ATP Indian Wells Betting: Ramos to make things tricky for Cilic while Murray may struggle against Donskoy

"The highest ranked player that Cilic has ever beaten at Indian Wells is Florent Serra, who was ranked number 73 when Cilic beat him here in 2011 and Ramos should have enough about his game to give the Croat a hard time again tonight.."

Back Ramos +3.5 games to beat Cilic at 2.01/1

Any Murray supporters beware! It's been an unpredictable start to proceedings at Indian Wells, so can Sean Calvert find some winners in today's second round matches?

The 2013 BNP Paribas Open continued to confound on Saturday, with no less than seven seeded casualties in the men's draw and another tough loss for my recommended bet.

David Nalbandian lost a tight one to Jerzy Janowicz and resorted to his time-honoured tradition of booting the advertising hoardings. Thankfully there wasn't a line judge sitting behind them this time, but the well-backed Nalbandian's supporters could empathise with the Argentine.

But there was a bright spot amongst the carnage, as David Ferrer's defeat to Kevin Anderson has opened the draw up nicely for my two outright recommended bets Tomas Berdych and Gilles Simon.

The latter came back from 5-1 and match points down to defeat Paulo Lorenzi yesterday, while Berdych's chances of making at least the semi-finals look good with Ferrer's loss.

So, there's plenty to play for and Andy Murray begins his Indian Wells campaign tonight against improving Russian Evgeny Donskoy, but it would be a huge surprise if he were able to push the Scot close.

That said, Murray has lost in the first round here for the last two years in a row and it's certainly not his favourite venue. His Masters 1000 form hasn't been great lately and you have to go back to Shanghai 2011 for his last Masters title.

It could be worth an interest to side with Donskoy +6.5 games on the handicap in this one, as Murray hasn't played since the Australian Open and might be rusty enough to allow the Russian enough games to cover that quite generous allowance.

But one I prefer on the handicap is for Albert Ramos to cause Marin Cilic enough problems to beat the Croatian with a 3.5 game start at around 2.01/1.

The left-handed Spaniard defeated Cilic in their only hard court meeting in Shanghai at the end of 2011 and last year he took down Richard Gasquet in this tournament, so the conditions here suit Ramos.

They don't really suit Cilic though, as his record here is poor, with just three wins at this venue in total in his career. The highest ranked player that Cilic has ever beaten at Indian Wells is Florent Serra, who was ranked number 73 when Cilic beat him here in 2011 and Ramos should have enough about his game to give the Croat a hard time again tonight.

Recommended Bet
Back Ramos +3.5 games to beat Cilic at 2.01/1

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UK Politics Betting: To turn things around, Cameron must sack his hapless Chancellor

"On a personal level, the turning point for Osborne's reputation was his 'millionaires budget'. Nobody can remember a budget still being unwound and rewritten three months later."

Paul Krishnamurty is pulling no punches when it comes to his assessment of what David Cameron needs to do to stop the rot.

MPs head off on their summer holidays on Tuesday, offering Conservative and Lib Dems an opportunity to survey the wreckage formerly known as their coalition. The honeymoon period, when everything could be blamed on their inheritance from Labour, has passed and with greater scrutiny applied, David Cameron's government is lurching from one disaster to another. This week's was a massive Tory rebellion against House of Lords reform, but while that may endanger coalition stability, public discontent goes far deeper. Despite voters lacking trust in Labour's policy or leader, the opposition is now steadily polling http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/ around nine points ahead and 1.9n/a favourites to win the next election.

Whether these turn out to be mid-term blues or the beginning of the end depends on Cameron's response. All PMs have the opportunity to change course and redefine their premiership, so long as they're willing to take tough decisions and justify them. Decisions don't get much tougher than sacking your closest political ally, yet Cameron's chances of winning the next election may rely upon removing his increasingly toxic and discredited Chancellor, George 'Gideon' Osborne.

A strange myth has developed in recent years, declaring Osborne to be a master strategist, the Tories' answer to Peter Mandelson. While his friend Cameron worried about 'detoxification' and other branding exercises like 'Compassionate Conservatism', Osborne managed the domestic policy agenda as Shadow Chancellor. His reputation grew during the 2007 party conference, when Osborne's dramatic commitment to cut inheritance tax wrong-footed Gordon Brown, who panicked and cancelled plans for a snap election. The wisdom of that ploy, however, was always dubious. While indeed preventing an early election that may have been lost, the inheritance tax plan proved a handicap for the Tories, reinforcing their image as the 'party of the rich'.

Likewise plenty of experts warned Osborne's radical cuts agenda amounted to economic suicide, yet the Westminster commentariat rarely applied proper scrutiny, preferring to concentrate on the political effects. There is no shortage of scrutiny now, as politicians and journalists wonder where Osborne's promised growth disappeared to and why. When even the CBI are criticising their economic policy, you know the Tories are in trouble and the public smell it. Last week's Yougov poll on the economy confirmed this downward trajectory, finding that 65% now think the coalition is doing a bad job, while 51% think cuts are hurting the economy.

On a personal level, the turning point for Osborne's reputation was his 'millionaires budget'. Nobody can remember a budget still being unwound and rewritten three months later. It smacked of incompetance, prompted something like 23 u-turns and fatally undermined the Chancellor's credibility. How could a 'master strategist' not foresee the damage caused by cutting taxes for the rich, while raising them on pensioners and pasty-eaters?

Then in a mooted attempt to 'reclaim the iniative' from Labour, Osborne politicised the Libor Scandal, accusing Labour ministers of collusion. Yet his lack of evidence, and the subsequent bitter recriminations in Parliament, bemused and appalled older, wiser Tories. Even colleague Andrea Leadsom believes he now owes Balls an apology.

There is still time for Cameron to save himself. Abandoning Osborne's economic 'Plan A' in favour of stimulus will represent a humiliating u-turn, but manageable if presented by a different face, representing a relaunch. A couple of potential replacements could be former Chancellor Ken Clarke, or 'safe pair of hands' Defence Minister Phillip Hammond. Tony Blair's allies have claimed his biggest mistake was not replacing Gordon Brown as Chancellor. Will Cameron end up suffering similar regret?

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7 things to expect on the new series of The X-Factor

X-Factor / Dan Fitch / 27 July 2011 / Leave a Comment

New girl Tulisa will be looking for the new Cher Lloyd - but good.

Dan Fitch looks into his crystal ball to predict the things that we can expect from the new series of The X-Factor.

With three of last year's judges having departed and Simon Cowell now working on the American version of the show, The X-Factor has reached a crossroads.

Is the format strong enough for the show to carry on being the most popular on British TV? Or will the show wither and die without the presence of Cowell?

The only way to really find out is to tune in when it returns to our screens, but until then, here are seven things to expect on the the new series of The X-Factor.

One of the most annoying aspects of the last series of The X-Factor was the sheer amount of people announcing that they were going to sing 'Make you feel my love by Adele'.

These words lead to an awful lot of grumpy old blokes who were reluctantly watching the show at the behest of their wives and children, to mutter at the TV: "It's by Bob Dylan actually".

This year has seen Adele sell a ludicrous amount of albums full of songs that she actually did write, so a lot of people will cover songs from 21. In particular we are likely to hear the words 'I'm singing Someone Like You' an awful lot. Expect to see a montage of hopefuls butchering the song, who ironically sound more like an out-of-tune Dylan than Adele.

For The X-Factor to retain any bite, one of the judges had to step into Simon Cowell's shoes to become the new 'Mr Nasty'. Rather surprisingly, that man seems to be the mild-mannered Gary Barlow, who for many years remained resolutely boring quietly dignified, rather than entering into a war of words with Robbie Williams.

It seems however, that the Take That frontman relishes the task of verbally trampling on the dreams of deluded X-Factor contestants. The Sun recently reported that: "It's like Gary's evil twin turned up to judge. He's making Simon look like Mary Poppins.

"When he told singer Pebbles she looked like a man at her Birmingham audition, you could have heard a pin drop.She was mortified and immediately complained. There have been several complaints over Gary's dressing-downs. One singer said they felt like killing themselves after coming off stage. Gary has been asked to tone it down by contestants."

The X-Factor might have evolved over the years, but Louis Walsh remains reassuringly mental. For many, the highlight of the last series of the show came when Louis told 'Popcorn Paije Richardson that he reminded him of "a little Lenny Henry". We can only speculate as to why Louis will compare the black contestants to this year - Floella Benjamin? Kriss Akabusi? Al Jolson?

Without Simon Cowell around to keep him in line, we expect Louis to go even further off the rails and wouldn't be surprised to see Walsh try to challenge Gary Barlow for the position of the new X-Factor bad guy. It might seem out of character, but it wouldn't be the first time that Louis has experimented with a transfer to the dark side.

It might not be stipulated in her contract, but we're sure that Kelly Rowland is sufficiently self-aware to know that there's one person who she will be expected to call in a couple of favours from her best known former colleague during the course of the series.

Let's face it, when it comes to the judges houses stage, the people chosen in Kelly's category are going to be disappointed if 'the other one' from Destiny's Child makes an appearance. At the very least Rowland has to get Beyonce in the studio for the final duets, where she would be pretty much guaranteed to blow away Mark Owen and Dappy.

If you haven't paid much interest in the hit parade since the days of Bruno Brookes officiating over the Sunday afternoon countdown, then you may have missed the fact the the current charts are dominated RnB and hip hop acts.

The last series of the X-Factor saw Cher Lloyd having a number of raps crowbarred clumsily into her performances. With Lloyd's mentor Cheryl Cole having been replaced by someone with genuine urban credentials in the form of Tulisa Contostavios, we can expect a lot more swagga on the show that needs to be relevant.

With judging panel lacking the glamour of previous years, it seems likely that more emphasis will be put on the actual competing acts. In recent series, The X-Factor has had a curious obsession with putting as many extra dancers onto the stage as possible and it promises to reach ludicrous proportions this year.

Just because Lady Gaga and Rihanna can't set foot on a stage without being surrounded by more extras than were used in Ben Hur, Simon Cowell seems to think that the X-Factor contestants need similar gimmicks. Meanwhile, the majority of professional singers manage to do their job perfectly well, with no one else on stage but the rather necessary people who can actually play musical instruments.

Series eight of The X-Factor will be on the air in August and the show's devoted audience will no doubt be extremely interested to see how the three new judges fare. Perhaps a more intriguing question though, is how well the American version of The X-Factor will work.

Cowell and company will begin their Stateside assault in September and it will be shown in the UK on ITV 2. It's likely that a lot more people will follow the US version than previously watched American Idol. Will the fans be able to maintain their enthusiasm for both shows?

The Betfair Contrarian explains why Cardle and Cowell can be stopped and why he's desperate to recover some funds.......

Matt Cardle's victory brings the curtain down on this year's X Factor, and it's fair to say punters got this one correct from the very start....

Jack Houghton is full of conspiracy theories today as the show draws to a close but irrespective of political interventions and new voting policies, Matt Cardle should be crowned 2010 X-Factor winner nonetheless....

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Britain's Got Talent 2011: Things can only get better

Britain's Got Talent / Mike Norman / 04 May 2011 / Leave a Comment

Razy Gogonea performing a jaw-dropping move during his audition

"Pip has an extremely good voice and possibly could have provided us with that SuBo, or possibly Paul Potts moment that we’re desperate for."

Three weeks into the auditions and Mike Norman is far from impressed with what we've seen so far, though a couple of Youtube entries have definitely impressed our hard-to-please blogger.

I know exactly what you're all thinking after what you've seen in the last fortnight, "Where's the talent?" Perhaps it was a bit much to expect a SuBo moment, or maybe it's still to come, but so far this year's Britain's Got Talent has been about as exciting as having your teeth pulled.

Not one act blew me away after the first week of auditions, and the reason I didn't blog after the second week of auditions was because it would have been impossible to write more than two paragraphs about all that was good that week.

But now I've got two weeks of drizzle to rabbit on about, and maybe it's just a bit of a mid-life crisis that I'm experiencing, but I'm still not getting remotely excited!

I mean, take Grace & Ted for example, a 21-year-old attractive blonde (even that's debatable) and her 91-year-old grandfather. Performing If I Were a Rich Man the best part of their act was undoubtedly Ted's charming appeal, and this is where Grace deserves credit. She knew full well that if she'd have performed alone she would have been told she was a club singer at best. Taking her loveable grandfather on stage was a masterstroke; no-one is going to say no to a 91-year-old man and thus the duo got through to the next round - but thankfully, they stand no chance of winning.

Also impressing the judges, but for no apparent reason, were acts like Les Gibson, a 41-year-old impressionist, and 66-year-old singer Herbie Armstrong.

Gibson started off by doing an impression of BGT presenters Ant and Dec, but sounded more like Jimmy Nail and Julian Clary - Dec looking particularly unimpressed backstage. Granted, Gibson's impression of Kevin Webster was on the money, but when you're doing an act of this nature, impersonating five or six famous people of whom just one is instantly recognisable is simply not good enough.

Armstrong meanwhile had to be stopped during his first audition (presumably because his song was about as uplifting as Vanessa Feltz getting a carry from her partner), but he then boringly sung his way through the Van Morrison hit Have I Told You Lately. He was ok, but certainly nothing special and I wouldn't bee too fussed if he didn't make it to the live TV stage of the competition.

So what does that leave us with? Well I suppose seven-year-old Olivia Binfield was fantastic at getting her message across to the world - via poetry and with a huge snake wrapped around her - that endangered species need to be looked after; and 12-year-old Ronan Park - despite being dressed by his parents - was a good singer. And there was also Edward Reid, who changed the words of the Leona Lewis hit Run to accommodate nursery rhymes. Bizarre! But quite frankly, some of the acts shown to date have been pretty awful, which is why BGT's decision to allow Youtube clips into the auditions could well save the day.

And the reason I say that is because in my opinion, the two best acts that we've seen so far are Pip & Puppy and Razy Gogonea - both of whom submitted their auditions by internet.

Now quite why Pip thinks her puppy (Buddy) adds anything to the act is beyond me. Pip has an extremely good voice and possibly could have provided us with that SuBo, or possibly Paul Potts moment that we're desperate for. Pip performed Pie Jesu, the classical song that Andrew Johnston sang in series two, and sounded fantastic. What didn't sound fantastic was her puppy yapping along. I really hope she ditches Buddy for the live semi-finals as she has the potential to go a long way.

Gogonea on the other hand put in a stunning performance that blew the audience away. Breakdancers have been notorious on BGT, but none have been quite as jaw-dropping as the Matrix-style manoeuvres that this guy produced. Given that singers and dancers always go down well with the general public, Gogonea has to be on the early shortlist to win this year's show.

Mike Norman wasn't overly impressed with Saturday night's Britain's Got Talent auditions, but he believes a few acts are worth keeping an eye on as the show progresses....

Britain's Got Talent returns on Saturday so our resident Reality TV addict Mike Norman outlines what we've got in store for you over the coming weeks....

Britain's Got Talent reaches its conclusion tonight with ten acts vying for a spot at this year's Royal Variety Performance. Our man Mike Norman is here to guide you through the runners and riders....

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Winner Stays On: The best things to do with £100

Winner Stays On / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 11 February 2011 / Leave a Comment

From right to left: Jerry, Kramer and Newman, three gods of comedy.

"Back Bangladesh to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Cricket World Cup at 2.1. This is probably the strongest ODI team they’ve ever had and play all their group matches on home soil. Soil which turns square and will suit their army of spinners I may add."

WSO isn't just about being the best tipster in the business. It's also about winning dosh. Here are WSO's selections as the best things to do with the £100 prize.

If Only has now won three editions of Winner Stays On. If he wins this week and the one after that he'll follow in the footsteps of the great Paul Robinson in winning five in a row and the £100 prize that comes with that. Paul Robinson decided to spend the dosh on a couple of pre-Christmas boozy nights. That was his prerogative. It was his money, he earned it. We're not judgemental types here at Betfair Towers. But we've had a think about the best things to do with £100 and this is what we've decided on.

1)Take the woman of your dreams/girlfriend/wife to the River Cafe by the banks of the River Thames, a stone's throw away from Betfair HQ. You won't get much change from £100 (and this is assuming you go for lunch rather than dinner or it will be even more) for the pair of you but the food is wonderful, the decor impeccable and the service immaculate. They've also got something called a Chocolate Nemesis, the mother of all desserts. It's not cheap, it's not for the faint-hearted but it's 1800 calories of chocolate heaven.

2)Buy a showcourt ticket(s) to Wimbledon. There are few commodities in life whose value can go up as dramatically as a Wimbledon ticket, especially if some bloke called Andy Murray starts doing well. After all, his supporters haven't watched tennis for the rest of the year so they're all desperate to finally catch a game. Sell it to the highest bidder.

3)Buy the Seinfeld Box collection containing every episode. The last episode ever made was filmed over a decade and a half ago but the gags still hold strong today whereas Newman and Kramer are two of the best characters ever to have graced our TV screens. Pure quality, a hundred odd hours of comic genius.

4)Back Bangladesh to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Cricket World Cup at 2.1. This is probably the strongest ODI team they've ever had and play all their group matches on home soil. Soil which turns square and will suit their army of spinners I may add. If they manage to make it to the quarters you'll have a grand total of £210. If that happens I'll write a new list of things to do with £210.

Trying to deprive If Only of winning £100 this week is DoubleD.

This week's matches:

Wolsburg v Hamburg
Blackpool v Aston Villa
Deportivo v Villarreal

If Only's Selections:

Wolsburg v Hamburg- Back Under 2.5 goals at 2.0
Blackpool v Aston Villa- Back Aston Villa to win at 2.24
Deportivo v Villarreal- Under 2.5 goals at 1.86

DoubleD's selections

Wolsburg v Hamburg- Back Wolfsburg at 2.56
Blackpool v Aston Villa- Back Blackpool at 3.45
Deportivo v Villarreal- Back Villarreal at 2.16

WSO isn't just about being the best tipster in the business. It's also about winning dosh. Here are WSO's selections as the best things to do with the £100 prize....

It's FA Cup this weekend so WSO has come up with a few suggestions as to how to make the competition interesting again, plus the small matter of the selections of our two contestants....

Read on to find out why Dave is more Dangerous than he at first seemed, this week's selections and why the vet bill for the dead budgie was so big....

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