The sixteenth edition of ‘Round the Sports World in five minutes’ talks you through one of the most popular sporting events in the world as the Ryder Cup gets underway in New York, while over in Spain, it’s the Madrid derby on Saturday afternoon in one of football’s biggest rivalries.
Ryder Cup
- Start: 26-28 September
- Venue: Bethpage Black, New York
- Coverage: Sky Sports Golf/Sky Sports Main Event
- Fun Fact: It’s almost unheard of for someone to be captain in successive Ryder Cups, but that’s what’s happened with Luke Donald, who has stayed on as Europe’s skipper after being so impressive with his leadership, tactical insights and man management in Rome two years ago. The message is clear: Europe need their best man in charge if they’re going to win on US territory.
Betting
Starting with the most popular market of all, who will win the Ryder Cup, and we find the USA available at 1.66 with most bookies, including Boylesports. Europe are 2.5 with the same betting company. These prices should come as no surprise to Ryder Cup fans, who have seen the last five editions of the biennial competition go the way of the home team.
As ever, the USA Team looks to be stronger on paper, and as individuals, with more Major winners on their team than Europe. But Europe, as per usual, are seen as being more of a team with close friendships among the players and a greater appetite to play four-balls and foursomes as a unit, rather than it being every man for himself.
If they can stay within touching distance of the USA going into the final day’s 12 singles matches, don’t rule out Europe upsetting the home bias trend here.
In other markets, the team’s two unofficial leaders and star players – Scottie Scheffler for the US and Rory McIlroy for Europe - are the favourites to top-score for their teams at 3.75 and 5.0 respectively, also with Boylesports.
The value bet for Europe might be veteran Justin Rose, who’s been playing as well as anyone in the world over the past few months and will be featuring in the Ryder Cup for a seventh time. Experience goes a long way in this event, and Rose has seen it all before.
But additionally, he has a strong record in it: 14 wins, nine shared points and just three defeats. If he gets to play enough matches, he may have a far better chance of top-scoring than his odds suggest. Robert McIntyre looks a generous price at 13.0, as well.
But there are dozens of markets available to play during the Ryder Cup, including: Day 1 winner, Day 1 correct score, overall correct score, Top British Points Scorer and who will be the first out in the singles on Sunday.
Summary
For many, this is the best, most exciting, and most dramatic event in the world of professional golf. Two old rivals are pitted against each other every two years for bragging rights that the millions of bucks these players earn on a weekly basis simply can’t buy.
Apart from seeing players taking part in a team event rather than the usual case of playing for themselves, there’s also the format to speak of. Matchplay events have gone out of fashion these last few years, so the chance to see the world’s best go ‘mano-a-mano’ on Sunday and in foursomes and fourballs before that, is a big part of the appeal and a big contributing factor to the Ryder Cup’s massive popularity among golf fans.
The big talking point ahead of this year’s edition was whether USA captain Keegan Bradley was going to pick himself as a (Wildcard) player given his unexpected, superb form of late. In the end, common sense probably prevailed, and Bradley realised being (a non-playing) captain is a big enough job and it’s virtually impossible to combine that with the pressure and intensity of playing, as well. But it can’t have been an easy choice to make.
It certainly won’t be the last talking point as we head into a mouthwatering weekend of golf.
Atletico Madrid - Real Madrid
- Start: 27 September at 15:15
- Venue: Riyadh Air Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid
- Live Coverage: Premier Sports and Amazon Prime Video
- Fun Fact: Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone has managed his side 45 times against Real Madrid in all competitions during his time as Atletico manager, more than against any other team. Across those, he’s won just 26.7% of them, a testament to how hard it is to beat Real Madrid in any circumstances.
Betting
LeoVegas are making Real the 2.4 favourites to win this match, with 2.7 on Atletico and the draw available at 3.5.
It’s normally more of a 50/50 game when this fixture is played with Atletico at home, but Real have made a perfect start to the season with five wins from five, while it’s been far tougher going for Atletico, with just one win in five and six points on the board to Real’s 15. So that’s why Real are favourites this time.
LeoVegas just about favours over 2.5 goals here, making it 1.66 that we’ll get three or more and 2.1 that the match will have two goals or less. It’s also 1.55 that both teams score and 2.3 that at least one of the pair keeps a clean sheet in the match.
A final score of 1-1 at 6.25 should see some business, while a Real win by 2-1 at 8.5 looks like a solid wager, too.
Whether Atletico get anything out of the game could come down to how good a match Julian Alvarez has. The Argentine striker has had a slow start to the season by his standards, with just one goal in five La Liga games, but could be saving his best for the biggest stage.
He’s 4.1 to assist a goal, 2.45 to score one and 4.8 to be the first goalscorer.
Summary
This is perhaps the second biggest match in Spanish football after El Clásico, and football fans up and down the country will be tuning in to see what happens this time round.
We should know what to expect with Atletico being their usual physical selves, well-drilled and organised at the back, looking to exploit counter-attacks and set-pieces in attempting to score. Real should have more of the ball and play a bit wider as they try to get key men Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr into dangerous positions.
But Los Galacticos may have to do it without their English pair of Trent-Alexander Arnold and Jude Bellingham, who are both carrying injuries, while defender Michael Rudiger is also absent through injury.
Betting Tip of the Week: Back Kylian Mbappe to score anytime at 2.15 with LeoVegas
Part of the reason for Real’s success so far this season has been the red-hot scoring form of Kylian Mbappe.
He’s scored in four of his five La Liga matches this season, five in total, and also netted twice in two games for France in early September, to go with a brace in the Champions League as they beat Marseille 2-1.
So, the France skipper simply can’t stop scoring and rates a very decent bet at 2.15 to get one in this match, too.
