Thursday, 30 April 2009: Collingwood looked home in the traditional Anzac Day clash with Essendon last Saturday.

So much in fact that betting had them at $1.01 when leading by 14 points at the 25 minute mark of the final quarter. One customer saw the opportunity (in his opinion anyway) to make some easy money and placed $4,000 on the Pies to win $40.

Of course it's all history now but Collingwood got those famous"wobbles" and blew that lead to go down by 5 to the Bombers.

Oh baby!!

NRL

Early support for North Queensland spells trouble for Parramatta this Friday night if TAB Sportsbet customers are on the mark.

Just over $100,000 has been invested on the Cowboys up until lunchtime Thursday and only a paltry $2700 on Parramatta in the same markets

One customer alone played up a total of $60,000 on Nth Qld with bets including $10,000 @ both $1.90 and $1.85 for them to win by Over 6.5 points.

Other bets at the -4.5 point line included $15,000 @ $1.90, $15,000 @ $1.80, $10,000 @ $1.75, $10,000 @ $1.70 and even $5000 @ $1.65.

The only straight out investment has been $15,000 @ $1.65.

Nth Qld are now into $1.45 to win the match and Parramatta $2.65

Most other matches are quiet although punters are starting to show interest in Melbourne on Friday night against Manly. Bets today include $8,300 and $3,500 both at $1.90

Biggest bets away from these are $6,000 @ $1.90 on Brisbane -6.5 v Newcastle and $4,000 @ $2.35 on Penrith v Canberra.

Tab Sportsbet can report that most of the top half of sides in Wooden Spoon betting firmed up after suffering losses in round 7 of the NRL.

Cronulla, Parramatta, Roosters, Canberra, Manly and Newcastle all trimmed up for league's most unwanted award with Parramatta the most dramatic coming in from $5 to be now $3.50 behind favourite Cronulla $2.75 (in from $3).

Sydney Roosters, who are scoreless in their last 129 minutes of football, firmed slightly from $7 into $6 and sit on the third line of betting just in front of Canberra, who are $9 into $8 after going down to Bulldogs on Sunday.

Manly and Newcastle both had their quotes slashed with Newcastle more than halving from $51 into $23 and Manly $34 into $21.

Pre season favourites Penrith drifted from $6 to $13 after their big win over Gold Coast Monday night.

AFL

Would you take $1.04 about your side winning? What about $1.03, $1.02 or even $1.01? Bit wary after Collingwood last week?

Well plenty have already this week and they are on Geelong in varying markets against Melbourne on Sunday at the MCG.

Biggest bet so far is $24,000 @ $1.02 on the Cats to win the match while bets of $10,000 @ $1.04 have been taken on them to win by over 15.5 points.

Geelong give up a huge 58.5 point start at the line.

Very strong money for Collingwood on Friday night against North Melbourne. One bet on the Pies of $30,000 @ $1.90 at the -18.5 point line. Money striaght out for the match is running 25:1 in favour of Collingwood with the largest single wager $10,000 @ $1.36.

Joint competition leaders St Kilda take on Western Bulldogs on Sunday and have had one bet of $22,500 @ $1.48 for them to get the money.

West Coast are popular for the Derby on Saturday with one bet of $10,000 @ $1.70 and another of $4,000 @ $1.65

In Brownlow Medal betting all the talk is about Gary Ablett and the fact he is into $1.90 after the first five rounds. One customer blew that hype away by placing $10,000 on Saints Nick Del Santo at the odds of $21 to win $200,000. He remains at that quote.

FRENCH OPEN TENNIS

With the Clay court season now well underway we can report some interesting moves this week as we near the start of this year's French Open.

In the womens betting little known German Sabine Lisicki has been backed from $151 into $26 to take the title this year.

She has trimmed her ranking from 497 in her first professional year (2006) to be now within the top 50 players in the world. Officially ranked 42 and having made the second round at Roland Garros last year at her only appearance.

Bets on her include $300 and $250 @ $151 and $1000 @ $51 earlier this week. She defeated Patty Schnyder 6-4 6-3 in her first round match in Stuttgart last night.

Other movers have been Vera Zvonareva $16 - $13 inc $10,000 @ $16, Carla Suarez Navarro $67 - $26 inc $2000 and $1000 @ $67. Svetlana Kuznetsova attracted one bet of $1500 @ $12 and remains at that quote.

Serena Williams heads the market at $5.50 from Victoria Azarenka, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina all at $7.

In mens betting only Andy Murray $21 - $11 inc $5,000 @ $21 has had any support to topple defending champion Rafael Nadal ($1.30).
EPL
Sunderland and Portsmouth are the sides attracing support in this weekend's EPL matches.

Sunderland meet Everton on Monday morning with bets of $7,000 and $3,000 @ $2.60

Portsmouth had 2 bets of $5,000 @ $2.80 taken on them for the match against Arsenal Sunday.

BOXING IBO LIGHT WELTERWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT

Manny Pacquaio ($1.47) and Ricky Hatton ($2.70) put impressive records on the line this Sunday in Las Vegas when they meet for the IBO Light Welterweight title.

Englishman Hatton may be the outsider but one customer has placed $13,800 @ $2.85 on him to win the title. Other bets include $4,000 @ $4 for Hatton to win by knockout, $800 @ $34 to win by ko in Round 7 and $800 @ $31 in Round 8.

Interesting bets taken are $800 @ $26 on the fight being a Draw and $800 @ $26 on Either Fighter being Disqualified