The southern hemisphere of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia have looked unbeatable this season – today may be the best chance the northern hemisphere has to score some glory. Australia take on Ireland in Ireland and it looks to be a top game.

Even the bookmakers are struggling to split these two sides with Ireland slight favourites at 8/11. Australia are 5/4 although that price is quite flattering considering their performance against England last weekend. We were in that game for a long time and the Aussies won’t want to give the Irish boys any second chances.

You can expect the forwards to dish it up to the Australians, some feel that is their weakness. I wouldn’t be so sure. It’s their backline that faltered last weekend along with their discipline. Wilkinson was really able to capitalize on any error the Aussies created and could almost have won the game for England last weekend if it wasn’t for a couple of lax moments.

Ireland deserve to be favourites and should win a thriller.

In tennis, the Paribas Masters has, as usual, caused more than a few headaches for most of the players. The end result is a final between Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils. Djokovic now has the scalps of both Nadal and Federer in recent weeks and looks to be in top form.

Online sportsbooks have Djokovic a firm 1/4 favourite with Monfils at 11/4. It is hard to go past Djokovic – he has the form and loves this surface. No fancy odds but Djokovic to win.

Online betting has become so competitive that bookmakers are trying all sorts of tactics to get you onto their sites and betting through them. Almost all online bookmakers now offer free bets or matching deposits for new account holders. This may get a punter through the door (well, online portal anyway), but it’s not enough to keep them.

Bookmakers are now trying a whole range of betting options, all of which are supposed to swing the odds in your favour. They don’t, of course; bookmakers would go broke if the odds where all in our favour. There are, however, a few betting offers that are worth mentioning.

The hardest way to lose your hard earned is when your horse falls, a player retires hurt, or, in the case of football, one of your players is sent off. There are quite a few bookmakers now that offer ‘red card refunds’. This means that if your selected team has a player sent off, your bet is canceled and you get a refund. There are ‘fallen horse refunds’ and ‘injury withdrawal refunds’ in some tennis tournaments.

Other betting carrots offered by bookmakers include ‘five minute heartbreakers’ (or 85th minute heartbreakers). If your side is leading at the 85th minute then loses in the last five minutes, you get a refund. There are similar offers for 90 minutes (before added time), and regulation time (in games which go to golden goal and penalties).

As a punter, these bets are well worth seeking since the odds on offer are still the same as those bookmakers not offering refunds. My gambling tip for today – find online bookmakers that are offering special refunds – there is nothing worse than losing your money in the last five minutes or through a send off. A refund is better than losing your stake.

Gambling tips are everywhere and bookmakers often offer their own tips on how to profit from betting – however, I have one gambling tip that you will never hear from any bookmaker.

The football season is less than six weeks away and the dust is now starting to settle on player and manager transfers. We are now able to look at the season with a little bit of confidence. Only a little bit since football can spring so many surprises – my gambling tip today relies on there being a surprise or two during the season.

If you were to go back twelve months, Hull, Stoke and West Bromwich lead the betting when it came to relegation. At the moment, Hull, Birmingham and Burnley lead the beating for relegation.

As we now know, Hull and Stoke both survived relegation and stayed in the Premier League – I wonder how many people backed them for relegation? Did you?

Here is my tip. If you want to back one of these favourites for relegation, consider laying your bets with Paddy Power. Paddy has this habit of paying out on bets well before the event is over. Those punters that backed Stoke for relegation with Paddy Power would have been laughing come season end.

Paddy paid out on the Stoke when there was at least six weeks of the competition left – Stoke were not even in the last three when he paid out. Of course this backfired and Stoke missed relegation. Those that backed them still collected.

The lesson is to know your bookmakers. What do they do, how do they act, and what sort of practices do they follow? In this case, Paddy Power has a history of paying out early when they feel the result is a foregone conclusion. If their payout backfires they wear the loss – not you.

If you can find a little weakness in an online bookmakers armour – use it and with luck you may profit from it. Like I said, I don’t think any bookmaker would give you that gambling tip.

A quick check of the online betting sportsbooks shows a wide betting range for the India v Australia cricket series. Most sportsbooks have India as favourites to win the three match series. However the same sportsbooks have India at long odds to win the first test.

Australian cricket is in a rebuilding phase with the loss of several top bowlers in recent years, notable their number one quick Glen McGrath and Spinner Shane Warne. The retirement of several key batsman adds to the newness of the team. Australian captain Ricky Ponting will be sure to have his team primed to play.

India on the other hand look a little ‘old’ with hardly any fresh faces in team. The Indian captain hasn’t helped matters by accusing Australia of cheating during their last series. This will be just the spur the Aussies need to challenge India on home soil.

Not many teams manage a trip to India and come away with a victory. Australia are fresh and ready to play some serious cricket. Back them for a clean sweep of the series. The only thing that may prevent the clean sweep is if India manage to snare a draw.

This is one opportunity where punters can take advantage of the UK sportsbooks indecisive framing of the markets.

Robert Karlsson is the big leader going into the final day of the Mercedes Benz golf tournament in Germany. He is playing consistent golf in this tournament and three shots will be hard to pull back if he maintains that consistency.

Lucquin is second but after starting well on day one, has returned mediocre rounds since. The equal second placed Molinari returned the days best of 65, a repeat of which could see him stir up Karlsson. If the pressure mounts, he may be found wanting.

Of the rest of the pack, Kiwi Michael Campbell is playing reasonably well but five shots of the lead in equal fourth spot. I cannot see any of the others bothering the leading pack.

The bookies agree with Karlsson a short 1/7 (Ladbrokes) to win. Molinari is good value at 10/1 and I like his chances. He just has to play well and put some pressure on Karlsson. There have been many players get to this point in a tournament only to stumble on the final day. Campbell is at 25/1, a good eachway bet if you can get on.

The three-ball betting may return some good value. Karlsson is 5/4 against Molinari at 7/4 and Lucquin at 9/4. Perhaps Molinari at 7/4 would be the days best bet.

UK Betting Central has the links to all the top sportsbooks – try your luck at some 3-ball golf betting.

The Scottish Golf Open looks to be a bargain hunters paradise this year with the field wide open. Paddy Power have the favourite, Phil Mickelson at 9/1 with Ernie Els second pick at 10/1.

With those odds you can afford to gamble on half a dozen chances and still come out in front. The Scottish Open starts at Loch Lomond later this week and with the absence of many of the big names including Tiger Woods, you can just about write your own ticket for many of the starters.

There are some real value bets at longer odds. Adam Scott at 14/1 is extemely good value and my selection for outright victory. Other good value bets include:

Colin Montgomery at 33/1,
Peter O’Malley at 125/1,
Scott Strange 125/1

With a wide open market like this, the daily betting will be interesting and again should provide some value. Paddy Power are paying quarter odds (1/4) for places one through six. If you think any of those longer price ones look a possibility to finish in the top six, then quarter odds sounds good. Peter O’Malley at around 30/1 to finish in the top six sounds good to me.

You can catch all the golfing news along with other sport and casino news right here and there are more articles and links to the best sports books and casinos at UK Betting Central.

The European Golf Open starts at the London Golf Club in Kent today and, with the absence of Tiger Woods from the field, looks to be one of the most open competitions this year.

The evergreen Colin Montgomerie has his chance to claim a major title – he won this event last year – and is good form following his second in the French Open.

Sergio Garcia is the favourite at 10/1 in what is a wide open betting market. Padraig Harrington is at 14/1, Robert Karlson at 16/1, Justin Rose at 18/1 with Soren Hansen at 22/1.

Monty is next at around 28/1 – at that price he is certainly worth at least an each way bet. If your serious about your golf then I suggest a little three ball betting at Ladbrokes.

They have the trio of Garcia (evens), McDowell (15/8) and Wilson (11/4) : Garcia does look a good bet even at the evens.

For more links to top sportsbooks check out UK Betting Central.

The battle continues this weekend in the tennis at Wimbledon. There have been several shock losses to date – none more so than Sharapova in the women’s draw and Nalbandian in the men’s draw. Other names to fall away include Roddick, Schriver and Djokovic.

There is still plenty of talent left and some of that is on showcase this weekend. If you are looking for some well thought out ratings on the various players then head on over to our forum where today’s matches have been rated.

They have:

Janko Tipsarevic RATED 260 v Dmitry Tursunov RATED 220 and recommend to bet ‘Over 37.5′ or ‘38.5′ Total Games

Richard Gasquet RATED 270 v Giles Simon RATED 62 and recommend you Back G.Simon @ 3/1+.

Nicolas Kiefer RATED 167+ v Rafael Nadal RATED 768 and recommend you Back N.Kiefer @ 9/1 or 10/1 and Look to bet ‘Over 36.5′ Total Games.

Now that is a bet I can relate to. For more info on tennis betting head on over to tennis.betting.pn.

Tiger starts with a shocker should have been the headlines as Tiger Woods started his US Open Golf campaign with a double-bogey on the first hole. Being the consummate professional he held it all together to get one shot back and finish the day just one shot over, 4 strokes off the lead – no wonder he remains favourite at 3/1 with many of the sportsbooks.

The current leaderboard is crowded with 3 under being the best scores.

-3 K Streelman : J Hicks
-2 R Mediate : E Axley : S Appleby : G Ogilvy

Mickelson is second favourite with Ladbrokes at 6/1 with G Ogilvy at 10; E Els and Stuart Appleby both at 16/1

Appleby and Ogilvy are well placed and represent good odds 16’s and 10’s respectively. Mickelson finished the day even with the card. Given today’s poor scores, on would think that the winner will come from the top 10 after todays round.

Other scores including disappointing rounds by Scott at +2, Furyck +3 and Garcia at +5. Tiger Woods is currently in 13th place and while being hampered with a bad knee, I think this may be one tournament where you could bet against with some confidence.

UK Betting Central have links to all the top sportsbooks where you can keep up to date with the scores and perhaps have a little flutter yourself.

If you want to win at betting – you have bet sensibly. If you bet with your heart and not your head you are going to lose. You may get the occasional winning streak, but in the long run you will lose. If you ever get the chance to watch serious professional gamblers, their biggest trait is patience and clear thinking.

Professional gamblers are prepared to wait until they get the right odds or the right conditions to win. No matter how sure they are of winning, if the conditions are not right they will sit it out. The racetrack can be a good place to watch these professionals. They may go to the track to only have one or two bets for the day, even then they will wait for the best odds before backing their tips.

For the average gambler, the key lies in assessing the risk compared to the chance of winning. Consider roulette. You have a slightly worse than 50/50 chance of getting odds or evens – remember the 0 and 00 depending in which form of roulette you play. The payout is only even money.

When it comes to horse racing, the bookmakers set odds according to how they assess the chances of a horse winning. It becomes a game with the professional punters trying to find errors in judgment by the bookies – it doesn’t happen often. The pro’s do get it right occasionally and make reasonable livings from it.

There are simple rules when it comes to sensible betting:

Don’t bet with your heart – use your head
Don’t bet more than you can afford – set a bank and only bet with that bank
Never chase losses – chasing losses only leads to greater losses
Only make intelligent bets – if a horse is 100/1 – there is a reason for it
Know when to walk away – as the song says – know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em
Pocket your winnings – only use your winning to increase your bank when its an intelligent move – often it is a good idea to just tuck those winning away.

Gambling can be a lot of fun. It is not just about winning – although that is great too. A night out at the opera may set you back £200 – a night out at the casino may cost the same – you may even bring some home. It is all a matter of what you call entertainment and how much you are prepared to spend.

At UK Betting Central we always promote sensible gambling. Bet within your means and have a great time.