Sportsbet.io's English Premier League Football Pool Discussion Thread

[Igebotz]

Not even close to what you wrote first. That first bet I would take immediately.

I am up for Chelsea to lead the table at the season break or any point after that - No
Season break is defined as the time when league stops for world cup.

That removes possibility of Chelsea winning first 2 games and being top of the table. Or chelsea playing first in the beginning and topping the table before other clubs play.

Nope! I mean, Arsenal didn't make it to the top of the league from the first week until the end of the league; I'm not sure about Tottenham and Manchester United; did they ever top the table at any time last season? The bet is only valid after the first round (after all fixtures) until the end of the season. It's a risky bet but I'm ready to take.

Clearly you didn't read my post. I already said 3/1 odds from the very first post. How's that cheating? Pay attention

Chelsea have more than double percentage (81%) according to odds than Spurs to finish top 4.

They're favoured more than Spurs, so you have the advantage. You're EXPECTED to finish above Spurs. Winning the same amount of money for choosing the favourite, how's that fair?

The EPL is full of surprises, and every prediction is 50/50. Last season, Manchester United was the odds-on favorite to win the title, but instead, they finished 6th. You and Trofo were confident that Spurs would finish ahead of Chelsea, so I'm betting as the underdog and am therefore at a disadvantage. Good luck with your wager with Harkorede nonetheless.

I can already see we will have another bad season with regards to VAR. I can give them long time to react with City goal, it was difficult situation to judge and draw lines but why the hell they needed so much time for Liverpool penalty? It is as clear as it gets and then after quite long time they call main ref to check it by himself. If VAR ref can't call this one, then VAR room does not need ref, just technician to draw the lines.

The EPL VAR is terrible; they get worse every season. Now I understand why none of them are participating in the world cup; they are all so biased and inconsistent. If three referees working behind a computer cannot quickly draw a line and decide on a straightforward goal line or penalty, they are useless. The field referee has been making the final decision since last season which is so wrong!! The EPL VAR needs lesson notes from the Serie A VAR officials. If Halaand will not fall back to pick up the ball then it's going to be a long season for him!! Congrats to Liverpool! Well deserved despite the fact that the right side of the field wasn't functioning! Mane will be missed; Salah was the only player doing the job.

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[buwaytress]

Slightly agree with Harko that both teams didn't need to delay the ref -- I don't understand how teams still think they can influence a decision (or is it because they actually can?).

But fine, first VAR took a long time because they had to overturn the linesman (I thought it was maybe a foul def not offside). 2nd one, honestly, we've gone way past the need to argue for THAT kind of handball. Consistently, it's a pen, any day, any time.

I know I'm not just whining because it's England, I watch Serie A, La Liga, other tourneys and VAR's usually quick and decisive. 7 minutes injury time when there wasn't any injury. That tells you VAR gonna give us another poor season.

The EPL is full of surprises, and every prediction is 50/50. Last season, Manchester United was the odds-on favorite to win the title, but instead, they finished 6th. You and Trofo were confident that Spurs would finish ahead of Chelsea, so I'm betting as the underdog and am therefore at a disadvantage. Good luck with your wager with Harkorede nonetheless.

Thanks, and good luck to you too... though I have to insist not every prediction is 50/50.

Our confidence in Spurs (the actual underdog at the time) didn't make them the favourites. Odds and probability are, quite literally, evidence for what make a favourite, not confidence!

That said, the odds gap between the two has been slimming... some sites now I notice do put Spurs above Chelsea. Thank pre-season for that.

Another weird shift for me is odds on Forest... generally more favoured at books than the likes of Brentford and Bournemouth.

[swogerino]

It is quite nice that the pool participants are betting with each other before the season starts. I would also like to put a little money on something if there is anyone interested. I think that Manchester United will complete the season ahead of Arsenal. If there is anyone interested in joining this bet with me, I would be very happy if that person writes the amount in their mind by quoting this post.

I can do that but only for fun meaning the amount to be 0.001 Bitcoin in total.This of course is just to increase the emotions of when we see the games of both Arsenal which I clearly see performing a lot better than Manchester United.

I have put this low amount as I know I will have it when the pool will end,however if you agree we can also increase the bet during the ongoing Premier League season if you want,but that of course most likely will be in your great disadvantage.

It is okay for me and thank you for accepting it.   My offer is still valid. By the way, I believe that Manchester United will complete the season nicely this year.

Good.I will have something else like to follow what specifically Arsenal does compared to the overall pool.As I said feel free to ask to raise the bet during the ongoing season but as I said Manchester United will go from bad to worse and it is a sure thing that Arsenal will be able to come on top of them at the end of the season  .

Last year Arsenal was 11 points ahead,this year maybe they will be even better but usually when I bet against people I lose,so this should be to your advantage  .

[hilariousetc]

We have 47 people paid for the pool. Only a week to go so lets try to get it at least to 50 and we can add extra places as consolation prizes.

I can already see we will have another bad season with regards to VAR. I can give them long time to react with City goal, it was difficult situation to judge and draw lines but why the hell they needed so much time for Liverpool penalty? It is as clear as it gets and then after quite long time they call main ref to check it by himself. If VAR ref can't call this one, then VAR room does not need ref, just technician to draw the lines.

I don't think it's ref or technical rooms fault in that very occasion, If you ask me, but the first problem was both team players being an utter distraction for the referee, in most cases of handballs or foul in the 12 yard box, the VAR crew probably always have a verdict of their own imo, but the players just need to allow the referee breathing space, it took the referee way less to come to a conclusion after checking the replay, probably around 5 secs or thereabout from him looking at the screen, when it comes to goals being ruled or not for offside that's the VAR team decision to make, but for handballs,  fouls, and red card worthy offences the referee is sole decision maker, VAR crew are just meant to call is attention to it if he didn't make the call at first glance imo, but the team players all ranting at once wouldn't even allow the referee communicate properly with the VAR team. If you look at Matip's low header that looks like it touched his hands some moments before Man City equalised, the VAR probably looked at it and since there probably no contact to his hands, the referee had no reason to come into play, the scenario didn't get replayed all through the end of the game, so It made me pretty sure there was probably nothing to be looked at in that case. More so, the players are always the ones begging the referees to take a look for themselves.

It's getting silly. It's a coin toss as to what is handball these days. It's also really annoying how they delay the kick off after almost every single goal whilst VAR checks every possible parameter they can to possibly disallow it. They need to scrap the ref going over to have a look at the little screen as well. Why do you need him to go over and decide when you've already got several officials watching the game on several big screens? Just let them decide. If they think something is wrong then it's likely the ref will as well.

[Harkorede]

We have 47 people paid for the pool. Only a week to go so lets try to get it at least to 50 and we can add extra places as consolation prizes.

I can already see we will have another bad season with regards to VAR. I can give them long time to react with City goal, it was difficult situation to judge and draw lines but why the hell they needed so much time for Liverpool penalty? It is as clear as it gets and then after quite long time they call main ref to check it by himself. If VAR ref can't call this one, then VAR room does not need ref, just technician to draw the lines.

I don't think it's ref or technical rooms fault in that very occasion, If you ask me, but the first problem was both team players being an utter distraction for the referee, in most cases of handballs or foul in the 12 yard box, the VAR crew probably always have a verdict of their own imo, but the players just need to allow the referee breathing space, it took the referee way less to come to a conclusion after checking the replay, probably around 5 secs or thereabout from him looking at the screen, when it comes to goals being ruled or not for offside that's the VAR team decision to make, but for handballs,  fouls, and red card worthy offences the referee is sole decision maker, VAR crew are just meant to call is attention to it if he didn't make the call at first glance imo, but the team players all ranting at once wouldn't even allow the referee communicate properly with the VAR team. If you look at Matip's low header that looks like it touched his hands some moments before Man City equalised, the VAR probably looked at it and since there probably no contact to his hands, the referee had no reason to come into play, the scenario didn't get replayed all through the end of the game, so It made me pretty sure there was probably nothing to be looked at in that case. More so, the players are always the ones begging the referees to take a look for themselves.

It's getting silly. It's a coin toss as to what is handball these days. It's also really annoying how they delay the kick off after almost every single goal whilst VAR checks every possible parameter they can to possibly disallow it. They need to scrap the ref going over to have a look at the little screen as well. Why do you need him to go over and decide when you've already got several officials watching the game on several big screens? Just let them decide. If they think something is wrong then it's likely the ref will as well.

This I completely agree with, they need to maintain a standard and just go by the book/rules, it the decision is out of the ref's hands then players would not be so all over the ref after every whistle, they should take these decision away from the referee, except the ones he had to call himself from the very first instance, it is going to be very faster if they just communicate the decision to the referee, they made the rules guiding the play but still act as though it's rocket science to follow the rules. You can hardly see any game with less than 4 minutes of added time these days because of the need to review every goal even when it's clear as day from the first glance and no protest whatsoever for the opposing team.

[Igebotz]

Another weird shift for me is odds on Forest... generally more favoured at books than the likes of Brentford and Bournemouth.

Haha, The two-time UEFA Champions League winner is up to something this season; they've been making some big moves in the transfer market, with 7 players already signed, and they're on a team overhaul. They have more money to play with than the other two promoted teams because they won the championship play-off(£170m). Tbh, I see them struggling, and starting a new team in the EPL would not bode well for them at first. Let's see, I already like them. They bigger than Spurs and Arsenal in my book.  >:

It's getting silly. It's a coin toss as to what is handball these days. It's also really annoying how they delay the kick off after almost every single goal whilst VAR checks every possible parameter they can to possibly disallow it. They need to scrap the ref going over to have a look at the little screen as well. Why do you need him to go over and decide when you've already got several officials watching the game on several big screens? Just let them decide. If they think something is wrong then it's likely the ref will as well.

What is the point of VAR if the on-field ref still makes the decisive call in every game? VAR implementation has already been defeated. Remove it with a scraper.

[tokeweed]

We have 47 people paid for the pool. Only a week to go so lets try to get it at least to 50 and we can add extra places as consolation prizes.

I can already see we will have another bad season with regards to VAR. I can give them long time to react with City goal, it was difficult situation to judge and draw lines but why the hell they needed so much time for Liverpool penalty? It is as clear as it gets and then after quite long time they call main ref to check it by himself. If VAR ref can't call this one, then VAR room does not need ref, just technician to draw the lines.

I don't think it's ref or technical rooms fault in that very occasion, If you ask me, but the first problem was both team players being an utter distraction for the referee, in most cases of handballs or foul in the 12 yard box, the VAR crew probably always have a verdict of their own imo, but the players just need to allow the referee breathing space, it took the referee way less to come to a conclusion after checking the replay, probably around 5 secs or thereabout from him looking at the screen, when it comes to goals being ruled or not for offside that's the VAR team decision to make, but for handballs,  fouls, and red card worthy offences the referee is sole decision maker, VAR crew are just meant to call is attention to it if he didn't make the call at first glance imo, but the team players all ranting at once wouldn't even allow the referee communicate properly with the VAR team. If you look at Matip's low header that looks like it touched his hands some moments before Man City equalised, the VAR probably looked at it and since there probably no contact to his hands, the referee had no reason to come into play, the scenario didn't get replayed all through the end of the game, so It made me pretty sure there was probably nothing to be looked at in that case. More so, the players are always the ones begging the referees to take a look for themselves.

It's getting silly. It's a coin toss as to what is handball these days. It's also really annoying how they delay the kick off after almost every single goal whilst VAR checks every possible parameter they can to possibly disallow it. They need to scrap the ref going over to have a look at the little screen as well. Why do you need him to go over and decide when you've already got several officials watching the game on several big screens? Just let them decide. If they think something is wrong then it's likely the ref will as well.

I think there should be a rule that VAR should only be used if there's an offense made that's a red card.  This is very important especially in critical matches that could impact a club's season.  Hand balls, off sides, penalties..  We could do without VAR.  This is just me but I accept the human factor of the gsme by leaving such decisions to the officials.

Anyway, when do we get the pool invite link?  I want to take a peek and look around.    Superbru website can be confusing.

[KTChampions]

I think there should be a rule that VAR should only be used if there's an offense made that's a red card.  This is very important especially in critical matches that could impact a club's season.  Hand balls, off sides, penalties..  We could do without VAR.  This is just me but I accept the human factor of the gsme by leaving such decisions to the officials.

Anyway, when do we get the pool invite link?  I want to take a peek and look around.    Superbru website can be confusing.

What you listed changes the score in the game (in most cases) and therefore completely changes the whole game. I would not want this to be left to the subjective opinion of the referee. It will be unpleasant for me to watch the game knowing that, for example, the erroneous decision of the referee completely changed its result.


Hello to all members, I also joined the pool. Happy predictions! 

[hilariousetc]

Here's probably how the prizes will be so far:

1st 0.1 (£1,905)
2nd 0.05
3rd 0.04
4th 0.03
5th 0.02
6th 0.015
7th 0.014
8th 0.013
9th 0.012
10th 0.011
11th 0.01
12th 0.0025
13th 0.0025 (£47.60)

= 0.32

For everyone else that joins now I'll probably just add another place each so the more people that join the more prizes there will be and at least you have a shot at winning your money back.

I think there should be a rule that VAR should only be used if there's an offense made that's a red card.  This is very important especially in critical matches that could impact a club's season.  Hand balls, off sides, penalties..  We could do without VAR.  This is just me but I accept the human factor of the gsme by leaving such decisions to the officials.

Anyway, when do we get the pool invite link?  I want to take a peek and look around.    Superbru website can be confusing.

Might as well get rid of it all together if that's all it's being used for. I think they should do a similar model as tennis do and each team gets three requests to query VAR. There's absolutely no need to check everything for any sort of infraction especially when nobody is complaining for anything. I've lost count of how many times kick off has been delayed by a minute or two to check a goal can't be disallowed for something and I'm like what the fuck are they checking for. They usually don't find anything either. Nobody cares about offsides being a millimetre off either. Half of the time on the close calls they can't get an accurate angle either as you need a straight line not an obtuse camera angle. VAR is definitely doing more harm than good to the game right now.

[swogerino]

Here's probably how the prizes will be so far:

1st 0.1 (£1,905)
2nd 0.05
3rd 0.04
4th 0.03
5th 0.02
6th 0.015
7th 0.014
8th 0.013
9th 0.012
10th 0.011
11th 0.01
12th 0.0025
13th 0.0025 (£47.60)

= 0.32

For everyone else that joins now I'll probably just add another place each so the more people that join the more prizes there will be and at least you have a shot at winning your money back.

I think there should be a rule that VAR should only be used if there's an offense made that's a red card.  This is very important especially in critical matches that could impact a club's season.  Hand balls, off sides, penalties..  We could do without VAR.  This is just me but I accept the human factor of the gsme by leaving such decisions to the officials.

Anyway, when do we get the pool invite link?  I want to take a peek and look around.    Superbru website can be confusing.

Might as well get rid of it all together if that's all it's being used for. I think they should do a similar model as tennis do and each team gets three requests to query VAR. There's absolutely no need to check everything for any sort of infraction especially when nobody is complaining for anything. I've lost count of how many times kick off has been delayed by a minute or two to check a goal can't be disallowed for something and I'm like what the fuck are they checking for. They usually don't find anything either. Nobody cares about offsides being a millimetre off either. Half of the time on the close calls they can't get an accurate angle either as you need a straight line not an obtuse camera angle. VAR is definitely doing more harm than good to the game right now.

The prizes are looking really nice this time with up to the tenth place at 0.01 which is 4x the entry fee plus all the enjoyment we have throughout the year by following Premier League and putting our predictions in.

VAR last year changed so many of our results and up to a certain point since I only missed by a couple of points from the tenth place can say that it ruined my season,hopefully we will have less and less VAR this year and that the VAR should not have as many mistakes as it had last season.

[buwaytress]

Another weird shift for me is odds on Forest... generally more favoured at books than the likes of Brentford and Bournemouth.

Haha, The two-time UEFA Champions League winner is up to something this season; they've been making some big moves in the transfer market, with 7 players already signed, and they're on a team overhaul. They have more money to play with than the other two promoted teams because they won the championship play-off(£170m). Tbh, I see them struggling, and starting a new team in the EPL would not bode well for them at first. Let's see, I already like them. They bigger than Spurs and Arsenal in my book.  >:

Ah yes, the most lucrative game(s) in all of football, Championship promotion playoffs. I really am personally happy to see them back, am old but not THAT old to remember them, maybe they get a new injection of fans. Norwich and Watford don't seem to know how to benefit from the big money on display but would be really nice to see Nottingham Forest and Leeds buck that trend (certainly the latter to have learnt their lessons!).

[Trofo]

I think there should be a rule that VAR should only be used if there's an offense made that's a red card.  This is very important especially in critical matches that could impact a club's season.  Hand balls, off sides, penalties..  We could do without VAR.  This is just me but I accept the human factor of the gsme by leaving such decisions to the officials.

Anyway, when do we get the pool invite link?  I want to take a peek and look around.    Superbru website can be confusing.

Might as well get rid of it all together if that's all it's being used for. I think they should do a similar model as tennis do and each team gets three requests to query VAR. There's absolutely no need to check everything for any sort of infraction especially when nobody is complaining for anything. I've lost count of how many times kick off has been delayed by a minute or two to check a goal can't be disallowed for something and I'm like what the fuck are they checking for. They usually don't find anything either. Nobody cares about offsides being a millimetre off either. Half of the time on the close calls they can't get an accurate angle either as you need a straight line not an obtuse camera angle. VAR is definitely doing more harm than good to the game right now.

I feel like VAR should be used in a more "relaxed" way. For instance if you have to watch a recording 20 times from multiple angles just to see if there was offside, contact or whatever....Screw that and let the game continue. VAR should be used to eliminate clear cut mistakes, if you can't see it when watched 3 times from 2 angles, keep the original call. Who cares about top of nose offsides?

[casperBGD]

~snip
 but would be really nice to see Nottingham Forest and Leeds buck that trend (certainly the latter to have learnt their lessons!).

agree, would be really nice to see Forest within top10 this season, and to stabilize there
not that I am not a fan, but would rather see Leeds and Forest within top10, than West Ham, Leicester or Wolves, not to mention Brighton

nevertheless, with strong Forest and good Newcastle, season could be really interesting

[arallmuus]

VAR should be used to eliminate clear cut mistakes, if you can't see it when watched 3 times from 2 angles, keep the original call. Who cares about top of nose offsides?

From the fans POV, its completely annoying when the game is stopped for 3 minutes or so just to check on the VAR but I think this is just the beginning of the new era though. Its a sports that is played worldwide for years and will continue to be so for the upcoming years so yeah we'll probably have AI or something to check on the VAR in like 20 years from now to ensure the game is complete 'fair' for both sides

Having VAR changed the game in a completely better way though in some sense

[Igebotz]

~snip
 but would be really nice to see Nottingham Forest and Leeds buck that trend (certainly the latter to have learnt their lessons!).

agree, would be really nice to see Forest within top10 this season, and to stabilize there
not that I am not a fan, but would rather see Leeds and Forest within top10, than West Ham, Leicester or Wolves, not to mention Brighton

nevertheless, with strong Forest and good Newcastle, season could be really interesting

It would be interesting to see Forest stay up in the league and avoid being relegated back to the championship, but I don't see them making the top 10 cut, they have a great fan base and a great history, but it would take them a long time to get back to being a big club again, a lot has changed since the last time they won the league and champions league.

It would be a huge surprised if Leeds United avoid relegation this season as they were few minutes away to the championship last season, they sold Raphinha and yet to see any serious business from them.

Leeds United avoiding relegation this season would be a huge surprise given that they were only a few minutes away from the championship last season, sold Raphinha and have yet to see any serious business from them.

West Ham and Newcastle will make us a lot of money this season, but be careful, they will also disappoint, particularly Newcastle.

[KTChampions]

I feel like VAR should be used in a more "relaxed" way. For instance if you have to watch a recording 20 times from multiple angles just to see if there was offside, contact or whatever....Screw that and let the game continue. VAR should be used to eliminate clear cut mistakes, if you can't see it when watched 3 times from 2 angles, keep the original call. Who cares about top of nose offsides?

I am a big supporter of VAR, but I agree that over-indulgence in it hurts. I remember about ten years ago there was a directive from either FIFA or UEFA to interpret controversial situations with offside in favor of the attackers - in order to increase the entertainment and effectiveness of games. Now with the introduction of VAR, goals are canceled due to centimetric offside, this is complete nonsense.

[tokeweed]

I think there should be a rule that VAR should only be used if there's an offense made that's a red card.  This is very important especially in critical matches that could impact a club's season.  Hand balls, off sides, penalties..  We could do without VAR.  This is just me but I accept the human factor of the gsme by leaving such decisions to the officials.

Anyway, when do we get the pool invite link?  I want to take a peek and look around.    Superbru website can be confusing.

What you listed changes the score in the game (in most cases) and therefore completely changes the whole game. I would not want this to be left to the subjective opinion of the referee. It will be unpleasant for me to watch the game knowing that, for example, the erroneous decision of the referee completely changed its result.

We were doing fine without VAR.  And here's the thing, there were instances when the red called for VAR and watched the replay, they still got the call wrong.  I mean isn't that what's riling everybody up?  What's the use of VAR even if the interpretation of the data is still subjective to the guy making the calls?

Anyway, I'm gonna log in my account now and go have a look around Superbru.    Has anybody made their predictions yet?

[swogerino]

I feel like VAR should be used in a more "relaxed" way. For instance if you have to watch a recording 20 times from multiple angles just to see if there was offside, contact or whatever....Screw that and let the game continue. VAR should be used to eliminate clear cut mistakes, if you can't see it when watched 3 times from 2 angles, keep the original call. Who cares about top of nose offsides?

I am a big supporter of VAR, but I agree that over-indulgence in it hurts. I remember about ten years ago there was a directive from either FIFA or UEFA to interpret controversial situations with offside in favor of the attackers - in order to increase the entertainment and effectiveness of games. Now with the introduction of VAR, goals are canceled due to centimetric offside, this is complete nonsense.

As long as is offside for real even for one centimeter the goal needs to be cancelled.What VAR does though is that it lets the referee interpret it,the main referee and not all the referees to come to a decision together,even when they come,the referees that follow the line for offside are often forced by the rule that the main referee takes,this is not that good as we have seen last year that the VAR decisions were clearly not correct from the main referee and the other supportive referees didn't raise their voice despite the VAR video showing a clear mistake from the main referee.VAR itself works,what it does not work is something else and that is called corruption because I don't know if the main referee made the mistake intentionally or unintentionally no matter what he says afterward.

[KTChampions]

What you listed changes the score in the game (in most cases) and therefore completely changes the whole game. I would not want this to be left to the subjective opinion of the referee. It will be unpleasant for me to watch the game knowing that, for example, the erroneous decision of the referee completely changed its result.

We were doing fine without VAR.  And here's the thing, there were instances when the red called for VAR and watched the replay, they still got the call wrong.  I mean isn't that what's riling everybody up?  What's the use of VAR even if the interpretation of the data is still subjective to the guy making the calls?

Anyway, I'm gonna log in my account now and go have a look around Superbru.    Has anybody made their predictions yet?

To be honest, I do not understand what cases you are talking about. Are these cases where non-obvious offside rules are applied, as in the game France - Spain in the League of Nations when Mbappe scored from a "logical" offside position?

As long as is offside for real even for one centimeter the goal needs to be cancelled.What VAR does though is that it lets the referee interpret it,the main referee and not all the referees to come to a decision together,even when they come,the referees that follow the line for offside are often forced by the rule that the main referee takes,this is not that good as we have seen last year that the VAR decisions were clearly not correct from the main referee and the other supportive referees didn't raise their voice despite the VAR video showing a clear mistake from the main referee.VAR itself works,what it does not work is something else and that is called corruption because I don't know if the main referee made the mistake intentionally or unintentionally no matter what he says afterward.

In my opinion, a centimeter offside is absurd, since a player cannot control values ​​of such a size - it turns out to be something like gambling: we will play and then VAR will show by the rule whether it was or not. As for the sole decision, this is normal - a sole decision also means sole responsibility.

[cryptofrka]

In my opinion, a centimeter offside is absurd, since a player cannot control values ​​of such a size - it turns out to be something like gambling: we will play and then VAR will show by the rule whether it was or not. As for the sole decision, this is normal - a sole decision also means sole responsibility.

It is, and most of us agree with it. The problem is that you have to draw a line somewhere. If you say 'up to 5 cm there is no offside', you just moved the line to where 5.01 cm is offside and 4.99 cm is not and you have to measure it again.
Logically - the line is then set at 0 cm - and you get some absurd decisions.

It will get better with time - and some countries are already drawing fatter lines to avoid long checks and bizarre micrometer offsides.