Boxing Jean Pascal v Lucian Bute

Two of Canada’s most popular boxers will do battle December 7. Jean Pascal will meet Lucian Bute for the fledgling WBC Diamond light heavyweight title. Bute who is most famously known for being a former super middleweight titlist is making the move up to light heavyweight. He has fought previously at light heavyweight before. Bute (31-1) is a two-time NABF light heavyweight titlist, including claiming the belt his last time out against Denis Grachev. That win for Bute was a rebound performance following the only loss of his career, a fifth round TKO thanks to the hands of Carl Froch. Still, Pascal is the naturally bigger guy and will likely carry his weight better.

Pascal (27-2-1) also has a loss to Froch and was also coming off of a loss his last time out. The defeat he was trying to put in the rear view mirror was a unanimous decision loss to Bernard Hopkins. Pascal ended up getting a 10th round unanimous decision win over Alesky Kuziemski. Just like Bute, Pascal has also held super middleweight titles. In a match up of fighters with similarities, a difference maker might be the amount of power the fighters have. Bute has a higher KO percentage, getting 24 knockouts in his 31 wins. A total of seven of those knockouts have come in his last nine fights. On the other hand, Pascal has 16 knockouts in his 27 wins. Only one of those knockouts came in his last seven fights. The argument can be made that Pascal has fought a higher quality of fighter throughout his career, but the edge in power still goes to Bute.

This piece of news might foreshadow a little of what to expect in the fight. The left handed Bute will try to stalk Pascal and catch him with his body shots and deadly left uppercut. Still, it will be interesting to see how the taller Bute will get inside of Pascal. Bute, who is 6-foot-1, has a two-inch height advantage over Pascal and will have a hard time getting inside. For his part, Pascal will try to get in position to use his left and right hooks to stem Bute’s advances. It will be important for him to navigate the ring to avoid getting into careless exchanges with Bute. While Pascal can take punches and has a very good chin, he could lose the fight on points if Bute finds too much success on the inside.

The fight will take place in Montreal. Pascal, who will be 31 years old come fight time, grew up in the Montreal area after coming from Haiti when he was 4 years old. The 33-year-old Bute, who was born in Romania, gained his Canadian citizenship last year and just like Pascal has fought the majority of his career in Montreal. It will be interesting to see whether the crowd pick a side or show equal love for both fighters.

Pascal was installed the early favourite in the fight that was supposed to happen last May, but was postponed after Bute injured his hand.

Jean Pascal v Lucian Bute Odds - Jean Pascal v Lucian Bute Betting

Belgian Grand Prix

The 2013 F1 Belgian Grand Prix betting should produce some pretty interesting options. Teams will get a bit of a chance to collect themselves following the Hungarian Grand Prix, which was won by Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes before the running of Belgian event. The rise to his first ever win in the Mercedes for the former World Champion Hamilton, was seen as a bit of a shake up on the season. For the Belgian Grand Prix which will be running on August 25th, 2013, Hamilton will now be seen by many as the main challenger to the dominance of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel for the season. But with punters picking up some new interest in the English driver to push forward for the F1 Drivers Championship title, it may be worth only focusing on the races at hand and not looking that far ahead.

The form and prowess of Red Bull's three time World Champion Vettel cannot be overlooked of course. From the opening ten races of the season, Vettel only failed to make it onto the podium in three of them. So it is unlikely that over the remainder of the season he is going to be so far out of the points that he is going to lose his grip on his chase for his fourth world title in a row. Heading to the Belgian Grand Prix, Vettel was holding a 48 point over Hamilton in the standings, and wedged between Vettel and Hamilton, there was still the presences of Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso as well, who had the jump on Hamilton in the points standing.

Granted, Hamilton has been pushing his way further and further into contention, taking Pole Positions and the win at the Hungaroring should have been a tremendous boost of confidence for himself and the Mercedes team. So focus should be on him taking race wins, or even podium finishes before looking at him taking the F1 Drivers Championship, which is still a very long shot. Hamilton is a previous winner of the Belgian Grand Prix, taking the chequered flag first in 2010. Given the form that he carries forward from Hungary, he may be well worth backing. But heading to the next race of the 2013 season, it is German driver Vettel who is still heading the field for Hungary.

Vettel, just like Hamilton is a previous winner of the Belgian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver won in 2011 and he took second place last season in the race. So it is unlikely that he will be too far away from a win in the next edition, because he has the car and he has the team behind him to get close. Vettel will be strong in the Pole Position and Outright Winner markets for the 2013 F1 Belgian Grand Prix. The other name who should be in the mix will be Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen who has started to come back into form. The Finnish driver has a tremendous record at the race as well, taking the title four times in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009, so he has a great affinity with the course. The Lotus could be the one to spring a surprise here.

Belgian Grand Prix Odds - Belgian Grand Prix Betting

World Series MLB

The 2013 Major League Baseball Worlds Series will take place in late October. Teams from both the American League and National league look to make the Fall Classic that pits the respective leagues’ winners against each other. Last year the San Francisco Giants swept the Detroit Tigers four games to zero in the best-of-seven series to claim the world title. Nearly halfway through the season and Detroit was the favourite to not only get back to the World Series, but to win it.

The Tigers have quality pitching and hitting. Justin Verlander is the big name on the mound. The 6-foot-5, 225 pound Verlander is a strikeout machine generally registering more strikeouts than innings pitched. Still the Tigers have more than the former Cy Young Award winner on the mound. Anibal Sanchez, Max Scherzer, and Doug Fister are all quality starters. At the plate for Detroit is the all-everything Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera led the AL in batting average, home runs, and RBI last season (the Triple Crown) and is in the running to win the Triple Crown again this season.

Other teams with good odds to win the World Series are fellow American League standouts Texas, Oakland, and Boston. The Texas Rangers lost star outfielder Josh Hamilton, but are still making noise out in the AL West. Adrian Beltre, Mitch Moreland, and Nelson Cruz have picked up the slack for Hamilton leaving. On the mound for Texas, Yu Darvish is one of the AL’s best. The Oakland A’s, who edged out Texas for the division last season, is in contention again this season. Oakland third baseman Josh Donaldson is having a strong second year. He, Brandon Moss, and Yoenis Cespedes are carrying the A’s offence. They are backed by strong pitching from a resurgent Bartolo Colon. After starting the season 0-2, the 40-year-old Colon has been one of the most effective pitchers in all of baseball. The Boston Red Sox are getting back to their winning ways this season. Mainstays David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia lead a balance Boston offence, while Clay Buchholz is having a season reminiscent of his 2010 breakthrough campaign.

Pittsburgh, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Cincinnati are all teams to watch as well. They are also National League clubs. The Pittsburgh Pirates have gotten good pitching this season. Starter Jeff Locke and closer Jason Grilli have been especially good, while Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez, and Starling Marte have hit the ball well. The Atlanta Braves have been winning thanks to a strong start by Justin Upton and great play from Freddie Freeman. They also have balanced starting pitching and a great bullpen.

The St. Louis Cardinals made it to the NL Championship last season before losing. Helping their cause this year are starting pitchers Adam Wainwright, Shelby Miller, and Lance Lynn. Also, the bat of Carlos Beltran remains live as he spearheads the Cardinals offence. The Cincinnati Reds have plenty of offence of their own. Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips, and Shin-Soo Choo are capable hitters. Plus Johnny Cueto, Mike Leake, and Mat Latos are the beginning of a good starting rotation, while Aroldis Chapman is feared coming out of the bullpen.

Other teams to watch as possible World Series winners are the New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks and Baltimore Orioles just to name a few.

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Shanghai Masters Snooker

The 2013 Shanghai Masters will be the third ranking even of the 2013/14 season with a massive purse of £80,000 going towards the winner. The Shanghai Grand Stage will again the host of this snooker world ranking event and it is Scotland's John Higgins who will be out to defend his title. This will also be the second world ranking tournament held in china this year, following up on the Wuxi Classic back in June. There was a run to the final of the Wuxi Classic for John Higgins as well, stringing together some good form before he was stopped in the showcase match 10-7 by Australia's Neil Robertson. After not making it then to Australia for the Goldfields Open, the second ranking event of the year, the Scot will be keen to get back in the driving seat. However, last year's win was his first at the Shanghai Masters and no player has yet managed to defend their title at the event since being introduced in 2007.

Last year's losing finalist Judd Trump will again be one of the strongest names in the market. He will take some favouritism heading to China, despite not having won this event before. But he could be motivated after only missing out a deciding frame in last year's final. He will have extra to prove in China as well because his visit to the Wuxi Classic earlier this year ended in a shock first round defeat against home talent Li Hang. He missed out on the Australian Goldfields Open too but may use his memories from the Shanghai Grand Stage to get himself towards the title this time around.

England's Mark Selby is one of the front runners as well alongside Trump and Robertson in 2013 Shanghai Masters betting. Selby has won the Shanghai Masters before, taking the title in 2011, and it was another deciding frame which settled it, this time against Mark Williams. Selby showed some decent form at the 2013 Australian Goldfields Open where he was stopped in the semi finals by eventual winner Neil Robertson. That was a vast improvement from the first ranking event of the season, the Wuxi Classic, where he lost his qualifying match against Andrew Pagett.

The other obvious name to take into serious consideration is that of Neil Robertson, who has been pounding out consistent snooker for most of the year. He posted a title against John Higgins at the Wuxi Classic this year and posted a 147 break as well during the qualifying stage. Then at the Goldfields Open, Robertson went to the final there, but was upset by Marco Fu 9-6 on that occasion. But again, it all points to Robertson being bang on top of his game on ranking tournaments, and will be heavily backed for this one, especially after his win in China earlier this year, and he also won the China Open at the back end of last season as well. Trending pretty well out east.

Selby, Trump and Robertson do look to be at the head of the game at the moment, and tagging along on their coat tails is John Higgins. The rest of the field is playing a big of catch up, but of course, while those are the strongest bets you can take, the value will come in long shots like Ding Junhui on his home soil, and others like Graeme Dott and Barry Hawkins. Ali Carter, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Dominic Dale are the only other players to have won the Shanghai Masters besides Higgins and Selby.

Shanghai Masters Odds - Shanghai Masters Betting

England Cricket V Australian Dominance

With England's cricket side looking favourites to take control of the Ashes series during the summer, if they secure victory there, how much fight will the Australians have in them for the rest of the Tour? Of course, all the prominence, excitement and build up has been on the famous Ashes series, with England looking to keep their hands on that important little urn. After winning the first two of the five tests, there was something of a fight back from the Australians in the third Test, but with the tourists needing to win all three of the five tests to get the Ashes back, they remained heavy underdogs to secure a famous comeback. It will only be a short time before the end of the year when the two old rivals go head to head again for the next Ashes Series, this time on Australian turf.

However, before all of that happens, there is more to the Summer Ashes Tour than just the five main matches between England and Australia. The Test Series has taken some heavy bets on the outcome, but there will also be a T20 Series and One Day International Series between the two sides to come. So even if England wrap up the Test Series early and even if they put the Australians to the sword in the series by a heavy score line, there will be chances for the Tourists to get some kind of revenge in the other formats. Australian's Test betting line up has been heavily critiqued, but will they flourish in the T20 or ODI series against England?

It could all come down to confidence. If Australia fail to get a win on the board at all in the Test series, their morale would expectedly be low, and England's tails would be massively up. However, England, even on their own soil are such an unpredictable and, it has to be said, laborious One Day International side that the Aussies could just throw everything at and cause an upset. The Australians are trading as underdogs in each of the other series as well, because England should be happier on their own flatter tracks, where their swing bowlers can gain some huge advantages. But again, the batting plans in England's One Day International game has looked a bit flawed to say the least.

England did play Australia at the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy in the group stage and won the match convincingly by 48 runs in the end. England went on to lose the final against India at Edgbaston. There will be a five match ODI series to come, starting on the 6th of September. Before that, and naturally following on from the 5th and final Test of the Ashes series, will be the two match Twenty20 International series. The first one, on August 29th will be a day/night affair, with the second just two days later during the afternoon. Being too unpredictable to call on both sides, it does offer some value in backing a Cricket betting option available on England to Beat Australia in all three home series (Tests, T20, ODI) this year. The price on that? A hefty 7/1, and the biggest question mark may just be over those Twenty20 meetings.

England V Australian Cricket Odds - England V Australian Cricket Betting

Golf British Open 2013

Mid-July will bring the 142^nd Open Championship, to be played at Muirfield Golf Links in East Lothian, Scotland, and a massive field of 156 golfers will be hoping to write their name in the history books and win the 3^rd major of the year.

As has often been the case in recent history, Tiger Woods goes into the week as one of the hot favourites, despite not winning a major since 2008. However, he has slowly been reaching the form that the world knows he is capable of in the past year, and he will be looking to improve on a 3^rd place finish here last year. Since then, he also came in 5^th place in The Masters, and has racked up 4 tournament wins in 2013 – more than he managed in the whole of the 3 previous years.

Adam Scott will be looking to banish some demons in Britain after a monumental collapse last summer in which he bogeyed the final 4 holes to throw away a comfortable lead. This year though, he claimed his first major, winning The Masters, showing that he certainly now has the experience and temperament to win on the big stage.

Perhaps the player in the best major form so far this year is Jason Day. He came 3^rd in The Masters, then 2^nd in the US Open, so any further improvement will see him at the top of the final leaderboard this time around. However, his two previous Open Championship appearances have seen him finish 60^th and 30^th, so his record in Britain is far from impressive.

Another player who is coming closer to winning his first major is Brandt Snedeker. He finished 3^rd this time last year, and followed that up with a 6^th place finish in The Masters this year. At the other end of the scale, Phil Mickelson already has 4 majors to his name, and will be hoping to follow up after a second place finish in the US Open and victory in Scotland this month.

Of the British players, Lee Westwood will be looking to win his first major, after showing incredible consistency in the last few years, finishing in the top 10 in 9 out of his last 15 major appearances. Rory McIlroy won a major in both 2011 and 2012, but he has failed to hit such form so far in 2013, failing to put in a strong challenge in either major this year so far. Graeme McDowell is another player who has struggled so far this year, and after a consistent performance in major tournaments in 2012, he has failed to even make the cut in The Masters or the US Open. Justin Rose ended a long wait for his maiden major victory by winning the US Open this year, and he will be hoping to join the list of players who have won back-to-back majors in their career.

If there is one nationality that seems to thrive on playing in Britain, it is the South Africans. They have 10 wins in this championship, and only England, Scotland and the USA have more. Last year, they produced the winner, Ernie Els, who also won the tournament the last time that it was held at Muirfield, in 2002. Thomas Aiken also managed to finish 7^th last summer, and their countryman Louis Oosthuizen was victorious in this championship in 2010.

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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.

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