Month: February 2011

Mikes Football Bets 25th February

Posted on by Mike

Back this week with an almost full Premier League card with 8 games over the course of the weekend to work with and I have 4 Main bets that have caught my eye.

Starting up at the Britannia Stadium, I am keen on Stoke to have too much for West Brom, especially considering the 2.00 price that Hills are offering. The Potters this season have been very strong at home, winning 54% of games and they certainly will target this type of match for all 3 points. West Brom on the other hand have been very dodgy at the back in recent months and will struggle against Stoke’s aerial bombardment. They have lost 69% of away games this year and despite the arrival of Roy Hodgson, it will take some time for him to get them better organized on the road. Odds of 2.00 suggest Stoke have a 50% chance of victory, and I make it more like 55% so a bit of value here.

Talking of Roy Hodgson, his former charges Fulham continue to prosper from the work he did on making them extremely hard to beat away from home. This is backed up by the stats as they have gone under 2.5 goals in 69% of games on the road this year with a clear policy of going for the 0-0 draw in matches against the top teams. Ladbrokes are kind enough to offer 1.97 on the under 2.5 goals market, which is a 50.7% chance, whereas I again make this more of a 1.85 to 1.90 shot so value here. As an added incentive, Mark Hughes will be even more keen for Fulham to give nothing away as he returns to Man City for the first time since being fired.

The transformation of Liverpool under Kenny Dalglish has been very impressive and bookies have been quick to note how tight matches involving his charges now are, as judged by the measly 1.75 on under 2.5 goals in their game away at West Ham. My interest involves backing Liverpool to overcome a -0.25 Asian Handicap at 1.93 as the Hammers under Avram Grant remain very poor and they have lost at home against all the top teams this season.  This bet gives us some cover in case of a draw and I can see a well organized Liverpool with Steven Gerrard likely to be back causing lots of problems.

One final bet on goals in the game featuring Villa and Blackburn as the away team have been very leaky on the road, going over 2.5 goals in 77% of games. Villa have improved offensively as well with Darren Bent leading the line and look a lot more threatening up front these days at home so the 1.96 on over 2.5 goals looks a good investment. I make the true odds on this market again lower than 1.90 so some value here.

Main Bets
1 pt Stoke to beat West Brom. 2.00 William Hill
1 pt Under 2.5 goals. Man City V Fulham. 1.97 Ladbrokes
1 pt Liverpool -0.25 Asian Handicap V West Ham. 1.93 Pinnacle/Canbet/SBOBet/188Bet
1 pt Over 2.5 goals. Aston Villa V Blackburn.  1.96 188bet

Shortlist Bets
None

Whatever you bet on, good luck!

Mike

Fink Tank Ratings & Value Bets

Posted on by Dan

Here are the latest value bets according to the latest Fink Tank Ratings. You can find some background on this test here.

Fink Tank provide predictions on football games based on their model which is roughly based around shot on target. The Fink Tank team found that shots on target was the best predictor of the outcome of a football game and when you rate this for various attributes you can have a reliable prediction model. For our test, we use the predictions from Fink Tank and only bet when the predicted % chance is better than the predicted chance implied by the available bookmaker odds. The bigger the difference, the bigger the value on offer in theory. Click on the image below for the weekend’s qualifiers

Qualifying bets for the fink tank rating test

For more tests of ratings services like this in sports from football to horse racing, check out how membership of Smart Betting Club could help you.

Fink Tank Ratings & Value Bets

Posted on by Dan

Here are the latest value bets according to the latest Fink Tank Ratings. You can find some background on this test here.

Fink Tank provide predictions on football games based on their model which is roughly based around shot on target. The Fink Tank team found that shots on target was the best predictor of the outcome of a football game and when you rate this for various attributes you can have a reliable prediction model. For our test, we use the predictions from Fink Tank and only bet when the predicted % chance is better than the predicted chance implied by the available bookmaker odds. The bigger the difference, the bigger the value on offer in theory. Click on the image below for the weekend’s qualifiers

Qualifying bets for the fink tank rating test

For more tests of ratings services like this in sports from football to horse racing, check out how membership of Smart Betting Club could help you.

Mike’s Football Bets 17th February

Posted on by Mike

Its fair to say February hasn’t been kind to me so far, with the midweek Birmingham bet going down for us and we are in a poor run of form. It’s perhaps good that we have only the one game this weekend in the top flight with West Brom hosting Wolves, so we can take a breather.

I never like to bet on teams who have just changed their manager such as West Brom and their opponents on Saturday – Wolves, have proven hard to pin down this season. They are just as likely to beat Man Utd 2-1, than lose 3-0 to Liverpool in the space of just 2 weeks.

No bets therefore and I will return to take a look at the 2 midweek games next week. Good luck if betting in the FA Cup this weekend!

Mike

Mike's Football Bets 17th February

Posted on by Mike

Its fair to say February hasn’t been kind to me so far, with the midweek Birmingham bet going down for us and we are in a poor run of form. It’s perhaps good that we have only the one game this weekend in the top flight with West Brom hosting Wolves, so we can take a breather.

I never like to bet on teams who have just changed their manager such as West Brom and their opponents on Saturday – Wolves, have proven hard to pin down this season. They are just as likely to beat Man Utd 2-1, than lose 3-0 to Liverpool in the space of just 2 weeks.

No bets therefore and I will return to take a look at the 2 midweek games next week. Good luck if betting in the FA Cup this weekend!

Mike

Mike's Football Bets 15th February

Posted on by Mike

As I suggested, it was a tough weekend of betting in the Premier League just gone with a 2 pt loss for the Main bets as Blackpool – Villa ended up 1-1 and Sunderland let a lead slip against Spurs. The seasonal tally has now dropped to 5.91 pts and a 7.13% ROI so work to be done on that front, although of course profitable betting is a marathon not a sprint so everything in its right context.

A neat reminder if one were needed however that my bets are for the best part, an experiment this season. Consider it an exercise in exploring profitability in these markets – certainly don’t judge the quality of my tips against the quality of the tipsters we focus on here at SBC. They are completely separate.

One bet that I kicked myself for not having as a Main bet last weekend was on Birmingham at 1.78 to overcome a 0 ball Asian Handicap against Stoke (I only shortlisted it). They duly won 1-0 although my reasoning for not taking was down to a lack of value in the odds – something that is less the case in Birmingham’s next fixture tonight at home to Newcastle.

You can get 1.86 on Alex Mcleish’s men in the same market against the Geordies, who are for my mind, a slightly inferior team to Stoke. Newcastle are however a slight worry in that they are very much Jekyll and Hyde as we can never be certain which team will turn up. I am going to take the 1.86 on Birmingham however as they have a strong home record and are in a good vein of form.

Main Bets
1 pt Birmingham 0 Asian Handicap V Newcastle. 1.86 Canbet/SBObet

Whatever you bet on, good luck!

Mike

*Odds given were correct as time of bet release at the SBC Blog

Mike’s Football Bets 15th February

Posted on by Mike

As I suggested, it was a tough weekend of betting in the Premier League just gone with a 2 pt loss for the Main bets as Blackpool – Villa ended up 1-1 and Sunderland let a lead slip against Spurs. The seasonal tally has now dropped to 5.91 pts and a 7.13% ROI so work to be done on that front, although of course profitable betting is a marathon not a sprint so everything in its right context.

A neat reminder if one were needed however that my bets are for the best part, an experiment this season. Consider it an exercise in exploring profitability in these markets – certainly don’t judge the quality of my tips against the quality of the tipsters we focus on here at SBC. They are completely separate.

One bet that I kicked myself for not having as a Main bet last weekend was on Birmingham at 1.78 to overcome a 0 ball Asian Handicap against Stoke (I only shortlisted it). They duly won 1-0 although my reasoning for not taking was down to a lack of value in the odds – something that is less the case in Birmingham’s next fixture tonight at home to Newcastle.

You can get 1.86 on Alex Mcleish’s men in the same market against the Geordies, who are for my mind, a slightly inferior team to Stoke. Newcastle are however a slight worry in that they are very much Jekyll and Hyde as we can never be certain which team will turn up. I am going to take the 1.86 on Birmingham however as they have a strong home record and are in a good vein of form.

Main Bets
1 pt Birmingham 0 Asian Handicap V Newcastle. 1.86 Canbet/SBObet

Whatever you bet on, good luck!

Mike

*Odds given were correct as time of bet release at the SBC Blog

Cheltenham Festival Preview: Paul Jones on the Fred Winter Handicap

Posted on by Dan

With Cheltenham just around the corner, we’re keeping tabs on a number of festival previews. Paul Jones comes with a good reputation and we’ll be previewing his antepost service and Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide in our February edition.

Paul has kindly sent us an extract from his Cheltenham Festival guide, focusing on the Fred Winter Novices’ handicap. The full book is available at www.bettrends.co.uk and costs £12.95 + £2 post and packaging. We hope to preview the full book in the February edition. Here’s the excerpt with analysis of the Fred Winter taking place on Wednesday the 16th.

FRED WINTER JUVENILE HANDICAP HURDLE

(GRADE 3)

OVERVIEW

Although the ‘Fred Winter’ is developing a number of very strong patterns so early in its existence (remarkably I’ve found as many as 12 worthy of being listed in the Trends Summary), I am aware that this may come across as a blatantly obvious statement but, trying to finding the handicap blot is key here and, boy, was there one last season as Sanctuaire left his rivals stone motherless dead. Paul Nicholls knew it beforehand. All he would say when discussing the race at the Sandown Preview Evening was: “He’ll win” and not a word more. French-bred hurdlers have really come to the fore in this race but take note of the top-rated horses from the Flat too as they have won or finished second in three of the six runnings. No new trends to add this season, only a strengthening of existing ones which is what I like for winner-finding purposes and Sanctuaire ticked virtually every main box 12 months ago hitting the crucial ones square on the head.

THE LAST 5 WINNERS WON LAST TIME OUT

Yet another 1-2 for last-time-out winners in last year’s race so that is three years in succession now, and the fifth consecutive year that the winner had also won its previous outing. In fact, the only ‘Fred Winter’ winner not to have been successful on its previous start was Dabiroun in the inaugural running (and he was beaten in a Grade 2 hurdle) but the race has now found its feet. On average, one-third of the field come into this race off the back of a win so it is not like the Weatherbys Champion Bumper, for example, where most contenders are coming off the back of a victory so I will be making this my number-one priority before I start looking at other factors. The success rate of last-time-out winners is also very much in-keeping with the Festival handicap hurdles in general since 1993 where almost half of such races (27-55) were won by last-time-out winners from under 20% representation.

ALL 6 WINNERS WERE BEATEN ON THEIR FIRST TWO STARTS OVER HURDLES

Sanctuaire fitted the profile on so many factors last season, another being the curious stat that every ‘Fred Winter’ winner had been beaten on its first two starts over hurdles. In fact, the first three horses home last season had been beaten on their first two juvenile hurdle races. That’s some stat when we consider that five of those six winners then won on their final start before the Festival which is remarkably similar to the chasing equivalent race at this meeting, the Cententary Novices’ Handicap Chase (formerly the ‘Jewson’). Perhaps it is not so curious a stat given that well-handicapped horses tend Continue reading →

Fink Tank Ratings & Value Bets

Posted on by Dan

Here are the latest value bets according to the latest Fink Tank Ratings. You can find some background on this test here.

Fink Tank provide predictions on football games based on their model which is roughly based around shot on target. The Fink Tank team found that shots on target was the best predictor of the outcome of a football game and when you rate this for various attributes you can have a reliable prediction model. For our test, we use the predictions from Fink Tank and only bet when the predicted % chance is better than the predicted chance implied by the available bookmaker odds. The bigger the difference, the bigger the value on offer in theory. Click on the image below for the weekend’s qualifiers

Table showing the fink tank games and the value based on bookmaker odds.

For the season so far, the Fink Tank ratings have proven to be effective, making a profit of 37 points from 1 point level staking for an ROI of 18% (Profit on turnover). Most of the gains have come from big value away winners.

For more tests of ratings services like this in sports from football to horse racing, check out how membership of Smart Betting Club could help you.