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 If you put R100 on the Proteas and the Springboks both winning their World Cups this year you would pocket a cool R4400 in a few months time, that is assuming they win of course!
With the festive break now just a distant memory it is time to turn our attention to 2011 and the all important task of making money at the bookmakers expense.
I have done plenty of soul searching and betting analysis over this period and I hope that I am well set up to take on what promises to be a momentous year with the expanded Super 15 and both the cricket and rugby World Cups.
The real form study for those events is yet to begin however for patriotic punters out there I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the sort of odds you could get for a local double.
The Proteas are 6/1 to win the Cricket World Cup and it is interesting that they are 5th in the betting with all of India, Australia, England and Sri Lanka ahead of them. I say this because the recent trend has been for us to go in as favourites and the form team only to fluff our lines at the crucial moment. This year though the expectations are lower and perhaps with some of the pressure off the boys can pull through?
Moving to rugby and no surprises that we find the hosts New Zealand 1/1 favourites ahead of Australia at 4/1 and the Springboks at 11/2. That’s 5 and a half to 1 you are getting on the defending champs and I suppose the question being asked by punters (and the reason for the generous odds) is do we have a management team that can take us all the way?
That is up for debate but if you do fancy a dream year for South Africa the double works out to 44/1. If you stick a R100 bet down and we win in India in March you will stand to make R4400 should we defend our title in New Zealand. A speculative play indeed but one that will give you a nice interest for the next couple of months at least and it is not as if you have to break the bank.
I have not yet decided whether I will be tempted by the long odds but one punt I do fancy is the Lions to finish ahead of the Cheetahs in the Super 15. You can get 1/1 with World Sports Betting and in my view that’s a cracking bet to kick off 2011.
This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 12th of January 2011.
Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Thursday night from 22h00 – 22h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet and to get on his free weekly e-mail list just send a message to brent@goodforthegame.co.za titled “Best Bets”.
You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/brentgraham or get on his mailing list by dropping him a line at brent@goodforthegame.co.za
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