TAB review June 23

[dave nz]

The big bets over the past week were generally on track and so it was those with $5, $10 and $20 to spend who tended to miss out. Ironically many of those smaller punters were again happy to take France over the All Blacks in the second test, a tactic that succeeded the week before and very nearly did again.

There was plenty of publicity the week before for the punter who invested $200,000 on the All Blacks at short odds and there was a good deal of speculation as to whether he/she would be back for the second test. Unlike Dunedin the bet came late but it did come. $120,000 at a lay price of $1.25 and again there must have been some extremely nervous moments throughout the game for the investor. The only other significant bet on the All Blacks was $10,000 at $1.30. There were no bets of over $1,000 recorded on the French but ticket sales on them again far outweighed those on the All Blacks for the second week in a row. Punters were a little wary of the first test between the Springboks and the Lions probably because many of the Boks hadn't played for over a month and as a result the Lions build up games could be considered as a bit soft. The Springboks started with a hiss and a roar and established a huge advantage only to see the tourists fight back and create a nail-biting final 10 minutes. The biggest single bet head to head in the match was a losing $5,000 at $3.30 on the Lions. However we have taken a couple of bets on South Africa winning the series, which they could do as early as this weekend. They are : $10,000 at $1.30 and $8,500 at $1.27. We have been able to do live betting, and will continue to do so, in the Pacific Nations Cup being staged in Fiji. The Junior All Blacks scraped through their opening game against Samoa but had an easy second round win over the host nation. We took bets on the Juniors in live betting of $10,000 at $1.13 and $7,000 at just $1.04.

Baseball is the only major sport currently being played in the United States and there was plenty of betting action around over the past week. The week's largest wager, $100,000 at $1.23 on the NY Yankees to beat Washington, was successful, but the punter wouldn't have wanted to follow up the next day, or the one after, because Washington won the next two and the series. The Boston Red Sox are having another good season but they let one punter down by losing to Florida in one of their gamnes last week. The bet on Boston was $30,000 at $1.42. In the same game another losing wager : $9,210 at $1.87 on the match producing 9 runs or less. A winning baseball bet : $10,000 at $1.75 and $13,000 at $1.67 ( from the same punter ) on 10 runs and under in a game between Baltimore and the New York Mets.

Because of State of Origin it was a somewhat reduced round of games last week in the NRL. However there were several sizeable wagers with mixed results. $50,000 at $1.20 on the Bulldogs beating Penrith ( winner ), $5,000 at $1.97 on the Bulldogs winning that match by 13 or more ( loser ), $10,000 at $1.70 on the Cronulla Sharks beating the Brisbane Broncos ( winner ) and $10,000 at $1.10 on Manly beating the Canberra Raiders ( winner ).

Other successful bets to report : $10,000 at $1.30 on South Africa to beat New Zealand in the Confederations Cup, and $10,000 at $1.06 on the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic to beat the Canterbury Tactix in the ANZ netball championships.