Posts tagged gambling

Boxing: Carl Froch beats Jean Pascal to become World Champion

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.

Portsmouth v AC Milan betting odds.

Tonight sees AC Milan traveling to Fratton Park to take on Portsmouth. Pompey are struggling to maintain a full squad with Jermain Defoe, Lassana Diarra,  Sol Campbell and John Utaka all injured. Sean Davis could also miss the match due to flu.

Kaka and Ronaldinho are both able to play for Milan but may rest if not needed. Philippe Senderos and Mathieu Flamini are expected to play which may worry Portsmouth goalkeeper David James. With Portsmouth’s main goalscorers out of action it may not be a particularly high scoring match.

Online gambling firm Bet365’s football betting page lists Portsmouth as 9/4 to win and AC Milan at 5/4. These would appear to be good odds for Milan in what I suspect will be quite a one sided game.


Women now gamble (almost) as much as men.

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.

Lewis Hamilton for Sports Personality of the Year?

Lewis Hamilton’s last minute victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix secured his place in the record books. He became the first ever Black driver to win the title as well and the youngest ever winner. It may also have been enough to secure the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

It’s been a great year for British sport with 47 medals being brought home from the 2008 Olympics. Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Rebecca Adlington all won multiple gold medals. This resulted in a 4th place overall for team GB and a lot of anticipation for London 2012.

Joe Calzaghe continued his undefeated run with victory over Roy Jones, Jr. on the 8th November, at Madison Square Garden. Having won the BBC prize last year however he is unlikely to win this year. Several sports men (and women) have won the award twice including Damon Hill and Henry Cooper but never two years in a row. It is not out of the question however, in fact on Bet365’s sport betting page you can get odds of 50/1 which might tempt me if it wasn’t for Hamilton’s amazing year.

It makes a change to bet on a sports awards show as it is more of a subjective matter than with football betting or horse betting where past form is taken into consideration.

Online Bingo

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.