Sports Trader

The Mighty Mighty Aston Villa are up against Spurs tonight in a fixture that has a lot of promise with both sides pushing for European qualification.

My prediction is that there are going to be a lot of goals in this match up and the odds look really attractive for those with a risky appetite:

From World Sports Betting:

• 2-2 (15/1)
• 3-1 (18/1)
• 3-2 (25/1)
• 2-3 (35/1)

I’ve put a few bucks down on each of these permutations.

Come on Villa you good thing!

7 days until the kickoff of the 2010 Super 14 competition and it looks like the bookies are expecting a pretty open contest this year.

Here is the betting at the moment:

Crusaders - 3/1
Bulls - 5/1
Brumbies - 5/1
Hurricanes - 8/1
Sharks - 9/1
Chiefs - 10/1
Blues - 12/
Stormers - 12/1
Waratahs - 12/1
Western Force - 50/1
Highlanders - 80/1
Cheetahs - 100/1
Lions - 125/1
Reds - 125/1

I have put money down on the Stormers (My team) as well as the blue boys from Auckland - I think that those odds look really good and both sides are in with a shout this year.

Roll on the Super 14!

Another big weekend of Premiership soccer is here with the Arsenal vs. Manchester United game likely to be a season -defining moment for these two powerhouses.

It has been a good premiership season with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United all pushing eachother hard - been quite enjoyable from a punters perspective as well with some nice upsets and some really competitive fixtures.

I’m slightly in favour of Manchester United but its tough to rule out home-ground advantage for The Gunners. We’re calling either 1-1 or 1-2 to United

Here are our picks for the weekend:

Saturday fixtures
Birmingham vs Tottenham - Draw (1-1)
Fulham vs Aston Villa - 0-1 or 0-2 to Villa
Hull vs Wolves - 1-0 to Wolves
Liverpool vs Bolton - 2-0 or 3-0 to Liverpool
West Ham vs Blackburn - 1-0 West Ham
Wigan vs Everton - 1-1 or 1-2
Burnley vs Chelsea - 0-2 or 0-3 to Chelsea

Sunday Fixtures
Man City vs Portsmouth - 1-1
Arsenal vs Manchester United - 1-1 or 1-2 to United
Sunderland vs Stoke - 1-1

It looks like the MotoGP experts are expecting a two-horse race this year with Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi being priced to slug it out.

They’re both trading at 5/2 favourites with the bookies with Rossi seeming to edge slightly ahead depending on where you go and look.

* Jorge Lorenzo – 5/1
* Daniel Pedrosa – 6/1
* Ben Spies – 18/1

make up the rest of the field.

Rossi is my pick this year but there is not much separating him and Stoner…

The return of Michael Schumacher has added a bit of spice to the 2010 Formula 1 (F1) season and the bookies still reckon that the German Maestro still has what it takes.

Here’s the betting according to local sports betting operation World Sports Betting:

• Lews Hamilton – 2/1
• Fernando Alonso – 3/1
• Michael Schumacher – 4/1
• Sebastian Vettal – 5/1
• Jenson Button – 7/1
• Felipe Massa – 9/1
• Nico Rosberg – 12/1

Interestingly they are offering odds on Bruno Senna – 150/1 – who is the nephew of Ayrton Senna. Last I heard there were still questions about whether or not Senna was going to have a confirmed ride in 2010 but at those odds its worth a small punt.

My main pick for the season is Vettel who was backed by Bernie Ecclestone as the man to watch in 2010.

Any thoughts on who is going to stand out this year?

The third test match is here and the Proteas are smarting from the hiding they took in Durban.

You can see that Graeme Smith is not a happy man and I’m expecting the Proteas to finally come to a game switched and ready to scrap. When this SA team has its back to the wall and is taking flak from supporters and the media alike they tend to bounce back … and hard!

With the first innings I am backing either Graeme Smith or Ashwell Prince (no announcement has been made that he won’t play) to top score for us. I’m getting odds of 3/1 for Smith and 5/1 for Prince.

Smith is likely to lead from the front and Prince is too good a player to get himself bogged down after two bad performances.

For the English I am backing Jonathan Trott who I got at 5/1.

C’mon the Proteas.

…. does one back West Ham to beat Chelsea today considering the upsets yesterday?

 Hhhhmmm looking at West Ham’s form, you can’t see them beating Chelsea but then one would have said the same thing about Fulham or Portsmouth yesterday.

I think it might not be the worst punt or to even back a draw on these two going into Christmas.

Yes please! Liverpool down, Aston Villa wins and believe it or not Fulham even managed to give Manchester United carrots.

I missed this last night but I believe that Mark Hughes has been sacked as the Manchester City boss… the year hasn’t really worked out for them in quite the way their big spending backers would have liked.

Just on the subject of managers, I am not totally up to speed on what managers signed what but somebody was saying last night that part of the reason why Rafa Benitez can’t be fired as the Liverpool manager is because he signed a new contract last year and Liverpool would need to pay him out a massive amount if they tried to fire him now?

I reckon Liverpool will battle to beat Portsmouth today.

Maybe I am just being a bit nasty but things just aren’t going their way at the moment and Portsmouth fans won’t miss any opportunity to remind the men in red about this.

C’mon Portsmouth!

… you good thing!