IIHF Ice hockey World Championships

[Mazarin]

Friday 2 May 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Denmark v Czech Republic (18:00BST)	30.00	1.03	100.39 %	Details »
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Canada v Slovenia (20:30BST)	1.02	29.00	101.01 %	Details »
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USA v Latvia (23:15BST)	1.08	10.00	102.31 %	Details »
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Saturday 3 May 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Russia v Italy (00:00BST)	1.02	60.00	99.71 %	Details »
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Belarus v Sweden (18:00BST)	9.00	1.07	104.44 %	Details »
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Germany v Finland (20:30BST)	8.00	1.10	103.41 %	Details »
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Sunday 4 May 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Switzerland v France (00:00BST)	1.11	6.25	105.47 %	Details »
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Slovak Republic v Norway (00:15BST)	1.06	10.00	104.34 %	Details »

[Mazarin]

For the first time ever, the hockey World Championships are played in Canada. I expect the home team, who are also reigning champions, will be eager to make a big impression early on. Russia has a team with great offensive potential, but how long will their motivation last? USA might catch fire playing in Canada and probably have the best goalkeeper in Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins. Sweden, Finland and The Czech Republic all seem a little weaker than usual IMO.

[Burran]

I agree with you totally Mazarin!

Belarus+3 1.85@Pinnacle is my first bet in this tournament. I don't like what I've seen from this Swedish squad so far. Yes sure, it's only been training games and Bäckström hasn't been playing, but I'm not sure that he can lift this team to another level by himself. Belarus usually causes Sweden some problems. Ofc, every swede remember the olympics in Salt Lake City where they won 4-3 in the quarterfinals. After that these teams have 2 times with Sweden winning both 2-1 and 4-1. I think Belarus has a good chance of keeping this game quite close. In the end I think we will se a Swedish victory, but only a narrow one.

[Mazarin]

I agree, Belarus is a well organised team with lots of experience at this level. I think they'll keep it fairly tight. I'm also thinking about Germany +2,5 against Finland for later tonight. The Germans are pretty good at keeping games close. Good luck!

[Burran]

Denmark 1.75@Expekt
A very good price imo. Denmark is a stronger side than italy. The team mostly contains of players from the domestic league, but they also have some real quality players who play in Sweden and ofc Frans Nielsen from NY Islanders. The italian league is worse than the danish one and this team mostly have players from the top clubs there. Denmark is no super team but they are one class above Italy imo and they should win this game.

[Tulenos]

Denmark three up already in the first

[Burran]

Yes I watched the first two periods. Denmark was the much better team.

Slovakia-1.5 2.04@pinnacle
A price that holds lots of value imo. Slovakia are missing their star players from NHL like Marian Hossa/Demitra, but this is still a good team. Especially their defense looks good with NHL players Visnovsky, Mezei and Sekera. The other defenders are also high quality players from top leagues in Europe. Offensivly they look a little weaker, but still good enough to outscore Germany in this one. Germany will be fighting against teams like Switzerland, Belarus and Denmark for the last playoff spots. They are a decent team, but against the better team they don't have what it takes. Germany lost to Finland 5-1 in the opening round while Slovakia crused past Norway 5-1. I expect Slovakia to win by at least 2 goals and I certaintly give them more than 50% chance of doing so.

[Mazarin]

Monday 5 May 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Switzerland v Belarus (18:00BST)	1.63	2.40	103.02 %	Details »
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Tuesday 6 May 2008	Home	Away	BPP
Slovak Republic v Germany (00:15BST)	1.33	3.75	101.85 %	Details »
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Canada v USA (20:30BST)	1.17	1.11	175.56 %	Details »
Hide « Canada v USA

[Mazarin]

I think we can use the same thread even if it's badly named..?
Why not take Belarus today? I understand the Kostitsyn brothers (Montreal) may be joining later on but they're already a pretty decent team that, unlike some others we have seen in the tournament, shows a good understanding of the game.

[Burran]

Belarus dnb 2.47@Betsafe (homemade 22.73% on draw 4.40 77.27% on Belarus 3.20 )
I agree Mazarin. This is simply a case of finding the value again. I see this as a very even match up. Maybe a very small advantage for Switzerland, but there's no question that the price on Belarus is too high. Switzerland beat France 4-1 in the opener, but that doesn't say anything since France is the weakest team in this championship. More impressive then by Belarus to get 5-6 against Sweden. They impressed me a lot and if they play anywhere near how they did against Sweden they have a good chance here. Value Value Value!

[Burran]

The Kostitsyn brothers and Ruslan Salei will play for Belarus tonight!

[Tulenos]

Originally Posted by Mazarin

I think we can use the same thread even if it's badly named..?
Why not take Belarus today? I understand the Kostitsyn brothers (Montreal) may be joining later on but they're already a pretty decent team that, unlike some others we have seen in the tournament, shows a good understanding of the game.

Renamed the first post so we can make it a tourney-long thread as there are not many posters to make up for daily threads

[Tulenos]

BTW, with Canada priced up @ 1.50 (three-way betting) to beat the USA tomorrow, I'm rather thinking of backing the Americans +1 @ still tasty 2.10 - all Stan James

[Tulenos]

Originally Posted by Burran

The Kostitsyn brothers and Ruslan Salei will play for Belarus tonight!

Not watching the game, but the brothers looked pretty flat towards the end of the series with Philly - in fact, I didn't like them in any of the games bar the first one. Add to this their tiredness and I doubt they will play any role until later.

[Tulenos]

One more game on tonight (9.30 CET) - Finland v Norway

[Tulenos]

BTW, not sure if it applies to everyone or just to Czechs, but Stan James are running a promotion for EXISTING customers - 31 euro worth free bet matched to the first bet of the same value @ evens or better. Got mine yesterday

[Burran]

2-1 down with 13 mins left...C'MOOOOOOOOOON


I'll try a small bet on Finland-4.5

[Tulenos]

Jeez - what are the Finns doing? Not even sure if it was them or the Norwegians closer to nicking it - OT now.

[Burran]

I watched the game. The finns were poor, but the norwegian goalie...WOW. A number of massive saves. Would've been more fun if Norway won it in the end.

Not a successful night so far but i have big hopes in Slovakia. Some sort of TV-bet for the Sweden-game would be fun aswell

[Tulenos]

I've backed 3 or more goals in the first @ 2.65 (SJ), but there is also a safer option - first goal before 9.30 @ 1.50 - SJ don't move the time for the first goal and only adjust the price, which is still generous in this case