Preview Premier League 2008/2009

How was it last season?
Well last season the battle for the title lasted until the last match day. Chelsea and Man U entered the last match day with the same points but with a clear goal advantage for the Reds. While Chelsea was hoping that Man U. would loose some points, they only tied against Bolton but due to the win of Man U on Wigan it wouldn't have mattered.

Arsenal ended on the third place and Liverpool disappointed not so much with the 4th place but with the gap between them and the top of the league.

The transfers:
In total the teams of the Premier league spend in total around 388.000.000 €. Yep, you are reading this correct. The biggest spender is Liverpool (62 million €) (Keane 24.000.000€ desperately hoping to close the gap with the top 3, closely followed by Tottenham which bought new players for 61 million €.
Man U on the other hand is very quit on the transfer market. They even made a profit in the middle season of 6.500.000€. Chelsea made a loss of 12 million mostly because they paid around 20 million for Bosingwa of Porto. Arsenal's most expensive transfer is Nasri of Marseille, making Marseilli 16 million richer.

The favorites with their odds:
All odds are for an ante of 1€. Fitst the odd for the team taking the title, followed by the odd for the team to end within the first 4 places.

1. Manchester United ..... 2.25 - 1.01
2. Chelsea ........................ 3.00 - 1.01
3. Arsenal ......................... 5.50 - 1.08
4. Liverpool ...................... 7.50 - 1.16
5. Tottenham .................. 70.00 - 6.00

The relegation candidates with their odds:
1. Hull City ................. 1.33
2. Stoke City .............. 1.40
3. WBA ....................... 2.25
4. Fullham .................. 3.50
5. Bolton ..................... 3.75

My bet will be that Tottenham will end within the first 4. It can happen and the pay-out is great.

Cheers,
Dremeber

Preview Bundesliga 2008/2009

One of the competitions kicking of this weekend is the Bundesliga. One of the most difficult competitions to predict within in Europe.

There can be so many surprised within a weekend, that it is one of the goldmines of the bookies. Besides Bayern Munich it is also rare to see a team on the top for a decade.


How was it last year?
Well it was no surprise that Fc Bayern Munich took the title after major investments. They did buy player for all lines with as undisputed star, Ribery.
At a considerable distance Werder Bremen took second place, with a 2 point lead on Schalke 04.
On the bottom side of the table, Duisburg, Hansa Rostock and Fc Nurnberg took the dive.

The favorites for this year:
Just like in France, their is only one favorites and that is Fc Bayern Munich. Everybody expect that they will just extend their title. But it will be a strange season for them. It is the first season within Kahn as goalie, which is their biggest loss. On the incoming side they had a calm season the biggest name is Borowski.

The outsiders:
According to the bookies, their are 2 outsides. Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen, both hoping to close the gap with Bayern Munich.
Schalke 04:
Of course with a Dutch head coach, they focussed on the Dutch Market. They bought Engelaar from Twente for 5.500.000 Euro and upcoming star Farfan from PSV for 10 million euros, which is a team transfer record. On the outgoing side it relatively quiet.
Werder Bremen:
Werder focussed on buying promosing players, which should give the team more depth. Probably a good choice cause they only really had to replace Klasnic.

The relegation candidates:
3 relegation spots in the Bundesliga and 3 teams which the bookies think that are rather doesn't have a chance to prolongue their stay in the First Bundesliga. Those are Arminia Bielefeld, Cottbus and last but not least Karlsruher SC.

A team to keep an eye on:
Last year Hoffenheim took the title in the second Bundesliga in their first year in the second Bundesliga. The owner of the team is Hopp, who is one of the founders of SAP, third largest IT company. So you know where the money is coming from. Last year Hoffenheim had the second largest transfer budget in Germany andthey did spend 18.4 miljon euros on players. So a safe bet would be that they won't relegate.

The odds:
For taking the title:
Fc Bayern Munich -> 1.45
Werder Bremen -> 8.00
Schalke 04 -> 8.00
Wolfsburg -> 35.00
Stuttgart -> 35.00

To end within the first 3:
Fc Bayern Munich -> 1.02
Werder Bremen -> 1.75
Schalke 04 -> 1.90
Wolfsburg -> 4.50
Stuttgart -> 4.50
Hamburg SV -> 5.00
B. Dortmund -> 5.00

Good luck,
Dremeber

First Olympic Bet

While the opening ceremony still has to start, the games are already started. Yesterday the ladies kicked off the games and today the U-23 mens follow.

Time for a quick first Olympic bet I would say and due to the status of the BR I need a win. So with an attempt to maximize the value a combo of 4 games.
Ivory Coast - Argentina : 2 (1.50)
Honduras - Italy: 2 (1.30)
China - New Zealand: 1 (1.50)
Brazil - Belgium: 1 (1.35)
Potential pay-out: 3.95 euro.

After this bet, my BR is 1.50 Euro and 5 running bets. 4 season bets and 1 Olympic bet.
When I loose this Olympic bet I think I have to finance my BR a little bit and take it personnal again :).

Good luck,
Dremeber

Preview La ligue 1 2008/2009

Last season:
For the 7th time in a row Lyon took the French title. Very impressive in such a heavy league as the French ligue 1. But the gap is closing compared to the titles of 2 and 3 years ago. Will this be the last in the series? Bordeaux ended in a comfortable second place, 13 points before Marseille who took the ticket for the third qualifying round of the CL. Marseille had an impressive comeback when Eric Gerets took over but still the CL qualifying round ticket was a gift from Nancy, who lost during the last match day from Rennes.

On the bottom side of the table the third relegation place was also decided on the last match day. Due to a victory of Toulouse @ Valenciennes it was Lens, who joined Strasbourg and Metz to la ligue 2.

The favorites:
Lyon: Maybe only one real favorite and that is like always Olympic Lyon. 7 titles in a row. Wow. The only problem is that the odds for Lyon becoming again the French Champions are not good odds. For each euro invested you will get 1.60 in return.

The outsiders:
The bookies and also I see 2 outsides. Outsides is maybe a misplaced term and maybe they should belong to the list of favorites but due to the history and the 7 consecutive titles of Lyon there can be only 1 favorite.

Marseille: Juicy odds for Marseille if they take the title. The odd is 4.75. Very close to a good value bet. Their coach E. Gerets declared that he aim to take the title. He got the players he asked for, so he himself doesn't see any excuses if they don't.

Bordeaux: Runner up last year and in the season 2005/2006. Due to a bad start of Lyon and some ties of Lyon again at the end of the season the gap was only 4 points. I expect that they will loose to much points if due to the CL. The odds for Bordeaux taking the tittle is 6.50.

The one nominated for relegation:
There are 3 relegation places in the French competition and there are 2 teams who make a big chance of leaving Ligue 1 after only 1 season. And these are Grenoble and Le Havre.

The odds:

	Title	Place 1-3
Lyon	1.60	1.10
Marseille	4.75	1.65
Bordeaux	6.50	1.90
PSG	20.00	4.00
Saint Etienne	30.00	4.00

	Relegation
Grenoble	1.30
Le Havre	1.65
Caen	2.40

Good luck,
Dremeber

Anderlecht to qualify for the CL group stage?

I know it can be a gamble. But hey isn't all sports betting gambling?

Unibet is offering a great odd if RSC Anderlecht manages to qualify for the CL. They are giving back 5 Euro for each Euro invested. After last game I was baffled that they lost against Bate. So also had so many lame excuses but still I think that they have a much better team than Bate. Don't forget that Anderlecht is still preparing season 2008-2009 while Bate already has played a dozen of league games. So, yes it can be a long shot but I give it more than 50% chance of happening, so in my eyes the odds are appealing.

I'm now going to look for some nice value bets for the Olympics. But first of all I have to fund my BR again. After the lousy TDF and some misfortune in some other bets my BR almost dried out.

Cheers,
Dremeber