Of course it has been a long wait since we have had much success with British Athletics betting. By that I mean exactly what “Smithy from Gavin and Stacey” said in his Sport Relief speech, proper athletics, the running type not the sitting down sports. Team GB failed to win a single individual gold medal at the previous European Championships.

However, Rooney has a battle on his hand to finish in the medal places, with Belgian, Jonathan Borlee, Irishman David Gillick, Frenchman Leslie Djhone and fellow Brit, Michael Bingham. With the London Olympics beginning to loom up from the shadows, it’s about time our athletes grabbed some gold at the European Championships, especially in the 400 metres. When you consider that Usain Bolt is eyeing this event as his next milestone – it may be the last chance we have for some time to win the Mens 400 Metres at any International Championships.

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Signs that Roger Federer is beginning his slide down from that grateful height he has risen to in those seven outstanding years where he dominated the game are evident. Murray could have won Wimbledon except he had to beat Nadal. And although Murray gave it his best, it just was never good enough to overcome the classy Spaniard.

Now, it’s hard court time at the US Open, a game much more suited to Murray’s style.

One of the more exciting sports spread betting campaigns is the Mens Tennis Major Performances scorecard from Sporting Index.

Points are awarded on the following basis:

Winner of a Grand Slam = 50 points
Runner up of a Grand Slam = 25 points
Semi-final of slam = 10 points.

The Spread for Murray to win a Grand Slam is 48-51. With Murray currently sitting at 35 (for 3 slams) there is a great chance he could make the final of the US Open (granted that Nadal is not in his part of the draw). If Murray does reach the final then he will at least accumulate a minimum of 60 points. That’s 9 more than the buying figure of 51 meaning if you bet £10 you would receive £90. However, if Murray only reached the semi-final of the US Open that would give his index as 45 points. 6 points under the margin at which you bought – 51, meaning you would lose £60 from your £10 stake.

Bigger risks, yes, but bigger pay-out’s without a doubt and much more exciting than fixed odds betting.

If you want to learn more about Spread Betting then check out’s Sporting Index’s Training Academy.

This year, Ascot sees Derby winner, Workforce, go head-to-head with Harbinger and it is sure to be a pulsating 1 mile and 4 furlongs for both horses with the winner taking it’s place in the King George roll of honour.

Betfair have increased the purse of this flat racing showcase to around £1,000,000 with the winner of the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes walking away with a cool £567,700.

Workforce (10/11) starts as pre-race favourite with much fancied stablemate Harbinger (5/2) sure to make life very uncomfortable for the Epson derby winner. As usual, you can get a selection of Free Bets for the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Betting from Free Betting Online.

Keep an eye out for Cape Blanco (6/1), ridden by Colm O’Donoghue instead of the suspended Johnny Murtagh. O’Donoghue has had previous successes with Group One races and is sure to make an impression with Irish Derby winner Cape Blanco.

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Chelsea, the current Premier League Champions are installed as pre-season favourites to win the Premiership again this season. Chelsea have been pretty quiet on the transfer front, off-loading Joe Cole to Liverpool while bringing in the talented attacking midfielder, Yossi Benayoun from Liverpool in a £3 million deal. Anelka also extended his contract with the champs after he was sent home from the despicable French camp during the South African World Cup.

Chelsea kick off their campaign with a home game against West Brom and Premier League betting fans should see this as 3 points in the bag ahead of their Premiership defence.

Prediction : Premier League Champions

Manchester United have bolstered their front line ahead of this year’s Premier League challenge. Mexico’s star striker, Javier Hernandez, is a welcome addition to the United squad. However, one feels that the sole reliance on Wayne Rooney to bag the goals in the hardest league in the world plus a decent assault in Europe – could see United fall short again come the end of the season.

Prediction : 3rd place in the Premier League

Arsenal have had a torrid summer amidst of the Barcelona pressure of wanting to sign their star striker, Cesc Fabregas. Arsene Wenger has been another who has been quiet in the tranfer window. Wegner has decided to bolster Arsenal’s defence by signing Laurent Koscielny from Lorient. Perhaps, Arsenal, are on of the most attractive teams in the league to watch, but they know they need a strong spine if they are to successfully launch a serious assault to reclaim the Premier League championship.

Prediction : 5th place in the Premier League

Liverpool are a team in transition. New manager, Roy Hodgson, has captured the signing of Joe Cole. There is some work ahead for Hodgson to transform this Liverpool team in to potential champions. However, when you consider that Liverpool had 4 players playing in the World Cup Final (Torres, Pepe Reina, Dirk Kuyt and Ryan Babel) then it may not be such a difficult job, as many would think, to have this team playing to their best, yet again.

Prediction : 4th place in the Premier League

Manchester City have a great chance of winning this Premier League this season. City have added to their squad this season by bringing in Aleksandar Kolarov (left back from Lazio), David Silva (winger from Valencia), Jerome Boateng (defender from Hamburg SV) and Yaya Toure (midfielder from Barcelona). City also recalled, Joe Hart from Birmingham, and may use the impressive keeper ahead of Shay Given. All in all, if Roberto Mancini’s City play as well as they look on paper, then Chelsea and co could get swept inside a light blue maelstrom, from which it may take years to overcome.

Prediction : 2nd place in the Premier League

Spurs where last year’s golden team. They played beautiful football at times and scored some stunning goals. Their reward was a champions League spot. Harry Redknapp has been linked with a few big names from this summer’s World Cup, yet no-one has entered through the White Hart gates. Striker Robbie Keane has returned from his loan spell at Celtic. You get the feeling that Harry is happy with his lot and welcomes big flight European football back to Tottenham.

Prediction : 6th place in the Premier League

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World Matchplay darts betting sees Englishman, James Wade, tucked nicely behind Taylor as second favourite. Wade was champion of the World Matchplay Darts championship, back in 2007 and beaten finalist in 2008.

Australian, Simon Whitlock, is enjoying a second-coming to the PDC circuit since his return back in 2009. Whitlock was beaten by Taylor, earlier this year in the final of the 2010 PDC World Championship. A fine show of form in the Whyte and Mackay 2010 Premier League Darts has seen Whitlock climb into second place. Could be one to watch, although, Whitlock has landed in the top-half of the draw, which means he has a potential clash with Taylor in the semis. Worth a gamble, though.

Raymond van Barneveld, has been drawn in the bottom-half of the draw, which means a meeting with Taylor would only happen in the Finals. The big Dutchman has, however, some decent names to overcome before a Final showing is even possible. Adrian Lewis, Mark Webster and Andy Hamilton are all likely opponents in the bottom half of the draw for the 2010 World Matchplay Darts tournament.

Others, worthy of a mention are Scotsman, Gary Anderson and Terry Jenkins (beaten finalist in 2007 and 2009).

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If you fancy some free bets on a non-Englishman winning the 2010 World Matchplay Darts championship then you can get odds of 10/1 from Betfred – but the last time that happened was way back in 1994 with American, Larry Butler, when the World Darts Matchplay was in its first ever year.

Tiger’s back but perhaps in body and not in spirit as he struggles to find the form that made him the World’s top golfer before his private life turned his life upside down. Tiger woods has been paired with Englishman, Justin Rose, and Colombian Camilo Villegas. Rose looks in good form heading into the 2010 Open Golf Championship with Ladbrokes offering odds of 25/1 for Rose to win the Open Golf Championship 2010.

Other British and Irish hopefuls include Rory Mcilroy, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell. Best of the rest betting opportunities lay with Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els.

Last year’s Open Golf Championship winner, American, Stewart Cink, starts at odds of 100/1 from Victor Chandler. If your really wanting a nostalgic bet, then why not opt for golfing great, Tom Watson, to lift the Claret Jug once more, Betfred are offering odds of 300/1 for Tom to become this year’s Open Golf champion.

As usual, you can sign-up to Free Betting Online newsletter (on the right column) and receive alerts and the latest free bets surrounding this year’s Open Golf Championship.

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English ref, Howard Webb, will officiate the Final. Perhaps, this might be the last final of the World Cup that is played without using technology.

Around the country, world cup betting will go into a frenzy tomorrow, so don’t miss out on the abundant amount of free bets and offers that the bookies have in store to celebrate the Spain Holland betting bonanza. An expected £50 million will be bet on Sunday’s final between Spain and Holland.

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Holland go into this match unbeaten in their previous 25 competitive games. Holland have a very balanced team compared to previous years, however the Dutch will need to be at their sharpest to quell Spain’s passing game. Holland have reported no injuries ahead of the Spanish match although their is a slight concern over their keeper’s ribs.

Spain are bookie favourites, and with Paul the Psychic Octopus also selecting Spain over Holland (the Octopus has chosen correctly every time) then it looks done and dusted and come tomorrow night the Spanish will be World Champions. Of course, football can very unpredictable at times and the World Cup Final can throw up some amazing results – remember France – Brazil 98?

I did predict Holland would win the World Cup when I wrote the World Cup Group Betting article, at the beginning of the tournament, and having watched every game that Spain and Holland have played in this World Cup – do I still feel Holland can be winners? Perhaps, it is because that Holland think more on the result than the performance (this Dutch team doesn’t do “Total Football”) rather than Spain’s psyche of ‘pretty football’ that I think Holland will become Dutch masters on Sunday night and Holland will be crowned the FIFA World Cup 2010 winners.

Button’s best ever finish at Silverstone was 4th back in 2004 and looking at the current bookie odds on Formula One betting, they don’t fancy Button to do any better this year with Victor Chandler offering a best bet of 8/1 for Button to win the British GP.

Of course we also have Lewis Hamiltion in contention – what might be the betting odds for a British one-two this weekend? It’s a thought on many British GP betting punters minds – it’s also only ever been achieved once before in Siverstone’s 60 year history. That was in 1958 with Ferrari’s British drivers, Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collin.

McLaren are introducing a specialised upgrade package for the rear of their cars ahead of Silverstone, which is rumoured to be worth an extra half a second per lap. Which always makes me nervous when I hear about upgrades prior to big races.

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Taking off the Union Jack sunglasses for a moment and looking at the rest of the pack – Red Bull look serious threats to scupper a great British weekend at Silverstone. Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber do look like competent force – alright apart from the Turkish Grand Prix where the pair cancelled each other out in dramatic fashion.

If your looking for Free Bets information ahead of the British GP betting then look no further than Free Betting Online. We have a host of new Free Bet deals to suit every sporting occassion – just sign-up to our newsletter on the right to receive updates on hundreds of free betting offers.

For Germany, this could be their year, having not won the World Cup since 1990 although they were losing finalists back in 2002. Spain, on the other hand, have nowhere near Germany’s World Cup pedigree, they may be current Euro Champions but they have never made an appearance in the final itself, their best place ever was 4th back in 1950.

Fifa World Cup betting fans will be weighing up the current form between these two European footballing super-powers.

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Germany have lost just once in their last 14 competitive games, that was a 1-0 loss to Serbia during their group qualifying match just over 3 weeks ago. Germany’s star players have all reported fit for the match and with Ozil, Mueller and Klose all in decent goalscoring form backed up by the influential playmaker Schweinsteiger it’s easy to say the Germans will score in this semi-final but the question must be, will they score one more than the Spanish?

Spain must be wondering when Fernando Torres is going to show-up for this World Cup. It is just as well for Spain that dynamic yet diminutive David Villa has been in excellent form. In fact Spain’s biggest stars at this World Cup have been their smallest players such as Villa, Iniesta and Xavi. The creative and intuitive threesome have been in blistering form that has seen them tear apart defences with their short passing game also known as “tiqui-taqua”. Spanish coach Vicente Del Bosque could throw a curve ball and play Cesc Fabregas instead of Fernando Torres although it is clear that neither stiker is playing to their 100% potential but instead Del Bosque must ask himself which striker could hurt the Germans the most and propel Spain in to their first ever World Cup Final.

Will it end in a draw? There’s a good possibility it could and looking at the Germany Spain betting you can get 32/10 for the draw from Ladbrokes. Of couse if you want more inside scoop on the Germany vs Spain game plus a host of information on the best Free Bets around then you should sign-up to the Free Betting Online newsletter.

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The newspapers are defining Holland as having been chosen to merit out some World Cup justice on behalf of the Ghanians and fair play fans everywhere. Everyone likes a good guys vs bad guys story and the majority of neutrals will be rooting for the mighty Dutch to come up trumps.

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However, you can get some lovable villians from time-to-time and I have no hard feelings towards ‘The Celeste’, despite Suarez’s handball. Uruguay have had a decent World Cup betting run, playing some good, clean football with both Suarez and Forlan in some excellent goalscoring form. With Suarez suspended, Forlan will be seen as the main goalscoring threat against a very solid Dutch defence.

Holland, seem on course for their first ever World Cup Final since 1978, and the possibility of lifting the trophy for the first time in their history. Their is an air of confidence in this Dutch side, well, I suppose if you had been unbeaten in 24 games you would have a bit of a swagger as well. However, that’s where Uruguay can be dangerous. The Dutch can be viewed as being arrogant after their famous victory over Brazil – however, beating Brazil doesn’t make you World Champions, especially when you have a team such as Uruguay waiting in the Semis with their win at all costs mentality.

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