Hi Friend,

Hopefully you got the Bet 1 e-mail this morning (if you didn't please contact me urgently).

I hope to make this a very profitable 30 days.

Please don't get despondent if we have an early losing bet or two. The reason I say this is because tournament betting is tougher than betting on leagues due to the inconsistency of the teams, the preparation time, the home/away advantage as well as several other factors.

The aim of tournament betting is to figure out the trends early on.

Some tournaments, the big boys generally smash the smaller sides away early on. The Euro's may just favour the number of big nations playing home games in their home country!

Tonight, Italy are playing at home. In any home international against Turkey, you expect Italy to win. I've been going through the fixtures for the first round and a few games which may have been deemed banana skins may just be a little easier for the big teams due to this advantage.

I've also had a few e-mails asking for the size of the stakes.

Several reasons - we get to test the waters, we get to make sure everyone is on the same page in terms of betting and what to bet on. It's also better to be safer than sorry especially at the beginning of a tournament.

As our bank increases, our stakes will rise so it may look slow for the first 7-10 days but then it should pick up.

I hope everyone enjoys the game.

Don't quote me on it but I expect a 2-1 Italian victory!

Kind Regards
John Anthony
The Euro Challenge