ODDS

Brent Graham

My daughter was playing in a waterpolo tournament this past weekend so I didn’t expect to see much of the Currie Cup semifinals.

Mother Nature was to play a role though and the Saturday afternoon games were pushed out due to lightening, meaning I caught the Sharks-Lions game.

I already had a significant interest in the Sharks to win by six points or more and when I saw how the wind was howling, I took under 59.5 points in play, just after the Sharks’ opening try.

As the half-time hooter sounded, the score was 18-3 to the Sharks and both of my bets were looking very solid. I did my regular browse through the betting sites to see half-time markets and was amazed to see the 59.5 points I had taken, some 35 minutes earlier, was still there on the website.

I immediately knew something was wrong and a closer look at my ticket revealed that I had in fact bet on the wrong game and was under 59.5 points in the Western Province-Blue Bulls semi.

While annoyed at missing out on what looked like a sure winner (the unders only just arrived in the end), I was not too concerned as I thought that the WP-Bulls game could be fairly tight.

I had placed a big bet on Western Province to win the tournament earlier in the week and between that and my unplanned interest in the points market I didn’t see the need to get further involved, especially as the waterpolo was back on track.

Western Province were leading 32-27, meaning I could not afford another point from either side and I stared at my phone screen for ages waiting for the match to end.

My heart sank as the Bulls scored after the hooter to level the game, consigning my points bet to the bin.

Thank goodness WP managed to win in extra time to keep that bet alive and hopefully they can finish the job against the Sharks this weekend.

Brent Graham is a sports betting blogger at

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