TAB review Oct 18

[dave nz]

The week's big bets

Big bets at short odds, most of them winners, seemed to be the way it worked last week.

The biggest wager was $39,250 at $1.07 on Auckland in the ITM Cup to beat Otago, which they did easily. Also from the ITM Cup a couple of losing bets : $19,000 at $2.00 on Northland to beat Tasman, and $15,000 at $2.75 on a lineout being the first stoppage in the game between Hawkes Bay and North Harbour. From the same competition, some winners : $13,500 at $1.07 and $10,000, also at $1.07, on Canterbury defending the Shield against Counties, $10,000 at $1.08 on Bay of Plenty beating Southland, and $10,000 at $1.87 on Manawatu getting 16 and half points from Waikato.

The first goal in the Wellington Phoenix-Melbourne Heart game came in the first few minutes which was of no use to the punter who put $25,000 at $1.90 on the first goal to be scored after the 27th minute mark.

American sport is big at this stage of the year with baseball in the post-season, the NFL about a month into it's new season and the NBA about to fire up. Some bets from Stateside to report : $15,647 at $1.12 on the New York Jets to beat the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL ( winner ), $11,200 at $1.55 on the Phillies beating the Giants in game 2 ( winner ), $10,000 at $1.30 on the Wizards beating Atlanta in an NBA pre-season ( winner ), $10,000 at $1.77 on Tampa Bay beating Texas in game 5 ( loser ), $10,000 at $1.60 on Texas in the same game ( winner ), and $10,000 at $1.70 on game 2 between the Yankees and Texas being 9 runs or less. ( winner ).

Some significant bets to report from the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, all on hockey. $11,645 at $1.45 on England winning the men's bronze medal game against New Zealand ( loser ), $10,000 at $1.17 on Australia beating New Zealand in the mens ( winner ) and $10,000 at $1.22 on Australia beating India for the gold medal ( winner ).

Tennis punters were out in force last week and , without exception , they were happy with short odds on offer. These bets were all winners, $11,000 at $1.07 on Ivanovic to beat Strycoval in Linz, $10,000 at $1.10 on Bartoli to beat Voetele in Osaka, $10,000 at $1.07 on Djokovic to beat Garcia-Lopez in Shanghai, $10,000 at $1.07 on Peer to beat Doi in Osaka, $10,000 at $1.07 on Ljubicic to beat Zhang in Shanghai, and $10,000 at $1.07 on Date Krumm to beat Nakamura in Osaka.

The New Zealand cricketers plummetted to new depths when they were beaten 4-0 by Bangladesh in their recent one-day series. We took $10,000 at $1.30 on Bangladesh in game 4 and $10,000 on them at $1.95 in game 5. New Zealand did have support, surprisingly, because we took a couple of $10,000 bets on them in game 5 - at $1.15 and $1.10.