The second edition of ‘Round the Sports World in Five Minutes’ takes us to southwest London, the north of England and Miami this week as we talk you through the week’s biggest sporting events, complete with the latest odds and a betting tip.
2025 Queen’s Club Championship
- Start: Monday, June 16
- Venue: Queen’s Club, London
- TV Coverage: BBC One and BBC Two
- Fun Fact: For 8 years running, the trophy engravers had it pretty easy because there were only two names they needed to put on it. Between 2000 and 2008, only Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick were able to win this tournament, doing so four times each, before Rafael Nadal stopped the pair’s dominance when winning it in 2009.
Betting
Carlos Alcaraz, fresh from winning the French Open a couple of weeks ago in an extraordinary match against Jannik Sinner, is unsurprisingly the red-hot favourite with Betfred, going just even money that he wins it.
Alcaraz won Queen’s in 2023 but suffered a shock straight-sets defeat to Brit Jack Draper last year in the second round. Not that the defeat stopped Alcaraz from winning Wimbledon a couple of weeks later.
Draper himself is the second-favourite at 4/1 (5.00) this time round, with American Taylor Fritz a 10/1 (11.0) chance.
Summary
We know we’re fully into the tennis grass court season when Queen’s comes around, and this is a tournament that always provides good clues as to who can be a real contender at Wimbledon in a couple of weeks’ time.
This year’s edition features five of the world’s top 10-ranked players, but that doesn’t include that man Sinner, who has preferred to head to Germany to defend the title he won at Halle last year.
England vs India First Test
- Start: Friday, June 20, 11:00
- Venue: Headingley, Leeds, UK
- TV Coverage: Sky Sports Cricket, Sony
- Fun Fact: England’s skipper Ben Stokes is already the player with the most sixes hit in Test history, with 133. But the man in second place is none other than England coach Brendon McCullum, who hit 107. In a further coincidence, they were both born in New Zealand, with McCullum captaining the country of his birth but Stokes opting to play for England.
Betting
England is the best price of 8/11 with Boylesports to win the First Test, with India at 8/5 (2.6) and the draw a big 8/1 (9.00).
The reasons for the short price on England can be explained by the fact that they generally have a very strong record at home and players who will feature here in good form during the recent white-ball series against West Indies.
They have mostly made good use of home conditions against India over the years, whose batsmen have struggled against the swinging ball.
But the bookies certainly haven’t ignored the fact that for the first time in years, India will be playing a Test series without the dominating presence of former skippers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have recently retired from the longest format.
We also note that they didn’t have much by way of preparation in terms of warm-up matches, so this is a good chance for Ben Stokes and co to catch them cold and go 1-0 up in the Series, hence the short price.
Summary
Both sides missed out on playing the World Test Championship Final, featured in last week’s column, so will be keen to remind the world that they still take Test cricket seriously and are desperate to make sure that they’ll be contesting the next one in two years’ time.
India has lost two behemoths of Indian cricket to Test retirement with Sharma and Kohli calling it a day, but that will provide opportunities for youngsters such as Sai Sudharsan and Ntish Kumar Reddy to show they belong at this level.
As for England, their batting looks very strong, but injuries and retirements mean their bowling resources look a bit limited, with inexperienced players at this level being put under pressure against some of the world’s best batters.
FIFA Club World Championship – Real Madrid vs Al Hilal
- Start: Wednesday, June 18, 20:00 (UK time)
- Venue: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens
- TV Coverage: Dazn
- Fun Fact: Both managers will be in charge of their teams for the first time ever in an official match this game, with Simone Inzaghi recently joining Al Hilal from Inter Milan and Xabi Alonso leaving Bayer Leverkusen to take over as head coach of Real Madrid just a couple of weeks ago.
Betting
Since Saudi Arabia decided to go all-in on their football league a couple of years ago, one of the big talking points was: just how competitive is their league, and can they go toe-to-toe with Europe’s elite?
Well, we’re about to find out. But when William Hill are going just 3/10 (1.30) that Real Madrid will win the match, the suggestion is that the gulf in quality is still pretty big. The same company make it 8/1 (9.00) that Al Hilal can produce a big upset, and 9/2 (5.50) it ends in a draw.
Summary
The odds suggest Al Hilal is up against it from the word go here, but this isn’t a side lacking star quality of its own.
Former Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly, 100-cap Serbia goal machine Aleksandar Mitrovic, Serbian team-mate and playmaker Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Portuguese duo Joao Cancelo and Ruben Neves, who have just won the Nations League, are all expected to play.
So Real will be up against some high-quality players, though not all are at the same level as those.
As for Real, all eyes will be on Trent-Alexander Arnold whose much-anticipated move from Liverpool was one of the most eye-catching of the transfer window so far and this match is just the sort to provide him with the chance to make those forward runs and pinpoint crosses that made Real so desperate to sign him in the first place.
Betting Tip of the Week
We’re always on the lookout for that extra bit of value, and we may just have found it in a Price Boost courtesy of Bwin.
A Real Madrid win with over 3.5 goals in the match has been boosted from 7/5 (2.40) to 31/20 (2.55). Al Hilal may hold their own for the first 20 minutes or so, but Real’s quality will surely shine through sooner or later, with Alonso keen to make a quick impact.
This could quite easily be 3-1 or 4-0, so the Real win with at least four goals in the game looks a fine bet.
