Betting News Feed | Betting Hideout

Exciting news for all those horse racing fans out there Spin³ have launched Royal Derby a virtual horse racing game for your mobile phone, so you will be able to bet on horse races on the move. So no matter where you are day or night you will be able to place a bet and enjoy the thrill of the racetrack. The software powered by Microgaming provides a sophisticated game that has unique situations for each race; each horse race is completely individual and never repeated giving racing fans as close to the real horse racing experience as possible.

The Oscars are almost here and of course the bookies are providing the latest odds on who is the favourite to win the award for best film. If you want to bet online on this market then Blue Square are currently offering odds of 1/10 for the current favourite Slumdog Millionaire.

The Rugby RBS 6 Nations 2009 is proving to be a real mixed bag. Each side has played two games apiece so far with Ireland placed first and Wales second on the top of the leaderboard with 4 points each, England and France are in third and fourth position respectively, and Scotland and Italy are floundering in fifth and sixth place. It is of course very early days in the competition and none of us can really predict who will win, current favourites with 888 Sport are obviously Wales with current betting odds of 10/11 and outsiders are Scotland with odds of 200/1, Ireland has odds of 7/4 and England’s are currently 16/1.

The usual Eurovision Song Contest scenario is that the UK don’t even get off the starting blocks in the voting, however this year everything could change. Watch out Europe as this year we have a very lethal weapon on our side – Andrew Lloyd Webber. Not only has he composed the tune but also has been responsible for finding the singer that will perform at the Eurovision Song contest 2009 which will be held in Moscow. The British public voted for 21 year old eastender Jade Ewan, which seems to have further fuelled speculation that the Eurovision Song Contest trophy will be back in the UK at long last. Betfair even have the UK placed in the top four in the betting favourites for this market.

Reports have reached Betting Hideout that online betting and high street bookmaker William Hill are intending to close 14 high street betting shops in the Republic of Ireland which will result in 53 job losses. William Hill acquired the Irish betting shops from Stanley Leisure in 2004. The closure has become necessary due to a number of reasons, the first being the current economic downturn and also the expected rise to 2% in betting turnover tax in Ireland. The shops that are expected to close are in Waterford, Wexford, Cork, Clare, Dublin and Limerick.

Who would have thought that Chelsea and Portsmouth have so much in common. Clearly their positions in the Premier League are not the common ground referred to, with Chelsea ranked fourth in the table and Portsmouth a more humble 16^th. No, the shared ground is the fact that both clubs have recently sacked their managers which necessitated looking for suitable replacements.

Sky Bet and Sky TV have come up with an excellent service to stop you missing out on all the sporting action when you are online at Sky Bet placing your football bets or placing bets on other sporting events. They have an excellent package available to customers of both Sky Bet and and Sky TV which will enable them to watch their preferred Sky Sports events completely free of charge from a PC or laptop. To take part in this service completely free of charge for one month, Sky Bet account holders only need to go on to their account and enter the special promotional code which can be found on the Sky Bet site, and then wait for a special username and password to pop up in their email inbox. Once you receive these then you can watch all your favourite sports channels for one month. To continue to enjoy the free online Sky TV service, account holders just need to place their usual football bets or other sporting bets at Sky Bet at least four times a month.

Betting Hideout are sad to report that our British hopes have come to nothing in the Australian Open. Andy Murray might well have been the bookies betting favourite just prior to playing the Spanish hopeful Fernando Verdasco in the Australian Open, and OK he was every Brit’s hope too for a victory after so long in the tennis winning wilderness. However it was not to be, Murray went in big of heart and eager to prove his ability but was left wilting by Verdasco who prior to the match was ranked no.15. It has to be said in Murray’s defence that Verdasco was playing the game of his career; it was however not matched by Murray’s performance which was a pale shadow of his performances on the way to the Australian Open. Performances that had previously inspired hope of a British win for the first time since 1936, but of course this was only an off match, he should not be vilified because of public disappointment. Players like Murray do go on to have wins, and at only 21 he has every opportunity to move on to prove himself, he is without doubt one of our best contenders for a long time and the public needs to get behind him and lift his spirits, encourage the great fighting spirit - don’t get angry Andy, get even!

Not that it is a complete surprise, but Colin Montgomerie has now been officially named as the European Ryder Cup Captain. The announcement came on Wednesday in Dubai, Monty looking just a little like the proverbial ‘cat that got the cream’, said “I promise that I will do everything I can to claim the Ryder Cup back in Wales in 2010 “. Monty was determined in his assertions that the Ryder Cup would be in Europe’s hands at the end of the tournament.