Bomber margin no win for punters

Essendon coach James Hird says he used structure over emotion to beat GWS on Saturday night.

Bomber Nick Kommer flies to try to foil a catch from Jonathan Giles. Picture: Alex Coppel Source: Herald Sun

ESSENDON eventually got the points against GWS on Saturday afternoon, but the Bombers left punters in no mood for celebrating.

TAB bookmakers were so adamant that the Bombers were set for a big win that they even tinkered with their margin betting.

"We had Essendon winning by 1-59 points as the rank outsider for them at $5, the line opened at 80.5 points and moved to 90.5 by game time,'' TAB's Adam Hamilton said.

Betstar's Alan Eskander said: "In margin betting Essendon 40+ was paying just $1.08 and appeared in plenty of multi bets.''

A late Giants goal resulted in the Bombers winning by 39 points.

Essendon winning by 1-39.5 points was paying $8 with Betstar.

After GWS kicked the first goal of the third quarter, Essendon hit $1.50 in live betting with TAB.

"By three quarter-time the Bombers were back into $1.01.''

Spare a thought for the Sportingbet punter who parted $10,000 on the Bombers at $1.01.

"He made himself $100 profit, but I am guessing he endured plenty of heartache along the way,'' Sporingbet's Andrew Brown said.

Essendon was also backed into $1.80 with TAB to be the highest scoring team of the round.

"At halftime with the Bombers on just 26 those punters must have been feeling sick, the Bombers flew home to finish on 120, but the Cats eclipsed that total on Saturday night scoring 31,'' Hamilton said.

FAVOURITE PUNTERS

ALL nine favourite's won on the weekend with TAB reporting strong interest in the multi.

The nine-leg multi came to odds of $4.47 and involved Collingwood ($1.22), Essendon ($1.01), North Melbourne ($1.33), Hawthorn ($1.17), Fremantle ($1.45), Geelong ($1.42), Sydney ($1.06), Carlton ($1.02) and West Coast ($1.05) with TAB.

The biggest bet for the weekend was the Centrebet punter who plonked $300,000 on Sydney at $1.07 for a painless $21,000 profit.

COMING UP

GEELONG has opened favourite to continue its unbeaten start to 2013 by beating Essendon on Friday night.

"We have the Cats at $1.60 and Bombers $2.30 in our head-to-head markets," TAB's Adam Hamilton said.

In the unlikely event that the game is moved from Etihad Stadium to the MCG, then all bets placed prior to the announcement will be refunded.

"Our rules stipulate that the game must be played at the venue listed so if the game was moved we would frame a new market," Hamilton said.

HOT PIES

After opening at $1.15 Collingwood got out to $1.25 before its clash against St Kilda with Sportingbet, but the Magpies were crunched back into $1.22 late after the withdrawal of Lenny Hayes.

"As much as $1.45 was bet about them in live betting against St Kilda. One Sportingbet punter took advantage of the inflated odds and put $5k on at $1.40 in the run," Sportingbet's Andrew Brown said.

LATEST ODDS

Premiership

Hawthorn 3.5
Geelong 5
Essendon 6.5
Collingwood 7.5
Sydney 7.5
Carlton 13
West Coast 17
Fremantle 21
Richmond 21
Nth Melb 41
Adelaide 81
Port Adelaide 81
St Kilda 251
Brisbane 501
W Bulldogs 1001
Gold Coast 1001

Brownlow

Jobe Watson 5
Trent Cotchin 6.5
Gary Ablett 8
Joel Selwood 9
Sam Mitchell 10
Scott Pendlebury 13
Patrick Dangerfield 15
Dane Swan 15
Jarrad McVeigh 21
Chris Judd 21
Kieren Jack 21

Coleman Medal

Lance Franklin 3
Jack Riewoldt 3.5
Travis Cloke 6
Lindsay Thomas 6
Josh Kennedy 13
Tom Hawkins 13
Nick Riewoldt 13

Most Losses

GWS 1.2
Melbourne 4.5
W Bulldogs 15
Gold Coast 26
Brisbane 151