Moneyballin'

by Rick Nash

Some people make New Year's resolutions, but if you're a shameless sports gambler like me you make new season's resolutions. So, after a, quite frankly, ridiculous 5-5 draw between Man Utd and West fucking Brom cost me a winning record for 2012/13, I've decided to go with a more reliable, proven method this time around.

The Euro Club Index would've probably been a better website to follow than this one if you actually cared about winning money, and didn't just have some weird fetish for seeing this useless bum lose his wages. Using a complex system of algorithms based on win-probability and teams' results records, I can safely say that I have no clue how the maths behind the Euro Club Index works. But I know enough to understand that they made an 8% profit on their match predictions over the past three years and correctly called the top 7 positions of last season's Premier League at the start of the season. I like those odds, so this season I'm sticking with the form horse and basing my predictions on the Euro Club Index's probabilities. That's right, even The Accumulator is going the moneyball route.

Where I come in is that I'll correspond the best probabilities with the best value bets and try to put together attractive trebles and accumulator bets for you throughout the season, recording my own win-loss records along with my net earnings for the season to give you full perspective.

To remind you all, here are some of my own personal gambling rules (to be taken with a pinch of salt, since I'm 1-1 in actually earning money on a season-by-season basis):

WWE Royal Rumble Picks Special

by Rick Nash

There was once a time when we were the baddest team in Ireland. And, by baddest, I mean we lost a lot.

Angry Andy and I (in my old Ragin' Rick moniker) started out as the tag-team known as Anger Management in Irish Whip Wrestling (for non-Irish fans: the place where WWE stars, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre and Wade Barrett cut their teeth). There were wrestlers there who aren't currently earning millions and living the dreams: that's were we come in.

Nope, it's been one long, downward spiral: from being in the ring with Sheamus, to community radio, to podcasts, to blogs now. We're still a team, we still job out like nobody's business, we just use a pen instead of our bodies now.

That's not to say we don't still dabble in the world of professional wrestling, though. You see, earlier this year, we founded WWE Parties Ireland, in doing so answering a simple problem wrestling fans have had for years: why can't WWE fans watch their events down the pub the way football, rugby, GAA and even NFL fans over here can?

Fortunately, Irish wrestling fans agreed that this was a travesty and the idea has taken off: WWE themselves now sponsor the events, stars such as Zack Ryder and Jim Ross have plugged our parties, and our regulars have ensured that every night has an amazing atmosphere. This Sunday, we run the first-ever Royal Rumble Party in Captain America's Grafton Street.

So, with the Royal Rumble also coinciding on a weekend were the Premier League is giving way to the FA Cup 4th Round (and I was spectacular dumped out in the 3rd round, going 0-5 in my Cup-set Specials) and Andy's regular muse - the NFL - taking its traditional pre-Superbowl holiday for the Pro Bowl, I've given him the week off and am instead devoting this week's picks to the WWE spectacular! Feel free to join in: we'll be running a prediction contest on the WWE Parties Ireland Facebook this weekend.