iBet: Johnstone Paints Trophy betting

Johnstone Paints Trophy, starts tonight

The Johnstone Paints Trophy pits teams from the lower two leagues of English football head to head, with the prize a trip to Wembley on April 7^th next year. From a betting viewpoint the early rounds carry something of a health warning, as it’s hard to know what sort of teams the managers will be putting out. But interestingly, although the betting has the favourites for promotion from League One at the head of the betting, the winner of this competition rarely comes from that group. In many ways that makes perfect sense, because most managers will place promotion much higher on their agenda and choose teams accordingly. Indeed the last four winners were all teams who failed to secure promotion from their division, and in fact two of them were relegated, including last year’s cup winners Chesterfield. This year’s joint favourites at 12/1 are Sheffield United, Swindon, Milton Keynes Dons and Coventry. I can’t tell you who is going to win the competition, but the trends suggest that the value lies outside the obvious favourites.

Advices

Fernando Alonso is 24 points clear in the Formula One Driver’s Championship after the chaos at Spa at the weekend and remains 11/8 favourite. The next race is at Monza in Italy on Sunday, a track where the pole winner does well as it’s hard to over-take. Lewis Hamilton is best priced 7/2 to win with BetFred with Spa hero Jenson Button 11/2 with William Hill.

Betfair gives you better value. To see how much more you can win go to www.betfair.com/betchecker

Recent Posts on Sport

• iBet: A tight game between Northampton and Bradford
• On The Road at the Giro d'Italia: Feeling ill and racing in the rain must be pretty grim
• PSG and the French league must be more proactive in dealing with hooliganism
• The ghost at the feast: Luiz Felipe Scolari hopes that dropping Ronaldinho for the Confederations Cup won't come back to haunt Brazil
• iBet: Chelsea and Benfica to continue scoring runs