The Gambling Portal Webmasters Association, the only professional Webmasters association of its kind, has awarded “Approved Portal Seals” to over 230 of its member websites. It is the only company of its kind to be awarding these seals to affiliate gambling websites.

Being awarded a seal states that the company receiving it is a reputable and genuine company:

“True professional webmasters operate reputable websites. They don’t plagiarise the work of others and they don’t spam.”

 This lets users know that the site they are using is a genuine operator. It also shows that this site does not have any unwanted or annoying threats, like spam, and that the content is original.

GPWA Programme Manager, Steven Corfman, explained:

“Players are looking for sites they can trust, and honorable webmasters deserve to differentiate themselves from rouge operators. The seal of Approval programme provides the distinction these webmasters deserve, and gives consumers the information and assurance to make critical decisions about who is reputable and who to skip past. We are excited about the success of the Seal progamme and look forward to continued growth.”

It gets said at the beginning of every season. “This could be the year that [INSERT TEAM NAME (usually Spurs)] can break the mighty four of the premiership.”  It’s becoming somewhat of a cliche to talk of this topic during pre-season, however this year looks better than any other for a fifth team to be up among the England’s elite.  In seasons gone by, it has often been the likes of Everton, Spurs and even Newcastle that have been linked with reaching the heights of the Champions League, but this year, after a summer of wild spending, it could well happen. 

No-one (apart from perhaps United and Liverpool) have spent more wisely than Spurs during the close season.  They have brought in genuine, young, home-grown class with the likes of Gareth Bale and Darren Bent as well as some shrewd transfers from abroad.  They have arguably the best strike-force in the country with Darren Bent, Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane and Jermaine Defoe at their disposal as well as a strong midfield, a powerful defense and the man who regularly wears the number 1 jersey for England.  This new look spurs team may not be able to challenge United, Chelsea or even Liverpool but they should certainly be looking at chasing their North London rivals Arsenal right to the wire for that elusive fourth place. 

Arsenal have failed (yet again) to bring in any real quality, with the exception of Eduardo da Silva, and having lost Thierry Henry they may also have to settle for losing their place in the Champions League.  They will be heavily relying on a strong defensive display from the likes of Gallas and Toure and will be looking for their young front line of Walcott, Van Persie and co to support new signing Eduardo with assists and goals if they are to retain their place in the Premiership’s top four.

Or maybe, just maybe, someone from out of the blue will be up their challenging - who knows what Steve Bruce has up his sleeve?!?!

After browsing the Internet recently I found this fun gambling survey to do.  You can apparently be entered into a prize dram to win a £25 gift voucher if you leave your email address at the end of the survey!

Here is the link if u want to do it

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=9D_2fZzuHRVxadlYiB3nFa7A_3d_3d

 I did it and found it really fun

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002390000-2007350573,00.html

Check out the video at the bottom of this news story.
One word. Awesome.

After all the talk of sledging and bad sportsmanship at Trent Bridge you would have thought we had heard enough. So Zaheer Khan was a bit upset when the English team apparently threw Jelly Beans onto the wicket, and Michael Vaughan was probably a bit ticked off when Sree Santh barged into him and we can forgive Kevin Pietersen if he was a bit shaken up after a rather viscious yet accidental Beamer was thrown at him.

Only now I read that this bad sportsmanship and bad behaviour has left the cricket field and headed for the airports!

British Airways has just been given a record fine of £121.5 million. It comes after revelations that the airline has admitted colluding to fix the prices of fuel surcharges! It appears that BA held talks with Virgin Atlantic, adding the charges to passengers amid the growing oil prices. Virgin have however been granted immunity from the fines after admitting to the whole thing. The Office of Fair Trading and the US Department of Justice began investigating BA price fixing in June 2006. Not only has BA been fined by the Office of Fair Trading but it can also face fines from the US Department of Justice, but they reportedly put £350 million aside to cover fines and legal costs!

It’s a bit unfair on BA as ‘it takes two to Tango.’ Surely as a willing party Virgin Atlantic should expect fines too? Just because they told the teacher on their pal doesn’t mean they shouldn’t see the headmaster too! But the BA chief executive, Willie Walsh, has his ethics in the right place:

“Anti-competitive behaviour is entirely unacceptable and we condemn it unreservedly.”

So after the news that our airports are a sham and that security checks in England are a waste of everyone’s time and don’t actually protect us that much, we now face this. What has happened to our runways and planes?

So where has all this cheating, sledging and un-sporting behaviour come from?

At least we know this! That when England and India have a little tiff on the Crease or at the Wicket, we the public are not being cheated out of money, only Cricket!

So the whole cheating saga to have stolen the limelight of this years Formula 1 season has finally come to an end.  McLaren were found guilty of cheating and spying, yet their drivers, not as expected, went unpunished.  It was widely assumed that Lewis Hamilton and his team-mate and rival Fernando Alonso would be docked points if McLaren were indeed found guilty.  To the anger of Ferrari, this did not happen and the two McLaren drivers still occupy the top positions of the F1 World Championship leader-board.

Ferrari obviously feel that McLaren having hold of a 780 page Ferrari technical dossier is a big enough infringement of the rules to warrant the a greater punishment

So do Ferrari have a case? Should the Mclaren drivers have lost points or were the authorities right to have left the punishment off the track?

Cricket has always been a gentleman’s sport. Played in good spirit whilst the largly middle-class crowd shout ‘hurray’ as the ball hits the boundary or a batsman’s wicket is skittled. Ok, maybe not that bad but has the latest incident of sledging between England and India overstepped the line in a game which has always carried virtues of fair play and sportsmanship?

Sledging has for a long time been in the very nature of the game. Two batsmen, surrounded by a field of 11 of the oppositions players are bound to come in for some stick as they take their position at the crease. Cricket has seen a massive explosion in its popularity since the 2005 Ashes. The national team is receiving unprecedented support and the Twenty20 Cup has revolutionised domestic cricket. Cricket is no longer cast in the shadows of the middle-classes and public schools, and with increased popularity comes increased competition.

There is so much at stake now. Not only pride and determination on behalf of yourself (as a player), your team-mates and supporters but also constant pressure to perform and the financial stakes in cricket are as great as ever. It’s fantastic for the game and with so much at stake it’s difficult to criticise attempts to place increased psychological pressure on the opposition.

The incident’s at Trent Bridge this week may have seen England over-step the line and they ultimately paid the price. The torment that Zaheer Khan suffered may well have spurred him on as he produced a fine bowling performance.

From an outside perspective it may have looked as though things boiled over in Nottingham and it may not have portrayed the sport in a positive light. However, cricket has the right authorities to deal with any incidents considered ‘too much’. Upmires are treated with respect (something football players could learn about) and match referee’s act swiftly in fining players, if necessary.

Sport is competitive by nature and cricket is no different. The game has enjoyed a revolution, bringing it up-to-date and popular to the masses and it must shake off any dull remains if it is to remain so. I’m all for sledging as long as cricket’s long-standing values (which are absent from so many sports these days) remain intact. Besides, who could resist a jibe at Glen McGrath’s big nose if it helps us win the next Ashes?