We've had about 20 entries so far so you have a great chance if you enter.
Full details here
Free Tip of the Week
The Road to Riches features regular free tips from Betting Emporium writers.
Today a look at the Colchester United v Peterborough United match in league one tomorrow.
Peterborough United lie second in the table at this early stage with three wins in four games. An exciting, attacking side they have under chairman Darragh MacAnthony and manager Darren Ferguson done very well recruiting players from non-league, helping them prosper and then selling them on to higher leagues. Lee Tomlin (Middlesborough) and Dwight Gayle (Crystal Palace) are the most recent examples.
Last November Peterborough signed Kyle Vassell from Bishops Stortford and it was expected that he would be a back-up striker this season until the club sold the prolific Britt Assombolonga to Nottingham Forest on the eve of the season. This thrust Vassell into the starting line up for the start of the season, after scoring four times in five pre-season games and he has scored four goals in four games in the league since, including the first goal twice and two against MK Dons.
Vassell is a "fox in the box" type, using speed against league one defenders his main weapon. Whilst we would expect Peterborough to strengthen up front before the end of the transfer window, Vassell will be up top at Colchester on Saturday. Colchester look to have a difficult season ahead, with one point in the opening four games.
With Vassell in this form, for this match, the first goalscorer market is interesting. Bet365 offer 13/2 Vassell first goalscorer with each way one-third the odds to score anytime. Betfred and BetVictor 6-1 win only is available.
I am going to recommend 4 points each way Kyle Vassell first goal-scorer Bet365 13/2 (one third odds, unlimited places)
But for the records, we will put down 4 points win at 6-1 Betfred or BetVictor as in all likelihood that is a price more of us will be able to avail ourselves of than the 13/2.
Bookmaker reviews and advice
Getting the best price available is very important for all those who take their betting seriously.
Please open an account with all those bookmakers on the page on this link that you do not already have an account with using the links provided.
This is the first of a series of thoughts on Betting Psychology:
- Anchoring
The anchoring bias is one of the main causes why many bettors fail to objectively consider all relevant elements before placing their bets. Anchoring is a type of cognitive bias that describes the tendency we have to rely too heavily on just one factor or piece of information when making decisions. The anchor is often set early and is based on the first information we learn about a subject, and there is a bias toward adjusting or interpreting other information to reflect the “anchored” information, thus affecting future thought process and decisions-making.
- Anchoring as a betting bias
Take as an example a big football match. One side has a number of key absentees through injury and suspension and this sets the anchor and all the other information is then interpreted to reflect the anchor. So when the bookmakers change their prices we interpret this only as a confirmation of the anchor and that the team news is very important (instead of considering the updated prices in relation to all other factors).
A sports bettor will start with an implicitly suggested reference point (the “anchor”, such as the team news or the price on offer) and from this reference point make adjustments to reach his own estimate. It is, in other words, the anchor that becomes the starting point for the decision-making, and the bettor makes incremental adjustments based on additional information. This type of process will often create problems for the bettor in reaching the correct decision, because the anchor (whether it is the news that several star players are injured and the team weakened, the market price or a team's current form) is not necessarily the correct starting reference.
- How to avoid anchoring?
That is easier said than done. If you know you want to bet on a specific event, try to make up your own mind up ( helped by Betting Emporium! ) about winning probability and correct price before you check market prices and team news. Because once you know the market price and have read match previews with opinions about latest line-ups etc, the anchor has been set and it will be very difficult to make estimates that are 100% your own.
The above example of sports bettors relying too heavily on team news and neither objectively assessing the value of the news nor taking the updated prices into proper consideration, is something you see often when you read comments on facebook and twitter each weekend about individuals and their betting activity.. The anchoring bias is one of the main reasons why so many sports bettors, even though they mostly follow tips they read about, end up losing money while the tipsters they follow make money. If you see an article on here, with a selection at x and the price moves to y, it does not follow that what applies at price x applies at price y. Hence the focus on which prices are value and prices below which a selection is not a bet in a lot of the Betting Emporium recommendations. The focus is on "value" not short-term "noise".
- "Incredibly Important news!" As a punter you will be battered by “incredibly important” news (here's looking at you Sky Sports News...). One way of avoiding an excessive reliance on short term news and taking prices without value, is to look at when news became public and how the market prices have moved since then. Unless you are very quick (usually less than 15-30mins), the bookmakers will have reacted already and the relevant news included in the updated prices. Sometimes you will notice that the bookmakers first reacted to the news by changing their prices, but then later gradually reverted to their original prices. This can indicate that the importance of the news was hyped and that instead of following it you should re-evaluate all factors before placing your bet.
What's new on Betting Emporium?
US Open continued match analysis is available for £49.99 here
English Football - Premier League Games Stuart analyses the week's games in the Premier League, free to access here
Premier League Statistical Analysis – still FREE to all registered users and available weekly here
English Football - Championship Games Stuart analyses the week's games in the Championship, free to access here
English Non League Football - Conference Games - Alan analyses the week's games in the Conference, free to access here
Football by Brodders - across European leagues is available here
The NFL 2014-15 season begins on 1st September. Ante-post season bets and pre-season match selections have been published through August and Neil Channing will be providing his legendary write ups on all the games every week for the 17 weeks of regular games.
| Seventeen Week Regular Season Package | £199.99 Sign Up Here |
| Week 1 Regular Season Write Up | £25 Sign Up Here |
Ante-post articles for the Superbowl, conferences, divisions, team and player specials are here
Betting Emporium results
Across every sport since inception can be found by clicking RESULTS .
Please see the Frequently asked questions section for explanations of the methodology
The Road to Riches: Weekend 23rd-24th August
The Road to Riches
23rd-24th August 2014
Coming up this weekend
- The final day of the York Ebor meeting the highlight of the racing Saturday
- A full football programme, including the second weekend of the Premier League season
- The NatWest T20 Blast finals day Cricket at Edgbaston
- The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps
- The Rugby League Challenge Cup Final between Castleford and Leeds at Wembley
In addition
- US Open Tennis begins on Monday with coverage on Betting Emporium from Nigel Seeley. Recommendations are now available here
Free Tip of the Week
The Road to Riches features regular free tips from Betting Emporium writers. Today is T20 Finals day at Edgbaston, the most high profile day of the domestic English cricket season. Two semi-finals and a final on the same day, beginning at 11am live on Sky Sports.
In the first semi-final Surrey play Birmingham, in the second Hampshire meet Lancashire.
Current outright prices are
Surrey 9/4
Hampshire 5/2
Lancashire 3/1
Birmingham 4/1
T20 is a very short format and these are four strong teams. There is no real reason to have one team virtually half the price of another here. Any of the four teams can win it with an individual performance or two with bat or ball. This makes the format watchable but for the bettor smallish stakes only!
Birmingham have home advantage. This is relevant in two respects
a) Birmingham have the most miserly bowling attack of the four teams. Three of their five bowlers (Patel, Javed and Clarke) have economy rates below 6 runs per over in this year's competition. Patel in particular is a match-winning bowler at Edgbaston. In this year's competition he has 23 wickets (two thirds at Edgbaston) at under 12 runs each and has gone at 5.63.
Read more at: http://deepextracover.com/2014/08/20/finals-day-preview-birmingham-bears/#.U_RlMKPCovk | Deep Extra Cover
Read more at: http://deepextracover.com/2014/08/20/finals-day-preview-birmingham-bears/#.U_RlMKPCovk | Deep Extra Cover
b) Edgbaston wickets are typically slow and dry. T20 scores there average 150-160 and if the pitch is prepared as normal it does not tend to suit the extravagant strokemakers and you find these more in the other three teams as Birmingham's T20 team is atypical in that is is comprised of accumulators with the bat.
Birmingham are 6/5 underdogs to beat Surrey in the first game. If they win that game we can assume they'd be underdogs to either of the other teams in the final and and a 6/5 6/5 double pays less than 4/1
Birmingham and Lancashire are the two teams that benefit from the availability of England players (Bell and Woakes, Buttler and Anderson) and I can't help feeling that the Surrey price is too short. They are certainly less consistent than the other three and are vulnerable if their hitter at the top of the order Jason Roy doesn't come off. I regard Lancashire as the main dangers, a powerful and consistent T20 team (who are also underdogs in their semi-final, strangely).
Birmingham won their last three group games to make the quarters, beat Essex away in the semi's as bigger underdogs than they will be against any of today's opponents and are simply a decent value bet here.
4 points (Nat West T20 Blast Winner) Birmingham Bears at 4-1 Sportingbet, also at Betway, Winner
** Please note some bookmakers list the Birmingham Bears as Warwickshire **
Bookmaker reviews and advice
Getting the best price available is very important for all those who take their betting seriously.
Please open an account with all those bookmakers on the page on this link that you do not already have an account with using the links provided.
This week a look at Pinnaclesports
In a recent Betting Emporium article Stuart Doyle wrote
"Just as a final note if you intend to follow the picks here at Betting Emporium for this NFL season you really have to sign up for an account with Pinnacle if you don’t already have one. They offer reduced margins on the NFL and won’t restrict or close you when you win.... Not having an account there will be simply burning money this NFL season and could really be the difference between a mediocre NFL season and very good one. Please open your Pinnacle account here "
Joe Beevers wrote the following recently
"I get the impression that many people lump all sports books into one big pot and most people here are used to dealing with the UK high street firms. Pinnacle is a very different animal altogether.
Pinnacle bet to much smaller margins than most firms a lot of you will be used to. On a pick'em most UK firms bet 10/11 each of two (104.8% book), some even bet 5/6 each of two (109.1%). Pinnaccle typically bet to about 102%. So every time you back a winner with them you win more money.
Chargebacks are always a problem with online gambling. If a firm can reduce this cost they can save money and become more competitive. The way that Pinnacle do this is to make sure that you are who you say you are. So when you open your account they ask you up front for scanned docs. Sure this is a hassle that you would rather not have but you only have to do it once and because everyone does it here Pinnacle don't have to make that extra bit of money in their margins. By sending in those docs YOU make more money.
One of the biggest costs for an online firm taking bets is the cost of processing money. If you use a UK VISA debit card to deposit £1000 with one of the big UK firms their processing cost, to the best of my knowledge, is about a flat 25p. Pinnacle get charged a percentage rather than a fixed amount and this is typically 4% of the deposit amount. It is a similar thing with taking money out.
Usually when you hear about a company charging for withdrawals and firms not just sending money back immediately, asking for ID or charging somehow everyone starts to worry about that firm and to dislike these things. I understand that.
You simply have to accept that Pinnacle is a totally different business model to all the UK high street firms.
When you deposit they don't want you to have one bet and withdraw immediately afterwards. It costs them money. It's not because they don't want you to withdraw, they just don't want to have to pay for it and lose money as a result.
As they are so often best price it makes sense to leave money on there.
You have the option, you can get paid £90 for a £100 winning bet and withdraw instantly everytime or get paid £95 for the same bet and not withdraw instantly. I know which I prefer. If you withdraw once a month they send the money by bank wire and my experience is that it typically takes about 2 days. There is no charge for that.
The other thing is that they won't close your account, they don't mind if you arb either.
Something that even some hardened sports bettors don't realise is that you can re-bet with Pinnacle. If you ask Ladbrokes for £550 at 10/11 and they lay you £220 that's it, no more action. If Pinnacle lay you £220 at 1.952 then they will either adjust the price a few ticks (or often leave it) and you can then bet the same amount again, and again and again. There is no real limit as there is with the UK firms.
- They are getting a UKGC license and are in the final stages of processing everything.
- They have a 5 time rollover requirement for withdrawals, however if a player wishes to withdraw sooner he may do so at a fee of 3%.
This last point seems to really bother some people and I can see why. If you get in the habit of using them though it doesn't matter in the slightest. If you are however someone that only bets on the World Cup final every four years then they are not really the firm for you."
What's new on Betting Emporium?
English Football - Premier League Games Stuart analyses the week's games in the Premier League, free to access here
Premier League Statistical Analysis – still FREE to all registered users and available here 2013/14 Season 120 bets, 65 winners (54.17%), +2.81% ROI
English Football - Championship Games Stuart analyses the week's games in the Championship, free to access here
English Non League Football - Conference Games - Alan analyses the week's games in the Conference, free to access here
Football by Brodders - across European leagues is available here
Pre-season Analysis:
English Football - Pre-season Analysis. Over a number of reports Stuart Doyle will be looking at all divisions from the Premier League through to League 2 and trying to find you the value in the outrights, promotion, relegation, goal scorers, groups and various other specials markets here.
English Non League Football – Pre-Season Analysis – by Alan Alger. Noted Non-league judge Alan is sharing his knowledge on the English Non-League – primarily the three Conference divisions, and this is FREE to all registered users here. His look at the ante-post markets is available now
The NFL 2014-15 season begins on 1st September. Look out for ante-post season bets and pre-season match selections published through August and then Neil’s weekly analysis throughout the season. Pre-season game tips are already available including week 3 here. Ante-post articles for the Superbowl, conferences, divisions, team and player specials are here
Betting Emporium results
Across every sport since inception can be found by clicking RESULTS .
Please see the Frequently asked questions section for explanations of the methodology
The Road to Riches: Weekend 16th-17th August
16th-17th August 2014
Premier League 2014/15 Free Competition -$500 in prizes – winner takes all - See HERE for how to enter
Simply use your skill to predict the final finishing position of all 20 teams in the Premier League. The person who is closest at the end of the season wins the $500...over to you!
Free Tip of the Week
The Road to Riches features regular free tips from Betting Emporium writers. Today Stuart "redarmi" Doyle takes a look at a goalscorer bet to coincide with the start of the Premier League season
"There appears to be a really good opportunity in the Liverpool game for a bet on the first goalscorer. Many people are wondering how Liverpool will do without Suarez but in terms of goalscoring we do have something of an idea from the start of last year when Suarez was suspended. In that period Liverpool scored 9 goals and 6 of them were scored by Daniel Sturridge and he went on to get 24 in 33 games last season. He is the real deal and this year I would really expect him to kick on.
According to the match prices (which look about right) Liverpool have roughly a 72% chance of scoring the first goal and I would expect Sturridge to score that goal at least 35% of the time now he is their main goalscoring threat. If we multiply those then 35% of 72% is 25.2%. Effectively a shade under a 3/1 shot and that seems about right to me yet you can bet 4/1 with Bet 365 and BetVictor. Not the best of books but they should lay a decent bet on this and I would have 15 points at 4/1 if they accommodated me. I can get on with a few firms that will lay 10/3 though and will have 8 points at that price.
Recommend 15 points Sturridge to score first in Liverpool - Southampton game @ 4/1 (Bet365, BetVictor) or 8 points @ 100/30 (Ladbrokes, Betfred)
Bookmaker reviews and advice
Getting the best price available is very important for all those who take their betting seriously.
Please open an account with all those bookmakers on the page on this link that you do not already have an account with using the links provided.
This week Ladbrokes have an offer those who sign up through Betting Emporium on this link. Up to a £100 FREE bet by signing up on the link with the promotion code F100. This special offer, available on all UK sports betting, will run until the end of September 2014.
Register via online or mobile & enter the promo code, deposit a minimum of GBP/EUR 5 and then place a single bet of GBP/EUR 5 or more on any sport and Ladbrokes will match your stake with a Free Bet of up to GBP/EUR 100.
Terms and conditions are here
Free Bets:
How to use them best…
Whether you are opening an account or betting on major events, bookmakers offering free bets as part of their promotional offers are extremely common. Of course these are easy ways to both attract new customers and encourage existing customers to bet more. However many people fall down on a) actually using the free bets within the time limits and b) using them efficiently
The inclination of many is to stick the free bet on a “good thing” and at least ensure a return. This though is not the optimal way to use a free bet. Last week I looked at the "active" use of free bets. Today we will look at using free bets and ensuring at least part is returned as cash:
Take a £25 free bet where bet stake itself isn't returned. This calculation assumes backing and laying at the same price. Obviously the returns are greater where you can find a spot to back higher than laying on Betfair
A simple way of working out how much you can convert the free bet to cash is to take the free bet amount and divide by the (decimal price +1). Here are some examples below:
If you back an even money shot for £25 and lay £12.50 at evens the free bet will return £12.50 guaranteed win or lose. You win £12.50 if the bet wins (£25 from firm minus £12.50 lost on the lay or the free bet loses you win £12.50 from the lay)
If you back a 4/1 shot for £25 and lay £20 at 4/1 the free bet will return £20 guaranteed win or lose. You win £20 if the bet wins ((£25 x 4 winnings from the firm) £100) - (£20 4 from the losing exchange lay) £80). If the free bet loses you are guaranteed £20 only from the lay.
If you back a 9/1 shot for £25 and lay £22.50 at 9/1 the free bet will return £22.50 guaranteed win or lose. You win £22.50 if the bet wins ((£25x9 winning from the firm) £225) - (£22.50 x 9 from the losing exchange lay) £202.50. If the free bet loses you are guaranteed £22.50 from the losing lay.
If you back a 99/1 shot for £25 and lay £24.75 at 99/1 the free bet will return £24.75 guaranteed win or lose. You win £24.75 if the free bet wins ((£25x 99 winnings from the firm) £2475 - (£24.75 x99 from the losing exchange lay) £2450.25. If the free bet loses you are guaranteed £24.75 from the losing lay.
This example assumes no commission on Betfair.
This shows overall that the bigger the price you use for the free bet the better. The problem arises that it gets harder and harder to lay 100/1 shots at 100/1 on Betfair
What's new for the football season on Betting Emporium?
English Football - Premier League Games Stuart analyses the week's games in the Premier League, free to access here
Premier League Statistical Analysis – still FREE to all registered users and available here 2013/14 Season 120 bets, 65 winners (54.17%), +2.81% ROI
English Football - Championship Games Stuart analyses the week's games in the Championship, free to access here
English Football - Pre-season Analysis. Over a number of reports Stuart Doyle will be looking at all divisions from the Premier League through to League 2 and trying to find you the value in the outrights, promotion, relegation, goal scorers, groups and various other specials markets. You can sign up to the package for £49.99 here.
English Non League Football - Conference Games - Alan analyses the week's games in the Conference, free to access here
English Non League Football – Pre-Season Analysis – by Alan Alger. Noted Non-league judge Alan is sharing his knowledge on the English Non-League – primarily the three Conference divisions, and this is FREE to all registered users here. His look at the ante-post markets is available now
What else is on Betting Emporium?
Racing: York Ebor Festival Neil will be covering all four days of the York Ebor Meeting with his famous write ups and analysis. The cost for the four day package is £99.99 and is available here
The NFL 2014-15 season begins on 1st September. Look out for ante-post season bets and pre-season match selections published through August and then Neil’s weekly analysis throughout the season. Pre-season game tips are already available here. Ante-post articles for the Superbowl, conferences, divisions, team and player specials are here
Football by Brodders - across European leagues is available here
US Open Tennis takes place from August 25th to September 8th with coverage from Nigel Seeley
Cricket. The India Test Series in England concludes this week, coverage of the 5th Test, the upcoming one day and T20 international series and T20 finals day on 23rd August at Edgbaston here
Betting Emporium results
Across every sport since inception can be found by clicking RESULTS .
Please see the Frequently asked questions section for explanations of the methodology
The Road to Riches: Weekend 9th-10th August
The Road to Riches
9th-10th August 2014
Coming up this weekend...
Racing includes Saturday meetings at Ascot (including the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup), Newmarket and Haydock
Golf, the final golf major of 2014, the USPGA, concludes at Valhalla
The 2014-15 Football League begins this weekend and the traditional curtain raiser, the FA Community shield is played on Sunday at Wembley between Arsenal and Manchester City
The Fourth England-India Cricket Test continues at Old Trafford
Free Tip of the Week
The Road to Riches features regular free tips from Betting Emporium writers (today's is mine).
Today to coincide with the start of the Football league season, a look at the game between Exeter City and Portsmouth in Division 2. Expectations for Portsmouth are high for this season after a superb end to last season (five wins in the last seven) under new manager Andy Awford, a Portsmouth man through and through who energised both players and the big fan-base after a long period of disappointment . They are are joint favourites to win the division with Luton and after a terrible few years are finally emerging into a more stable situation financially, such that this summer they have strengthened across the squad, and i thought the signing of Craig Westcarr was significant. He drops down a division having scored fourteen goals in the division above for Walsall last season.
Portsmouth are generally available at 13/10 for this game at Exeter. In a few weeks time think we might look back and wonder how they weren't odds-on. This is because the other half of the story here is that Exeter are in a parlous state. Exeter finished last season 17th, five points above relegation and have had a difficult summer since. Financial issues mean not only that they are in transfer embargo situation but also seven of the starting eleven in the last game of the prior season are no longer at the club. Unable to strengthen the team, tomorrow it will be full of youngsters.
If Portsmouth are as advertised for 2014-15, they will kick off with a win in Devon
10 points Portsmouth to win at Exeter, 6/5 available at Coral and William Hill.
Free Bets:
How to use them best…
Whether you are opening an account or betting on major events, bookmakers offering free bets as part of their promotional offers are extremely common. Of course these are easy ways to both attract new customers and encourage existing customers to bet more. However many people fall down on a) actually using the free bets within the time limits and b) using them efficiently
Examples include Bet365’s 4/1+ offer on Channel four races (same stake on the next race after a winner), or William Hill’s money back as a free bet if your horse is second. Recent examples include money back as a free bet if Brazil win the world cup, Phil Taylor wins the Darts, McIlroy wins the Open etc.
The inclination of many is to stick the free bet on a “good thing” and at least ensure a return. This though is not the optimal way to use a free bet. There are two alternatives. Today we will deal with the first of these:
“active” use of free bets:
Let's assume you have a £50 free bet.
a) You back a 1/2 chance. Assume it has a 67% chance of winning, your expected return is 0.67 x £25 = £16.67
b) You back a 3/1 chance. Assume it has a 25% chance of winning, your expected return is 0.25 x £150 = £37.50
c) You back a 10/1 chance. Assume it has a 9% chance of winning, your expected return is 0.09 x £500 = £45
d) You back a 50/1 chance. A lot of 50/1 chances are higher prices on Betfair. Using 80/1 your chance of winning is only 0.0125. So expected return = £2500 x 0.0125 = £31.25, which is lower than the expected return on the 10/1 chance.
The best way to use your free bet is to place a bet that is near or over 10/1 that the bookmaker is offering very close to Betfair prices on.
Do not back each way because if you win on the place part the bookmakers take off the entire stake from both the win or lose parts from your winnings. As the price gets bigger the effect gets less marked, but it is still a disadvantage so never use a free bet on an each way bet. For example with a 12/1 chance you still lose half your winnings on a place only return
Next week I will look at using the free bet and laying your selection on Betfair to guarantee turning a proportion of each free bet into cash:
What's new on Betting Emporium?
USPGA Golf: Neil Channing continues his analysis of the final 2014 Golf Major at Valhalla with the final two rounds this weekend. Coverage is FREE here to registered users
English Football - Pre-season Analysis. Over a number of reports Stuart Doyle will be looking at all divisions from the Premier League through to League 2 and trying to find you the value in the outrights, promotion, relegation, goal scorers, groups and various other specials markets. You can sign up to the package for £49.99 here. Premier League, Championship and League One suggestions already published
English Football - Championship Games Stuart analyses the first week's games in the Championship, free to access here
English Non League Football – Pre-Season Analysis – by Alan Alger. Noted Non-league judge Alan is sharing his knowledge on the English Non-League – primarily the three Conference divisions, and this is FREE to all registered users here. His look at the ante-post markets is available now
English Non League Football - Conference Games - Alan analyses the first week's games in the Conference, free to access here
The NFL 2014-15 season begins on 1st September. Look out for ante-post season bets and pre-season match selections published through August and then Neil’s weekly analysis throughout the season. Pre-season game tips are already available here
**if you intend to follow the picks at Betting Emporium for this NFL season you really have to sign up for an account with Pinnacle if you don’t already have one. They offer reduced margins on the NFL and won’t restrict or close you when you win. Not having an account there will be simply burning money this NFL season and could really be the difference between a mediocre NFL season and very good one. Please open your Pinnacle account here **
Premier League Statistical Analysis – still FREE to all registered users - New Season Starts August 16th 2013/14 Season 120 bets, 65 winners (54.17%), +2.81% ROI
US Open Tennis takes place from August 25th to September 8th with coverage from Nigel Seeley
Cricket. The India Test Series in England concludes later this month, look out for coverage of the 5th Test and T20 finals day on 23rd August at Edgbaston here
Bookmaker reviews and advice
Getting the best price available is very important for all those who take their betting seriously.
Please open an account with all those bookmakers on the page on this link that you do not already have an account with using the links provided.
Betting Emporium results
Across every sport since inception can be found by clicking RESULTS .
Please see the Frequently asked questions section for explanations of the methodology
The Road to Riches: Saturday 2nd August
The Road to Riches
Saturday 2nd August 2014
To read an interview with Neil Channing on The Betting Emporium please see HERE
Coming up this weekend...
Racing this weekend, notably the final day of Glorious Goodwood including the Stewards Cup
Cricket, the Nat West T20 Blast Quarter-Finals are taking place
The 2014 Commonwealth games concludes in Glasgow
In Golf, the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational is ongoing at Firestone CC, Ohio
Goodwood Package
Betting Emporium offers a £50 package for selections for Glorious Goodwood for Friday and today. To sign up for today’s selections please click HERE
Free Tip of the Week
The Road to Riches features regular free tips from Betting Emporium writers. Today, a look at one of the NatWest T20 Blast Quarter finals, Essex v Birmingham at Chelmsford which is taking place today at 6pm live on Sky Sports
Essex are firm favourites to win this Quarter-final, priced at 1/2 and they should have too much power for a Birmingham Bears side that crept into the quarters. Brmingham's strength is their bowling attack. They have the leading competition wicket-taker Jeetan Patel and a battery of miserly seamers but my main betting interest is in their batting line-up which is seriously short of ammunition. In this year's competition they don't have a single batsman amongst those with the highest 20 strike rates nor anybody in the leading 30 six-hitters. Outlining their problems is that of their recognised batsmen only Laurie Evans and Will Porterfield shows strike rates that exceed 120 (runs per hundred balls).
The shape of the sub-market for Top Birmingham batsman is interesting in the light of this. Varun Chopra opens, anchors the innings and has 386 runs in the competition this year with four 50s. Aside from him and Porterfield there is no Warwickshire batsman over 250 runs in the competition this season, and these two are 3-1 joint favourites. Below them in the betting are the rest of the top and middle order. Various out-of-form players (I'm not sure Trott will play, he would be an exception on form) with modest strike rates at prices that take us all the way to an interesting contender at 16-1, the wicket-keeper Tim Ambrose
In around half the 14 group games Ambrose batted as high as number 4, typically in games where a couple of early wickets are lost and the side needs to consolidate. In other games, he bats as low as 9. He batted 4 on Thursday in the 50 over competition, and scored 70. It is speculative of course, but if he bats 4 his true price here is far nearer the 8-1 Bet365 price him at than the 12-1 available elsewhere and even 16-1 is around. What swings it in favour of a bet is that the rest of the top order shouldn't (famous last words) be all guns blazing and the sub-market is stuffed full of these players around 7-2 to 6-1.
So, before i sum up, some T20 betting caveats. Its a short format, both individual and team performances have a large random element over such a small sample of overs and if weather gets involved (Chelmsford looks too far east to catch the rain forecast for tomorrow, but I am not the Met Office) then reduced overs and Duckworth-Lewis run chases can make a fool of any prediction. This is why stakes are comparatively low. It's a cricket sub-market. The game is live on Sky but its not going to have the market depth of a racing festival or a major football match.
I'm having 4 points Tim Ambrose Top Birmingham Bears batsman at 12-1 Ladbrokes or William Hill .16-1 is available at 888sport and unibet for those that have them. I wouldn't take less than 10-1
A saver, in case Ambrose bats low down, Varun Chopra 2 points Top Birmingham Bears batsman 3-1 everywhere, William Hill usually one the best opportunities to get on in the cricket sub's.
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1. The arrival of high margin products such as casino and games
Games and casino products online, or FOBT's (Fixed Odds Betting Terminals) in betting shops, make a very high and guaranteed margin. These new products are the dream for all people high up in bookmaking companies, as the more ingenious and attractive they are, the more money they rake in.
They are a big threat to industries such as horse-racing. Why would bookmakers try to grow horse racing turnover and take the business of “shrewd” punters when they can "win" 10-20pc of gaming turnover from the machines?
2. The internet has made us all disloyal "price tarts" in the eyes of bookmakers
With the advent of the exchanges and the arrival of low margin bookmakers such as Pinnacle it has become possible for price aware punters to have bets without any margin against them.
Putting up prices on well known price-comparison sites merely locks in an army of "arbers" to swarm all over the site if a price ever slips over the "exchange" price.
Cultivating a recreational punting base has become the aim of firms such as Bet365 (what is Ray going to offer at half-time?) and Ladbrokes (Ladbrokes life campaign). Take a look at these adverts in the middle of every televised match. They are aggressively courting the punter, beer in hand, watching the game with his mates. He wants an interest, he isn’t on odds-checker and he probably hasn’t heard of Betfair. If this huge largely untapped market is out there and can be captured, why do firms such as Bet365 need to play the warm people at all? The truth is they don't.
3. Accountants dominate traders
Trading before Betfair was a question of formbook knowledge, experience and access to the industry tissue. Bookmakers put up prices and felt out the markets, got to know their punters, the best of whom helped them form the markets and traders moved the prices dramatically and often. Traders would demand winning accounts were kept open as they were vital to guide markets
These days, the numbers men are firmly in charge. A winning bet, beating the price, or an arb is enough to have one's account immediately restricted. Short-termism has dominated the mindset of people whose salaries are dependent on margins. Betting exchanges have removed the need to formulate prices or trade markets, the skill has been removed, the experience level of the trader has declined dramatically
4. The standard of traders has declined rapidly
Once a skilled and highly valued profession "Betfair watcher" would be a better description of most young, fresh faced traders these days. Very little knowledge or skill is needed to go 6/4 when it is 2.62 on Betfair, indeed many companies now have completely automated trading platforms that mirror the exchange led prices totally. It has wiped out the arbers, but it has also completely lost an entire generation of punters directly to the exchanges themselves.
This is seen best by demise of the on-course betting industry who have completely shot themselves in the foot by embracing exchanges, hedging into them and getting their entire market prices directly from them such that the customer on-course might as well not bet with them, and in some cases has no need to go to the course now anyway
5. The punter has never had it so good?
The flip-side to all these often justified complaints about restriction and closure is that the huge competition for turnover has meant that the value available is unbelievable. At major racing festivals prices offered are frequently over-broke. You can get each way eight places on golf majors, and offers on major football matches. The list goes on. The main issue of course is getting on.
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