NFL : Super Bowl XLVI : Tom Brady Props Popular

The New England Patriots set out to exact revenge on the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI to be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

There is recent history between the two sides as the New England Patriots were huge favourites when the Pats faced the Giants in 2008 in SuperBowl XLII, going in with an 18-0 season record and seeking to emulate the perfect season of the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

But the previously unbeaten Patriots fell to a surprise 14-17 defeat at the hands of the pumped up NY Giants - a result that Sports Illustrated called "one of the greatest upsets in sports history."

That was a bit much - after all in 2008 the New York Giants were 13-6 coming into the SuperBowl and despite being WildCard qualifiers were clearly a form team themselves - but the public and the bookmakers all bought into the hype of the unbeatable Pats and had the Giants as 12 point underdogs.

It simply goes to show that the NFL is a very competitive league, and that when it comes to a SuperBowl anything is possible on game day.

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This time New England is being touted as the early -3 point favorite on the NFL betting line at Bovada, a victory in the season finale is far from guaranteed - all despite their AFC East-leading 13-3 mark. In fact, one of New England’s three losses came at the hands of these very Giants.

Player "prop" betting is proving popular again this year with New Englands star QB Tom Brady getting a lot of early focus from punters.

Brady throws well, and Brady earns a lot of yardage, even in that loss to the Giants Brady threw for over 340 yards, but a pair of interceptions proved fatal.  Bovada Sportsbook have set the over/under on Brady’s passing yardage for Super Bowl XLVI at 320.5. Does the 34-year-old have enough in the tank to show up big when it matters most yet again?

The NFL prop for Brady’s passing interceptions is set at 0.5, with the majority of bettors expecting the Giants to get at least one "pick" and taking the over.

Bovada’s prop line also features the MVP award, with both Rob Gronkowski and Wes Welker poised to factor in to the match. Currently Brady leads the MVP props list as well with +140 odds of winning the award. Gronkowski and Welker sit further down at +1000 and +15000.

With all eyes on the Pats as they set out to accomplish this Sunday what they failed to do in 2008, Super Bowl XLVI is shaping up to be one of the best.

Super Bowl XLVI : It’s All On The Line at Bovada

Football : Midweek spreadsheet for England and Italy online now

The Gooners Numb3rs betting spreadsheet has been updated with the midweek round of games for the English Premier League and Italian Serie A being played on Tuesday, Wedneday and Thursday.

There are some interesting games in store with Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal all having tricky away games to manage in England, while in Italy we see Lazio hosting AC Milan and Parma playing Juventus.

In England the spreadsheet sees wins for : TOTTENHAM v Wigan, MANCHESTER CITY @ Everton, MANCHESTER UNITED v Stoke and ARSENAL @ Bolton.

In Italy the home sides hold the advantage with ATALANTA v Genoa, INTER MILAN v Palermo, NAPOLI v Cesena and UDINESE v Lecce all games that the home side should win.

Check out the midweek betting spreadsheet now.

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Tennis : Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in longest Australian Open final

Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in five sets to retain his Australian Open title in the longest grand slam final of all time - almost six hours of play.

The Serbian won an epic match 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-7(5/7) 7-5 in five hours and 53 minutes, beating the previous record of four hours and 54 minutes set by Ivan Lendl and Mats Wilander at the 1988 US Open.

The win means that Djokovic has now won the last three grand slam titles following his victories at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.

You can read all the news at the official Australian Open website.

AC Milan end chase for Carlos Tevez - loan Maxi Lopez instead

AC Milan have have dropped out of the running to sign Argentina striker Carlos Tevez from Manchester City.

The Italian club, who set a 1800 GMT Friday deadline to secure a deal, have instead signed Maxi Lopez from Catania on loan.

Tevez has not played for City since they beat Birmingham on 21 September. Man City boss Roberto Mancini alleged he refused to come off the substitutes' bench in September's Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich, while the player maintained there had been a misunderstanding.

Tevez remains sulking in Argentina and his dispute with Manchester City has so far cost the Argentine player £9.3m in wages, fines and lost bonuses. His advisor Kia Joorabchian does not expect any change until the next transfer window in June.

EPL : Manchester City beat Spurs 3-2, Man United beat Arsenal 2-1

Mario Balotelli's stoppage-time penalty lifted Premier League leaders Manchester City to a dramatic 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United remained snapping at their heels with a 2-1 victory at Arsenal.

MANCHESTER CITY 3-2 TOTTENHAM
Manchester City's 100 percent home record seemed about to end after third-placed Tottenham recovered from a two-goal deficit in a mad nine-minute spell midway through the second half in which goals from Spurs' Jermain Defoe and Gareth Bale cancelled out early efforts by City's Samir Nasri and Joleon Lescott.

However, after Defoe missed a chance to claim a remarkable Tottenham victory in stoppage time Balotelli struck from the penalty spot after being brought down by Ledley King.

ARSENAL 1-2 MANCHESTER UNITED
Meanwhile Manchester United also claimed a late win after they went ahead a minute into first-half stoppage time when the evergreen Ryan Giggs delivered a perfect cross for Valencia to head powerfully into the net.

Arsenal were livelier after the restart and Van Persie equalised when teenager Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's clever angled pass found the Dutchman who fired a low shot in off the far post.

But United claimed an important victory when Valencia dribbled into the area before cutting a pass back for Welbeck to seal the points for the visitors.

MANCHESTER CITY AND MANCHESTER UNITED ON TOP
The results leave the two Manchester clubs in pole position to fight for the title with London sides Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal trailing in 3th to 5th place.

Premier League Table - Top Five

22 Jan 2012

Position	Team	P	GD	Pts
1	Man City	22	42	54
2	Man Utd	22	33	51
3	Tottenham	22	17	46
4	Chelsea	22	15	41
5	Arsenal	22	6	36

NFL : New England Patriots reach Superbowl - beat Ravens 23-20

The New England Patriots beat the stunned Baltimore Ravens 23-20 in the AFC championship game Sunday after Baltimore's Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal attempt with 11 seconds remaining that would have tied the score.

New England QB Tom Brady scored the winning touchdown midway through the 4th quarter when he made a 1-yard dive over the top of the scrimmage on a 4th and goal play.

This is the Patriots fifth AFC championship in 11 seasons.

VIDEO LINK :
You can see all the video highlights of the Patriots 23-20 win over the Ravens at NFL.com now.

Africa Cup of Nations : Paddy Power Money Back Special

African Cup of Nations
Group Stages: Jan 21 - Feb 1st 
(shown live on Eurosport)

With the Ivory Coast and Ghana having outstanding players there is a quite of bit of interest in this tournament now but the group stage games are always cagey affairs and it's good to have a bit of betting insurance on your side when taking a bet.

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Betting Spreadsheet : Weekend Games for January 20-23rd online now

The "Gooners Numb3rs" Football Betting Spreadsheet has been updated for club football games in England, Italy, Spain and Germany for January 20th to 23rd.

The spreadsheet is broadly based on a modification of an ELO ranking system - similar to those used to ranked players in both chess and backgammon - and has been storing data on the top divisions in Europe for 12 seasons.

These ratings are then compared against the databases for similar games in the same competition and the results are displayed as potential percentage chances for a Home Win (HW), a draw (D), or an Away Win (AW).

Clicking on the "MORE" link for each match will then give a snapshot of each teams recent form, and previous head-to-head results, as well as a brief textual explanation of any betting angle.

The sheet is forecasting wins for LIVERPOOL at Bolton, MAN CITY v Tottenham, AC MILAN at Novara, PALERMO v Genoa, UDINESE v Catania, DORTMUND at Hamburg, BARCELONA at Malaga, LEVANTE v Zaragoza and REAL MADRID v Bilbao.

It also calculates that Manchester United are the better value on their trip to Arsenal (unfortunately for me as a Gooner) and there are a couple of potential value draw bets in Real Sociedad v Atletico Madrid, and Villarreal v Gijon

Take a look at my "Gooners Numb3rs" Football Betting Spreadsheet and let me know what you think!
 :-)