Betting: Thin returns dominate festive season betting so far

Unusually for Christmas - a time of plenty normally - the media and readers' teams came up pretty thin in the first round of this month's Herald on Sunday charity sports betting competition.

Reader Keith Miller ($82.60) and sports editor Paul Lewis ($63.50) were the only two to make a profit this week, and only one other member of the panel (reader Ramon Kaire) cleared $20. Not a lot of ho-ho-ho there.

In total, the readers realised $110.65 and the media $98.70 for their $150 stakes - poor compared to previous weeks. Miller's best bet was to pick Younis Khan to be Pakistan's top bat against Australia, netting him $60 for a $10 stake and he was also the only panel member to win an NFL bet (Pittsburgh Steelers to beat the New York Giants), with favourites Carolina, Green Bay and Philadelphia all being upset in some way, shape or form and ruining some carefully laid bets.

Lewis took a different course, winning three of his four bets, but they were all short-priced, with his biggest return from picking the Adelaide 36ers to beat the Breakers by 8 points or under ($27.50). Other than that, it was pretty depressing betting in the festive season.

However, a word of sympathy for reader John Kilkenny, who wanted a bet on Manchester United against Crystal Palace - but it wasn't up on the TAB website before our deadline expired. He tried to get the bet changed when it did come up on the website but was too late and had to suffer watching his Charlton-Fulham EPL bet fail while his deadline-thwarted Manchester United bet came off.

Such are the cruelties of punting, John,better luck this week!

- HERALD ON SUNDAY