Sports betting: New Year specials

With the New Year upon us, bookmakers William Hill have unveiled their traditional start of year list of odds for things which might, should, could, will and won't happen during the next twelve months. If you had placed a £10 accumulative bet that during 2007: Charlotte Church would become pregnant (6/1), Jose Mourinho would leave Chelsea (5/1), Ming Campbell would cease to lead the Lib Dems (5/1), Frankie Dettori would win the Derby (4/1), David Beckham would play for England (7/2) and Louis Walsh would quit the X Factor (2/1) would have won £170,100 from William Hill. "Plenty of punters backed one or more of these eventualities but fortunately no-one bet on all of them!" said William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe as the firm unveiled their bets for 2008. Some of the more interesting bets for 2008 include new England coach Fabio Capello. England are 8/15 to lose one or more games during 2008 under Capello's leadership and 11/8 to remin unbeaten throughout 2008. David Beckham has already played for the Italian coach during his spell at Real Madrid and he is 9/4 to captain England for his 100th cap. Golf may well be where the money can be made next year as William Hill offer specials on Colin Montgomerie. The Scot had a quiet year by his own standards in 2007 but with a new marriage and the Ryder Cup to look forward to Monty may well be worth backing at 8/1 to be Europe's top point scorer if he makes it into Nick Faldo's line-up for the September match. The firm go 4/6 that one or more of the golf Majors will be won by a playoff and a European winner of one of the four Majors is 2/1. Another interesting price is the 16/1 they offer on Tiger Woods achieving a hole in one during a Major, which you wouldn't put past the world's No 1 golfer. Wimbledon features heavily in their special odds and Roger Federer is 3/1 to win the Grand Slam event without dropping a set and Jamie Murray is 6/1 to repeat the feat he achieved last year and win any Wimbledon doubles title. His brother Andy is 9/4 to reach a Grand Slam final and 5/3 to beat Federer in any match throughout the year.