For those of you who have never bet on waterpolo before…your moment is about to arrive. This is the Montenegro team who are 7.50 to win the gold medal in Beijing. In fact the formbook says the eastern Europeans have a bit of an advantage and pits Hungary, Serbia and Croatia for the medals ahead of this year’s favourite team Spain at 13.00 and Italy at 20. Bet on water polo here

In the women’s waterpolo though the Americans are hot favourites at 3.25 ahead of Italy and Australia and only Hungary squeeze into the betting at 8.50. What is it about you Monetenegro boys, don’t you let your girls into the pool? Bet on women’s waterpolo here.

It is not clear where the medals are going for the host nation at the Olympics but the news wires for the last two months have been filled with pictures of ceremonies, welcoming robots and now these China girls practising their go go dancing on the beach, in case you needed to know what a troupe of Chinese go go dancers look like or might have mistaken them for primitive natives beating their breasts in the hope of invoking some holy spirits,

One possible prediction for the women’s tennis doubles though could be Taiwan. The pairing of Chan Yung Jan and Chuang Chia Jung picked up the women’s title at the Los Angeles WTA last week. They might be worth watching especially if the Williams sisters don’t agree to compete for the USA. The odds are not up yet because each nation’s team has yet to be finalised and can be subject to withdrawals but worth keeping an eye on.

Bet on Olympic road race

Frank Schleck in the yellow jersey holding back for an assault in the Tour de France. He is 9/1 to win  Olympic gold. The favourite is Athens winner Paolo Bettini - see below getting a huge smacker after winning the first stage of the Austrian tour.

With the Tour de France still fresh in the mind after a great race and fears of doping now seemingly being manhandled physically out of the sport, the serious betting man’s attention turns to the Olympic road race, all 245 kilometres of it, just a day’s outing in terms of the Tour De France’s three weeks but the dream of glory and medals alive. Pollution could still be a factor here as the smog over Beijing is still three times higher than predicted or even promised. The favourite is this sites most applauded name - Paolo Bettini. Bettini skipped the exhausting Tour de France and opted for the Austrian tour instead. He won in Athens four years ago and is the man to beat. His nickname is the cricket because likes to attack and jump ahead on his own. Tour de France runner up Australian Cadel Evans is in the mix too but at an unfancied 27/1

Bet on Oympic cycling here

The new soccer season is upon us and already the friendly matches are flying through the diary. Over the summer we have been cogitating a new kind of bet. It is a very low stake, but very high return. Statistically the odds are a lot better than the National Lottery - well what is not? Depending how you pitch it, the odds in reality are only 10-1 up to 20/1 and with a little bit of basic football knowledge, they are possibly better than that.

The idea is to bet on the correct scores of a football match. Not just once. But two as doubles.

Take a look at this week’s matches and see how that configures

If Arsenal and Liverpool were both to win 2-0 on Wednesday night £10 would pay out £990

By the same token Barcelona to win 2-0 against Fiorentina and Jose Mourninhos Inter Milan to win 2-0 at home against Seville £10 would pay out £680. These are far better odds than a slot machine for example.

Make that a triple with the same bet on Marseille at home to Toulouse on Saturday and the pay out potential is £4,420.

There is a free £10 bet for new members at BetClick if you open an account

Bet of the day: Liverpool continue their pre-season warm up in Spain on Wednesday which may fuel more specualtion about a Spanish striker being linked to the club. Villarrreal were the surprise package in Spain last year coming second in a Liga. Liverpool to win 2-1 is 10/1. Bet Liverpool here

The children of Spain’s Carlos Sastre celebrate with him in the Champs-Elysees after his victory in one of the greatest road races in recent years the Tour de France 2008.

Sastre, whose Team CSC boss Bjarne Riis admitted to doping during his 1996 Tour win, became the third Spaniard to win the showcase event, while Cadel Evans of Australia finished 58 seconds behind. For the second straight year Evans has lost the Tour by less than a minute after conceding defeat to Alberto Contador of Spain by 23 seconds in 2007.

Off the stage and away from the champagne a fourth rider, Dmitriy Fofonov tested positive for the banned stimulant heptaminol after stage 18.

Fofonov, who said he bought the product off the Internet to treat cramps but forgot to tell the team’s doctor, was immediately fired by his Credit Agricole team.

Bordry’s AFLD makes France arguably the leading country in anti-doping controls which have nee a promionent feature of this year’s event with riders cars subjected to spot searches and regular urina sampling.

Before Sunday, three cyclists had already been kicked out for using the banned blood booster EPO — Italian rider Riccardo Ricco, Manuel Beltran and his fellow Spaniard Moises Duenas Nevado. Ricco’s Saunier Duval team quit the Tour and its sponsorship was ended, and Duenas Nevado’s Barloworld team will not renew its deal beyond 2009.

EPO was the drug of choice in cycling when it first appeared more than a decade ago. In a stone-faced confession in May 2007, Riis admitted that he used it to win the 1996 Tour and then chose to stay away from the 2007 Tour.

That he is back again to coach Sastre to victory raises questions, especially given recent events.

One German newspaper cited unnamed sources as linking Riis and Frank Schleck to a December 2005 visit to the clinic run by Madrid-based doctor Eufemiano Fuentes — the man at the center of the blood-doping scandal that had rocked cycling in 2006 and led to 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich and 2005 runner-up Ivan Basso — then Riis’ star rider — being kicked out.

CSC dominated at every turn. The team won the overall team award, the white jersey as best young rider for Andy Schleck-  and the 33-year-old Sastre clinched overall victory two years after placing third.

Riis said the turning point for Sastre’s win came “four weeks before the Tour” had started.

“I did some hard work together with him (Sastre) and really planned this,” Riis said. “We worked hard in the Alps, trained hard and had a really good talk about things, and I think that was the key moment.”

Sastre clinched the Tour by attacking Evans at the foot of L’Alpe d’Huez on stage 17 and then fending him off in the time trial, where he conceded only 29 seconds having been nearly 2:30 slower over the same distance last year

Bet on Olympics

The Beijing authorities are talking about banning all cars from the Olympic city and closing factories because of the pollution in the air as this photograph demonstrates. Hardly the best conditions for running or for that matter taking photographs in the kind of hazey smog that has become a by-product of the emerging Chinese economy.

Bet on golf

The tee pins in South Korea’s elegant Se Ri Pa’s hairstyle tell another story of the Evian golf masters at the weekend, held at the home town of the water itself. The increasing prominence of Asian women players rising through the ranks to compete at the highest level. Michelle Wee may have caught the cameras attention but behind her is a posse of talented new generation swingers prowling the greens. Above is Ai Miyazato of japan letting rip with a huge driver. In the pink is Candie Kung of Taiwan. The striped t shirt is Momoko Ueda.This is Angela Park of South Korea weilding a massive head on her driver. Victory may have ultimately goen to Sweden’s Helen Alfredsson, but the smart money says it is just a matter of time before one of these girls starts picking up the winnings and the endorsements nad sponsorship that could follow.

Bet Liverpool

Even girlfriend Alex Curran is having some diffiuclty keeping a straight face as Liverpool midfield maestro Steven Gerrard is awarded a degree by his home city university. The citation says, in case you wondered, ” Steven epitomises the university philosophy of Dream, Plan, Achieve,” said vice chancellor John Moores. “As a young boy he excelled in the sport he loves and ensured his talent was recognised, looking upon challenges as opportunities and pursuing each available avenue”.

 Oh, so that is ok, drop out of school, play footie and you still get a degree anyway. Great role model.

Bet on boxing

Francisco Lorenzo of the Dominican Republic sits on the canvas after fighting Humberto Soto of Mexico during an interim WBC super featherweight title fight at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada . Lorenzo was ruled a disqualification winner after Soto was ruled to have hit him while he was down.

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