BETTING ODDITIES: Make mine two halves, not four quarters

BETTING ODDITIES: In his latest weekly blog, DAVID STEWART takes a sideways look at some of the stories making the news in the betting world and beyond.

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A GAME OF FOUR QUARTERS

I’ve no issue with the water breaks that now divide each half of Premier League Football – the reasoning makes sense in that the players are competing in more heat than they would usually and there is a condensed fixture list.

But can we just keep it to a water break rather than tactical chats from the managers? Sorry to be a bit of a traditionalist but it’s not how football is played. The team talk comes in the dressing room at half-time.

Premier League or games using jumpers as goalposts it should ostensibly be the SAME game and it’s rapidly becoming a different version.

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CONTROL THE CORONA

Imagine owning a brand that has the misfortune to be named the same as a global pandemic?

Would love to be a fly in the wall of the marketing department of the Corona lager parent company AB InBev (catchy name!).

Their share price took a dramatic fall but that was alongside the overall market and has since started to bounce back.

Against all odds, increased sales of Corona lager have been reported. Reasons cited include people ‘joking’ on their social media profiles, posting photos of them alongside the brand.

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A GAME OF TWO HALVES

Amazing scoreline in the Vietnam Cup today. Not so much that it finished 7-0 – but that it was also 7-0 at half-time!

You can have all the analytical tools in the world looking at possession, expected goals and momentum but could ANYTHING could have predicted this ….

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PUTT FOR DOUGH

The Workday Charity Open is certainly not the biggest event on the US PGA Tour but it produced play-off drama beyond belief on Sunday and proved how cruel sport can be at the same time.

Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas headed into extra time and surely Thomas’ sensational 50 foot birdie at the play-off 18th was more than enough to win the tourney?

It left Morikawa with a 25 foot putt to extend the contest which he duly did and went on to win it outright at the 3rd play-off hole. How bad is your luck that you sink a 50 foot putt in a play-off and don’t win?

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UNFORTUNATE COOKIE

After a busy week (I know, woe is me) I succumbed to a Chinese takeaway on Friday night. Tried a new place at Hampton Court that had good reviews and indeed it lived up to expectations.

Rather disconcerting though I was given a free gift of a Fortune Cookie. I’ve tried hard and it’s simply impossible to open. There are no tear marks and I just can’t open the plastic packaging. OK, I know I could with scissors or, failing that, a chainsaw but I’m wondering whether there is some hidden message behind the Fortune Cookie not revealing it’s secrets?

Ancient Chinese proverb: ‘The man who can’t open the cookie wins the Euromillions’. I’ll settle for that.

David

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DAVID STEWART is a freelance digital betting producer and journalist. His CV includes: The Sun, The Sporting Life, Racing Post, At The Races, The Sportsman, lead feature writer for Sky’s Betview magazine and senior producer Timeform Radio.

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Views of authors do not necessarily represent views of Star Sports Bookmakers.

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