Free Bets

With so many free bets available from bookmakers now, you really have no excuse not to be prepared for an online sports betting campaign for 2008 to begin straight away in the new year.

Of course, with the January transfer window provocking lots of speculation in the football betting world, soccer has understandably always got something to offer with the domestic leagues, Champions League Betting and foreign leagues coupled with international fixtures. But, don’t forget about the upcoming six nations which is bound to attract some interesting opinions on who will be the favourite. With England’s fantastic progression in the world cup and France wanting some revenge - there is a powder keg waiting to go off in this tournament.

Needless to say, for Horse Racing fans, Cheltenham Betting for 2008 will probably top any year with Kauto Star having some hot new challengers this year and we don’t think he’s going to be favourite. Keep an eye on our Cheltenham Betting for speculation here!

We also found the Eurovision song contest a popular hit with our punters last year and we will continue to strive to give our customers and visitors the best in what is happening in the contest and who will be representing which country.

So for your 2008 sports betting calendar - keep an eye on Free Betting Online website so that you can make the most of the free bets around from the major name bookmakers.

A modern and entirely unexpected success on our TV screens in the last four years has been the phenomenon of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ which has then sparked a great deal of interest for bets being placed in the betting market. Following the ignominious demise of the outdated ‘Come Dancing’, a show watched by half a dozen ageing couples reliving their golden years at the Hammersmith Palais, it must have been a brave and visionary controller that gave this show the nod.

Followers of sports betting will have spotted one or two of their sporting heroes flinging themselves about the place on the show. Darren Gough, of all people, is credited with moving the show up a gear.

It’s a hair-raising process to engage in online betting for this event, now termed “strictly come dancing betting“. For all its veneer of civility there underlies a fierce competitiveness spiced with a satisfying undertow of cattiness. Bloggers record their frustration as talented competitors lose to popular TV faces. Judges impartiality is drawn into question wholesale and it’s a rare sports betting talent that can navigate these muddy waters and land the winner.

It’s all good fun and, after weeks of tears and tribulation, the show draws to a close this coming Saturday. Alesha is the bookies fave and will surely take the tiara. Matt D’Angelo lies a distant second in the bookies view - but then what do they know? In this melee of flamboyant emotional extravagance anything can happen.

Cricket Betting eagerly watches the third match of the Sri Lanka v. England series started yesterday at the rebuilt Galle ground, destroyed by the tsunami three years ago. The people of Sri Lanka can be proud of their efforts in returning this venue to international standards since the disaster occurred. The ground was recently re-opened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

England v Sri Lanka Cricket betting enthusiasts will join the Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene and England batsman Kevin Pieterson in observing the special and poignant commemoration that this test match represents. Many people who watched the last test here, four years ago, perished in the tragedy of the tsunami.

Unfortunately the start of the match was delayed by two hours due to a waterlogged pitch but play soon got underway in crushingly humid conditions. Sri Lanka got off to a shaky start, losing two wickets in the early overs. A third wicket stand of 88 looked like redeeming them but their recovery was thwarted by an  England fightback which left the visitors in a promising position when bad light terminated play for the day.

England went into this final test one down and a loss in Galle would push their ICC test ranking down from second to fifth. They will strongly resist such a fall in status and this, coupled with the return to form of various England players may provide online betting fans with an unexpected and valuable opportunity.

The draw for the third round of the English FA Cup was made on Sunday and has produced some interesting pairings. Sports betting enthusiasts will be scrutinising them for interesting online betting propositions.

One notable offering is the meet between Chasetown and Cardiff at the Chasetown home ground. Assuming the Chasetown team can get the time off work, this will be a classic FA Cup match where the outcome can never be sure.
This puts me in mind of a match I once watched with locals between Gretna and Rangers. One of my fellow drinkers observed that one of the Gretna midfielders would be substituted at around 4.10. I asked him how he could possible know only to be told that the player in question had to clock on at the pie factory at 4.30 and he would just about make it.
English footballers endure a punishing time during the Christmas period with approximately eight matches contended. Fans of football betting or, indeed any online betting, will be advised to take note of injuries and how these will affect teams going into the third round on the first weekend of the New Year.

Teams with European aspirations will also be worth watching, notably the Manchester United v, Aston Villa contest which could see a reduce MU team fielded.
The Third Round is probably the football equivalent of the Grand National and offers lots of fun wagers. Time now to take advantage of all those free bets on offer for opening accounts with the online bookmakers.

Test Cricket. Sri Lanka v. England   (2nd test ended today, Thursday and 3rd starts next Tuesday)

Things are shaping up badly for England in the Test Series against Sri Lanka and cricket betting fans will perhaps have to look to individual performances or spread betting to hold their interest in the third Test. Having lost the first of the three and scraped a draw in Colombo, England go to Galle with a seriously uphill task to even the series and save face.

Apart from the huge threat from the bowling of record-holding Muralitheran, the ground at Galle was completely devastated in the Tsunami tragedy on Boxing Day 2004 and the first day of the third test match will be all but the third anniversary of the tragedy and the first game played there since the ground was completely rebuilt. It will be a poignant moment and Sri Lanka will be desperate to win as a commemoration to their lost fellow country folk.

Hope might come from the budding return to form of Cook and Pietersen and Harmison seems to have rediscovered his aggression while captain, Michael Vaughan is looking more solid by the day.

England have played well in this series and their current dire state has to be put down to the excellence of the Sri Lankan team. What’s more, England team confidence will be low when they get to Galle and grounds for optimism for a win, among online betting enthusiasts, are shaky indeed.

It’s very easy to be scornful and critical of TV shows such as ‘The X Factor’ so let’s get on with it! Shrewd X-Factor betting enthusiasts will know for themselves that stars are very rarely ‘discovered’ out of the blue. Most of today’s enduring entertainers came from a few years of hard work paying their dues in the studio and on stages in front of near empty theatres before being recognised as people with a genuine talent and commitment to their work.

ITV’s ‘The X Factor’ is largely a vehicle for the career development of the four judges and the enlargement of the bank account of the television company behind it. What’s more, the involvement of the public in the voting can only lead to more distortion of the result because they tend to bring in sentiment rather than a cool industry eye.

Having said that, the show can be fun and not without relevance to online betting. The four judges sponsor three each of the twelve finalists and so the outcome is as much a joust between them as it is the ‘artistes’. This year’s final three will battle it out for the top prize on Saturday although the operatic ‘Rhydian’ is far and away the favourite leaving the contest very much an issue of second place.

Each performer sings with a star and, dramatically, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan will be reunited on stage for the first time in ages. Kylie sings with ‘Leon’ and it will be left to you to decide who has the best bum. Jason accompanies ‘Same Difference’ who are neck and neck with ‘Leon’ on most online betting sites. ‘Rhydian’ sings with the Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins in what promises to be the outstanding kitsch-fest of the year.

The 2007 UK Championship, after the World Championship, is the second most prestigious event on the snooker betting circuit, Enthusiasts of online betting will be glued to their television sets over the next few days struggling to identify the likely winner of the individual matches or, indeed, the event itself.

Things have changed since those days of clarity in the eighties and nineties. First it was Steve Davis who ruled the roost until he was eventually knocked off his perch by the unflinching Scotsman, Stephen Hendry.
Later, in the nineties everything changed. Along came a flood of players, all seemingly capable of winning the top prize. The godlike figures of Davis and Hendry were swept aside by this torrent and sports betting was left floundering by an army of talent which defied the bookies in their efforts to set the odds.

The era of the one horse race was over. Perhaps fans of spread betting, where you can back losers as well as winners were oblivious to all this while the rest of us prayed for a hero to emerge from the throng.
Perhaps, at last, he has. For the first time since Hendry took seven world titles in the nineties we see a figure emerging from the mist; someone who has not only the depth of talent, but the consistent strength of mind, to steadily pull ahead of the pack and stay there.

Sports betting will agree and devotees of online gambling should follow one name and that name is Ronnie O’Sullivan. Despite recent concerns over his performance, O’Sullivan cruised into the final eight after a shattering 9-1 defeat of world number 21, Mark King. If he can repeat this kind of form in his quarter final match with Jamie Cope he will undoubtedly be the hot favourite to clinch the title.

The BBC presents its Sports Personality of the Year Award on Dec 9 this year and has announced the shortlist of ten contenders for this prestigious accolade. Sports betting enthusiasts will have the chance not only to vote for their heroes but also to wager on the outcome of the contest with the many online betting sites offering odds on the outcome of the public vote and free bets for new accounts applicants.

Lewis Hamilton is the bookies’ favourite with Ricky Hatton in second place. Twenty four hours before the BBC show, Hatton is in Las Vegas to challenge Floyd Mayweather for the Welterweight title which many regard as the fight of the decade. Online betting offers a variety of opportunities to wager on this contest. Welsh hero, Joe Calzaghe is another great boxing contender for the BBC award.

Paula Radcliffe and Christine Ohuruogu represent the world of athletics while golfer, Justin Rose, motorcyclist, James Toseland, tennis star, Andy Murray and England rugby stars Jonny Wilkinson and Jason Robinson complete the candidates.

More than thirty top sporting experts were asked to provide their top ten of outstanding athletes for the year and the shortlist is a distillation of the names put forward. Those interested in sports betting should know that there are three current world champions and three runners-up on the list and they come from a total of seven sports. The sharper eyed among you will notice that, for the second year running, there are no footballers on the list.

This week, THE hot topic in the world of online boxing betting is the forthcoming Las Vegas encounter between welterweights,  ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd Mayweather and Ricky ‘the Hitman’ Hatton. This fight will be shown on Sky Box Office on Saturday night – seconds out at 2am.

Billed by some as the fight of the decade, and with each fighter standing to lose his undefeated run of victories, the winner will earn a place among the greats of boxing history. As is usual, a war of words precedes the actual event with the American asserting that Hatton is a mere ‘street fighter’ and Mayweather being described by our own man as ‘totally full of himself’. Of course, they each regard themselves in the highest esteem with Mayweather claiming to be ‘better than Ali’ and Hatton awarding himself the ‘best fighter in the world today’ accolade.

Sports betting is offering odds on not just the outcome, win, lose or draw, but also, on some online betting sites, a price for the number of rounds etc. Lennox Lewis reckons that Hatton can take the supposedly unbeatable Mayweather but will have to do it in four rounds. Hatton really believes he can win and observes that British boxing is on a roll right now with seven world champions – and many of them will be there in Vegas to watch his fight.

A diverting addition to the offerings of online betting sites is the television show, ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here’, or, as it has been sometimes called, ‘I’m Not a Celebrity, Get Me in There’.

This is one of those modern day ‘Big Brother’ spin-off reality shows that offer the opportunity to observe the behaviour and performance of people under so-called, ‘real life’ conditions. Often in other than ‘real life conditions’ each candidate strives to win by impressing and endearing themselves to the viewers and seeks to remain as a contender in the show by obtaining the daily voting support of the general public.

Participants live in a rat-and-insect-infested camp in a clearing in the Australian jungle and are subjected to ‘Bushtucker Trials’ which include being showered with cockroaches, eating cockroaches and other ‘delicacies’, swimming with snakes and crocodiles and high-wire acrobatics which force contestants to confront their fears and win meals for their fellow  campers.

This year, young participants from the likes of Hollyoaks, Eastenders and unmemorable bands together with older challengers from the world of football, modelling and public relations were outflanked by the aging and rotund outsider, Christopher Biggins, a personality who initially appalled but then won everyone over with his irresistible capacity to be genuinely decent to everybody and to laugh in the face of all adversity. The American Model, Janice Dickinson was also initially a repellent creature that ended up revealing many charming and endearing qualities.

Sports betting, or rather, events betting enthusiasts have not been slow to wager on the outcome of the show and are only too ready to take on the online betting sites offering odds on the winner and the outcome of various other elements of the show.

Unlike the normal sporting events available for sports betting, ‘people watching’ shows such as this offer the opportunity to test out our ability to assess personality aspects of contestants that may or may not appeal to the public. These factors include sexuality, physical beauty, emotional and intellectual intelligence and physical fitness combining to make an intriguing cocktail by which your capacity to judge winning potential will be tested to the full.