Olympics - Update 1

Hockey

1pt NZ men to beat South Korea (Monday) Blue Square/Sportingbet 8.0

The gap in the rankings between these teams might be 5 v 11 but that flatters Korea. They were poor at the recent Champions Trophy (to be fair, not necessarily a great guide in an Olympic year) and the Kiwis beat Argentina to qualify for the Games. Just this week, the BlackSticks beat the Dutch in a warm-up game. NZ shouldn't be anywhere near this price, 4 or 5 is more like it. I'd be backing NZ down to about 5.5.

Pakistan v GB men (Monday)

If you can lay Pakistan at below evens, go for it. They are over-rated from past glories and the GB team strengthens for the games with the addition of other Brits to the English team. Too much chance of a draw in this to back GB straight out.

Japan v NZ women (Sunday)

If you can lay Japan at below evens, go for it. There was a bit of 3/1 available on NZ in the early markets but that appears to be gone. This match will be tight, the last match between them was 2-1 to the Japanese and could have gone either way.

Kudos to BlueSquare/888Sport, they are putting up handicaps on every game and total goals with varying lines, but at 5/6 each side. There may be opportunities here, but knowing them, you'll only be able to get on for $20....

One thing to note with hockey, if you have the chance to trade it in-running, it is a great sport. Firstly, there are no suspensions for goals, so be careful. Secondly, most non-hockey fans underestimate the value of penalty corners. The top teams will score from them one in three times. And when the final whistle goes, if there is a penalty corner being played, a foul by the defenders could mean another corner, and another.

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