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Major League Baseball returns to the diamond on Thursday with just one game on the docket. We will have to wait for Friday when there will be a full slate of action. The scene on Thursday night for our only game will be Wrigley Field. The Chicago Cubs trialed the Milwaukee Brewers for nearly all the first-half, but thanks to the Brewers hitting an ugly streak of variance, the Cubs stole 1st in the NL Central before the All-Star Game.

The Brewers went into the break on a six-game losing streak. This included a rare five-game sweep against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Brewers fell to 55-43 and dropped to 2.5 back of the Cubbies. Meanwhile, Chicago went into the break on a three-game winning streak. For a while there, the Brewers will just barely hanging on. They were trading wins with the Cubs, so generating some separation never developed. Then the Brewers hit a downturn, and then somehow took a loss during the All-Star Game with the Josh Hader incident.

While the Brewers head into the second-half of the season with some questions, the Cubs look like they might be an upswing. It’s been a frustrating year for Yu Darvish who has suffered some setbacks in rehab. If Darvish can return and be productive, it’s going to give the Cubs a monumental boost. In any event, the Cubs’ rotation has made it work without him, at least so far. We’re only at halftime of the season.

Mike Montgomery has provided some nice patchwork as a starter, but he’s beginning to slip, and the Cubs can’t afford it him to hit the rails. Kyle Hendricks has moved up to the number 2 in the Cubs’ rotation with Darvish out behind Jon Lester. He is coming off a couple nice starts prior to the break. Mike Matheny is gone for the Cardinals, after spending seven years as the bench boss in St. Louis. He had big shoes to fill after taking over for Tony La Russa, and enjoyed some success, but couldn’t match the World Series from 2011. With a record of 48-46 and 3rd in the NL Central, management had enough and pulled the cord on Matheny. We’ll see how the team responds to the firing in the second-half. Carlos Martinez will get the call for the Cards on Thursday to counter Kyle Hendricks. Get our free Cardinals vs. Cubs pick below.

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Chicago Cubs Pick

Carlos Martinez (6-5, 3.08 ERA) vs. Kyle Hendricks (6-8, 3.92 ERA)

Things just picked up in the National League with Manny Machado going to the Dodgers. It’s going to make the road to the World Series just a little more difficult for the Cubs. Spending money doesn’t necessarily work out all the time, but I expect the Dodgers to hit their stride. The Cubs must get productivity from Kyle Hendricks in the second-half.

Everyone else as well, but they really need a second guy to compliment Lester without a healthy Darvish. Hendricks went into the break feeling good. He posted an ERA of 2.45 and 1.04 WHIP in his final three starts of the first-half. He’s been at his best at Wrigley, with an ERA of 3.18 and 0.97 WHIP.

Carlos Martinez has been a bright spot for the Cards thus far in 2018. He enters with an ERA of 3.08 and 2.50 in his previous three appearances. The Cardinals will likely take some calls in the coming weeks regarding the availability of Martinez. Their average year isn’t because of Martinez, he’s been pitching well, but the inconsistency of their offense has hampered them.

They may be averaging 4.39 runs per game for 13th in the majors, but it doesn’t feel that way. Mainly because they’ve been good at running up double digits one night, and then go on to score 1-3 runs for a few days. Since scoring 14 runs on Dylan Covey, the Cards have averaged 2.25 runs per game in their last four matchups. The Cubs are 4th with 5.12 runs per game. We get a pretty good matchup between divisional foes to open up the second-half of the season. I’d of course prefer a full sample of games to pick from tonight, but the Cubs should be good for a winning ticket on Thursday.

The Bet: CUBS (-150)

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Wednesday afternoon saw a big market shift on Sergio Aguero departing English Premier League champions Manchester City for pasture new. Paddy Power announced that they had received a series of bets on Aguero going to Real Madrid in the summer and the market price tumbled from 33/1 down to 6/1* (Betting Odds were taken from July 18th, 2018 at 10:22 p.m.).

There really hasn’t been much word on the future of Aguero at Manchester City, but Real Madrid is actively looking to shake things up over the same, especially having landed nearly £100 million in the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus. Aguero is 7/1 to go back to his former club Atletico Madrid* (Betting Odds were taken from July 18th, 2018 at 10:22 p.m.).

Sergio Aguero Next Club after Summer Transfer Window

Real Madrid – 6/1

Atletico Madrid – 7/1

PSG – 25/1

Barcelona – 25/1

Bayern – 33/1

* (Betting Odds were taken from July 18th, 2018 at 10:22 p.m.)

Spokesman Paddy Power said: “Could it be a case of Sergi-go this summer for Aguero? Most clubs would be loathe to lose such a talent, but maybe not Pep Guardiola – who frequently dropped him last season, and would probably unearth yet another world beater to replace Aguero with.”

Aguero joined Manchester City in 2011 and has scored 143 goals in 206 appearances for them. He wouldn’t totally be one for the future though as he just turned 30 in June.

Real Madrid have been linked with some big names from around Europe this summer like Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois and that persistent link between them and Neymar.

Bayern Munich v PSG Betting Tips – International Champions Cup 2018, 21st July 2.30pm

Coming so soon after the end of the World Cup there is naturally going to be some star players missing from this friendly fixture. This is part of the opening day of the 2018 International Champions Cup and follows on from the opening fixture of Man City v Borussia Dortmund. Even though some players will be on a break there is the potential for two very strong lineups to still go head to head in this one which is being played in Klagenfurt Austria.

Bayern Munich News and Form

Niko Kovac is the new man in charge of Bayern Munich after having come in to replace interim manager Jupp Jupp Heynckes. There was more domestic success for Bayern last season and they will be gearing up for a Bundesliga title defence. But it is really in the UEFA Champions League where they want to make a bigger impression. Some of their key men who were in action at the 2018 World Cup will be sitting this one out including James Rodriguez, Corentin Tolisso and Thomas Müller after the summer tournament, but Bayern still have plenty of star quality about them. We are going with over 2.5 goals at *** for 19/40 odds* (Betting Odds were taken from July 18th, 2018 at 10:22 p.m.) for this game anyway. This is just an early summer workout for both and a chance for the bosses to look at their squads. Following this Bayern will go to the USA to take on Juventus and then Manchester City as part of the 2018 International Champions Cup.

PSG News and Form

PSG won’t be sending out star players Kylian Mbappe and Neymar for this one. That’s to be expected after the summer World Cup. PSG will need those two as fresh as possible for the start of the new season. PSG also have a new boss in Thomas Tuchel who will be looking for a strong summer to forge ahead with. Much like Bayern in Germany, PSG have just totally dominated the French domestic scene and will be favourites for more trophies this season. But they are still missing that UEFA Champions League title and that is where they want to make it count after all their big investments. PSG have picked up goalkeeping legend Gianluigi Buffon but so far it has been a quiet summer from them. Buffon has a W2 D2 L4 record against Bayern. PSG’s first competitive game this season is against Monaco on August 4th in the French Champions Trophy. PSG have won the International Champions Cup twice before and were are having a look at both teams to score at 1/2 odds with **** (Betting Odds were taken from July 18th, 2018 at 10:22 p.m.) even though this is just a friendly and therefore a little hard to read.

Bayern Munich v PSG Head to Head

The last time these two met Bayern took a 3-1 win which was in the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League. That was the eighth meeting between them in competitive matches with PSG holding a W5 L3 record from those previous meetings. PSG boss Tuchel has faced Bayern Munich 17 times as a manager and has a W5D2 10 record against them.

Bayern Munich v PSG Betting Odds*

Bayern Munich 8/11
Draw 3/1
PSG 16/5
* (Betting Odds were taken from July 18th, 2018 at 10:22 p.m.)

Bayern Munich v PSG Predictions

Bayern Munich to win: We have to side with the Germans who are looking as if they can produce a slightly stronger starting eleven and will have more options on the bench as well. PSG don’t have their star duo of Neymar and Mbappe and that could just hand an advantage to Bayern.

Man City v Borussia Dortmund Betting Tips – International Champions Cup 2018, 21st July 2.00 am

This is the opening fixture of the 2018 International Champions Cup, a series of friendly matches around the world between Europe’s top clubs. English champions Manchester City get an opener against Borussia Dortmund but there should be a host of stars missing after the World Cup because of needing time to rest. This game is being played out at Soldier Field in Chicago so make a note of the very early kick-off UK time on Saturday morning.

Manchester City News and Form

We, of course, cannot expect the Premier League champions to be at full strength for a friendly match in early summer straight after a World Cup. There is no way that is going to be happening. There’s no real point in sending out strong full strength team at this point of the summer. Pep Guardiola has a good opportunity to look at some of the squad options that he has available. Young Phil Foden was kept back from England’s U19 European Championship campaign and he could be getting in some important time, and it’s a big summer for Riyad Mahrez after his big money move from Leicester as well. Friendly games that are so hard to make a call on but you have an option of 8/15 at *** on both teams to score* (Betting Odds were taken on July 18th, 2018 at 10:22 p.m.). Just wait until you see starting lineups before even bothering with goalscorer markets for the game. Lukas Nmecha could well get some time up front for the Citizens on Tour. City does have top players with them like Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan, the latter a former Dortmund player.

Borussia Dortmund News and Form

Lucien Favre is the new Borussia Dortmund boss as he was brought in during May to guide the club in a new direction. In his first game in charge he saw BVB get a 1-0 win over Austria Vienna last week. They have taken some more experienced player with them to the USA including Mario Gotze and Andre Schurrle but there is probably going to be a lot of focus on youngster Maximilian Philipp up front for BVB. Over 2.5 goals for the future is at 19/40 odds* (Betting Odds were taken on July 18th, 2018 at 10:22 p.m.). The big wonderkid at Borussia Dortmund is Christian Pulisic who big things are expected of. The young American has reportedly gotten big interest from the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United. So this will be a good chance for him to showcase himself and get noticed even more. So too England’s Jadon Sancho who was on the books with Man City before moving to Dortmund last August. Like City’s Phil Foden, his club commitments saw him miss out on England U19’s European Championship campaign.

Manchester City v Borussia Dortmund Head to Head

Interestingly Borussia Dortmund have never lost a game against Manchester City. There have only been the two meetings through which were back in the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League. There was a 1-1 draw in England before Dortmund got a 1-0 win back on home soil.

Manchester City v Borussia Dortmund Betting Odds*

Borussia Dortmund 5/4
Man City 15/8
Dare 13/5
* (Betting Odds were taken on July 18th, 2018 at 10:22 p.m.)

Manchester City v Borussia Dortmund Predictions

Borussia Dortmund to win: This is a tough friendly to call because you just have no idea about what is going to go down. For both, this is going to be a good early workout and a look at the depth in their respective squad. The Germans do have some great youngsters in the work and we are just rolling with them.

Advised Accas (from July 17): +1pts

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Event date: 18 July 2018
Event(s): Golf, MMA
Selection: Various
Bookmaker:   Betfair , ***, Betway, Coral
Rating: 1*, 2*, 3*

So my favourite golf tournament of the year starts tomorrow, the Open and I have a few tips on this.  One small piece of advice, NEVER bet the outright on the winner at a bookmaker, ONLY bet each way as bookmakers offer some great deals which generally means extra places.  I have given low ratings for these tips, not because they are bad but because high odds requires lower stakes.

I’m dragging my feet with results but June’s will be here and will be send out in the next tipping email

Posted: July 18, 2018

The Open Championship kicks off tomorrow (or late tonight depending on where you live) and we couldn’t be more excited. Golf’s oldest tournament is taking place at Carnoustie this year which is considered to be the most dangerous of all The Open courses. The weather is always a major factor and currently there is no wind in the forecast, but in Scotland that can change on a dime and I wouldn’t count on it staying that way.

This is an interesting set-up as the hot summer has made for a fast course. A lot of top golfers are probably going to play without a driver in their bag, which is definitely unique when it comes to a tournament. The speed can be really dangerous with the unplayable pot bunkers so avoiding those will be key. Accuracy will be key. Despite the fast fairways, the greens are said to be playing slower. That benefits players who don’t putt as well so Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods, both who have struggled with putting this season, are back in play.

Living in the US, my sleep schedule is going to be messed up over the next couple of days, but it’s completely worth it for what I feel is the best tournament in golf.

The Open Championship Betting Tips:

As always with golf tips, you can bet to win and each way (E/W). This means a top-5 finish. Some sportsbooks list these as two separate plays and at those books I recommend playing both. These are picks for guys that should play well, winning is hard. Especially at Carnoustie.

My plays for the tournament are:

Jordan Spieth 20/1: The defending champion is getting no buzz heading into this one. His putting has been an issue, but as I said above that is thought to be less of an issue the way the course is playing. It’s been nearly a month since his last tournament and I think he comes in here fresh with some adjustments made. He’s one of the best players in the world and the lack of buzz on him is puzzling. I think he’s worth a 1/4 unit play.

Brooks Koepka 22/1: Another guy that isn’t get a lot of buzz and I have no idea why. He’s coming off the US Open win at a similarly difficult course and he’s the kind of player who shows up big for majors. He’s a two-time US Open winner and was Tied 6th and tied 10th in his last two The Open events. He’s also not played in nearly a month and is coming in fresh. I also really like his history as a European Tour player which makes him more familiar with a links golf course.

Francesco Molinari 30/1: Maybe my favorite player in this tournament. He’s one of the hottest golfers in the game right now. Starting with the BMW PGA Championship he has two wins, two second place finishes and one T25. That last one was at the US Open which was a horrible course set-up for just about everyone. Not statistically based, but a lot of people are expecting a European to win this after the US has dominated the majors. Well, Molinari is a great candidate to take that crown. (14/1 as best European is not a bad play either.)

Tommy Fleetwood 22/1: Tommy isn’t coming in the best form, but he is getting buzz and it’s easy to see why. He had that awesome finish at the US Open and is actually the course record holder at Carnoustie.

Patrick Reed 40/1: Not many golfers having a better season than Reed. He has a second, first and fourth in his last three majors (including his win at The Masters) so it’s not hard to imagine him doing well here. He’s considered a very creative shot maker which should benefit him here.

Those are my favorite plays. I’ll also be doing smaller plays on these three golfers:

Alex Noren 28/1: Coming in hot with a T3 at the BMW PGA Championship and a win at the Open de France. European Tour player with a T6 finish at last year’s Open.

Sergio Garcia 28/1: People have been expecting this guy to breakthrough and win The Open for years. This could be the year. He’s playing well of late and has his eye on this one.

Tiger Woods 25/1: His game has been up and down this year, but more up than down of late. The putting conditions favor his game and his main struggles this year have been with driver, which is unlikely to be in his bag. This could be interesting.

There are so many betting systems available out there that it can be a bit of a minefield to dig through them all and find out just which ones work for you. So if you are new to the world of betting and do want to explore the notion of Betting Systems then the Contra D’Alembert System may be a good place to start.

That is because it is a very simple and straightforward Positive Progression System that follows very simple rules. Here is our guide to teh Contra D’Alembert System.

Positive Progression

A system which is called a Positive Progression is where you increase your stake after a win on the next bet and decrease your stake after a loss. That’s it in a nutshell and that is what the Contra D’Alembert System is and it works off a base stake that you set for yourself. That base will all be dependant on your bankroll and how much you can afford to lose.

What is Contra D’Alembert?

The name of this systems comes from Jean-Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert who was a French mathematician who has a famous place in history for basically being wrong. He figured that the more times a coin was flipped on tails the more likely that the next flip would be heads. That’s proven false of course because no matter how many times you flip a coin you will always have exactly a 50/50 chance of the outcome.

That is what is known as Gambler’s Fallacy actually, the belief that previous results of bets influence the next. They don’t. But with his thoughts in place, d’Alembert decided to create a betting system where the train of thinking was that you were more likely to win after a loss and so the thing to do would be to increase your stakes after a loss.

So he came up with a Negative Progression System based on all of that called the D’Alembert System. This is basically the opposite of that and doesn’t get as expensive in comparison if you have a losing streak working against you.

How the System Works

As we have stated this is a very simple Positive Progression system and you just really have the two rules to follow once you have started. You do have to decide what your base stake unit is going to be. This is important because it will be used for the rest of the system. So if you have a £200 bankroll at the start of this you may want to use between 2% and 5% of that as you base stake. For our example, we’ll use 5% and that is a 10 unit stake.

That’s all there is to it. For sports betting you are going to want to pick out Even Money options as with most betting systems. That is where you would double your return and is similar to picking odd or even on a roulette wheel. Starting the system you have to use that base stake which you came up with. So the first bet that you place in the system in this instance would be £10.

Rule 1: Increase Stake after a win

That’s simple enough. If you were to win with your first bet you simply raise the stake for the next bet by one unit. So if you won that first beat of £10 you would put £20 down on the next bet. If that bet wins then you don’t double, you just add another base stake so the next would be £30 and so on. Everything here is based on that base stake and you don’t vary from it. You either go up £10 or down £10 on your stake. Which leads us to…

Rule 2: Decrease Stake after a loss

If you lose a bet then you will reduce your stake by a unit. It’s a simple as that. So if you just lost a bet at £40 stake then your next bet would drop down to £30 for the following wager. If you are right back down to your initial base stake (in this case £10) then you just keep playing that base stake on bets until you pick a winner. Then you go back up with another base unit.

So that is all there is to the Contra D’Alembert System. Nice and easy and straightforward to follow with no great complications along the way. That is why perhaps this is one of the more popular Positive Progressions systems because it is just so straightforward that you can’t miss a step. That’s not to say that this is perfect because as we are always keen to state, Betting Systems are not foolproof as there are always pros and cons to them.

Attention to details

No Betting System is going to guarantee you wins as no Betting System can predict 100% of the time the outcome of a situation. Because you are not increasing your stake after a loss with this system, then it does help you out in extending your bankroll compared to other Betting Systems out there. So it does slow down the bleed when you go on a losing streak and if you were lucky enough to get a winning streak going then it can return pretty healthy as well.

But winning streaks are hard to pull off because of the unpredictability of sports events. Depending on the sequence of results even though you are picking up wins you may not be ahead financially. After winning with your first bet, if you were to alternate between a win and a loss on the following six bets then you would be down on your bankroll despite having wins. Again, a Betting System is not foolproof.

But Betting Systems, especially straightforward ones like this for beginners can help manage a bankroll and ensure that you don’t get carried away with emotional betting. It does afford a bit of discipline at the end of the day. You simply follow the rules that are laid out in the System and hope that your selections come up trumps without getting away from the control of stake-actions.

IT was pap in Paraguay last night and apologies to anyone who might have been on – looking for a shot at redemption in Iceland where cooler climes in the Cup may just offer up a sacrifice to the goal gods.

VÍKINGUR REYKJAVÍK v VÍKINGUR ÓLAFSVÍK (8.15pm)

A really interesting history between these two sides who fought out plenty of battles in the old 1 Deild before the hosts raised their game.

Both sides are in OK form domestically with VR sitting 5th and VO edging the respective form book in 3rd place having put some comfortable wins in place in recent games as – to be fair – have mein hosts.

Olafsvik have scored at least 1 goal in 9 sucessive games.

Reykjavik have scored in 6 of their last 7 matches.

BTTS has landed in 9 of the last 13 H2Hs.

BTTS & OVERS has landed in 7 of the last 13 H2Hs.

Reykjavik have scored at least two in a cracking 12 of the last 13 H2Hs.

Reykjavik have scored 3 or more team goals in 7 of the last 13 H2Hs.

So we have two teams in fair scoring form heading into an encounter that certainly has a bit of history to go at – I’m taking on the following.

• Btts & over 2.5 goals
• (20-21, b)
• Vikingur Reykjavik to score 3+
• (13-8, b)

We have some time to look forward to the new domestic season of the Premier League. The return of the action is less than a month away now and already you can take a punt on who the first manager to be out of a job will be from the English top flight.

Gracia to go first?

Naturally, there is always a temptation to look at the managers of the newly promoted sides, just because the step up to the top level is a tough gap to bridge. But the current 4/1 favourite in the Ladbrokes next Premier League manager to go market is Watford’s Javi Gracia* (betting odds taken from July 17th, 2018 at 8:15 pm).

Gracia took over at Vicarage Road in January 2018 as he came in to replace Marco Silva. He ended the season with a P15 W4 D3 L8 record which was nothing spectacular at all as the Hornets limped to the finish line. So will there be a tough season ahead for Watford?

Southampton boss Mark Hughes is up there as well as a 6/1 punt* (betting odds taken from July 17th, 2018 at 8:15 pm) and the Saints had a really tough battle for survival last season. It was a pretty big drop in standards by them and Hughes struggled to turn the club around after coming in during mid-March to try and rescue them. He was only on a temporary contract until the end of the season, but the Saints got safe and Hughes was rewarded with a permanent deal despite a W3 D2 L5 record in his ten games in charge.

Chelsea and Arsenal both have new managers with the Blues dumping Antonio Conte for Maurizio Sarri and the Italian is at 16/1 odds with Ladbrokes* (betting odds taken from July 17th, 2018 at 8:15 pm) to be the first Premier League manager out of a job next season. Arsenal have put their stock into Unai Emery who is at 25/1 odds* (betting odds taken from July 17th, 2018 at 8:15 pm) in the market.

They are both a long way from Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola who is the biggest price of all managers at 50/1 odds* (betting odds taken from July 17th, 2018 at 8:15 pm).

First Premier League Manager to Leave Odds*

Javi Gracia – 4/1

Mark Hughes – 6/1

Claude Puel – 8/1

Rafa Benitez – 8/1

Roy Hodgson – 10/1

Neil Warnock – 16/1

Eddie Howe – 16/1

Manuel Pellegrini – 16/1

Marco Silva – 16/1

Nuno Espirito Santo – 16/1

Maurizio Sarri – 16/1

Mauricio Pochettino – 16/1

Sean Dyche – 20/1

Chris Hughton – 20/1

Slavisa Jokanovic – 20/1

Jose Mourinho – 20/1

David Wagner – 25/1

Unai Emery – 25/1

Jurgen Klopp – 33/1

Pep Guardiola – 50/1

* (betting odds taken from July 17th, 2018 at 8:15 pm)

It has been a summer of uncertainty for Chelsea. They had the long drawn out affair over sacking and replacing Antonio Conte hovering over them and that even extended over to the start of their pre-season training. But Conte, who won the league for the club in his first season in charge and lifted the FA Cup earlier this year, was given the push and the Blues got their man in Maurizio Sarri.

The arrival of Sarri is supposed to spark a whole new style of play for the Blues. Sarri is a big advocate of the quick short passing, high pressing and creativity that the likes of Manchester City and Barcelona are famed for. Getting that done at the club with less than a month of preparation is going to be a tough thing for the Italian to achieve and the job is going to be made even harder if the Blues have an exodus of players.

Hazard to lead Exodus?

Eden Hazard is 4/9 at Ladbrokes* (betting odds taken from *** on July 17th, 2018 at 10:55 pm) to be heading off to Real Madrid in the summer and that is the biggest loss that the Blues could suffer because he would fit right into Sarri’s style. But the player himself has hinted that it could be time for a new challenge for him and he could be making the move there with keeper Thibaut Courtois as well.

Courtois has been linked with a move away and like Hazard is at an odds-on price with Ladbrokes to do so. The Belgian shot-stopper is at 4/11 to move on* (betting odds taken from *** on July 17th, 2018 at 10:55 pm) while midfielder Willian has also been linked with a move to Spain. This is another Chelsea player who is at an odds-on price to depart over the summer as the Brazilian has been linked with a move to Barcelona, while Manchester United reportedly have interest in him as well. So there could be a huge shake up at the club.

The Blues have signed midfielder Jorginho so that is one in, but another of their star players who could be heading out is N’Golo Kante. The defensive midfielder, who is the best in the world at his position without much debate has been linked with a move across the channel to join up with French champions PSG. So that could be a another big hole that new boss Sarri has to try and fill.

In total, Ladbrokes have six current players at Chelsea at 2/1 odds or shorter* (betting odds taken from *** on July 17th, 2018 at 10:55 pm) to leave in the summer including Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Alvaro Morata.

Incoming Faces

So one way or the other Chelsea are going to have some big shopping to do. It is that or put a lot of trust in pushing some of the youth at the club into the limelight. Chelsea have a big depth in youth but most of them are out on loan and Sarri is generally not a manager who has used youth before, instead, he has worked with a few key star players in a side and build around that.

But of course Chelsea have been linked with more moves and there is 7/2 option* (betting odds taken from *** on July 17th, 2018 at 10:55 pm) on them getting scoring sensation Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich which doesn’t sound too plausible, while there has been a big link with them getting Anthony Martial from Manchester United. There were rumours that a trade for Willian would help make that happen.

With Courtois potentially leaving the Blues have been linked with Stoke keeper Jack Butland. Another big name who has been linked to Chelsea and one that does carry a bit more weight is Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain who worked with Sarri at Napoli. The Argentine is at 8/15 odds* (betting odds taken from *** on July 17th, 2018 at 10:55 pm) to make the move to Chelsea in the summer transfer market.

Incidentally, Sarri is 16/1 odds at Ladbrokes* (betting odds was taken from *** on July 17th, 2018 at 10:55 pm) to be the First Premier League Manager to go in the 2018/19 season. He certainly has a massive challenge ahead of him.

SCOTTISH football expert Mr Fixit (@MrFixitTips) previews Wednesday night’s Europa League contest between Celtic and Alashkert as the Bhoys look to march on.

Celtic v Alashkert | Wednesday 18th July 2018, 19:45 | BT Sport

Brendan Rodgers hasn’t done a lot of transfer business but the millions splashed out on Odsonne Edouard looks to be money well spent.

The Celtic manager has teamed up Edouard and Moussa Demeble in friendlies and last week’s first leg in Alashkert to great effect.

Edouard volleyed the opener in Armenia as Celtic closed in on the second qualifying round with a 3-0 romp.

Tonight’s about continuing to build up fitness and Celtic will probably settle for another two or three-goal victory.

Celtic are of course extremely short to win at 1-11 with Ladbrokes while Celtic -1 is just 2-7 at Ladbrokes so consider -2 at 7/9.

Alashkert are 40-1 at Ladbrokes and if anyone fancies a close encounter they are 10/3 at Betfair with+2 goals.

Edouard will be well backed at 5-2 with William Hill to score first but it’s tough to pick between him and strike pal Dembele who is the same price.

The best bet could be to back both to score in singles.

James Forrest was also on target last week and looked dangerous – he is 9-2 to break the deadlock and 21-20 to net.

Best Bets

Celtic v Alashkert – Celtic -2 (7/9 Sporting Bet)

Celtic v Alashkert – Odsonne Edouard anytime (8/13 ***)

Celtic v Alashkert – Moussa Dembele anytime (4/7 Sky Bet)

World Cup 2018: The Ultimate Betting Guide

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The interactive magazine includes previews, videos, stats and tips for all 32 teams, features on Outright Winners, Top Goalscorer, Refs & Cards, Dark Horses, Flops, Knock-out Betting and much more.

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I’M hoping to profit from two ball betting at The Open and starting with one of my outright picks.

Rickie Fowler has just had four good days at Gullane to get him in links-mode. The American has a great links pedigree but Jon Rahm is no slouch and although he has a poor links record you can never discount the Spaniard.

I expect Fowler to play well this week and hopefully he will get off to a great start on Thursday. As I said a hard one to pick but I’m going with the American this time.

1st Rd Two Ball

Outrights Already Advised

• 2.5pts ew Tommy Fleetwood (***, 22-1) Pays 8
• 2.5pts ew Alex Noren (Betfred, 33-1) Pays 7
• 2.5pts ew Rickie Fowler (***, 18-1) Pays 8
• 2.5pts ew Brooks Koepka (Paddy Power, 20-1) Pays 10
• 2.5pts ew Tyrrell Hatton (Betfred, 40-1) Pays 7

The Guardian recently ran a report about advertising during the 2018 World Cup and it said that one in five commercials during broadcasts of the tournament were gambling advertisements. It was also reported that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received a huge spike in complaints about the amount and nature of gambling advertising during the tournament.

Saturation seemed to be the biggest complaint because, with the timing of matches, there was a lot of pre-watershed advertisements pushed out. Under current regulations, gambling advertisements are allowed pre-watershed, but Ladbrokes Coral have announced that they would be “supportive” of changes.

GambleAware chief executive Marc Etches said there were increasing concerns about sports betting becoming “normalised” for children.

Etches said in a statement: “In the absence of evidence, the concern is that this is an adult activity and young people are growing up with it being normalised.

“They get exposed to it on television around sports, advertising online and gambling activities within [computer] games.

“It seems to have gone too far. And for young people growing up there just seems to be a stronger and stronger affiliation between the two [gambling and sport] and I’m wary of that.”

Ladbrokes Coral market director Alexis Zamboglou said that “Sports betting is enjoyed by millions of people across the UK every year and we wanted to make sure that this great sports entertainment product enhanced sports fans’ experience of the World Cup, without diluting our strong commitment to responsible gambling.”

He went on to state that commercials that were produced for Ladbrokes and Coral during the 2018 World Cup “enhanced” the coverage of the football tournament for sports fans.