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Archive for May, 2009

Cricket Bets, Bats and Gambling

Monday, May 25th, 2009

PEOPLE have gone to prison or been fined huge amounts for insider share dealing – the ultimate white collar crime.

But as far as I know, neither Dennis Lillee nor Rodney Marsh served any time at all for backing England to beat Australia in the match that has been dubbed ‘Botham’s Test’ at Headingley back in 1981.

Lillee and Marsh, two of the stars of the Australia side which was already one-up in the five-Test Ashes series, reckoned they were getting good value, taking the 500-1 on offer by Ladbrokes; odds offered, incidentally, by Ladbrokes’ cricketing guru, Godfrey Evans, the be-whiskered former England and Kent wicket-keeper.

After all, England were on 105-5 in their second innings, still 126 runs in arrears and facing almost inevitable defeat, probably by an innings. Evans must have slept easily that night.

The two Aussies, both inveterate gamblers, knew it was a two-horse race and had ruled out the remote possibility of a tie. As Aussie captain Kim Hughes said afterwards: “They (Lillee and Marsh) thought the odds were too good to miss”.

In truth, 500-1 was probably not a great price, looking at the match situation. I’m sure Betfair’s fearless betting exchange punters would have offered the ceiling price of 1,000 (999-1) or more if that were permitted.

Over the next two days a rollicking century from Ian Botham, who finished on 149 not out and 8-43 from Bob Willis, turned the match on its head.

In retrospect, Lillee and Marsh didn’t ‘throw’ the match although South Africa captain Hansie Cronje – later to die in an air crash at the age of 32 – was found to have lost games for cash and provided bookmakers with ‘inside information’ about injuries and pitch conditions.

And any number of Indian and Pakistani players have been implicated in betting scandals with several ‘warned off’.

But that hasn’t stopped cricket betting growing at an enormous rate, fuelled by the growth of both the exchanges and the phenomenon that is Twenty20.

The latter form of the sport is cricket’s nearest equivalent to a football match-style event. It all happens at breakneck speed with the action on the pitch taking a maximum of two hours 40 minutes punctuated by a twenty minute break between innings and a short drinks break after ten overs of each innings.

Not surprisingly, in the game’s shortest format, the matches tend to swing wildly.

I was ‘trading’ an Indian Premier League game the other day, having backed one side at 1.98 ( a shade of odds-on) only to see them travel all the way out to 3 (2-1) before they hit back with three quick wickets and I was able to trade out for a decent profit. Holding one’s nerve is key in these scenarios.

There are plenty of people out there in exchange land who, over the last few weeks, have been sitting in front of a computer screen with a TV screen alongside it, watching Setanta’s excellent coverage of the games.

By the time the final came around there had been 59 games in a relatively short space of time – that’s 59 betting opportunities by my reckoning.

I’m not sure how long the Twenty20 revolution will last before it inevitably scales down a little, but for the time being you’d be silly to miss out.

STERLING BROOKES is the author of ‘Poor Johnny’, the tragic story of an Edwardian cricketer, available from the Association of Cricket Historians and Statisticians, priced £10. The ACS can be contacted at sales@acscricket.com or on 01529 306 272.

Posted in Articles, General, Sterling Brookes | 2 Comments »

Could you Stickk It? Diet Gambling?

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

It’s well said that there are two sureties in life ‘death and taxes’, but since time in memorial Man or Woman has also ‘gambled’ and ‘dieted’. So I wasn’t that surprised to see the two combined when I tuned into the BBC Morning news on television today and saw a news item covering a new fad called Stickk.

American website, Stickk.com, enables its members to create a diet game-plan which encompasses them betting that they’ll lose weight each week or pay money to a charity of their choice. Helping those that need that extra emphasis to keep to their regime the threat of losing money is off-set by the pay off and reward of losing weight, feeling fit and healthier.

There can also be a twist. Interestingly a member can search through the charities on offer and even choose an anti-charity cause to bet against, this is a charity perhaps one dislikes or doesn’t believe in, so if they don’t lose weight each week they end up giving money to something they are against.

Whether or not charities receive a lot of contributions from this method of dieting time will only tell, staying to a diet and regular exercise regime is not so easy for many, so no doubt some will gain from those members who do Stickk at it and perhaps for many years. Nice to see gambling and charity can work together harmoniously.

Stickk is one of many sites appearing in the US and has started quite a trend in offices across many states whereby work colleagues bet each other too on how they will do with their ‘bet diet’. Will it catch on over here in the UK? Well a few more promotions on the BBC and national press and it will be the summer’s new diet craze no doubt.

Posted in Articles, General, JC | 10 Comments »

Derby Defining Moments

Monday, May 11th, 2009

SOMETIMES one’s life is defined by those moments you can simply never ever forget. You know the sort of thing I mean. Where were you when… JFK was shot; JR was shot; John Lennon was shot; man landed on the moon; Elvis died.

For me, the Derby defines my life. My first memory of the great race was hearing Charlottown and Scobie Breasley winning in 1966. I was sitting in the car with my late father – the man who got me interested in the racing game – parked on the sea front at Blackpool all those years ago.

If I’m not mistaken it was the unique histrionic tones of Peter Bromley who called the 5-1 shot home. Then there was the shock of rank outsider Morston storming to victory in 1973 as an unconsidered 25-1 chance. Needless to say, I wasn’t on! Troy’s seven-length demolition job made spectacular viewing from my vantage point high in the stands in 1979.

Then there was 1981 – the year of the ill-fated Shergar. Starting at a shade of odds-on, Shergar, who was later kidnapped by the Provisional IRA, beat even Troy’s margin of victory. He had ten lengths to spare over his nearest pursuer Glint Of Gold.

After his kidnap, he was never to be seen again. What a tragic waste of a supreme equine talent. It would have been fascinating to see how his progeny would have fared on the racecourse. But six years before Shergar’s Derby came the one Epsom Classic I will always remember – for all the wrong reasons!

In those days I used to go racing with a friend from Romford in Essex. Always immaculately dressed, Wag – I never really knew his real name – was a fantastic judge of the form book and one of the best race readers I have ever come across. Wag and I thought along similar lines when it came to horseracing. We would meet up every Saturday on the embankment, near Charing Cross station, and off we’d go to the races – Ascot, Sandown, Newbury, Kempton, Lingfield, Epsom, wherever there was a weekend fixture.

As I say we read the form book in basically the same way. Often I’d start the car and the first question was always, ‘What you backing today? Nine times out of ten I could supply him with the answer. We usually backed the same horses – and we were quite successful too.So it came to pass on Derby Day 1975 that we made our way to the course determined to back the French horse, Green Dancer.

In the previous week, we had discussed the race several times and each time we talked the name Grundy figured at the top of our list. But, like many punters, we’d changed course by the time the race was due to be run and were both convinced Green Dancer would win. In fact, we were so convinced that we had even planned where we would be dining that night, using just a small proportion of our winnings. Champagne figured high on our menu.

We piled into Green Dancer – and we weren’t the only ones. The horse went off 6-4 favourite with Grundy starting at 5-1. I think you know the rest. Yes, Grundy won comfortably in the hands of Pat Eddery with Green Dancer palpably failing to stay and trailing home in sixth.

The slap-up meal was off the menu. Instead, we were forced to buy a portion of chips between us at the fair which always runs alongside the course during the Derby meeting. It’s never a good idea to change your mind when it comes to backing horses.A costly lesson, but one I haven’t forgotten to this day. Very often, in racing, like in life, first impressions are the best. Sometimes you can dig too deep when you’ve already hit pay dirt!

Posted in Articles, Horse Racing, Sterling Brookes | 2 Comments »