Every Friday morning I send out a newsletter with my Best Bet for the weekend and 99% of time it is a Rugby Bet.
This past weekend I was battling with the rugby so looked at the English Premier League football. I came upon the Newcastle v West Brom game and on looking at the form was amazed that Newcastle were as big as 13/10 to win the match. They had some good recent home form to their credit and were playing a West Brom side that was coming off a 5-1 hammering at the hands of Crystal Palace, not exactly a top 6 team themselves. Based on the form lines I figured that Newcastle should be an odds on favourite for the match and I decided to make this the bet of the weekend
When things seem to be too good to be true in the Sports Betting game they usually are and it was with some surprise that I noticed Newcastle’s price drifted out to 15/10 after my newsletter was sent. Something was not right here and I googled the latest Newcastle news only to find out that their manager Steve Bruce was without many of his top players due to illness. I can imagine a few of the people who followed me on that one making a mental note never to back another one of my football bets, but this story had a happy ending though as despite being less than full strength Newcastle grabbed a late winner to win 2-1. The bet arrived but I think I will stick to rugby bets going forward.
On the rugby front it was a successful weekend thanks to the Sharks beating the Bulls and the Lions beating the Cheetahs. The Lions always looked in control in Bloemfontein and I never had to sweat on that result, but the Sharks v Bulls game was a tense encounter with the Sharks having to come from well behind in the second half to grab the lead. I thought I had lost my money though when the Bulls were awarded a penalty in the dying seconds and it was the sort of kick Morne Steyn would put over 98 out of a 100 times.
To my relief he missed and thanks to some European Champions Cup in-play wins it was a pretty successful punting weekend.
Twitter: @BrentGraham.
This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 17 December 2020.
Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register