Men Utd in mediocrity

Time for another gambling update, since there's only one match of the season left in the Premiership. Last week was a disaster in my footie betting, as I got dazzled by the high odds from four matches. I bet on Brighton v Ipswich; Manchester Utd v West Brom; Real Madrid v Racing Santander; and Lyon v Ajaccio - with my money riding on the teams in bold. Being the end of the season (and feeling stupid for not taking advantage of the goods odds last time out), I staked £24.67 - leaving me with a nice round £30 in my account. I was suckered in by the chance to win back my Boatman losses, as I'd have picked up more than £100 with a win.

Sadly, Man Utd showed why they're 20 points behind Chelsea (mainly because of poor judgement by their manager, who played a reserve side two weeks before the cup final) as they drew 1-1 with lowly West Brom. I'd avoided their bad beats in recent games - drawing with Blackburn, losing 2-0 to Norwich!! - so I guess they had to get me in the end.

Worse still, Ipswitch could only draw with Brighton! On paper this game seemed like a definate win for Ipswitch, who had beaten Crewe 5-1 in the previous match. Brighton only needed a point to be guaranteed safety in the league, but Ipswitch needed to win to have a shot at automatic promotion and avoid the dreaded third place finish. What should have happened is that Brighton stuck 11 men behind the ball and Ipswitch threw everything they had at them - technically Ipswitch had nothing to lose, as even a loss would see them in the playoffs. You may wonder why I'm bothering to mention this, since the Man Utd result had already brought down the whole accumulator bet. Well, I had a second bet on this single game, my pick of the week. I needed to stake the £10 in my Blue SQ account in order to trigger the free £25 bet new members get. But I wasn't expecting to lose the £10!

Anyway, I'm cleaning out my Sporting Bet account for another year. The cashout is £30, following a £100 cashout in November. With £20 staked that's £110 profit for the year - not brilliant but not bad all the same. The first year I did this I lost £70, the second I made a fiver and only last year did I pocket a nice £180 profit. I'll definately be doing this again next year.

My only concern now is what to do with the £25 free bet. Blue SQ is wise to all the ways this could cost them big, so there's no wagering on accumulators. Plus, you don't get the £25 stake back, only the winnings - so betting on an absolute certainty brings very little reward. There are three games tomorrow that catch my eye:

Newcastle vs Chelsea
Backing: Chelsea
Return: The Premiership champions are even money, which would pay £25.
Pros: Chelsea good, Newcastle poor.
Cons: It's the end of the season, Chelsea are already champions and they've already beaten Man Utd's record for the most Premiership points in a season. They may just coast this last game since nothing is counting on it.

Bolton vs Everton
Backing: Everton
Return: £68.75
Pros: One of the best prices of the day.
Cons: Everton are only six points clear of Bolton, so this isn't the usual good team vs bad team bet I make my money on. Plus, Everton will be in the same league position no matter what the score, whereas Bolton could finish above Liverpool in fourth spot. Bolton might just push for the win more.

Liverpool vs Aston Villa
Backing: Aston Villa
Return: £100
Pros: £100! The whole reason for getting the free bet was so I could play a long-shot - after all it's free money. Besides, Liverpool should be resting their decent players for the Champions League final.
Cons: Villa are cack. And this game has bore-draw written all over it.

OK, after much umming and ahhing I've gone for Chelsea. After losing the tenner I'll be happy to get the £25 back if I can, and this is the safest bet. Four-nil Newcastle anyone?

Anyway, not counting the Sportingbet figures since it's now cashed out, the current totals are:
Offline:
This week -£0
-£66 Offline Total
Online:
£0 Blue Square (-£10)
£14.33 Victor Chandler Poker (-£0.87)
£40.01 TruePoker (-)
£10.25 PartyPoker (-)
£64.59 Online Total (-£10.87)