England have scored 26 and only conceded 4 in the campaign so far. The latest betting on Betfair (Tues, Sept 8th 2009) has England as the heavy favorites at 1.61 the draw at 3.9 and Croatia at 7.6, England will qualify for South Africa if they beat the Croatians, a draw will also be enough if the Ukraine fail to beat Belarus.

It’s a tricky game to call, England’s record so far in the competition is perfect, but Croatia will be pushing hard, as they need at least a draw to be in with a chance of reaching the World Cup finals via a play-off spot. I expect a cagey first half, this could be a good way to exploit the market with Betfair. My bet will be to back the draw @3.9 and wait for the clock to tick down during the first half, if no goals are scored by the 20-30 minute mark you should be able to lay the draw @ 3.0 or under to guarantee a profit whatever the outcome. You can use the Arb Calculator to work it out the lay stake if you want to get on the bet.

Here’s how the calculator works…

1. Enter your Stake (Example 5.00 don’t use $ or £ symbols), then enter the back odds and the lay odds.
2. Choose whether you have already Backed and now wish to Lay or already Layed and now wish to Back.
3. Click on and move the grey slider pointer along the line where you see 20%, 30%, 40% etc.
4. The output shows the amount you need to stake to either cover your Liability, or your Liability and all of your potential profits.

1. Read the race card, look down the list of horses, and choose what you think is the best bet in the field.
2. Write down your stake Write the amount of money you wish to bet.
3. Write the name of your horse under the stake.
4. Write down when and where your horse is running.
5. At the bottom of the betting slip, enter the total amount of your bets on the slip. Take your completed slip to the cashier.

Remember that bookmakers want your money, so if you need help filling in a slip then always ask at the counter. Generally the counter staff at high street bookmakers are very keen to help. You can also view a correctly filled in betting slip for a simple ‘Win’ bet by click on the small thumbnail in this paragraph. If you want to make an ‘each way’ bet then check out our guide to eachway betting ~ click here.

It’s also worth noting that if your horse doesn’t win but is placed (usually 2nd, 3rd) you will only get 1/4 or 1/5 of the quoted odds. Which means you shouldn’t back a horse each way unless it’s odds are over 5-1, because you could never win enough to cover your original stake at odds of 5-1 or shorter.

You can back ‘Each Way’ with all online bookmakers, if you want to know how to fill in a betting slip for an each way bet you can click the small thumbnail in this paragraph. It shows you the correct way to fill in the bookmakers slip for each way betting.

Remember that an each way bet is actually made up of two bets, so if you bet £5 each way, your total bet cost will be £10 (£5 on the win and £5 on the place)

So what are the major differences between betting with Tote or betting with a traditional bookmakers? Quite simply the tote is a big pool of cash from all the bets taken on a specific race, the winners are then paid out from this pool of cash. This can sometimes get much higher payout’s from Tote pools than you’d get from a traditional bookmakers, especially if you’re backing outsiders. On the downside you can also get less money if you’re backing heavy fancied favorites.

Free £60 Bet From Tote

• Stake £10 or more on an event of your choice and Tote will credit your account with your first free bet of equal value up to a maximum of £20
• Place 5 further bets (minimum stake £10) and Tote will give you a second free bet to the value of your lowest stake (up to £20)
• Place 5 further bets (minimum stake £10) and Tote will give you a third free bet to the value of your lowest stake (up to £20)
• You can check out the full terms and conditions at Totesport online. This is a time limit offer so check before you sign up

Today the Tote is still funding much of Britain’s racing, by choosing to bet with totesport you are helping to support British racing. Over the past 3 years, Tote have put an average of £20 million per year back into horse racing. If you care about horse racing (and you should!) you couldn’t find a better bookmaker to have a flutter with.

The Tote is famous for it’s speciality bets which can have massive jackpots, a ‘Totetrifecta’ is where you try to predict the 1st, 2nd and 3rd horse in a race in the correct order. Even a small stake on a bet like this can lead to a big windfall. There’s also the Tote Scoop6 which is the main totepool bet each Saturday, just pick the winner in each of the selected races to bag the Scoop6 jackpot, the Minimum bet is £2 and the prize fund can reach over £4 million!

The other easy way to bet on accumulators is to bet with ToteSport online, the Tote have daily accumulators and the famous scoop6 saturday jackpot accumulator which can have a prize fund worth over 4 million!