Paddy Power said: "Stoke fans knew they were in for a tough season just to survive and this defeat has confirmed it. If you're losing to the likes of Bolton there really isn't much hope."
Potters fans furiously reacted on messageboards by threatening to close down accounts with the Irish bookmakers and starting a boycott.
Paddy Power couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about, especially when they were offering Stoke season tickets holders a free £50 bet with no strings attached to cheer them up.
But instead of being won... ...read more
Click here to view Betfair's Premier League Predictor and find out who the experts are backing to do what this season.
Have Liverpool or Arsenal got a chance of challenging? Are Tottenham really a good bet to be the best performers outside the Big Four? Is Fernando Torres going to run away with the Golden Boot?
The Predictor offers seven different sets of predictions, each with justification, and offers you the chance to throw your own opinion out to the masses.
...read moreClick here to open a new account at any time over the next fortnight and start betting for free on the first few weeks of the new football season. ...read more
The Daggers narrowly avoided relegation in their first season in the Football League but with three teams receiving points deductions are looking safe already and in the last two seasons the team top of League Two after one game have eliminated a Coca Cola Championship side.
Last season Shrewsbury took care of Colchester 1-0 after extra-time whereas two years ago league leaders Darlington travelled to Stoke and left as 2-1 victors. Factor into the equation Reading’s unremarkable 0-0 draw with Nottingham Forest and their nonchalant... ...read more
The chart tells you when to expect the first goal but also guides you as to what will happen from that point onwards in the game.
For instance, did you know that the last time Man United took a second half lead in the Community Shield, the match wound up going to penalties? Or that in four of the last seven years the opening goal has come in the first 15 minutes? Or that on none of those occasions did the game finish 1-0?
Click here to get used to how the device works and then come Sunday afternoon load it up and react as the goals go in. ...read more
Sky Bet offer odds of 33/1 on new England test and one-day captain Kevin Pietersen repeating Michael Vaughan's recent feat of leading England to eight straight test victories.
The same odds are available on the South Africa born big-hitter surpassing Michael Atherton's record of 54 test matches as captain while shorter odds of 16/1 are on offer for him to beat Nassar Hussain's 56 matches as ODI captain.
You can also spread bet on how many tests he will remain as captain for, with over or under 2.5 both available at 5/6 while Pietersen scoring a century on his debut as captain is 5/1.
Click here to view the markets in all their glory.
...read moreThe Tangerines managed an impressive fifth-placed finish in the SPL last season but finished joint on points with Hibs, who suffered a 6-0 home humiliation to the Catalan Club last night.
Paddy Power are offering 66/1 on Barcelona romping home by the same scoreline again while odds of 100/1 are available on 7-0, 8-0, 9-0 or 10-0 successes.
If you fancy a shock then Dundee United are 7/1 while you can back the Scottish side to win or draw at 2/1.
Click here to claim a free bet with Paddy Power. ...read more
Sky Bet consider it a matter of time before Roger Federer loses the position at the top of the ATP Rankings that he has held for 234 weeks following his early exit from the Rogers Cup at the hands of Gilles Simon.
Rafael Nadal is on a run of four straight tournament wins and is now 1/3 favourite to win this year's ATP Race, just months after it was considered just a matter of time before Novak Djokovic pipped the Spaniard to the second spot in the world rankings.
The extent to which the bookies believe Federer has fallen is proven by the fact that Djokovic is the same price as Federer to finish the year on top, which suggests that after five years of dominance, the Swiss could finish the year in third.
Click Paddy Power have opened a market on who will score the first Premier League hat-trick of the season and Fernando Torres, who scored two league trebles last season, is the 7/1 favourite. Didier Drogba and Emmanuel Adebayor are close behind at 9/1 and 12/1 respectively while Cristiano Ronaldo and Dimitar Berbatov are not far behind at 14/1. It’s usually one of the top strikers playing at a big club who does the honour, as proven by the fact that Adebayor (v Derby) grabbed the first last season and Wayne Rooney (v Bolton) got the first the year before but sometimes there are big shocks, as was shown in 2005-06 when the first hat-trick was scored by Marlon Harewood for West Ham in a shock 4-0... ...read more
Bookmakers Sky Bet offer odds of 5/1 on Kimi Raikkonen qualifying on pole but failing to win the German Grand Prix. The odds are very generous when you consider that exactly that occurred the last two times the reigning world champion competed at Hockenheim and he has only finished one of his previous six races there – in third – retiring from the other five. It’s not all bad for Raikkonen though as he chases his seventh consecutive Grand Prix fastest lap which will see him level the record set by Alberto Ascari way back in 1953. The best price available on that is 5/4 at Bet 365 and Paddy Power. While Chickendinner expects Felipe Massa to reign supreme at... ...read more
Man City travel to the Faroe Islands tonight to face EB/Streymur in a UEFA Cup Qualifier on a pitch with a seaside view and Paddy Power make them overwhelming 1/25 favourites to triumph. It’s not much of a surprise really when you consider that since 1994, 25 teams from the country have tried to get through the first UEFA Cup Qualifying Round and only one of them – B36 Torshavn, against Icelandic team IBV Vestmannaeyjar in 2005-06 – have progressed. Eight of the last ten teams to have negotiated the first... ...read more
Bookies extrabet have launched a series of special bets on Scottish golfer Colin Montgomerie losing his temper at this weekend’s Open Championship. Monty famously shoved a state trooper at Winged Foot two years ago after double-bogeying the final hole and a repeat of that can be back at 16/1. Odds of 3/1 are available on him throwing his club to the ground in anger while you can back him to break one in half at 100/1. There are also odds of 16/1 on him confiscating a spectator’s mobile phone although all incidents must be broadcast on either BBC1, BBC2 or BBCi. Click It was considered a foregone conclusion that Dimitar Berbatov would be leaving Tottenham this summer but with all the talk of Gareth Barry, Emmanuel Adebayor, Frank Lampard and some guy called Cristiano Ronaldo, the Bulgarian’s own saga has been pretty quiet. However, over the last week the speculation that Dimi was on his way to Old Trafford has mounted and Sky Bet now offer odds of 1/6 on the moody striker starting the season as a Manchester United player. The Robinho to Chelsea rumours must also carry a lot of substance because Sky Bet make the Brazilian 4/5 to play under fellow countryman Luiz Felipe Scolari next season while he is 6/5 to stay... ...read more
The 27-year-old is boosted by the fact she is currently employed by ITV and Simon Cowell, who recently hired her as the host of ITV2’s The Xtra Factor, is the man responsible for the decision to revamp the show that was last broadcast in 2003.
Big Brother host Davina McCall was the initial frontrunner but is now 5/1. The 40-year-old has presented the live shows in all nine series of the reality TV show although that close association with the show may no longer be a positive in terms of getting her other work.
Davina also hosted the show that replaced Blind Date, Love on a Saturday Night,... ...read more
However, if you are convinced that the Spanish striker is going to start this season in the same vein he finished the last then you should back him right now, despite his seemingly poor odds. Why? Because right behind him the other leading contenders are Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and Emmanuel Adebayor – all players being linked with a move away. If they leave, Torres’ odds are liable to get even skinnier.
The signs are good for Torres that now he has shown what he can do, he will get even better. Torres’ 24... ...read more
The bookies seem to have decided that it is a foregone conclusion that the stronger team will triumph, and it is true that five of the last six victors have been the Premier League winners, but are Paddy Power making a mistake pricing Portsmouth at 5/1 to win in 90 minutes?
Who would the win mean more too? Manchester United will go into every tournament they enter this year believing they can lift the trophy whereas for Portsmouth this could be as good as it gets. The Red Devils... ...read more
But somewhere down the line it all went wrong. Queiroz got fed up waiting and got to the stage where he could no longer stomach the convoluted interview questions posed by Garth Crooks. He was willing to bide his time if he got a promise from the Glazer family that he would definitely succeed Fergie but the Americans were not so forthcoming. Queiroz is now almost certain to take charge of the Portugal national team.
The Spaniard prevented Federer from winning a record-breaking sixth straight Wimbledon in five sets and it was perhaps the close nature of the match’s climax, whereas Nadal had early on looked like wiping the floor with the Swiss as he had done at Roland Garros, that sees the bookmakers maintain the belief that Federer is still the best.
The US Open is the final Grand Slam of the year and while Nadal is now cut to 2/1 with Paddy Power at the tournament he has never passed the quarter-finals in, Federer is still a firm 5/4 favourite to... ...read more
Now the doom and gloom has set in and there’s a sudden realisation that Murray may never win Wimbledon. After all Nadal and Novak Djokovic will be around as long as Murray is and over that period there will be new world-beaters born.
So BlueSQ are offering odds of 7/2 on Murray never winning Wimbledon and prolonging the wait for the first British men’s winner since Fred Perry way back in 1934.
If you think they’ve got it wrong, click
Normally the summer is filled with optimism-fuelled punts on England and co being victorious, their absence meant that Brits became the smart punters and profited from laying countries like Turkey and Greece who were backed heavily by their own over-enthusiastic fans.
So did our country’s gamblers learn from a profitable June and realise that it’s far better to follow your head than your heart? Of course not! A large portion of the money made on Euro 2008 was quickly squandered by rose-tinted bets on Andy Murray beating Rafael Nadal yesterday. ...read more
