Bet365 Betfair

Sampdoria – 3.80 Sampdoria – 4.30
Inter Milan – 2.00 Inter Milan – 2.08
Draw - 3.30 Draw - 3.35

AC Milan – 1.33 AC Milan - 1.36
Bari - 11.0 Bari - 11.5
Draw – 4.50 Draw – 5.30

Juventus – 1.22 Juventus – 1.3
Bolgona – 13.0 Bologna – 15
Draw - 6.00 Draw – 5.8

Here you will see that Inter Milan are given 2.0 and 2.12 for the win. These are about as long odds as you can expect for League favourites, so this would be a good bet. Though the draw might be a good option, because the bookies have clearly taken into account team form stats and away-game stats.

Bet365 Betfair

Real Madrid – 1.11 Real Madrid – 1.12
Tenerife – 21.0 Tenerife – 40
Draw - 8.50 Draw - 11.0

Malaga – 11.0 Malaga – 12.0
Barcelona – 1.28 Barcelona – 1.29
Draw – 5.00 Draw – 6.4

D Coruna – 2.40 D Coruna – -
Villareal – 2.90 Villareal – -
Draw - 3.30 Draw – -

The most interesting aspect here is that Betfair doesn’t even actually list the Deportivo vs Villareal match as an option for a wager. This is indeed the most fascinating match from the Primera Liga this weekend, so that is disappointing from Betfair. You would need to look up team news and form stats for the two teams to viably wager on one team or the other though.

Bet365 Betfair

L’pool – 1.14 L’pool – 1.16
Hull – 23.0 Hull – 34
Draw – 7.50 Draw – 8.8

Stoke – 8.50 Stoke – 10.5
Man Utd – 1.40 Man Utd – 1.41
Draw – 4.50 Draw – 5.10

Fulham – 6.50 Fulham – 7.60
Arsenal – 1.53 Arsenal – 1.57
Draw – 4.00 Draw – 4.10

Liverpool are annoyingly short for the win, while Hull might be a good bet at such ridiculously long odds, saying as the manager’s career rides on a result. Consider the draw at least, but if you do go for the safer option try Liverpool for a win in an accumulator.

Later I’ll take a look at the odds offered for European League matches, to see if the difference is the same across all the major Leagues on offer.

A nice way to do this is to pick five teams you feel are definitely going to win. In this way it won’t matter if the odds given are incredibly short in, for example, an Arsenal vs Birmingham game where the odds for Arsenal to take all three points in a win might be as short as 2/9. If you throw five selections like this onto one bet slip and choose a four-way option it means there are five different outcomes with four winners each, all which will bring you more money than if you trebled your stake and bet on each separately. Choose wisely, though, as football can be a funny old game!

For example, take a look at the odds offered for the 3pm Saturday kickoff of Liverpool v Burnley, 18 hours before the match kicks off. Although both Bet365 and Betfair offer the same odds for the home team (Liverpool) to win, the odds given for the draw and Burnley to win are significantly different-

Bet365: Betfair:
Draw – 6.5 Draw – 7.6
Burnley – 15.0 Burnley – 22.0

This is not exclusive to one match however. Take a look at these three matches for the coming weekend (I should explain now that, unfortunately, due to Betfair restricting its users to use of decimal odds I must do the same here to enable comparison)-

Man City v Arsenal
Bet365: Betfair:
Man City – 2.87 Man City – 3.05
Draw – 3.25 Draw – 3.5
Arsenal – 2.5 Arsenal – 2.56

Stoke v Chelsea
Bet365: Betfair:
Stoke – 9.0 Stoke – 10
Draw – 4.5 Draw – 4.9
Chelsea – 1.4 Chelsea – 1.42

Wigan v West Ham
Bet365: Betfair:
Wigan – 2.37 Wigan – 2.46
Draw – 3.25 Draw – 3.45
West Ham – 3.1 West Ham – 3.2

Although there is never much difference in the odds offered for the favourites to win, the recurring theme seems to be that the odds given for the long bet will be much more satisfying on Betfair. I’m going to keep looking over the next few weeks at which site offers the best odds, bringing in further market analysis. Let me know if you find even longer odds on another sports betting site. Has anyone tried out Betfred’s sports section?…

Even though the line is supposed to make a bet a 50/50 prop, you know where to place your money. Sacramento, Miami, Phoenix……looks like safe money to me.

Anyway, if you did know me you’d realize that I don’t much like writing about other websites. I’m not the kind of shill to write about some website to try to get you to sign up. And I’m not trying to get you to sign up with BetBug.com. It’s P2P gambling. Online.

I can hear you scratching your head. P2P gambling? Huh?

P2P means “peer to peer” and if you already are familiar with that then skip ahead. For the rest of us, that means that files are stored in multiple places and are downloaded from them all at once. KaZaA does this, and BitTorrent invented it. It helps eliminate the load on a server that has a particular video, for instance. It’s the method that most illegal downloading takes place.

But how does this apply to gambling????

I’m glad you asked.

BetBug is one of a couple of P2P gambling sites that appeared late 2004 and are just now getting all the kinks worked out. They don’t take 10% juice on the front end like most sports books, and they don’t take it on the back end of the losers like most real books (ahem). They take a small percentage of the total transaction. Similar to how the house rakes 2% of the pot in a poker round. So what? Well, now the entire spectrum of gambling is open to you.

You wanted to place an over/under bet on the first half of the Women’s NIT champiopnship game? Aw. Good luck finding that action. Unless you’re hooked into P2P. Now you can float your own bet out there. I’m not sure if BetBug allows this but other P2P carriers do – I mention BetBug today because I got an email from them telling me that if I deposit $100 I get a $25 bonus and if I deposit $200 I get a “free Las Vegas Vacation.”

But I’m sure you can see where this is going. Everyone is their own bookie. Before with BitTorrent and other P2P file sharing everyone was their own file server and music distributor. Now you too can be your own private oddsmaker. Tease the Seattle/Minnesota baseball game with an over/under on Shaq’s shooting percentage. Give odds on the Astro’s record for the season. Even bet on who dies first in the next Harry Potter book. ANYTHING IS AVAILABLE TO YOU WITH THIS and has the infinite powers of turning anyone into “out of control gambling guy.”

Good luck – look out.