The Road to Riches: Weekend of 16th-17th April

Coming Up this weekend

- Football, a full schedule in the Premier League including Leicester City v West Ham United on Sunday.. The latest Premier League Statistical Analysis write up has been published here

- Formula One, the Chinese Grand Prix

- Snooker, the 2016 World Championships begin at the Crucible in Sheffield

- Racing, the new flat season continues with meetings at Newbury, Thirsk, Nottingham and Wolverhampton with national hunt meetings at Ayr and Bangor

- Tennis, the clay court season moves to Europe with ATP Monaco, and Fed Cup World Group semi-finals

- Golf, the RBC Heritage on the USPGA and on the European Tour the Real Club Valderrama Open in Spain

- Cricket. IPL 9 group stage games continue

Premier League Darts (Feb 4th - May 19th 2016)

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French Tennis Open (Roland Garros) (22nd May - 5th June 2016)

Coverage by Nigel Seeley with outright previews as well as all write ups and match analysis

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Free Tip

The world snooker championship starts on Saturday and runs until May 2^nd, being played at the Crucible in Sheffield for a 40^th consecutive year, the tenth and final ranking event of the 2015-2016 season. It was won last year by 33-1 outsider Stuart Bingham.

During the current season there have been 13 different tournament event winners and 7 different winners of the 9 ranking events and this is the result of a number of factors, all related to the overhaul of the game since Barry Hearn took charge of the sport five years ago. Most notably these include all matches until the very late stages of all tournaments bar the Worlds being played over a much shorter format, frequently the best of seven frames.Whilst the game is frequently said to lack personalities it is probably deeper than ever in terms of the pool of talent and overall standard outside the top 16 and the variance of results over short format matches has meant a real spread of winners.

The format of the World Championships is unchanged, with best of 19 matches in the first round all the way up to best of 35 in the final. This is anachronistic in the modern snooker era. The move made two years ago to completely flatten the qualifying process for the Crucible means all qualifiers whether ranked 17 or 128 have to play three 19 frame matches in the week before the last 32 to reach the Crucible. As we have seen in 2014 and 2015 the 16 players who reach the Crucible to play the top 16 seeds are going to be attuned to 19 frame tournament snooker that the seeds haven’t played all season except for finals.

Let’s start with the draw where the seeds in each quarter are:

First Quarter

Stuart Bingham (defending champion installed as number 1 seed),John Higgins,Stephen Maguire,Ricky Walden

Second Quarter

Neil Robertson,Judd Trump,Mark Williams,Martin Gould

Third Quarter

Ronnie O’Sullivan,Shaun Murphy,Barry Hawkins,Marco Fu

Fourth Quarter

Mark Selby,Mark Allen,Joe Perry,Michael White

And the current outright market as follows:

O’Sullivan 15-8

Robertson 6-1

Trump 7-1

Selby 10-1

Murphy 14-1

Higgins 20-1

Ding 22-1

Allen 25-1

Bingham 33-1

Bar 50-1

Each way terms are ½ 1-2.

Let’s marry up draw and prices and try and chart a way to finding some value. First off Ronnie O’Sullivan who is obviously the class of the field and always going to be a short-priced favourite no matter how few events he plays during the year. He hasn’t got a straightforward draw though, having to beat Hawkins and then last year's finalist Murphy to make the semis. Murphy in particular, provisionally world ranked number four after his recent win in the World Grand Prix is potentially a very tough quarter-final. Neither strike me as great value given the draw.

In the second quarter Robertson and Trump are second and third favourites and seeded to meet in the quarter-finals, a match for which Robertson would be a marginal favourite against the new China Open champion. Both of the top ranked qualifiers Liang Wenbo and Ding were drawn into this quarter, which makes it tougher than it already was.

In the bottom quarter Mark Selby has two semi-finals in ten major tournaments this season and 10-1 reflects some doubts about form and his withdrawal from the last two events for undisclosed personal reasons. He too has an interesting route to the later stages as although Mark Allen typically produces more results overseas than at home, he is a dangerous opponent.

That leaves the top quarter, with Stuart Bingham who has played a huge schedule all season, 14 events worldwide without too much form, one final and a couple of semis to his name in amongst a lot of early exits. He has to be vulnerable here. In the same quarter we find the inconsistent Stephen Maguire who won a couple of matches in the last tournament to retain his seeding for this, Ricky Walden and John Higgins. This, as the outright odds imply with Higgins the shortest at 18-1 for the title, looks much the weakest quarter. I wouldn't be surprised if qualifiers Ali Carter and Alan McManus beat Bingham and Maguire respectively in the top part of this quarter in the first round.

Higgins has won two titles this season following on from his Welsh Open success earlier in 2015 and has actually won the most prize money on the one year rolling ranking list . He’s won this title four times, since when he's been banned and went through several seasons of poor form before his resurgence. Whilst I wouldn't argue that he is back to his best, he might not need to be to win this quarter. Walden was semi-finalist here three years ago, and has two finals in the last three months beating Higgins 6-5 in a semi-final before losing to Trump in China and losing to Allen in the PTC final at Manchester.

With Bingham being the top seed by virtue of his win last year this really opens up this quarter for someone to go deep into the second week. Higgins and Ricky Walden are seeded to meet in the second round and I would have either favourite to beat Bingham/Maguire/Carter/McManus in the last 8. Higgins is 20-1 and Walden 50-1 in a place and I peg one of them to get to the semis. Either would then be an underdog to Robertson or Trump but not a forlorn hope that they could beat either.

The spread of talent beyond Ronnie in the sport is very broad, and although he is brilliant, he's only won twice out of the eleven times he's gone to the crucible as favourite (most recently didn't win as favourite in 2014 or 2015). This year he has his toughest draw for many a year. Let's take on Ronnie with players drawn in the right quarter to have a run, at prices far better value than a few of the names above them in the betting given the shape of the draw. Four of the top six have to play each other before playing anyone from the top quarter. 

5 points each way John Higgins to win the 2016 World Snooker Championsip 20-1 Sportingbet, PaddyPower (18/1 generally)

(BetfairSportsbook are at 22-1 for those who can, but we'll record at 20-1)

3 points each way Ricky Walden to win the 2016 World Snooker Championship 40-1 Bet365, Sportingbet, Ladbrokes, Coral

(Betfred are 50-1, but well record at the 40-1 which is more widely available)

Momentum in sport, Fact or Myth

"Having won five in a row, they've really got momentum”. “They haven’t won since Christmas, their form is terrible”. They've got great momentum coming into the final games of the season". These were phrases I heard with an ear on Messrs Stelling, Merson, Le Tissier et al on last weekend's Soccer Saturday.

Throughout sport we are aware of winning streaks, and in football for example strikers scoring goals in successive games and defences keeping rows of clean sheets. I have heard it said a lot about my team this season, Leicester City (yes, I am still waiting for that reversion to the mean ) Momentum has become a word synonymous with Leicester’s season having now taken 93 points in the last calendar year 18 more than their nearest rivals. The “great escape” last season, the great start this, Vardy scoring in eleven games in a row, five 1-0 wins in a row, six clean sheets in a row all show “Momentum” but also the intangible effect of confidence.

We are told that winning is a habit; that confidence is important and if you win you are likely to continue winning. This though fits our desire to find patterns in sport often to fit our narrative as fans and bettors (and the media certainly does it) rather than conclusive proof that teams and players have such momentum.

In 1985 psychologist Tomas Gilovich attempted to disprove the notion of the "hot hand” in basketball. The implication of the "hot hand" is that someone who has hit a basket with their last shot is more likely to hit with their next one: As he began his study 90% of fans surveyed agreed that a player has "a better chance of making a shot after having just made his last two or three shots than he does after having just missed his last two or three shots". However Gilovich found that it was not true. Looking at the Philadelphia 76ers over a season, he found that players who had hit their last 1-3 shots were no more likely to hit their next than players who had missed their last 1-3 shots in a row. In fact, they were slightly less likely. Similar results have been found for winning and losing streaks in sport.

In football the economists Dobson and Goddard looked at every English league match between 1970 and 2009 (over 80,000 games) to see if longer winning, unbeaten and losing runs were observed more often than would be expected by chance. After accounting for team and opposition strength they reached the conclusion that sequences of  wins and losses end sooner than expected.

Statistical proof of "momentum" in sport is hard to come by. If your team is going through a losing patch they're just as likely to win the next game as they are when on a nine-game winning streak. Remember it also when the pundit on Match of the Day, after previously confidently predicting a sixth win on the bounce for Leicester and watching them lose unexpectedly to West Ham United this coming Sunday, says "Well, they were due a defeat". No, they weren't. It’s an independent event.

People building narratives around these “patterns” of independent events via natural cognitive biases are how bookmakers make money. Randomness is a more compelling explanation.

Brodders Football Analysis

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Betting Emporium results

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£10 per point on every recommended bet since launch in Feb 2013 would be winning £13,968.70 (as at 15th April 2016)

All bets have an ROI +2.44% and Horse Racing has an ROI +4.85%

A £4000 bank (see FAQ re bank-roll requirements) betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £17,968.70 a 349% increase

The Road to Riches, Weekend of 9th-10th April

Coming Up this weekend

- Football, a full schedule in the Premier League including Tottenham v Manchester United. The latest Premier League Statistical Analysis write up has been published here

- Golf,  The Masters at Augusta, see coverage here

- Racing, The Grand National at Aintree see coverage here, the highlight of a programme including national hunt meetings at Chepstow and Sedgefield, with Lingfield and Wolverhampton on the all-weather

- Tennis, the start of the clay court season with ATPs Houston and Morocco.

- Rugby Union, the European Champions Cup Quarter Finals.

- Cricket.The start of the domestic English season with County Championship games. The beginning of IPL 9 in India.

Aintree Grand National Festival 7th-9th April 2016

All of Neil's write ups and analysis and details of all the bets that we are having at Aintree tomorrow

Premier League Darts (Feb 4th - May 19th 2016)

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Free Tip The 2016 Indian Premier League

Following hard on the heels of the World T20 comes the ninth season of the IPL. The season will have two new teams which will replace Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals which are suspended for two years (owners spot fixing and match betting, no less) up to 2017. Two new franchise-based teams, Gujarat Lions and Rising Pune Supergiants have been added for two years. Both were allowed to choose five players who represented CSK or RR in 2015.

In all there will be 60 matches in IPL 2016 across ten venues which include 56 Group Stage Matches and 4 Play-off Matches with the final in Mumbai. Squads were drafted first and then added to in an auction process back in March.

The first game is in Mumbai tomorrow, Mumbai v Pune, and the top 4 of 8 teams make the play-off stages after all the teams play each other twice in a group phase. For each macth the teams are allowed to play 4 overseas players

Looking at each in turn

Rising Pune Supergiants – An intimidating batting line-up (Rahane, KP, Du Plessis, Steve Smith etc) with weaker bowling resources. Captained by MS Dhoni

Gujarat Lions - Strong all-rounders (Bravo, Faulkner, Jadeja) with Finch and McCullum up top, captained by Raina as they cherry picked star names from the banned franchises. Good fast bowling options, not a lot of spin in the squad

Royal Challengers Bangalore - The best top four in the business (Gayle, Watson, Kohli and ABDV). Unless Starc and Badree are fit they might have to make a lot of runs to win games as the bowling line up lacks similar firepower.

Kolkata Knight Riders - A no-frills outfit with proven T20 performers including overseas players Shakib, Andre Russell and John Hastings and a potential match-winner in Sunil Narine as long as his remodelled action doesn't see him decline. Twice winners of the IPL in the last four years KKR addressed fast bowling in the auction, a previous weakness

Kings XI Punjab – A team reliant on two overseas batsmen: Maxwell and Miller. The domestic roster is comparatively weak following the side being the lowest spenders at the march auction.

Delhi Daredevils - Light on proven match-winners and superstar power, particularly in the batting line-up which relies on domestic batsmen. Captained by JP Duminy, the bowling line up is vastly experienced including Zaheer Khan and Imran Tahir , while their batting counterparts are young. Including Quinton de Kock all six are 25 or under. Overall they look to be one of the weaker franchises

Mumbai Indians – Defending champions. No obvious weaknesses, strong overseas strength (including Jos Buttler) and lots of options for each position through the squad. Very likely to make the play-offs

Sunrisers Hyderabad - Dhawan, Warner and Williamson represent a terrific top three but that strength isn’t matched down the order. In particular the team lacks quality spinners.

Best odds are as follows:

RC Bangalore 100/30

Mumbai Indians 5/1

Rising Pune 5/1

Kolkota KR 15/2

Gujarat Lions 8/1

Hyderabad Sunrisers 10/1

Kings XI Punjab 12/1

Delhi Daredevils 14/1

Realistically the winner is going to come from the top four sides here, they look to have the advantage in depth and overseas talent and the betting market skews towards the teams with the biggest names, Bangalore (Gayle and Kohli), Mumbai (defending champions) and Pune (Dhoni).

Bangalore are priced because of their star batting power but look short elsewhere in the squad and the price doesn’t offer much value. Mumbai look very strong but with home games on the highest scoring ground in India home advantage is questionable. Rising Pune are a new squad that may take time to gel.

My idea of value is Kolkota Knight Riders at 7/1, a settled team without the stars but with a home advantage due to the often difficult/dry conditions at Eden Gardens as we saw in the World T20 and one of the best spin attacks in the competition to win them home games and get them to the play offs, at which point we'd have a live bet over a few short format games. To my mind they and Mumbai are the  most reliable prosepcts, yet KKR are pegged only as fourth favourites.

Bet365 are alone in offering half odds top two before the competition starts (third odds everywhere else, including the 17/2 at Sportingbet)

6 points each way Kolkota Knight Riders 2016 IPL 7-1 Bet365 (1/2 1,2)

The 2016 English cricket season

The domestic cricket season starts this weekend with County Championship games across the country, immediately following England’s run to the final of the ICC World T20 in India where only four successive sixes at the start of the final over prevented a tournament win for a talented emerging side.

This summer England play seven tests, ten ODI’s and two T20i’s against Sri Lanka and Pakistan starting towards the end of May in a more prosaic set of games before heading off on tour to Bangladesh and India next winter.

For the domestic game, change is a constant as the ECB struggles to find an effective role for county cricket in the modern era. 2016 in some ways represents a holding pattern ahead of what are likely to be sweeping changes from 2017onwards. For the County Championship, the there will not be a mandatory toss for games. The away captain will decide whether to bowl or not, as the ECB attempts to ensure decent pitches (and long term promote spin bowling).

"The visiting captain will be offered the opportunity of bowling first. If he declines, the toss will take place as normal. But if he accepts, there will be no toss."

The home team cannot now risk preparing bowler friendly pitches. In addition to the risk of being stuck in by an away captain there are now swingeing penalties for preparing unfit pitches including forfeitng games. All this points to good batting pitches and long seasons ahead for bowling county Pros!

Within the domestic game there is quite the power tussle. Longer term, City based franchise cricket is being considered for the T20 from 2020 onwards (at the end of the current SkySports broadcast deal) On the one hand the combined debts of the 18 counties, estimated at close to £200m, will not be solved just by increasing attendances and a new Twenty20 league remains the most likely method of giving the county game a commercial value of its own. On the other the counties themselves are hugely resistant to losing their identity

Meanwhile the championship will be re-organised into two divisions with eight in the first and ten in the second from 2017. Teams in the top division would play each other home and away but not in the second. T20 cricket will also be played in a mid-summer block. Players and coaches have complained of a confused structure caused by playing too much cricket that sees teams having to switch from Twenty20 to four day cricket.

Back to the 2016 County Championship and Yorkshire are hoping to complete a hat-trick of titles. The promotion of Surrey and Lancashire means that eight of the nine counties with Test grounds are now in Division One, the most since the introduction of two tiers in 2000 and it looks to be an extremely competitive division this year. Within a nine team division the Championship has often had a couple of teams making up the numbers, there being a big gap in resources between the two divisions. Whereas previously teams like Derbyshire or Worcestershire had a sole aim, to stay up, well funded counties like Surrey and Lancashire are aiming to progress towards winning the title in the near future.

County championship prices this season are as follows:

Yorkshire 13/8

Notts 13/2

Warwickshire 13/2

Middlesex 8/1

Surrey 9/1

Durham 12/1

Lancs 16/1

Hampshire 20/1

Somerset 20/1

Each way terms are a fifth top three.

Warwickshire have in recent seasons struggled for runs at times but now they have got Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, possibly for most of the season if Bell doesn’t make it back into the national side. You can probably pencil those two in for 1,000 runs each. Looking at their line up in warm ups (Chopra, Westwood, Bell, Trott, Hain, Ambrose, Woakes, Clarke, Barker, Rankin, Wright) it looks extremely strong especially when you consider that there are three potential match-winning spinners (Jeetan Patel, Javid and Poysden) in reserve for when pitches are drier.

Last season’s runners-up Middlesex are a very strong bowling side and Nottinghamshire again look competitive. Yorkshire’s own resources will once again hinge on the demands of England, with six players missing chunks of last season because of call-ups and their winter recruit all-rounder David Willey is a key fixture in England's white-ball game but such is their strength in depth that a high finish is once again likely. Hampshire, Somerset and Durham are likely to struggle, whilst Surrey and Lancashire will be looking to establish themselves in the division first and foremost .

For those wanting to tuck away a season long bet Warwickshire each way (three places) at 13-2 (Ladbrokes) should go very close as a value alternative to a short-priced favourite. They'd be very disappointed to finish outside the top three this season.

Brodders Football Analysis

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- Betting £10 a point would be showing a profit of + £4126.00

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Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated as have the spreadsheets with the detailed bets. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

£10 per point on every recommended bet since launch in Feb 2013 would be winning £11,002.23 (as at 21st March 2016)

All bets have an ROI +1.98% and Horse Racing has an ROI +6.71%

A £4000 bank (see FAQ re bank-roll requirements) betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £15,002.23 a 275% increase

The Road to Riches: Weekend of 2nd-3rd April

Coming Up this weekend

- Football,  a full schedule in the Premier League after the International break. Liverpool v Tottenham at the top of the table and Norwich v Newcastle at the bottom are key games. The latest Premier League Statistical Analysis write up has been published here

- Racing, the Lincoln meeting at Doncaster and Kempton Park on the flat. National hunt meetings at Uttoxeter and Kelso

- Cricket. the World Twenty20 Cup final between England and the West Indies in Kolkota.

- Formula One, the Bahrain Grand Prix.

- Tennis, ATP & WTA Miami Open in Florida.

- Golf, the last event before the Masters, the Shell Houston Open in Texas.

Aintree Grand National Festival 7th-9th April 2016

All of Neil's write ups and analysis and details of all the bets that we are having at Aintree next week

Premier League Darts (Feb 4th - May 19th 2016)

Weekly coverage by Nigel Seeley for the 2016 Premier League Darts.

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Free Tip

Betting Emporium will be covering all four majors and the Ryder Cup for free in 2016. With the Masters at Augusta next week Neil and I thought we would put up an early ante-post idea for the first major of the year.

Danny Willett from Sheffield is up to 12th in the world rankings, with a third place in the WGC-Cadillac Championship in the US this season following on from his win in the Dubai Desert Classic in January, his fourth European tour victory..

He is a long enough hitter, averaging 300 yard drives in 2015 and 2016 and shapes it both ways. Two strengths of his game are very good greens in regulation statistics and an excellent putter. He averages only 1.6 putts per green over 154 greens this season with 55 birdies in 12 rounds.

He played his first Masters last year, finishing tied 38th, so no debutant worries here and had experience of going well in a major at St Andrews last year when he finished tied 6th having been in the final group for the third round.

So we have a player with decent length off the tee, accurate and with a great short game. He's not a Dustin Johnson or Bubba Watson who will be looking to dominate the par fives at Augusta, but he is going to be in postion to score a lot of birdies given his accuracy and short game.

Looking at the Masters market a week out, all of the top ten in the world rankings are 33/1 or below in the market. No surprises here: Speith, Rory, Day, Scott etc. Willetts is available at  70/1 in a place, 66/1 widely available paying 5 places for a player who is buried in the betting and probably shouldn't be. If he was American we think he would be half the price. There was a doubt about his participation. Willett stated publicly that he would miss the Masters unless his new baby was born and this duly happened in the middle of this week.

Now good to go, we think this is one of the more interesting prices for the Masters.

5 points Danny Willett US Masters each way 66-1 Sportingbet, Coral 1/4 the odds 1,2,3,4,5

(70-1 Bet365 for those who can)

The end of the yo-yo?

Many clubs promoted into the Premier League have found themselves back in the football league within a year or two. Of the 68 promoted sides between 1993-2014, 60% were relegated again within three seasons. “Yo-Yo Clubs” such as Birmingham City, Bolton Wanderers, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion have each been relegated from the Premier League three times.

Last year both Burnley and QPR were both relegated the season immediately after promotion. However this year Bournemouth and Watford look certain to stay up, and Norwich may yet do so. In a season in which some of the certainties surrounding the Premier League are being eroded, another one may also be at risk, which is that clubs promoted into the top flight will very often go down straight away such is the gap in finances and squad depth between the top two divisions.

There are some structural changes taking place within the English game that might give optimism that this is the start of a trend. Last week saw the announcement that Premier League clubs will be able to use more television cash to fund players' salaries. The 20 top flight teams have agreed to extend financial controls designed to restrain spiraling player costs for a further three seasons.

The restrictions were initially imposed in 2013 and the new limits reflect the rise in the value of TV rights for 2016-19 to £8.3 billion

Clubs have the option of abiding by two alternative wage-control options.

* If wage bills exceed £67m in 2016-17, £74m in 2017-18 and £81m in 2018-19, they can only be raised by £7m per season for the next three years from TV revenue. During the current 2013-16 TV rights cycle, annual increases of £4m have been allowed to be funded from TV cash.

* Alternatively, clubs have to show that their aggregate wage bill for players has not increased since the 2012-13 season by more than £19m in 2016-17, £26m in 2017-18 and £33m in 2018-19.

Clubs will still be allowed to hike salaries if they are funded by self-generated revenue, notably through commercial deals and merchandise sales.

A consequence of this is that promoted clubs can push wage bills to £67m immediately, assuming they have ownership/funding to do so. This allows them to really compete, as we have seen with Bournemouth and Watford at times this season.

The impact on the rest of the division has already been felt this year with fewer easy games, acquisition of talent being broader across the division and more upset results. Part of this has been short-term issues at many of the top six clubs, but combine this with stronger squads and finance at promoted/smaller clubs and the effect is marked.

A de-facto salary cap gives promoted clubs a chance to compete that was denied to many a decade ago. Although the leading English clubs still have a major financial advantage over the promoted clubs, a combination of limits on squad sizes and FFP restrictions means that the league has more competitive balance. This phenomenon was noted by Arsene Wenger: “The Leicester example will happen more and more. Because the English clubs will get £100 million from television next year, they can buy anywhere in the world what they want. So I think the fact that the league will be more level is a necessity.”

In recent years seven Premier League clubs that have won promotion ( Stoke City, Swansea City. Southampton, Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Bournemouth and Watford) have yet to lose their places. Three of these clubs have played in Europe since promotion and one may win the league this year and if not will almost certainly reach the Champios eague. With the distribution of TV money under the new deal from next year so flat, and the new financial controls in part leveling the playing field, more “smaller premier league club” success will follow. If well backed clubs like Middlesborough, Brighton and others can get up, the outlook for them is brighter than it might have been 10 or 20 years ago.

Brodders Football Analysis

Sign up to Brodders match analysis and recommended bets here for £50 a month. You are free to cancel at any time.

- Betting £10 a point would be showing a profit of + £4126.00

- Long Term Profit - All Brodders bets since January 2014 are currently showing a ROI of +1.65% (over 1900 bets) (at 21st March 2016)

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.

 There are literally hundreds of pounds on offer from bookmakers just for signing up through Bettingemporium.com

Betting Emporium results

The detailed results page has been updated as have the spreadsheets with the detailed bets. They can be found by clicking RESULTS

£10 per point on every recommended bet since launch in Feb 2013 would be winning £11,002.23 (as at 21st March 2016)

All bets have an ROI +1.98% and Horse Racing has an ROI +6.71%

A £4000 bank (see FAQ re bank-roll requirements) betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £15,002.23 a 275% increase

The Road to Riches: weekend of 26th-27th February

The Road To Riches: Weekend of 19th-20th March

Coming Up this weekend

- Football, .The Premier League this weekend includes the Manchester and North East derbies on Sunday. The latest Premier League Statistical Analysis write up has been published here

- Rugby Union, the final weekend of the Six Nations including England going for the Grand Slam on Saturday evening in Paris

- Formula One, the start of the new season with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne

- Racing, national hunt meetings at Uttoxeter, including the Mdlands Grand National, Newcastle, Kempton and Fontwell and on the All-weather at Wolverhampton

- Cricket. The Super Ten group stage games of the World Twenty20 Cup continue including India v Pakistan in Kolkota on Saturday.

- Tennis, ATP & WTA BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells in California.

- Golf, European Tour: Hero Indian Open and USPGA Tour: Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando.

Premier League Darts (Feb 4th - May 19th 2016)

Weekly coverage by Nigel Seeley for the 2016 Premier League Darts.

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ICC World Twenty20 Cricket

The outright preview was published last Sunday  The package includes the outrights, all the match analysis and details of all the bets that we are having on the T20 World Cup.

Free Tip : 2016 Formula One Season/Australian Grand Prix betting Preview

2015 saw domination by the Mercedes team and Lewis Hamilton win his third Drivers Championship. Mercedes won 16 of the 19 races, Hamilton 10 alone and the team had no less than twelve one-two finishes and only Vettel/Ferrari were remotely competitive, winning three races.

2016 is a year of stable regulations with no step changes in rules and engine type to really alter the balance of power on the grid. Those regulation changes come next year. Therefore it is unsurprising to see Mercedes 1/5 for another constructor’s championship and Hamilton 8/13 to win a fourth title.

There are two key battles to watch at the Head of the field. Firstly Rosberg won the last three races of last season and should be expected to be very close to Hamilton all year in an identical car. At 100/30 for the title he is better value than Hamilton for an ante-post bet. Secondly Ferrari have made more changes to their car than Mercedes in the off-season as they attempt to step-change performance to catch Mercedes and fight for the championship. Rivals believe Ferrari have benefited in the design of their 2016 car by exploiting a loophole in the limits on wind-tunnel time and computer-aided design research that existed as a result of their new partnership with Haas. At the same time, as the Mercedes was by definition more optimised last year, in theory there is less room for improvement.

At the end of last season Ferrari were matching Mercedes for race pace but lacked the ability to challenge Mercedes in qualifying with no engine mode to match the Mercedes. Typically they were 0.6 seconds off Mercedes in qualifying In testing in Barcelona in recent weeks (subject to the usual caveats about fuel loads and other variables that differ from car to car in testing) the Ferrari appears to be only 0.2 seconds slower per lap than the Mercedes. It will only be in qualifying at Melbourne this weekend when we find out if Ferrari have the capability of qualifying on the front row.

As Rosberg said after testing "We know it is close, but we are not sure if we are ahead or behind."

Taking each driver's fastest time on each type of tyre throughout the second test and correcting for fuel loads you end up with a list of the fastest lap for each team that looks like this:

Mercedes (Rosberg) 1:22.6

Ferrari (Raikkonen) 1:22.9

Williams (Massa) 1:23.4

Red Bull (Ricciardo) 1:23.7

Toro Rosso (Verstappen) 1:23.7

Force India (Hulkenberg) 1:24.0

In race-simulation runs average lap times for the top contenders are:

Hamilton 1:29.1

Rosberg 1:29.3

Raikkonen 1:29.4

Vettel 1:29.5

On this sort of data, Ferrari are far closer than at the equivalent stage last year and Vettel 5/1 each way for the title would be very tempting were it not for each way terms only being two places.

Away from Mercedes and Ferrari last year Williams were the third quickest team but will be under threat this year from Force India, who have looked quick in testing and Toro Rosso who have (2015) Ferrari engines now and taking their testing times improving by up to a second per lap on last year when they ran the uncompetitive Renault engine.

Recommendation

8 points Max Verstappen Top Six Finish Australian Grand Prix 7/4 Bet365 and Ladbrokes

Introducing Variability into a Predictable sport, the challenge of betting on F1 in 2016

After several years of domination by Red Bull and more recently Mercedes, in the off-season F1 has sought to liven up the sport with much concern about the absence of racing spectacle in F1. In the words of one F1 team principal rule changes create the potential for "more stress and more mess" and as a bi-product might knock onto more unpredictable betting markets than the last few years when outright markets for individual Grand Prix have been unappetising.

After raising tyre pressures in 2015 and banning team radio around the race starts, for 2016 an almost complete ban on team to driver radio has been introduced as well as new tyre rules, which significantly increase the variables into racing situations. Elimination qualifying, which will see the slowest driver knocked out every 90 seconds throughout the three parts of the session, seeks to build on the wave of unpredictable elements too and mix up starting grids. Bernie Ecclestone was for reversing grids too. Even though that proposal has not been adopted, there is no doubt that we appear to be entering a phase where things are being shaken up.

In terms of the ban on radio communications between drivers and their engineers, for this year, teams will no longer be able to provide continuous information about tyre wear, engine performance and fuel levels to the drivers, except in emergencies. This should lead to more strategy mistakes and an end to the tedious radio commands to, for example, Rosberg to match the engine setting run by Hamilton and formation running throughout much of races. In the drivers press conference ahead of Melbourne Hamilton said

""The changes to the radio rules will have a big impact,"

"The engineers now can't give you prompts or reminders that might affect performance during the race, so you have to remember so much more."

"This even applies to strategy, so when it's shifting throughout the race you won't be in the loop. It will be tough - but hopefully it will make for more exciting races.

Also in an attempt to spice up race strategies in 2016, Pirelli will now bring three - instead of two - slick tyre compounds to each race weekend. Perhaps the most intriguing element of the new rules is that team-mates won't have to mirror each other's selections and we have seen this in some teams for tyre choices for Melbourne including at Mercedes. Tyre construction is different this year too, designedto degrade faster than last year so we should see an extra stop in races introducing more room for variability in races.

So the theory is by introducing variability into qualifying, strategy and tyre choices that races are more interesting. This could have the effect of introducing a) variance to betting markets and b) the potential for more betting opportunities, for example if a Mercedes or Ferrari is out of position on a grid.

All eyes on Melbourne this weekend then. 

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