Team Ireland’s Elizabeth Golding produced a season best in the junior women’s figure skating short programme at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Vuokatti, Finland today. The 17-year-old is the first Irish figure skater to represent Ireland in an Olympic event, and finished with 32.41 in the event which will finish later this evening. The EYOF runs from the 20-25 March 2022.

Speaking after her competition Dubai based Golding was pleased to land her first combination setting her up for a season best performance,

“I loved it, I was really excited when I looked up and saw all the people watching and clapping and cheering it was just like really like a like an ego booster maybe. No I really enjoyed it even though I made snakes on the flying camel spin which I never usually do, I’ll just take is as a life lesson and move forward with it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“The first combination that Triple Salchow Double Toeloop, I’ve been having problems with it for a few months now, and I couldn’t do it when I put my music on. But thank God this time I did it and I did it in the most important place.”

In Alpine Skiing Charlotte Turner missed qualification for the finals in the Parallel slalom today by 1.50 seconds. Three Irish Alpine Skiers contested the exciting short race where athletes competed side by side with each other. The top thirty finishers move to the finals which take place next Friday, with Turner finishing in 40^th place overall. Teammates Megan Ryan and Kailey Murphy were 45^th and 53^rd respectively in their final event of the Games.

This was the first time that these athletes competed in this type of event with Ryan saying,

“I’ve never skied anything like this before, so it’s pretty fun. It’s like they used giant slalom gates where they put them at the distance of a slalom course so it’s really fast and really quick. Both athletes start at the same time so it’s like you’re duelling someone and hope you beat them down. It was a lot of fun and I’ve never done anything like it.”

Turner added,

“We haven’t done Parallel slalom before so it was like a new mindset and just being open to the experience and not really thinking about results. Giorgio our coach gave great advice to try to ignore the person next to you as much as you can, so that was my goal and luckily I didn’t see her through the course so I just focused on myself.

“In my second run I came pretty close to not finishing I had some trouble in the last few gates but I was able to save it. It is a really difficult balance between control and risk but that’s what makes it fun and makes the sport competitive.”

Murphy relished the atmosphere and opportunity to be paired against teammate Ryan,

“It was super fun and so cool to have Megan right there and it was great cheering on Charlotte at the start. I’ve never skied much like that, it was really cool. All the kids at the finish, it was really cute, you come through the finish and have a million high fives.”

There’s a well-worn adage that the only surefire way to make money from sports betting is to become a bookie. While there’s undoubtedly some wisdom inn that, many sports fans have been choosing a different alternative over the past year or so. The proliferation of new Irish casino sites appearing in cyberspace, all seeming to fall over one another to dish out spins or even money for free, can seem a tempting alternative putting the kiss of death on your favourite horse with another €5 bet.

Do casino games offer a better return?

You might expect that to be a question that’s impossible to answer, but the mathematicians will tell you otherwise. With a casino game, there’s a house edge that you can work out for any game. With slots, it is usually between three and six percent, although there are a few games where it is as low as one percent. In European roulette, it is 2.7 percent. You can even work it out for online bingo games, where it can be as high as 10 percent.

Sports betting does not have a house edge incorporated as such. Instead, there’s the vig, which is the bookie’s commission. The theory is that the odds offered on the outcome are true odds, so no stacked in favour of the bookie. If that’s correct, then over time, the losing bets pay exactly for the winning bets. Then the bookie makes money by collecting the vig from all gamblers, win or lose.

Utilising theories and skill to plan your game

Mathematical theories are great as far as they go. In a game like roulette or bingo, the maths stacks up perfectly because the ball is coming to a halt on the wheel or coming out of the machine in a way that is truly random.

With games like poker or blackjack, it’s not so straightforward. The result depends on the cards you play and the calls you make, so the house edge calculation is based on your assumed level of skill. If you hit or stand at random, the house will eat you more often than if you follow basic blackjack strategy, that stands to reason.

The same applies with sports betting. We said earlier that the bookie aims to set true odds, but doing so is subjective. Ireland went into their Six Nations game 39pt favourites against Italy. Was that the right call? Beating the bookie isn’t just about backing the right team. It’s just as important to spot which bets to place and which to leave alone.

That means knowing more than the bookies. It’s not an easy challenge, but it’s what gives sports betting that extra dimension that you just won’t find in a casino game. And in the final analysis, that’s why most sports fans agree that slots, poker and even a crafty game of bingo have their place – but they will never replace backing your favourite team or runner on a Saturday afternoon.

Michael van Gerwen moved to the top of the Cazoo Premier League table with a second successive league phase night victory in Brighton on Thursday.

Van Gerwen became the first player to win back-to-back nights in this year’s Premier League, defeating Michael Smith 6-4 in a thrilling final on Night Five at the Brighton Centre to follow up last week’s Exeter success.

Arguably the best final of the competition so far saw both players average over 100, but after Van Gerwen opened up a 4-1 lead, Smith was unable to chase the Dutchman down.

Smith, who was looking to bounce back from the disappointment of losing last weekend’s UK Open final, pinned the bullseye for a 126 checkout to reduce the deficit to 4-3.

But after he missed tops for a level game, Van Gerwen tidied up 25 to move 5-3 up, and two legs later held throw to pocket the £10,000 top prize and five league points.

“I feel good, and I feel comfortable on stage at the moment,” said Van Gerwen. “I know what I’m capable of but sometimes you have to give yourself a bit of time to show it.

“It’s always a good feeling to be top of the table, it gives you confidence.

“The way I’m playing, I feel like winning a big tournament is coming soon; hopefully it will be the Premier League but there’s a long way to go.”

Van Gerwen’s evening began with a 6-5 win over James Wade, before he landed a 170 checkout in a 6-1 triumph over Joe Cullen, who received a bye into the semi-finals following Gerwyn Price’s withdrawal due to a hand injury.

Smith picks up three valuable league points thanks to wins over Gary Anderson and Jonny Clayton to lift him off the foot of the table.

Losing semi-finalists Clayton and Cullen leave Brighton with two points each, with Clayton defying a ten-point gap in the averages in his 6-5 quarter-final victory over birthday boy Peter Wright, who drops to second in the table.

The Cazoo Premier League roadshow heads to Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena on Thursday March 17 for Night Six of the league phase, as Van Gerwen meets Price in a mouth-watering clash.

The night’s other quarter-finals will see Wright take on Cullen, Smith up against Wade and Anderson face Clayton as the £1 million tournament resumes.

The Cazoo Premier League is being broadcast live on Sky Sports in the UK, through the PDC’s worldwide broadcast partners including DAZN and Viaplay, and on PDCTV for Rest of the World Subscribers (excluding UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria & Switzerland).

2022 Cazoo Premier League

Night Five – Brighton Centre

Thursday March 10

Quarter-Finals

Michael Smith 6-1 Gary Anderson

Jonny Clayton 6-5 Peter Wright

Michael van Gerwen 6-5 James Wade

Joe Cullen Bye (Gerwyn Price withdrew)

Semi-Finals

Michael Smith 6-1 Jonny Clayton

Michael van Gerwen 6-1 Joe Cullen

Final

Michael van Gerwen 6-4 Michael Smith

Click here to view match stats from all Night Five matches.

Night Six – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham

Thursday March 17

Quarter-Finals

Michael Smith v James Wade

Michael van Gerwen v Gerwyn Price

Gary Anderson v Jonny Clayton

Joe Cullen v Peter Wright

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