Bookies Blog

Mark Webber has declared that the Formula 1 world title is now Jenson Button’s to lose. The bookies seem to agree with this, he is top priced 1/3 with Bet Fred and it seems that if he can finish within the points throughout the rest of the season he should be able to retain his title lead.

However, in the build up to this weekend’s German Grand Prix Button is not such a heavy favourite. At 9/5 Button is second behind Vettel who is race favourite at 6/4, who have finally managed to out perform the Brawns at Silverstone three weeks ago. Mark Webber, Vettel’s team mate is available at 7/1 to win at the Nurburgring, whilst Brawn’s second driver, Rubens Barichello is as long as 12/1 to win his first race this season. The Red Bulls and the Brawns should fight an epic clash on Sunday, with Red Bull favoured to win the race at 10/11 and Brawn close behind at 11/10, there is almost nothing between the two teams.

The odds for pole position are almost identical to the ones for the race winner. Both the Brawn and Red Bull teams will be working incredibly hard to make sure modifications to the cars are effective and will especially be concentrating on protecting the cars brakes as the Nurburgring is known for its ability to wear down brakes and if mixed with wet weather, the track can often take casualties. The safety car is 5/6 to be used whilst Nakajima is 8/1 to be the first driver to retire. However, the Nurburgring is no Monaco so unless the elements really get going I wouldn’t expect the safety team to be working too hard this weekend.

Sunday’s race will really be a contest between Red Bull and Brawn, however, Ferrari are continually improving and have a very good record on the Nurburgring, having won there a record 19 time and with Kimi Raikkonen stating on pole last time the German Gran Prix was hosted there. Ferrari, however are outsiders for the race at 16/1 whilst Felipe Massa who was runner up in 2007 is 28/1 for victory.

Big Brother has been going for over a month now, we’ve already lost five and now we’re just left with the final ten house mates. Freddie, who is up for eviction, is currently bookies favourite at 7/4 to win the competition, the chilled out chap from Market Drayton is winning over the sympathy of voters as the rest of the house continue to bully him.

On Friday he goes up for eviction against Sree and the bookies really don’t reckon Sree has much of a chance of winning over the viewers this week. Sree is 1/150 with Paddy Power to be evicted, but can be backed at 1/50 with Betfair, so unless the public have a drastic change of heart it seems inevitable that Sree will be our 6th contestant to leave the house. The Business student from Hatfield often comes across as arrogant at the expense of Halfwit (Freddie) and therefore it is no surprise that bookies reckon Sree’s up for the chop this Friday. However, if you think Freddie is going to be ousted you can back him to go at top priced 16/1 with Corals or get odds nearer 40/1 with the betting exchanges.

There’s still a long way to go in this Big Brother, Freddie could still fall from favour and Paddy Power offer just 6/1 on a new housemate taking the cash prize. Other potential winners include Rodrigo and Siavash, both of whom are 5/1 with most bookmakers. The beautiful Dogface meanwhile remains 25/1 outsider despite support from the majority of male viewers watching the Endemol show. Unfortunately for both Dogface and Endemol, however, not even the 20 year old model’s great assets can draw in the male viewers this year.

After a dramatic fourth round that saw Andy Murray cling on to his championship hopes by the very narrowest of margins in a five set epic against Stanislas Wawrinka, there are now just eight men left in contention for the Wimbledon crown.

Layers were obviously unimpressed by Murray’s poor performance against the Swiss number 2 and have pushed him out from 15/8 to 11/4 for the tournament, with 3/1 available on Betfair. The bookmakers will be hit hard if Murray does turn on his form and win in the final, however, he has plenty to do before he can even begin to think about winning silverware.

Murray’s first challenge comes today against Ferrero, who he convincingly beat 6-2 6-4 in in last months Queen’s Club Championship. At 1-10 favourite bookmakers have priced the Scot as a banker to win on centre court today and on recent form, it seems that Murray will have a far easier time today than he had against Wawrinka on Monday.

Elsewhere in the quarter final draw, Lleyton Hewitt takes on Andy Roddick, which will see two veteran grass players fight it out in what should be an epic match. Hewitt is the 2/1 outsider in the match up and could hold some value, he won Wimbledon in 2002 and has been in impressive form this tournament, beating world no. 5 Del Potro in straight sets during the second round.

On the other side of the draw, Tommy Haas, at 31 years of age, takes on Djokovic, whom he beat in straight sets in the final of a warm up tournament in Halle. Therefore the odds of 21-10 with Skybet on Haas might be good value, who has certainly seen off some tough opposition this Wimbledon in the form of Marin Cilic and Igor Andreev. Meanwhile, Federer’s match up with Ivo Karlovic should be a formality for the Swiss. Karlovic seems to be a one trick pony with his impressive serving, however, Federer has the experience to deal with the serve and should dominate any resulting tie breaks.