TAB review Oct 5

[dave nz]

The week's large wagers

Rugby League and rugby were the sports that our bigger punters concentrated on over the past 7 days with the NRL Grand Final and another round in the ITM Cup.

The St George Dragons were the favourites to win their first NRL title in 31 years but they trailed the Sydney Roosters at halftime in the Grand Final.However, they totally dominated the second half of the match and finished up winning very easily.We had the Roosters at $1.80 at halftime and one punter couldn't resist that price and planted $34,534 on the losers. The best bet on the Dragons in live betting was $8,000 at $1.65.

Some mixed results in ITM Cup betting for punters with several games being determined in the last few minutes. One such game was Counties against North Harbour and Harbour could have won with the last kick of the game but it struck the posts. One greatly relieved punter, no doubt, had $26,980 at $1.28, on Counties.

Another game which was decided in the final minutes was Auckland-Hawkes Bay which ended 34 - all after the Bay missed with a last-minute penalty. We had $20,000 at $1.90 on Hawkes Bay and another $10,000 at $1.33 on Auckland. Of course, we paid half on both teams under our dead heat rules. Southland were the competition leaders starting the round but they were well beaten by Taranaki in New Plymouth which would have greatly pleased the punter who had $19,000 at $1.42 on the Naki. Not so good, though, were the bets on both Northland and Wellington. We took $18,309 at $1.45 on Northland to beat Waikato, which didn't happen, and $11,700 at $1.47 on Wellington to beat Bay of Plenty, which also didn't happen. However there were some successful wagers : $10,000 at $1.55 on Waikato to win , $10,000 at $1.12 on Canterbury to beat Otago and $10,000 at $1.75 on Manawatu to beat Tasman.

Plenty of big betting on sport overseas, mainly baseball, tennis and American football. The Major League baseball season is now into the post-season and two sides through to the last 8 are the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants.A couple of successful bets on these sides during the past week : $16,000 at $1.50 on the Yanks to beat the Red Sox and $12,000 at $1.45 on the Giants to beat Arizona.

Plenty of tennis tournaments on around the world at the moment and we've taken some significant bets over the past week. These were all winning bets : $15,00 at $1.08 on Ferrer to beat Tomic in Kuala Lumpur, $10,000 at $1.45 on Jankovic to beat Bonarenko in Tokyo, $10,000 at $1.14 on Zvonareva to beat Vinci, also in Tokyo, and $10,000 at $1.12 on Nadal to beat Kukushkin 2 sets to luv in Bangkok.

The NFL is now 4 weeks into its season but our biggest American football wager came on a college game. We took two lots of $10,000 on Oklahoma State to beat Texas A and M, which they did. The initial bet was at $1.67 and in live betting $1.06.