Sport is made for betting

Lots of moaning on Twitter etc about the nominated group, particularly re no women being in the mix. But let's have a look at the list and see who might have genuinely been robbed of a spot on the list. Mark Cavendish - incredible year and worthy favourite. Luke Donald - number one golfer in the world, huge achievement despite not winning a major. Rory McIlroy - bagged Caroline Wozniacki, that's worth being on the list in itself! But seriously, won the US Open and has an amazing career ahead of him. Darren Clarke - won the Open Championship despite his career starting to wain. A real personality of professional golf, so depending on which quality you think defines this award... Mo Farah - outstanding year on the track. No longer the best of the non-Africans, he is now world champion at 5000m and world silver medallist in the 10000m. Dai Greene - world champion at the 400 sticks. Doubt it puts him above Farah, but popular guy, Welsh support etc.. Andrew Strauss - led Eng...

Ok, plenty been happening lately, here's some of the news in brief. Betfair - have announced the new CEO, Breon Corcoran from Paddy Power, will take over in August 2012 after a lengthy stint of enforced gardening. The company still need to find a new Chairman with Ed Wray intending to stand down. Last week, Chief Commercial Officer Niall Wass announced he was leaving the firm after missing out on the CEO job. He's off to an even bigger money-grubber firm in the short-term loaners Wonga. No great loss there, he has been high up the company through a lot of their woes. It is expected that Corcoran will bring in several people to take key posts. Andrew Black sold off around £1.5m of shares, apparently for a new tech firm investment he's involved with. It's not as if he's cashing out just out yet, his stake in Betfair is still valued at around £75m. Denmark and Spain are ready to open up for licensing, with several international firms lining up to apply. Meanwhile in...

Glad to see Italian courts have the laws to send corrupt sports official to jail. The people behind the Calciopoli scandal have been handed harsh sentences, hopefully sending a strong precedent in Italian football. This might be the biggest scandal they've had, but it's really the tip of the iceberg. Other incidents are often individual favours between clubs rather than being coordinated by an external syndicate. Note in this case, and nearly all the suspicious Italian matches, it's not about match-fixing for betting, but to win titles or avoid relegation. Moggi gets 5 years in fix scandal Former Juventus executive Luciano Moggi was sentenced to five years and four months in prison by a Naples court Tuesday for his role in the 2006 Italian match-fixing scandal. Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of five years and eight months for Moggi on charges of criminal association aimed at committing sports fraud. Another former Juventus executive, Antonio Giraudo, already rec...

Sky News broke the story on Saturday night that Paddy Power Chief Operating Officer Breon Corcoran will replace David Yu as Betfair CEO. The outgoing CEO David Yu announced earlier in the year that he wouldn't be seeking an extension of his contract from October 2012, and would even be prepared to leave earlier should a replacement be found. The official announcement to the stock exchange is expected on Monday morning, it will be interesting to see how it responds. When you compare the rapid growth of Paddy Power in recent years, and the dismal share price of Betfair since the float, you would think the market will react positively. All I know is, the new guy will have a lot of work to do to restore the confidence of the punters that got them to where they are today, and the financial market... Betfair poaches Paddy Power exec for CEO - report Nov 6 (Reuters) - Online betting group Betfair will announce the appointment of Paddy Power's Breon Corcoran as its new chief executi...

News today that the spot-fixing corruption case in London has returned guilty verdicts on the first charges against Pakistan cricket captain Salman Butt and leading pace bowler Mohammed Asif. Butt has been found guilty of accepting money for corruption, and both players found guilty of conspiracy to cheat. (Asif's charge of accepting money for corruption is still to reach a verdict). The third player in the trial, Mohammed Amir, is believed to have pleaded guilty in advance. This is a great step forward in the fight against corruption in all sports, not just cricket. It shows convictions can be secured, but it also shows just how difficult they are to achieve. Lots of finger-pointing at the ICC and their anti-corruption unit today for their poor performance. After all, it was journalists from the now-defunct News of the World tabloid paper that captured all the evidence and then handed a gift-wrapped file to British police. The ICC are caught between a rock and a hard place here. ...

Pace assessment: Americain - gets caught wide midfield or has to drop further back. Sat 3W with cover from 11 last year with moderate pace to first turn. Probably needs them to go harder to enable him to get cover. Jukebox Jury - will press forward but will he be quick enough to do so? The likes of Mourayan, Older Than Time and Glass Harmonium will come across from wide, taking their time and will press on. If he gets stretched to hold the lead, the 57kg will hurt towards the end. If something crosses him, then puts the brakes on, it will also go against him. Can't see him holding the lead. Dunaden - Lemaire to ride now, can see him sitting midfield, three wide with cover. Just about perfect. Drunken Sailor - slightly worse than midfield with plenty of cover. Can track the good horses through, just needs a little luck avoiding tired horses. Glass Harmonium - can only go forward, assuming he doesn't get too stirred up in the pre-race activity. No need to cross early, can s...

The Melbourne Cup, the race that stops the nation. Here's my runner-by-runner look at the field. For a formguide, look here UPDATED for Lost In The Moment, At First Sight and direct link to the Ebor. Americain - looking at least as good as last year when he won the race. 3.5kg more to carry, but is this a weaker or stronger race? I rate it slightly weaker, so he's right in this up to his ears. Won the Moonee Valley Cup in a canter, against the strong formalise of Tullamore. The record of topweights in this race though is terrible in recent times - the last five have been unplaced, and the only one to win in the last 30yrs was the supermare Makybe Diva. When you restrict it to foreign horses who were topweight, of the 14 who have tried since 1993 when Vintage Crop started the travelling trend, just one horse - Vinnie Roe, has been placed (2004) - although importantly, I don't think any of those visitors had a lead-up run as Americain has this year. Last race link, Moone...

I'll qualify that statement by adding the word 'domestic' to it - meetings like Arc Day, the new British Champions Day, Hong Kong International Day etc are all set up to welcome the best in the world. Victoria Derby Day at Flemington isn't programmed for that, but a few will arrive anyway with the vast riches available. UK punters will be amazed to learn that fields and barriers for Saturday's racing is available already, as are full formguides from various outlets, including important information such as running position and sectional times - information dismissed as worthless in the UK. When you have a spectacle meeting, give punters every opportunity to do the form properly so they can spend their money! 24hr declarations for Cheltenham for example are an utter joke. Fields link Full form link There's a guaranteed $4 million pool for the Quaddie (pick winner of last four races), so time to do my homework......

According to Swedish website, svd.se, this is the list of players the Tennis Integrity Unit keep a close eye on, due to previous matches of interest.... The Black List Philipp Kohlschreiber Potito Starace Andreas Seppi Fabio Fognini Janko Tipsarevic Michael Llodra Nikolay Davydenko Teymuraz Gabashvili Victor Crivoi Christophe Rochus Oscar Hernandez Yevgeny Korolev Filippo Volandri Wayne Odesnik Victoria Azarenka Agnieszka Radwanska Francesca Schiavone Sara Errani Maria Kirilenko Kateryna Bondarenko ... And 21 on the warning list: Brian Dabul, Eduardo Scwhank, Jeremy Chardy, Simone Bolelli, Lukasz Kubot *, Carlos Berlocq, Igor Kunitsyn, Andrei Golubev *, Alex Bogomolov, Somdev Devvar-man *, Steve Darcis, Marin Cilic, Flavio Cipolla, Ivo Karlovic, Viktor Troicki, Flavia Pennetta, Roberta Vinci, Virginie Razzano, Romina Oprandi, Dominika Cibulkova, Eleni Daniilidou. * Participating in this year's Stockholm Open For the full article, run this link through Go...