Listening to people in my local last night, it’s easy to get the impression that the top-four English clubs have now attained such a superiority in European football that a repeat of last year’s Champions League Cup semi-finals, which included three English teams, is now almost inevitable. Over-optimistic football betting enthusiasts might like to think somewhat more soberly about this, however, before getting too excited about our chances of at least two of our exalted teams.

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The 2008 Beijing Olympics was a stunning show by the Chinese to the International community highlighting that when it comes to putting on a show the Chinese spare no expense. From the glitzy, phenomenal, opening ceremony to the beautiful purpose-built venues, Beijing did itself proud. Sure, there were some hiccups along the way with little girls being replaced by prettier, miming counterparts, Chinese Olympic judges developing a new points scoring system where only the Chinese athlete picked up points and not their opponent. But those are easily brushed under the big red carpet when looking back fondly at the 2008 Olympics. You wonder, just how-on-earth, London 2012 is supposed to follow that!

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As Big Brother 9 enters the final furlong, leading to the finishing post on Friday week, big brother betting fans are faced with an unusually bunched field with favourite, Kathreya, unexpectedly falling behind as housemates jostle and elbow each other out of the way to grab the prize of £100,000. After the twins were pipped to the post by Brian in BB8, nothing can be sure, especially when the eccentricities of the public vote are the deciding factor.

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This Sunday sees the first of the Scottish Premier League’s Old Firm derby matches and as usual the build-up to this game is already under way. It’s no surprise, to say there is no love lost between these two Scottish giants. Both Rangers and Celtic have been at loggerheads with each other for over 120 years. For those football purists out there that love their football played with guile, skill and agility – best stay clear of this match. This has more to do with passion than football, rivalry dug so deep and brimming with a dark undertone.

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With the Democratic Convention opening in Denver, Colorado there is renewed interest among political betting enthusiasts about the prospects of Barack Obama in the race for the White House, which culminates in the Presidential election in November. Hugely successful with voters in his appeal for change, Obama must now look to putting the ‘meat on the bones’ by outlining his policies and satisfying the question lingering in the minds of many Americans, ‘change – but change what?’

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The Ryder Cup 2008 is taking place at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, and its sure to be a cracking event. Team USA are trying to stop the rot after seeing Europe lift the trophy on the previous 3 meetings. But, as all Ryder Cup betting fans are aware, it is going to be tough for the Americans with the European players on top of their game right now. However Team USA are in their own backyard this time and its pretty fitting to see that they picked a golf course named after a ‘great hall’ in Norse mythology where the vikings celebrated victory of battle with their gods.

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England football fans are left wringing their hands, once again, after England’s sad performance on Wednesday night against the Czech Republic. This was Fabio Capello’s third match in command of our home team and football betting enthusiasts are gradually realising that the long awaited saviour has not, in fact, arrived and that things seem pretty much the same as they were under Steve McClaren. Perhaps the recall of David Beckham was the first worrying sign.

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There’s been at a lot of talk among the Olympic commentators about TeamGB and the relative strength of the Beijing GB squad compared with our national efforts in previous years. Some sports betting fans might be revelling in this while others, and I include myself in this, are feeling a bit uneasy about commandeering the success won from years of effort and self-denial put in by individuals and somehow attributing it to our qualities as a nation.

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Sporting achievement and British success are not normally found in the same sentence together. But something wonderful is happening in Beijing at the Summer Olympics 2008. Unbelievably, Team GB has climbed to third in the overall medals table sitting comfortably with 15 Gold medals in 11 days of events. Only China and the USA sit above Team GB. And to put things into a greater perspective, if the USA had not the amazing Michael Phelps, who has won 8 Gold medals in the swimming, on their team, Team GB would be sitting 1 medal ahead of the Americans (at the time of writing).

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The Premiership kicked of this weekend and, at the end of it, football betting enthusiasts are no nearer any insight into how the top four will shuffle themselves this season. Manchester United were unconvincing against a probably temporarily resurgent Newcastle United while Chelsea gave a pretty self-assured account of themselves in their rout of Portsmouth. Arsenal and Liverpool trod water in their encounters with West Brom and Sunderland.

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