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Right Said Fred: Talking betting With BetFred Boss Fred Done

Salford are 8/1 outsiders at Betfred to  win the Challenge  Cup – and I suspect coach Ian Watson just loves it that way!

Last  season they came from nowhere to reach the Betfred Super League Grand Final before going  down to a supreme  Saints team.

That was a big surprise to many – and Salford were at it again beating  the odds to pull off a golden point triumph over Catalans in the first of the quarter finals on Friday.

Next up in the cup for my home town club are clear favourites Warrington in the semi-finals  to be played at the Totally Wicked Stadium, St Helens before the BBC cameras on October 3.

Before then the Red Devils play Hull FC, who are one place ahead of them in the Betfred Super League, on Thursday.

And it is great to hear that despite their packed schedule Watson has pledged not to rest star players.

“We want to win. We want to beat Hull, we want to beat Warrington in the league on Tuesday – and then Warrington again in the semi-final, “ said the highly ambitious coach.

That’s the spirit epitomising all that is good in the sport of rugby league…a no nonsense attitude speaking from the heart.

Betfred do have Warrington 6/4 favourites for the cup while Salford are 8/1. Two heavyweights of the sport Leeds and Wigan will lock horns in the other semi-final which should be quite a showdown.

We are 4/1 that the Rhinos  lift the  cup at Wembley on October 17 but the Warriors have been gaining support and have been cut to 13/8 at Betfred.

Meanwhile Challenge Cup holders Warrington, on a roll after knocking Saints out of the Challenge Cup, are aiming to leapfrog Kristian Woolf’s men at the top of the Betfred Super League.

The Wire are odds-on to take their unbeaten run to nine matches when they take on Catalans at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday.

Winger Josh Charnley is 8/1 to score first for the Wolves against the Dragons, who in contrast have suffered a dip in form having lost to Wigan in the league and then to Salford in first of the quarter-finals.

Saints are not scheduled to play again until next month so Friday’s early game is a great chance for Warrington to go top - ahead of Wigan’s game against bottom club Wakefield, also on Friday.

Meanwhile, after a highly-entertaining weekend of Premier League action, the big movers are Everton, who are equal top after two successive wins.

They are now 66/1 for the title from 200/1 pre-season, with Spurs now bolstered by the headline-grabbing signing of Gareth Bale cut from 80/1 to 40/1.

City are still odds-on favourites with champions Liverpool, who have made a promising start to the new campaign, at 13/8.

United were dreadful in their opening fixture against Crystal Palace who were good value for their shock 3-1  win at Old Trafford.

The pressure is on Ole Gunnar Solkskjaer and the board now to sign Jadon Sancho – even if Dortmund’s ex-City academy forward costs more than £100m.

The Reds midfield was out of sorts, as were the strikers and particularly the defenders, who were well off the pace.

It is no wonder United have drifted to 28/1 for the title – and evens from odds on for a top four finish.

Meanwhile congratulations to our of our regulars Emanuel Caires, who won an incredible football wager at one of shops in Cambridgeshire.

 The father-of-two bet £5 that both teams would score and correctly picked the winner of five matches at the weekend – and that landed him £13,731 on Betfred’s Goals Galore Extra coupon.

As he was born in Portugal, Emanuel is a Benfica supporter – but since emigrating to England he’s become a fan of his local team ‘The Posh’, who play in League One.

It was Peterborough who came to his rescue, scoring two goals in injury time in their 2-1 win over Fleetwood to keep his acca alive.

“It’s not a life-changing amount for some people, but I lost my job at a potato factory at the start of lockdown so this couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Emanuel, who wagered his fiver at the Betfred shop near his Peterborough home.

The 48-year-old opted for Everton to beat West Brom because of the Toffees’ new recruit James Rodriguez, the Colombian maestro who he remembers playing for Porto.

Next up he successfully predicted Crystal Palace beating United at Old Trafford, for it was the Reds’ first match of the season and the visitors’ odds were attractive.

He admitted that he thought the Arsenal-West Ham game was going to be tight, but eventually opted for the Gunners because of their recent good form.

He picked Luton to beat Derby because they were at home – and simply couldn’t go against his own team Peterborough, who thanks to injury time goals from Jack Taylor and Sammie Szmodics got the better of Fleetwood who had been winning 1-0.

Emanuel said: “Benfica is my team in Portugal, but Peterborough are my English team. They do some good work in the community around here and I support them.

“I was watching the results come in on TV, and then it all rested on the Arsenal game which was later. My wife Maria and my sons went crazy after full-time because it meant I had won my bet.

“I probably spend £5 a week at Betfred, and I’ve never won this much before. It is amazing that you can win so much from just a small stake.

“I feel on top of the world. It is a lot of money for me and my family. I’ve been out of work since March, so this will be very useful.

“We spent Monday celebrating at the seaside at Cromer in Norfolk where I will get the Betfred boss Fred a stick of rock by way of thank you!

“We’ll also be spending some of the money on going back to Portugal for a family Christmas.”

As a lifelong United supporter not much can cheer me up after that defeat to Palace… not even some seaside rock!

I’m delighted of course that this Betfred regular has had such good fortune on one of our most popular coupons. 

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