March 29th Betting

Are you ready for another Saturday long list? Of course you are! A good weekend last time out, but let's try and beat it tomorrow. Here goes, the teams that will hopefully win for us tomorrow are....

Austria: RB Salzburg
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Zeljeznicar Sarajevo(a)
Croatia: Locomotiva Zagreb
England Prem: Chelsea(a), Everton(a)
England Champ: QPR, Derby County
England Lg1: Preston North End, Leyton Orient, Brentford(a), Rotherham United
England Lg2: Southend, Scunthorpe
England Conference: Aldershot
France: AS Monaco(a)
Germany: Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen
Italy Serie B: Empoli
Portugal: Sporting CP
Scotland Prem: Celtic, Inverness CT, Motherwell
Scotland Champ: Queen of the South
Scotland Lg1: Rangers(a), Dunfermline
Scotland Lg2: Peterhead(a)
Serbia: Crvena Zvezda
Slovenia: NK Maribor
Spain: Barcelona(a), Real Madrid

30 games there should give a decent return. Now to turn our attention to a Sneaky Fiver Bet. It hasn't yielded us much luck so far this season. But this Saturday we'll be going with 5 teams in form, and will surely improve on the 5 team accums that have come before. The teams are...
Man City(a), Sevilla(a), Ipswich, PSV, Notts County

Good Luck Everybody



Fantasy Golf: Valero Texas Open

Not a great week for my Fantasy picks last time out in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Best of a bad bunch was Graeme McDowell who dragged himself up to finish 10th. We should have known the writing was on the wall when Bubba Watson had to withdraw after a disastrous first day. Hopefully we can get back on track as the tour moves from Florida to Texas with the Valero Texas Open this weekend.
Not many to pick from in Group A of the Yahoo groupings, but we'll do our best with what's there. Again, in Yahoo you pick 4 scorers and 4 reserves across three groups, in the Official PGA Fantasy you can pick any 4 golfers for the weekend.

Group A
Brian Gay
Josh Teater
Matt Kuchar
Phil Mickelson

Group B
Billy Horschel
Jason Kokrak
Mark Wilson
Fredrik Jacobson
Jordan Spieth

Group C
Kevin Chappell
Richard H. Lee
J.B. Holmes
Brendan Steele
Billy Hurley
Kevin Na
Cameron Tringale
Seung-Yul Noh
Ryan Palmer
Jimmy Walker
Aaron Baddeley
Jhonattan Vegas
Danny Lee


March 23rd Betting

22 from 28 yesterday, so not too bad. The home and away five team accums didn't really give us a sweat this week, as we came away with only 4 results right from 10 games. Anyways, we continue on with a list of teams (that should win!) for today.

Austria: RB Salzburg
Croatia: HNK Rijeka(a)
France: AS Saint-Etienne
Greece: PAOK Saloniki, Atromitos, Olympiakos(a)
Italy: Juventus(a)
Portugal: Benfica, Porto
Scotland Lg1: Rangers(a)
Spain: Athletico Madrid(a)

Good Luck Everybody



ICC World T20 Fantasy Cricket

The ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh kicks off proper this weekend. I say properly, as we have already had a number of early matches to determine which two teams will join the big 8 teams that make up both groups in the Super 10. The two teams that qualified, in what was a truly exciting knockout round of group games, was Bangladesh and the Netherlands. In fact this would have been posted yesterday, but seeing as I had 3 Irish players in my team, only to see them hand the Dutch 6 after 6 and let them go top of the group and qualify for Group 1 of the Super 10, I had to go back and rejig my whole team.
I'll be honest, I do not have too much experience when it comes to Fantasy Cricket games, but I'm hoping that the Official ICC game will give me a flavour for it in the future.
You can join it here http://cricketicc.fantasyleague.com/
It is laid out similar to many (of the poorer) Rugby Fantasy games. But the look can be forgiven if it plays a good game right?
Your team can be made up of three formations:
Five batsmen, two all-rounders, one wicket-keeper and three bowlers, (I'm going with this one) or
Four batsmen, three all-rounders, one wicket-keeper and three bowlers, or
Four batsmen, two all-rounders, one wicket-keeper and four bowlers.
Some rules you need to adhere to at the start: Only 3 players from any one team (going up to 6 from the semi-finals on). Only 3 players who are designated Star players.
My three Star players are Kohli, Gayle and McCullum, and I am making Sri Lanka's Sangakkara my captain. I'm hoping that on top of his wicket keeping duties he can throw in some big batting numbers. I have 3 Sri Lankans in my team, as I feel they can go far in this tournament.
I realise starting at the Super 10 phase puts me at a disadvantage, as I've missed all the points from the Knockout group phase, but take it easy on me, I'm still coming to terms with Ireland being knockout out! Plus, even after missing the first Phase, I've still moved up to 100th place in the Ireland league. As with all Fantasy games I join, my aim is to finish top half, any thing further up is a bonus.
If you know of any other Cricket Fantasy games that are worth playing, then please add a comment below.



March 22nd Betting

Okay, the time is ripe for a big bounce back in the predictions. So this Saturday, we're going to go with the longest list yet! If all these come in it pays close to 44400/1, so again don't put them all in one long list, unless you're a bit mad.
So here goes....

Czech Rep: Sparta Praha(a)
England Prem: Liverpool(a), Everton, Man City
England Champ: Burnley(a), Leicester City(a)
England Lg1: Brentford
England Conference: Luton
Germany: Bayern Munich(a), Schalke 04
Greece: Panathinaikos
Italy Serie A: Roma(a)
Italy Serie B: Empoli, AC Cesena
Netherlands: PSV Eindhoven
Russia: Lokomotiv Moskva
Scotland Prem: Aberdeen, Celtic, Motherwell
Scotland Champ: Hamilton(a)
Scotland Lg1: Dunfermline
Scotland Lg2: East Sterling
Slovakia: Slovan Bratislava
Slovenia: NK Maribor
Spain: Athletic Bilbao
Turkey: Galatasaray
Ukraine: Dinamo Kiev, Chernomorets Odessa

Lets have two stabs at a 5 team accumulator (and hope they improve on the last couple of weeks attempts!). So here goes some Sneaky Fiver bets.... All games are in England or Scotland....

5 Aways: Sunderland, West Brom, Reading, Partick, Stenhousemuir, 340/1
5 Homes: Newcastle, Sheffield Utd, Torquay, Ayr, Queen of the South, 35/1

Good Luck Everybody



Fantasy Golf: Arnold Palmer Invitational

It's the last stop on the Florida swing of the tour this week and the big news is Tiger Woods' withdrawal because of his back problems. He probably will be saving himself for the Masters from here on in. Tigers record in this tournament is great, and without him we will have to find some other big names in the field to get us those crucial fantasy points.
Bubba Watson, Graeme McDowell and Justin Rose lead the betting and should be in most Fantasy teams this weekend. Here we have a look at how I rank my picks. Remember, In Yahoo Fantasy Golf, your 8 picks are split into three groups. In PGA Fantasy you can pick any 4 golfers you fancy.

Group A
Bubba Watson
Ryan Moore
Gary Woodland
Charles Howell III
Adam Scott

Group B
Brian Harman
Justin Rose
Chris Kirk
Billy Horschel
Matt Every
Fredrick Jacobson
Hunter Mahan
Jason Kokrak

Group C
Graeme McDowell
Chris Stroud
Pat Perez
Ryo Ishikawa
Nicolas Colsaerts
Seung-yul Noh



Fantasy Formula 1 2014

The Formula 1 season starts this weekend with a Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia. It promises to be an exciting year of racing, although they say that every year and the last few seasons have been mind-numbingly boring (sorry Vettel!). For 2014 we are going to play 4 different Fantasy F1 games, and they really are all different in their implementation.
First up is...
Castrol EDGE Grand Prix Predictor
Here you don't mess around with a budget or pick one or two drivers for each race; you pick who will finish each race in the top ten places. You earn points on how close your predictions are. You also get to pick; who gains pole position in qualifying, who will set the fastest lap in the race, and which driver will gain the most positions during the race.
It is well laid out and because it's run by AutoSport Magazine, you can compare your predictions with those of their experts each week. If I don't outscore Timo Glock this week I won't be happy!

Next up is... Fantasy Racers.com
Here is interesting because you are given two choices when you initially start the game. You can either have a budget of 45m to pick your team, but you can't make changes during the year. Or you can start with a budget of 40m and make as many driver changes as you want during the year. I'm going with the smaller budget and will be hoping the 5 racers I have (you can pick up to 6) can get me off to a good start.
To gain bonus points each race you can try and guess the results of a number of scenarios. Which team will complete the fastest pit-stop? Which driver will be the first to retire? How many seconds the winner of the race will have over second place? And how many cars will finish after the first lap? I think I might need any bonus points I can get!

I'll also be playing... F1 Manager
In this game you are given a budget of 100m, which you think is a lot, until you have to pick 2 drivers, a chassis and an engine, then you realise it isn't really that much! I will probably have to revisit my strategy later, as I was just happy to be able to fill each position. But seeing as the Marussia team didn't managed to pass Q1 and Bianchi & Kobayashi aren't exactly looking like bothering the podium this race, my team could be in for an overhaul before we get to Malaysia.
You can gain extra money for your meagre starting budget by correctly predicting the time of pole position, right down to the millisecond. How many milliseconds was I out this week? Only 17400! it could very well be a long season!

And finally.... Racing Leagues
Another free to play league. And another league that takes a different approach to scoring. In this game you get to pick 3 drivers, who are ranked 1st to 3rd. The driver you have in 1st gets the most points from his finishing position, e.g. if your Driver 1 wins a race you get 50pts, if Driver 2 wins you get 37pts, and if Driver 3 wins you get 25pts. You also have to pick a Constructor and an Engine type. Plus did I mention you have to do all this within budget? Well now I did.
You get bonus points if all your picks finish the race. One Grand Prix a season can be designated a Home Grand Prix and all your points are doubled. On top of all this you are only allowed to make 7 changes/transfers during the year. Hamilton is my Driver 1, so I'm hopefully off to a good start!

These four Fantasy Formula 1 Leagues should be enough to keep you busy for 2014. If anyone has another league which you think is worth checking out, then please leave a comment below. It is rare to see such variety in Fantasy Sports leagues, and before we get to the final race in Abu Dhabi we should knew which one comes out on top.