This weekend is shaping up well for sports betting fans and so it should be given the plethora of sporting events at home and around the world. With the football season so tantalizingly close, we certainly need something to ease those waiting pains. We talk of football yet here we are in the midst of a great summer, and summer is synonymous with cricket and tennis. Just to add to the confusion, we also have international rugby to add interest to the mix.

Let’s start with cricket and while Australia have for so long sat at the top of the test match table, the last two nations to defeat them in tests continue their battle at Trent Brent. I am of course talking about the first test between England and Pakistan and after day one you would have to say that honours were fairly even, perhaps slightly in England’s favour.

Bookmakers have England at fairly short betting odds considering the state of the game, and Pakistan’s renewal in the long game. England are at 2/5 with some bookies on offering 2/7. You can still get them at 4/9 through Bet365 if you’re quick. Pakistan are at 10/1 although you can get 12/1 at SportingBet. I think the value bet in this match is the draw, generally being offered at 9/4 – you can get 11/4 through BlueSquare. Both sides are fairly evenly matched and if England bat through the majority of day two then a draw will firm considerably – grab the good odds while you can.

In International Rugby, the Kiwis, arguably the best team in the world at present, take on Australia in Australia in the Tri-Nations tournament. The Aussies wont be easy to beat – they had a good win over South Africa last weekend and games between these two are always special. There has been plenty of controversy over the ground conditions and that may have a serious impact as well.

Rugby sports betting has the Kiwis as firm 2/5 favourites and Australia at 2/1. The Aussies are at home, they are playing well, and look to have a chance of toppling their Tasman rivals. You can get as much as 12/5 through SportingBet and we’ll make that the best bet in this contest.

We wrap this particular wrap with an early look at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday. Following the controversy during the German Grand Prix, hopefully punters will get a fair shake this weekend. The Hungaroring is a little like Monarco, difficult to pass on and whoever gets the jump and takes the lead coming out of turn one should go on to win the race.

Vettel is almost a special to take pole again, however, his starting form is terrible having miss timed the start in many of this seasons races. Whoever starts alongside him will know that a clean start could gift them the race. Vettel’s team mate, Mark Webber, has been clean at the start and last season was on .01/sec behind Vettel. Alonso raced well in Germany, but I am not sure his Ferrari is up to this circuit. That leaves the British duo of Hamilton and Button, and they just haven’t been competitive when it comes to grabbing pole positions. Webber is well priced at 11/2 through Victor Chandler.

It will be easier to find a winner once we know the grid positions, and that will make for some interesting betting itself. We’ll have a second look at this event in Sunday’s post. In the meantime, have a great sports betting weekend.