It’s been a hectic week and a bit for current PDC Darts World Championship holder, Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor. Just over 10 days ago he came runner-up in the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, narrowly losing out to jump jockey, AP McCoy, then he had a first round match against Gary Mawson in the PDC Darts World Championship to contend with, plus in amongst all that he had the premature birth of his Grandchild.

Obviously, something jarred with Taylor after the match with Mawson, when he found out that match commentators, Sid Waddell and Stuart Pyke, where critical of his win. Since then Taylor has had several outbursts in the press and also dismissed Dane, Per Laursen, 4-0 in the second round.

Now Taylor faces the flamboyant Peter ‘Snake Bite’ Wright in the last 16 of the competition. The latest PDC Darts World Championship betting odds have outsider Peter Wright at 200/1 from SkyBet to win the competition. It’s would be an uphill struggle normally for Wright to overcome Taylor, but the task now seems mammoth for this colourful character after Taylor has vowed to show the commentary team (Waddell & Pyke) the full might of his dart playing abilities.

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Tell me, are England’s bowlers just so devastating or are Australia’s batting so woefully underpar? I’d like to think it’s the former as England cruise onwards after a more-than-convincing display against Australia in Day 3 of The Ashes Fourth Test.

The current cricket betting odds for England walking away with the Fourth Test pretty much reinforces the outcome of this Boxing Day Test. England are, at best bet, odds of 1/1000 from Victor Chandler, to finish as victors at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Ricky Ponting, Australia’s Captain, must be wondering where it all went wrong after his team emerged victorious from the Third Test to tie The Ashes series and rekindle Australia’s national love afffair with cricket. However, Perth was soon forgotten as Australia were humbled by superior bowling action from England and were all out for a whimpering 98.

England then showed the stunned Aussies just how to rack up the runs before Ricky Ponting finally lost it and verbally attacked the Umpire – even after Hi-Tec Video replays proved the Umpire was right – that could cost him his Captaincy.

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For most betting punters, one novelty bet we think about at this time of year, is Will it Snow on Christmas Day betting. Like most weather betting, it is purely guesswork. The UK has one of the most adverse weather systems on the planet. The saying, “4 Seasons in One Day” was probably borne to best describe the British weather.

There has been a trend over the last few years that we have seen the white fluffy stuff fall round about this time of year. But we’re concerned about betting on it snowing on Christmas Day 2010. For it to qualify as a White Christmas the bookies will look to the British Weather Service to confirm that indeed a solitary snowflake has fallen from the sky to any of the following areas during the 24 hours of Christmas Day :

London, Buckingham Palace; Liverpool, Albert Dock; Aberdeen, Aberdeen FC grounds; Glasgow Cathedral; Edinburgh Castle; Exeter, Met Office; Manchester, Granada Studios; Birmingham, Bullring; Cardiff, Millennium Stadium; Belfast, Aldergrove Airport; Leeds, Elland Road.

The Met Office weather forecast for Christmas Day is sunshine by day, but with severe frost overnight with the South East of England expected to receive either rain or snow.

If you’re interested in placing some free bets on if it will snow on Christmas Day then check out our White Christmas weather betting page for plenty of special offers from a multitude of bookmakers.

The draw for last 16 of the Champions League has been made and it’s a bit of a mixed bag for the 4 English teams remaining. New boys, Spurs, have a mouthwatering tie to look forward to as they take on AC Milan. Arsenal must overcome the mighty Barcelona. Chelsea fared better than the other London clubs by drawing FC Copenhagen and Manchester United have a tricky tie with French darkhorses Marseille.

Harry Redknapp will be hoping his team can maintain progression in this their rookie year in the Champions League. However, AC Milan (best betting odds of 22/1 from Betfred) will be staunch opposition for Tottenham. The San Siro will hold bad memories for Harry’s team when they were given a first-half lesson from AC Milan’s other stadium tenants, Inter. Spurs have had some great results at home, White Hart Lane seems like a fortress at the moment for visiting teams. If Tottenham (best betting odds of 22/1 from Sporting Bet) can gain a decent result from the first leg then they will have a convincing chance of reaching the Champions League Last 8.

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This weekend we will celebrate which artist has made it in to the 2010 Christmas Number One spot. Seems a bit strange to be debating this subject with Christams still a good bit away, but such is the nature of xmas #1 betting when we have Christmas falling on a Saturday.

So, whom are the contendors in the 2010 Christmas Number One betting stakes? Obviously, we have this year’s X-Factor winner, Matt Cardle running as the hot favourite to claim that Christmas Number One (best bet of 1/12 from Stan James). There is no massive movement out there this year on the online social scene which stole the Christmas Number One spot from last year’s X-Factor winner Joe McElderry.

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On Sunday night, after a rollercoaster 5 months, we’ll eventually have our new X-Factor 2010 winner. Either Matt Cardle, Rebecca Ferguson, One Direction or Cher Lloyd will win the coveted title plus a million pound recording contract and surely a crack at the Christmas Number One with the ‘Winners Song’.

I’m not too sure how the format of the 2010 X Factor Final will run, given the controversial decisions over the last couple of weeks, neither does those that work on the show either. Just ask Dermot O’Leary, who introduces the show, how fast the game changes day-to-day. Probably the 4 finalists will perform on Saturday, then at the beginning of Sunday’s show the finalist with the lowest vote will leave, another round of songs, then the person placed 3rd will leave and that will leave us with the top two performing their version of the 2010 X Factor ‘Winners Song’ before the final announcement is made. I think!

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This Saturday, December the 11th, sees the Grade 3 December Gold Cup, £150,000 purse, takes place at Cheltenham. Previously, the race has been known under a few sponsor banners, however this year it will be known as the Vote AP Gold Cup in support of Tony McCoy’s bid to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. Quite a nice touch, we think.

Those who have followed the December Gold Cup betting history will have noticed this is not a race for outsiders. Fact is that 10 of the previous 12 winners have all been single odd winners.

Hopefully, the weather won’t wipe out the December Gold Cup unlike many other meetings over the past week or so, which has seen the horse racing betting brought to its knees under this severe winter weather.

Early December Gold Cup betting favourites are Daves Dream (best bet of 11/2 from Boylesports) and Little Josh (best bet of 11/2 from Sky Bet).

Full runners and betting odds for the December Gold Cup (Vote AP Gold Cup) 2010 below…

The X-Factor finally grew up last Sunday evening and got rid of both Katie Waissel and Wagner Carrilho in a double eviction showdown. How on earth these two lasted 8 weeks on the show is anything beyond extraordinary – but it just goes to show how controversial the X-Factor 2010 betting has become this year. Perhaps, the show might be a little boring without these two characters – but, you know what? I can live with that!

On to Saturday’s live X Factor Semi Finals betting where the remaining 5 acts will fight it out to sing in next weeks grand Final. The remaining 5 acts are Matt Cardle, One Direction, Rebecca Ferguson, Cher Lloyd and Mary Byrne (or Marydoll as my Father has grown to affectionately call her).

Matt remains out-and-out favourite, with best betting odds of 8/11 from William Hill. Overall Matt’s performances throughout the show have been head and shoulders above the rest – OK, he has had a few wobbles along the way but even these less than 100% perfect performances still rank high above the rest, such is the magnitude of this lad’s talent.

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