World Cup 2010 betting. It’s not over yet…
June 29, 2010
We’re entering the final phase of the 2010 World Cup and so far it’s been an eventful tournament.
The defending champions are out, the French stormed off with a collective gallic shrug and the English, yet again, failed to live up to media expectation. But it’s not all doom and gloom, there are ten more games to play, so lots more of the World Cup to bet on.
Brazil are still favourites to win the tournament but both Argentina and Spain have put in some solid performances and could produce an upset. Gonzalo Higuain leads the Golden Boot betting (he wears Adidas boots by the way, so they might be contenders for top scoring boot).
There haven’t been any sendings off during a shootout yet, but the dirtiest team so far has been Chile. Take a look at the rest of the betting opportunities at the 2010 World Cup with Smarkets.
Bet on the General Election TV debates
April 14, 2010
This is the first UK General Election where the three main party leaders are going head to head in a televised debate. Although criticised by some as reducing the campaign to a popularity contest, this style of debate has proved hugely popular in the US presidential elections.
On Thursday (televised on ITV) Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and David Cameron will share the stage for the first of three debates and we’re offering markets on them.
Bet on the size of the TV viewing audience and on which leader will ‘win’ the most debates (according to ICM).
We’ve also introduced some new markets to our General Election betting such as the contested incumbents and the result of Morley & Outwood, the first of the constituency markets.
The difference between a bookies and betting exchange
February 3, 2010
Ever wondered what the difference was between a high-street bookmaker and a betting exchange? This video explains what we see as the main advantages of market betting.
A lesson in Tennis trading
February 2, 2010
I stumbled across this post on the Bet Angel Blog. It’s a great illustration of how market trading works, and the risk of relying purely on data to predict an outcome.
In the quarter-finals of the recent Australian Open, Roger Federer lost 13 games on the trot to Nikolay Davydenko resulting in his odds to win at Betfair lengthening from 1.3 to around 3.7. He took a break and returned to court a changed man, beating Davydenko with relative ease.
[In a post match interview] Federer commented on how the sun was bothering him and how he couldn’t wait till it had cleared the court. He also, accidentally, revealed how he timed his ‘comfort break’ to allow him a chance to regain his thoughts and break the stride of his opponent.
If you had just been following the score, it’s unlikely you’d have taken such an outside bet on Federer, but if you could tell that the sun was bothering him, you would have made a tidy £27 profit on a £10 bet.
New markets added to Smarkets
January 8, 2010
We’ve battled through the snow and made it to Smarkets Towers to release some brand new markets. You can now bet on League One, League Two, Champions League and the FA Cup. That’s about sixty new teams and hundreds of upcoming matches for you to have a flutter on.
It looks like many of this weekend’s fixtures could be cancelled due to frozen pitches, but once the snow melts, it’s game on!
