WNBA Championships 2013

By October 2013, a WNBA champion will be crowned as the winner of the Eastern Conference meets the winner of the Western Conference. The Indiana Fever defeated the Minnesota Lynx to win the 2012 championship. Despite being the defending champions, Indiana is not favorite to repeat. That distinction belongs to the Phoenix Mercury. Here is a look at the championship chances of the Mercury and the rest of the league’s top teams.

Phoenix, a perennial power, had a down year in 2012 thanks to injuries. That led them to the No. 1 pick of the draft, where they drafted 6-foot-8 center Brittney Griner. With an expected lineup that includes Griner, former MVP Diana Taurasi, and All-Star Penny Taylor, WNBA general managers picked the Mercury to win the title. Phoenix, however, started the season losing its first three games and picked up its first win with Griner sidelined. Also, Taylor started the season on the injured list as she recovers from knee surgery. Which Mercury team will we see for the rest of the season? Will it be the preseason favorites or the one that started slow out of the gate?

Minnesota looks to win the title this year after coming up short last season. The Lynx has a championship pedigree, winning the 2011 championship. They have two of the league’s best players in Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus. Add a solid role player like Lindsay Whalen and Minnesota has the makings of a true team. Their experience and talent can’t be overlooked and that is what makes them a contender for the WNBA championship.

Indiana is a team to watch in the Eastern Conference. They rode Tamika Catchings to the title a year ago and she is capable of carrying them to the promise land once more this year. Helping her out is the steady play of Katie Douglas and the improved play of Shavonte Zellous and Briann January. It will be important for Douglas, who has had back problems, to stay healthy and the Fever just might be able to repeat.

The Los Angeles Sparks lost last season in the Western Conference Finals and looks to get a step further this season. Candace Parker remains the main attraction in L.A. The 6-foot-4 forward/center is one of the most versatile players in the game. The addition of Lindsey Harding will help to take some of the pressure off Parker and Nneka Ogwumike will look to be even better in her second season in the league. Throw in Kristi Tolliver and Los Angles will make noise in the west.

The Connecticut Sun fought their way to the Eastern Conference’s best record a season ago, before being upset in the playoffs. Tina Charles and Kara Lawson form a dynamic duo in Connecticut. They got off to a slow start at the beginning of the season, but are good enough to overcome it and have playoff success.

Two teams that are dark horses are Chicago and Atlanta. The Sky has Epiphanny Prince and potential rookie of the year Elena Delle Donne. The Dream has Angel McCoughtry and a little nucleus that went to back-to-back finals in 2010 and 2011. Both teams started the season winning four out of their first five games.

Basketball Betting

Mayweather v Alvarez

The boxing world came alive recently after its biggest star, Floyd Mayweather announced his next opponent. Mayweather has been criticised in the past for failing to deliver the fights that boxing fans craved the most, notably the bout with Manny Pacquiao that never materialised.

However, things changed when he announced on Twitter that ‘I chose my opponent for September 14^th and its Canelo Alvarez. I’m giving the fans what they want’.

Canelo Alvarez is only 22 years of age but has already notched up 42 career wins, and has yet to be defeated. 30 of these wins have come via knockout, and the young Mexican star is a fierce fighter who likes to attack his opponent with hard body shots and knockout blows. At 170 pounds, he is 20 pounds heavier than Mayweather, giving him the edge in both age and weight.

The fight will take place in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand and there will be multiple belts on the line. Alvarez’ WBC and WBA super welterweight titles along with Mayweather’s junior middleweight and welterweight titles will all be up for grabs. There is still some debate as to which weight the fight will take place at, with a catchweight of 152 pounds suggested, but both fighters are willing to put everything on the line.

Boxing experts agree that this fight is a threat to Mayweather’s career unbeaten record of 44 wins without a loss. He is now 36 years old, a veteran in boxing terms, and he has not faced such a quality opponent at the peak of his power in his more recent bouts. One of Mayweather’s key strengths has always been his speed, but when the fight takes place in September he will be approaching his 37^th birthday, and his lightning quick reactions have to slow down someday.

Whatever happens in the fight, Mayweather has silenced his critics who have accused him of hand picking inferior opponents. Should he win the match-up against Alvarez, his legacy as one of the greatest fighters of all time will be cemented even further. However, there is a chance for a young Mexican star to claim victory and stake his claim to be the latest legend in the sport.

Boxing Betting

Arsenal v Tottenham season betting

One of the great rivalries of English football is the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham. There is no love lost between the two of course, and both have been establishing themselves as genuine top four clubs. At the close of the 2012/13 Premier League season it was the Gunners who took supremacy by just a single point over their great rivals. Both finished the season with the same amount of wins on the board. However, Arsenal still had a bigger upper hand in terms of having a far superior goal difference and that is an important thing as well to consider when looking at markets like Season Match Bets, in this case Arsenal v Tottenham betting.

Arsenal have the experience of finishing ahead of their North London rivals for a long time now and that is naturally going to put them in ascendancy in 2013/14 Arsenal v Spurs Season Match Betting. The aspect of the entire season that you are looking at for this one is who will finish above the other. That is it, who gets the upper hand of the two big North London clubs over the duration of the season? Ultimately in the bigger picture, the winner of this particular two horse race will likely be the ones who sneak their way into the Champions League places next season. So the North London rivalry usually has even bigger importance on it than just bragging rights of course.

Both sides were in good form towards the end of last season and both can take huge positives into the new season with them. Arsene Wenger, who was under heavy fire at the beginning of last season, turned things around without capturing any big signings, using his resources and tactical prowess to power Arsenal to a top four finish. Tottenham meanwhile under Andre Villa-Boas, often looked a little lightweight up front, but produced some tremendous quality midfield play. However, the star of the show, more often than not was Welsh winger Gareth Bale and if he is around for the entirety of next season, then that could be the defining factor of Tottenham’s season.

But for a couple of season’s now, Tottenham have been pushing forward in the right direction, definitely closing the gap on their rivals. So the Gunners do have the edge in Arsenal v Tottenham Season Match betting, but it should again be one of the more intriguing battles of the new Premier League season. With more and more frequency, the North London supremacy of Arsenal is coming under threat from the rising power that is Tottenham. Can Spurs take another step forward in their development and use their disappointment of just missing out on a Champions league spot at the end of the 2012/13 season to push on?

Lions Tour Rugby Union 2013

The British and Irish Lions will be taking on Australia in a three Test Series in what promises to be a momentous battle Down Under. The Lions have actually taken on some supremacy for winning the series outright after Warren Gatland assembled a very promising looking squad for the tough tour. So while the British and Irish Lions look to have a very good and realistic chance of coming away with a famous win, who are going to the be the ones to step out in the starting fifteen to take on the Wallabies in the first of the three Tests? This is a great rugby betting angle to take a look at. Gatland as a 37 man squad to choose from.

The Lions have taken fifteen victories from their last 20 Test matches against Australia since back in 1899, so they are in pretty good shape. The initial squad of 37 named by Gatland included 15 Welsh players, 10 from England, nine Irish representatives and three Scottish players. Naturally there will be a bit of shuffling in the numbers as injuries start to mount up and replacements drafted in. Wales’ Sam Warburton was handed the role of captaining the squad and so, as long as he is fit, will naturally be one name going down on the team sheet for the opening Test match against Australia. So that’s one concrete Welshman in the Test side.

There is a clear divide in the betting markets for the country with the most starters in the first Test. Wales are more likely than not to have the lion’s share of the Lion’s places, trading as overwhelming favourites. But how many Welsh players will get to start the 1st Test? The confidence of the Welsh is high after winning the Six Nations earlier in the year. Under 7.5 Welsh players to get the start is trading at odds of 10/11, while Over 7/5 is being offered at odds of 4/5. It is in the back line that the Welsh are most likely to dominate, with a clutch of players like Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies and Alex Cuthbert and George North pushing for starting places on the wing. Leigh Halfpenny may be hard to leave out as full back as well, after top scoring in the Six Nations.

England have some good options to fill spots in the starting line up but may struggle to take precedence over the Welsh and Irish players. England are trading at Under 3.5 players to start the first Test against Australia at a price of 4/9, while going over that mark was being offered at Evens. The Welsh are likely to fill most of the positions in the initial Test side, but Ireland have a very realistic chance of posting more starting players than perhaps the English do, and Irish players Under 3.5 is trading at odds of Evens, with over that mark being offered at around 8/3. With Scotland taking so few players, they are at odds of 6/4 to have over 0.5 players starting the first Test.

Rugby Union Betting

US Open Golf 2013

The 113th edition of the US Open Championship will be teeing off between June 13th and 16th at the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. This will be the fifth time that the US Open has been hosted on the club’s East Course, the last time being in 1981 when David Graham took the title. So it will be time to look at the second Major of the year and the golf betting markets will be running hot, with activity not only coming in pre-tournament outright winner bets, but on other markets like Match Bets, Top European, Winning Nationality and Place Markets. These are generally the places where more value is found in than trying to pick winner out of a major field.

Naturally a lot of attention will all be on Tiger Woods as the world waits to see whether or not he can get another Major under his belt. Of course, he is a previous winner of the US Open, having won the event three times before. The last time that Woods was in the winner’s circle was back in 2008 at Torrey Pines in California, following up on his 2000 and 2002 victories in the Major. Woods has been in outstanding form on the PGA Tour in 2013 and will naturally tee off as favourite. Naturally, with the tournament moving home, it’s hard to nail down form. Woods carded only a share of 21 as last year’s US Open, but he has landed four top six finishes in the last six attempt at the tournament (including the 2008 win).

So there will be a lot of money going down on Tiger Woods for the 2013 US Open golf betting, especially after his share of fourth at the Masters this year as well. Having picked up four titles already this season, and being the FedExCup points leader, he is the big name with all of the form. America’s Webb Simpson took the title last year at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, finishing one over par. But two of the last three US Open titles have been won by non-American’s (Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy). In fact, six of the last nine editions of the US Open have been won by a non-American.

However, it will be the home talent which dominates a fair share of the favouritism for the forthcoming US Open. There are big momentum players like Brandt Snedeker, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar and Billy Horschel who will have their fair share of backers going into the action. So it may be worth rolling with an American for the Winning Nationality market. There are some seriously strong options in there. But Australia's Jason day and Adam Scott are both worth watching at the Majors, time and again both showing up well. On the European front, the world is waiting for Rory McIlroy to get back into his world-beating stride in order to initiate the McIlroy v Woods rivalry everyone wants to see at the top of a Major leaderboard. Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Justin Rose and the in form Graeme McDowell all represent superb value in the Top European market for 2013 US Open golf betting.

Golf Betting

The Special One Returns

One of the big summer highlights this year will be what Jose Mourinho does at Stamford Bridge. The Special One returned to former club Chelsea after being let go by Spanish giants Real Madrid after what was a fractious season for them. With Chelsea appointing former Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez as interim manager last season, fans saw that as an act of disrespect, and were calling for Jose Mourinho to come back. It was Mourinho who ushered in the era of Chelsea’s most successful period in their history. He is back for more and the bookmakers have been set on high alert.

Will the Mourinho factor take effect next season? He took Chelsea to league titles, he put cup silverware in the cabinet and he attracted some big names to the club. He left a tremendous legacy at the club, which they haven’t looked back from really. But they need some tweaking and no doubt, Mourinho will dip into the summer transfer market. This will be in order to try and pull in some of the missing pieces of Chelsea’s puzzle, that will get them back into the position of being a Premier League title contender again. Will Mourinho bring back success?

Chelsea have been trading as favourites in the ante post FA Cup betting for the 2013/14 season, having proven themselves to be one of the best cup sides in recent times. Mourinho only got his hands on the FA Cup once though during his first spell at the club and it probably won’t be his highest priority at all. Less so, the Capital One Cup, again a football betting market in which Chelsea are trading as ante post favourites. In his first press conference back with Chelsea, Mourinho said that his big target was winning the Champions League with the club.

The Blues, like everyone else are well behind Bayern Munich and Barcelona in that market. The return of Mourinho did spark bookmakers to trim the odds on Chelsea taking the Premier League title though, and the time could be right for Chelsea to strike in that betting market. Mourinho could be returning at the right time. With the influence of Sir Alex Ferguson having left Manchester United to face a new era, and Manchester City bringing in a new manager with no Premier League experience, will Mourinho’s proven EPL title winning experience ahead of the other two give Chelsea the edge? It is a fascinatingly interesting scenario. 

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