Words About Things

Last Saturday saw Carl Froch overcome Jean Pascal to take the title of WBC Super-Middleweight Champion of the world. A packed Trent Fm Arena in Nottingham (Froch’s home town) watched as he boxed 12 rounds in what is being called a classic fight. Like all good fights it was well balanced with both sides putting on a great show. Froch dominated more rounds than the French-Canadian Pascal but it was certainly not one-sided.

Froch’s jab eventually wore down Pascal who nevertheless remained standing and gave almost as good as he got. Despite being of a slighter build Froch took some massive hits but stayed steady.

“Carl’s the most exciting fighter in world boxing and he didn’t have to take risks like that. What he’s done is going to make him a marquee star because not only did he beat a brilliant challenger, he beat him in style.”

Mick Hennessy

Froch has said that he was injured in training prior to the fight but refused to postpone despite having a cracked rib and a perforated eardrum. His next aim (as it has been for years) is to take on Joe Calzaghe before he retires. Froch is confident that he can defeat the Welsh Dragon.

“They traded like old-fashioned gladiators. The first five rounds were thrilling, and after Froch appeared hurt in the fifth and sixth, a superb assault in the seventh round appeared to break the 26-year-old Pascal’s self-belief.”

Gareth A Davies

Froch’s odds on various sport betting and online gambling sites were around 4-9 to win which makes sense considering his record, unbeaten in 24 professional fights, with 19 knockouts. Video of the fight can be seen here.

As it begins to get colder and the decorations start to go up our thoughts turn to plans for Christmas day. How best to visit everybody (and potentially get Christmas dinner at each house) and how to make sure you aren’t the one who ends up driving (start drinking first). It’s also the time of year when the bookies start paying close attention to the weather reports for the annual White Christmas bet.

Even those who play online poker and online casino take a break from calculating their stats to weigh up the odds of snow. Sport betting fans look back at the weather’s latest form and horse betting fans actually want bad weather for once.

The BBC Weather site is forecasting widespread rain but they say that everyday (and they’re right most of the time) although I suspect that this is based on pessimism rather than meteorological expertise. Bet365 is offering odds of 3/1 for Glasgow to see snow on Christmas day and 13/8 for Oslo. London has odds of 13/8 for snow and Birmingham 5/1.

New figures show that women now gamble almost as much as men. Traditionally gambling was a male pastime but a gradual change has occurred. Now 88% of men have placed a bet and so have 83% of women.

The rise of less traditional forms of online betting such as online bingo has played a big part. The fact that horse betting is more mainstream than ever before is also important. Horse betting is seen as a family day out and is massively popular around the time of the Grand National.

Even games which have been traditionally seen as aimed at men such as online poker and online roulette are being enjoyed by more women than ever before. Sport betting and football betting are even seeing increasing numbers of female betters.

If you ever watch television then it can’t have escaped your notice that you can now play bingo online. There must be quite a crossover between people who watch Coronation Street and those likely to play bingo. Each ad break seems to feature at least one ad for online bingo. The stereotypical Coronation street watcher and bingo player would be a middle aged housewife I guess. Seeing as I am neither middle aged or female I have never played Bingo. The fact that Coronation street is actually one of the funniest programs on TV got me wondering if other things I had dismissed were also worth a try.

I’m acually more of a fan of sport betting (in particular football betting) but my predictions for last weekends Arsenal match were way off target so perhaps I should look for other ways to battle the odds. Online poker is fun but quite complex so perhaps I will have to give in a try online bingo.