Chrysler Championship

Tournament Trades (andy) 0.5pt stakes

Buy "Birds of a Feather" Hotshots at 13 with Spreadex

MU 0, After leaving the country on Saturday morning with Byrd 1st and Haas in with a shout, the disappointment kicked in as I caught the leaderboard on Sky in Dublin Airport, Sunday night.

We have not placed any Hotshots bets before so a guide below is copied from the "Spread Betting guide" that is available in the left hand tab. The reason we have never done so is because most of the value Hotshots trades are sells, naturally. This is because the upside of getting it right is massive so it attracts the "fun" punters looking for a low risk interest throughout the weekend. Spread companies ensure that they might occasionally win but will lose in the long run. What we have this week though is a price that is a good 4 or 5 points too low and with FP prices being of little value this week (K Perry was close to being a bet but only him) then this is the best bet available. The players concerned are......

Jonathan Byrd - 3 Top 10's this season equating to 11% returns, Tim Herron - 4 Top 10's in 22 = 18%, Jay Haas - 7 Top 10's in 17 = 40% and Ben Crane - 4 from 26 = 15%. Add in the chance of a win and what you have here is an average price based purely on this seasons results of around 22. Of course to do Hotshots trades based purely on that idea would not be a long term strategy. You have to factor in all sorts of stats based on the event in question as the quality of form, opponents and course conditions are of importance. However, by absorbing all of them you still are sitting with a true price way in excess of the 13 on offer from Spreadex. One top 10 gets double your risk back and anything more sees a big return on the weeks' trades.
 

Hotshots. The firms will allocate a spread to a choice of 4 players. They will score 25pts for being in the top 10, and get a further 50pts if they win the tournament. The foursome will usually be 4 of the top players on the field or a topical list revolving round surnames, players who have recently been together for a reason (Ryder Cup etc) or silly collections like the bet above where are all linked to birds by name.