TAB review June 3

[dave nz]

Mixed blessings for the rugby bookies in the past week as the Bulls thrashed the Chiefs and took out the Super 14 title for 2009. The Bulls winning of the competition was always going to be a good result but in the match itself there was a heap of support for the South African side. Our biggest wager was $70,000 at $1.35 on the Bulls and we took another $25,000 at $1.37 as well. Other winning bets on the Bulls : $16,295 at $1.35, two lots of $10,000 at $1.35 and also $10,000 at $1.33. The biggest single bet on the Chiefs was $5,000 at $3.15 while there was a winning wager of $1,000 at $12.00 on Lelia Masaga scoring the first try of the final.

There have been some significant upsets at the French Open tennis so far and by far the most surprising was when Raphael Nadal went out to Robin Soderling. That result was bad luck for one punter who put $20,000 on Nadal at just $1.10 in live betting. Other big bets, all winners at short odds in live betting include: $20,000 at $1.05 on Safina to beat Rezai, $20,000 at $1.01 on Gonzalez to beat Ha, and $20,000 at $1.01 on Serena Williams to beat Wozniak.

By recent standards it was a quieter week for our bigger investors in the NRL - they might be holding their bets for the opening State of Origin match. The largest bet was the $21,563 at $1.37 on the Dragons to beat Penrith, which they did. A couple of significant losing bets : $10,000 at $1.48 on the Parramatta Eels to beat Cronulla and $10,000 at $1.40 on South Sydney to beat the Canberra Raiders.

Punters who spend big money on Amereican sports had a good week. Baseball and basketball were the major targets but there were also some reasonable wagers on ice-hockey. These were all winners : $13,400 at $1.47 on Denver downing LA in the 4th game of their NBA series, four winning bets on the Cubs and Dodgers scoring 9 runs or less in their MLB match , they were : $12,625 at $1.82, $11,150 at $1.62, $10,000 at $1.70 and $10,000 at $1.65. The NBA finalists have been sorted out with Orlando and LA set to fight it out in a best-of-seven series but the divisional finals that lead up to the finals were hard fought. In game 4 of the Lakers - Nuggets series there was a winning bet on the Nuggets of $13,400 at $1.47 while in the same series we took a winning bet of $10,000 at $1.35 on the Lakers. The Detroit Red Wings are currently engaged with Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup final but on their way there they had to dispatch Chicago. In game 5 of that eries the Red Wings were the winners and landed a bet of $10,000 at $1.35.

A couple of random bets to finish with: $18,100 at $1.25 on the Melbourne Vixens to beat the Firebirds in the ANZ netball championships (winner), $11,000 at $2.85 on Barcelona to beat Manchester United in the Champions League final (winner) and $10,000 at $2.80 on Prince of Wales to win the Castletown Stakes at Foxton (loser).