Polak blows W.Hills top!

[Fedya Fussball]

OZVamp:

Rigging of sports games in Ukraine is a carry over from the old Soviet Days which
were rampant especially when teams were trying to survive.
You might recall as recent as 1995 Dynamo Kyiv was kicked out of the ECLeague for trying to "buy" the Spanish referee with a couple of furs.
UEFA was supposed to suspend them for 3 years but Kravchuk, the President of Ukraine at the time pleaded with UEFA and the suspension was only for a year.

European basketball is offered in Ukraine at a lower limit.

FF

[Cons]

Heh, I remember that "fur trade" incident. Why on earth did the Kiev officials try to bride the ref with... furs?!?

After the recent big-money transfers, I'm sure all future attempts will be much more lucrative and tempting...

[alec]

Fedya, AussieVamp and anybody interested in sports betting in Ukraine,

Since I used to work in a betting shop in Kiev, I can clarify a few things.
Fedya is right about low limits on Ukrainian soccer and the reasons behind that. But limits are slightly higher than Fedya said, about $100. And you may make single bets.
By the way, Fedya, what shop have you visited in Kiev?
Usually, sports books offer 1.8 line. Which is worse than 1.91 line of course, but still not bad I believe.
Limits are about $500, excluding local and Russian championships. For some time one shop used to have almost $5000 limits. But they ended up essentially decreasing them after a very short time.
As for now there are no online books in Ukraine. You can either make a bet in one of the shops or make a call to the office.
What I love about Ukrainian sports books is a much greater variety of betting offer than that of most of online books that I know.
If anybody is interested I can explain it with specific examples. Now I will give you just one.
During the last French Open at the beginning of each day I offered odds for each seeded player to win more than 1.5 matches from now on: "Yes" or "No". Always "Yes" or "No"!
Can you make such a bet during this French Open at any of the books?

[alec]

Cons,
What recent big-money transfers are you reffering to? Is Rebrov already officially sold out?

[DrunkenGoon]

Rebrov signed with the Spurs about 10 days ago if I'm not mistaken. He passed his physical and went back home to await his work permit.


May all your bets be winners

[Cons]

Alec, I totally agree. "YES/NO" is the best way to offer bet offers. When I see decent places like BlueSq offer three options on total goals in Euro2000 it is such a letdown. It should be one number, OVER/UNDER. That's it.

By the latest transfers I mean Rebrov, not to mention Arsenal or AC Milan's money which doesn't date that far back. I'm sure this is the richest football club in Eastern Europe right now.

[alec]

DrunkenGoon,
Thanks. I should have known about that.
Cons,
Yes. Total goals is a good example.
Since you mentioned Euroo2000. I haven't seen any place yet (except fonbet, which is Russian) where one can bet on weather a given team will qualify to the quaterfinals. Instead almost everybody offers bets on which team will take the first place in a given group, which doesn't make a lot of sense for me, because there is almost no difference between the 1st and the 2nd places.

[Fedya Fussball]

Pryvetiky Alec! (That's G'day - OZVamp...)

Rebrov signed last week with Spurs for $11million pounds and probably played his
last game last Saturday in Dynamo Kyiv's 1-0 Ukrainian Cup victory over Kryvbass
Kryvyj Rih.

I usually go to Kyiv once or twice a year... Its a genetic homecoming for me.
I've been to Casino Split and Marathon (Prorizna vul.) The former has a nice bar and you can watch the games over the satellite there.

The limits that I said were at the top of head so forgive my inaccuracies. I do remember the 1.8 factor and the low odds Dynamo Kyiv was quoted by the locals...
But this is no different to what I experienced at the racetrack in Australia with ontrack bookies who were taking bets from interstate. Victorian odds were always lower in Sth. Australia especially on Sth Australian horses!!!!

Cons:
WIthout a doubt, Dynamo Kyiv has been on the receiving end of nice monetary awards
with the sale of National Team players Shevchenko (US$25 million) to AC Milan where
he became the leading scorer in his first season and Luzhnyj ($2.1million pounds) to
Arsenal. (IMHO a very cheap buy...) However the consequences of the sales are starting to show for Dynamo Kyiv because 2 seasons ago they were close to qualifying for the ECfinal only to choke @ home to Bayern Munich. This season they didn't even advance to the quarter finals.

Its going to be awhile IMHO before Dynamo Kyiv threatens the elite teams.
But you never know. They seemingly like picking up Georgian and Belarus players on the cheap you would like to get sold to some finacially affluent team in the west.

FF

[AussieVamp2]

alec, to bet on teams to make the quarters you might have to do the spread betting thing, they would definitely have it there

[Cons]

Alec, AV, Intertops has bets on teams "to advance to the quater-finals." You can also bet on a team "NOT to advance" which is very, very interesting...

You can also bet on teams to advance to the semis, or the finals for that matter. They are the only out I have (out of like a dozen) that offer this prop, not including the spread firms of course.

Someone convince me otherwise, because I think Belgium won't leave the group. I can't see them getting ahead of Italy or Sweden, and the Turks will cause trouble too.

[DrunkenGoon]

Cons - Italy is a troubled side, they rely too much on Vieri at the WC and it cost the against France. DelPierro is not the same after the surgery and Maldini and D. Baggio are getting old. Italy will have trouble getting any more than 4 points at Euro in my opinion. I really like Sweden in that group but don't know much about their goaltending... Ever since Ravelli went off in the sunset they have a hole there.

Interwetten also has odds on "advance" and I am sure other books will also in the next week or so... Thursday we get to see the official rosters, then we go hunting for bargains... I'll scan the romanian press to come up with little tidbits that might be helpful for all of us, maybe we can beat that +600 we got with Dinamo against Benfica in the fall VEG

May all your bets be winners

[alec]

Fedya,
I had been working for Split for a little bit more than two years. They were the first in the business in Ukraine and the best for some time. Not any more. You probably saw that 300 hryvna limit there.
On the Marathon. They are the largest now. A year ago they had shops in about 30 cities in both Ukraine and Russia. And they keep growing fast. I think Marathon is the only sports betting firm in Kiev which has a clear development strategy. But I never liked them anyway.
Besides those two, there are about six other sports betting firms in Kiev now. One of them is run by guys from Finland. They were known of taking pretty big bets (more than $10 000 I guess) and paying immediately.
I left Ukraine almost a year ago, but I keep contacts with people in Kiev, so if you have any questions regarding sports betting in Ukraine I think I can answer them.

[Fedya Fussball]

Alec:

Duzhe dobre.

A teper, de ty perebuvajesh?

FF

[alec]

Fedya,
I doubt we can use ukrainian here.
If you don't mind, email me at [email protected]
I would like to talk to you.