Five easy steps to turn £5 into £85.49, courtesy of Ladbrokes.

In relation to my previous post, here's what I've bet on for future reference - mainly by me, but for anyone out there that feels playing it safe is the decent option, with one or two accumulators to get the heart racing a little!

#1: Serbia to qualify from their group (5/6). With Germany being the only big dog in Group D, Serbia should tie up second place in their group - also inhabited by Ghana and Australia, both long shots. A fiver nets you £9.17.

#2: David Villa for Top Scorer (8/1 each way). Hot on form, the Spaniard is the tournament's favourite to pick up the golden boot this year, and following convincing warm-up games is definitely sure to be one of the front runners throughout. By putting the bet "each way", money will be awarded if Villa finishes within the top four top scorers, regardless of whether he wins or not - more as an insurance option! A fiver nets you £30 (if first) or £7.50 (if within the top four).

#3: Holland (4/7) and Spain (1/4) to win their groups. Spain have arguably been handed the easiest route to the last 16, with Chile, Switzerland, and first-time qualifiers Honduras their only blockages en-route. Whilst Cameroon are no write-offs, both Denmark and Japan have been dissappointing in recent years, and unless disaster strikes I can't see Holland finishing with anything less than 18 points. A fiver nets you £9.82.

#4: England/USA to grab First and Second in their group (11/8). With high expectations, Capello's men go into the tournament full of confidence (albeit also injuries). USA could prove tough competition, yet it's hard to see either Slovenia or Algeria causing cup upsets for both teams. As long as England can keep their cool against an impressive American side, it's hard to see the top two being different to predicted. A fiver nets you £9.

#5: England (1/3), Spain (1/4), Holland (4/7), Argentina (2/5) and Italy (1/2) to win their groups. With all five facing relatively low opponents, all five big dogs should progress trouble-free. Although upsets are rare, anything can happen however. But with accumulators, when is there never a risk? A fiver nets you £27.50.

Potentially, using Ladbrokes £20 free bets with one £5 bet placed, you could walk away with a handy £85.49 in your pocket. Not bad for a £5 stake.


(Although this may seem too good to be true, in all honesty it is. Ladbrokes' current offer is a one-time thing, and usually some of these bets I wouldn't place unless they were free. Gambling should be limited - if at any point you feel you're biting more than you can chew, get out - fast. The last thing you need is debt!)

Ladbrokes' stroke of.... genius or madness?

At the time of writing, Ladbrokes have launched an astonishing 500% offer for all new customers. By depositing and betting a mere £5 on any bet this World Cup 'season', all punters are entitled to FOUR free £5 bets to spend as they see fit.

To me, this seems ludacris. God knows what's going through the minds of the Ladbrokes big-wigs when they sorted this deal out, but it surely can't pay off, can it? Even the least knowledgable or greediest of punters are bound to win most of their £5 deposit back in one of the five £5 bets they've placed due the offer. Those more tactical are sure to win more if their bets pay off.

With a current 7/1 for England to lift the World Cup this year, it's pretty safe to say that the majority of (British) punters will use this as one of their bets. Sticking with patriotic bets, a fair few of those betters will fancy Wayne Rooney as the cup's top scorer at a reasonable 9/1.

Those more cynical, or - if I must admit - clever, will no doubt be attracted by hotly-tipped favourites Spain and Brazil at 4/1 and 9/2 respectively, with David Villa a hot pick for top scorer at a respectable 8/1. Those more daring may pick for the likes of Robin Van Persie or long-shot Miroslav Klose to attain the golden boot, at 12/1 and 33/1 respectively. With both strikers hot on form for their token countries, it's not hard to see why they'd be kicking a fuss up this coming month.

With so many obvious, and a few rather more farfetched yet still extremely attractive bets on the table, for just one of a punter's five bets to come through a winner would enable them to claw back their deposit as well as a profit - however measly this may be. I simply can't see how Ladbrokes can pull this tactic off successfully. The only reason I can assume is long-term, with punters getting hooked into gambling post-World Cup and consequently placing bet after bet on losing teams in the coming days/months/years after the competition has finished.

Experienced punters or simply those with the awareness of rival betting shops in direct competition for consumers will be aware that numerous betting companies are offering lucrative offers for new customers. When I signed up to Betfair around six months ago, I was handed a £10 free bet which I placed on Rafael Nadal winning a French Open tennis match (played on court, where Nadal dominates). The bet pulled off, and I won a tidy some of money, however small. This World Cup however, I've switched to Ladbrokes for the time being simply for this offer. I've placed a fiver in my account, thrown it on Villa to claim the golden boot, and went on to place four different bets on mostly sure-fire winners for the tournament. However, what Ladbrokes possibly haven't considered is the fact that a good few "new" customers are already members of rival companies. After the World Cup, indeed a few may jump ship and proceed to put their money straight into Ladbrokes' huge pockets. However, I don't think I'm alone in being more than ready to revert straight back to my original bookies once the tournament is over and (hopefully) my winnings have been put straight into my bank account.

I really think Ladbrokes have shot themselves in the foot here, with a huge gamble foreseeably impossible to pull off. That said, good luck to them albeit however much they proceed to lose. I've read somewhere that more than £1bn is estimated to be placed on World Cup bets this June and July, with a fair share no doubt heading Ladbrokes' way. I sure hope, for Ladbrokes' sake, these bets fail or they can kiss goodbye to a very tidy sum of money this year.

World Cup Fever has arrived!

World Cup fever has been sweeping the nation every since, well, the last one finished. Whether you like it or not, for the next two months the country will go football mad, and finally I've been swept up by the cancerous event.

Traditionally, the summer gives those less-attached to the sport a break from the constant pub talk of scorelines, criticism of players far beyond the talents of the average pundit and the discussion of high-rolling transfers. Not a week goes by without wives, girlfriends, and rugby-loving friends who hate the game hear news of whats-his-name spraining his ankle during training, before recovering and scoring a hat-trick whilst their national manager watches on from the stands.

Cup fever has a tendancy to sweep the nation effortlessly. The FA - sorry, the "FAmous Cup" as they call it these days - brings together fans from the likes of Premier League champions Chelsea to lowly, unknown towns playing dozens of divisions lower. Just take little-league diamonds in the rough Havant and Waterlooville as an example. In 2008, they caused an FA Cup scare of huge proportions as they lead twice against Premier League giants Liverpool before losing 5-2 in the fourth round of the cup after knocking out higher league opponents such as Notts County and Swansea City in the previous two rounds. Fans from all over came to support the club, propped forward on settees egging on the team to cause a cup scare.

Yet again, millions tuned in just this year to follow now-Championship outfit Leeds United first destroy the hopes of a treble for European-class Manchester United and force Champions League-destined Tottenham Hotspur to a replay in the corresponding round.

The World Cup has, and always will be, one of the biggest televised events in the world, vying for viewers with the likes of the annual Superbowl in America or - dare I say it - the Eurovision Song Contest. Flags are increasingly emerging from top-floor households, attached to car windows, or sported by beer-bellied bald men in scummy pubs daily.

With just a day to go, millions upon millions of people are gearing up for what can only be described as an epic contest between the world's greatest footballing nations. Teams from America, Europe, Australasia, Asia, and Africa will lock horns before a champion will emerge within the next 5 or so weeks to state their claim on the Jules Rimet Trophy.

In 2006, over 300 million of us tuned in globally to watch Italy triumph, with even more expected this time around. Whether you like it or not, World Cup fever has plagued the nation, the continent, the world, and is set to stay right up until a winner is crowned on 11th July. Wives, girlfriends, football haters - beware.

And you wonder why a 'summer body' is so preciously rare...

Gyms - always popular in the New Year, always popular in the few months before the summer season, and deserted the rest, seemingly.

It only takes seconds to conjour up a New Year's resolution in the form of exercise, be it starting a sport, progressing at your chosen activity, or joining a gym (and actually going to it). Come February, most gym go-ers have either cancelled their membership or will stupidly pay their monthly direct debits whilst not actually attending the gym until they come to realise that it's almost summer, which means it's that time again to dream of the perfect body.

Just as suspected, Bournemouth's Fitspace (the gym I currently go to) got extremely busy the past few months. Between exams for us uni attendees and during lunch-breaks and ends of workdays for those that have made something of themselves in life the gym gets extremely packed. Machines are shared, not by courtesy but more by force. Benches are huddled around by eager weightlifters, whilst free weights are messily laid around the gym floor as strangers pick up uneven weights to stretch those muscles that are hidden somewhere underneath the layers of fat and tissue that last year's body-project has turned into.

Results or not, as soon as the sun comes out, it seems the majority of gym go-ers, both here and at my University gym, neglect their exercise routine and visit the beach. Within seconds, shirts are donned and musclular bodies are laid out for all to see. Shamefully, none of these are that of the regular gym go-ers.

Just weeks into the summer, the pounds are piling on as per usual for everyone, everywhere. Ice creams and beers put weights in the shade, and once more the direct debit comes out of the account without the user once re-visiting the gym to tone up.

It's only June now, and I can already see this happening drastically fast. Even the gym seems to encourage it. The TVs, once showing Sky Sports News 24/7, is continuously showing repeats of Friends and teenage dramas on Channel 4, whilst the free weights room - once recreating the atmosphere of a sweaty, bassy club - is eerily silent. Voices disintegrate, as does the music, as the people flock to the beach and the music is turned completely off.

At the start of May, just several weeks ago, I would count my blessings if I could enter the free weights room and find a bench within five minutes (even if it had to be shared). Now, I can walk up the stairs into the room and would be shocked to find two of the three benches being used. Just this week, I could count on my two hands how many people where sharing the same 20 or so machines/benches/weights that I was. In May, this number would be far, far higher.

As Summer comes to a close, no doubt gym memberships will begin to flood in again as such seasonal gym go-ers will restart their process of donning the pounds in time for Christmas. Once more, as Christmas arrives and the beer begins to flow, the gyms will be deserted until New Years resolutions are re-written and once more the money begins to flow out of the piggy banks into the gym owners' pockets.

No wonder a 'summer body' is so illustrious. If exercise routines were adhered to as strictly as those that have these miraculous bodies, there would be dozens of people on the beach with the same perfect bod. Instead, this isn't the case. A good body takes years of work to perfect, and a few visits here and there to the gym isn't going to get the desired results.