Bookmaker William Hill is looking at challenging a proposed 15pc tax on UK online gaming profits.
Britain's biggest bookmaker is preparing a legal challenge against government plans to tax online gambling in this country from the end of 2014.
William Hill has asked its lawyers to build a case against the UK’s proposed “point of consumption tax”, which will impose a 15pc duty on online gambling profits generated in this country.
Almost all UK bookmakers, including Ladbrokes, have shifted their online businesses to gambling-friendly tax havens such as Gibraltar and the Isle of Man over the past decade.
Read More: William Hill prepares to challenge UK online gaming tax - Telegraph
Ryan Lochte will target his second gold medal on day three of the Olympics Monday as America's swimmers attempt to bounce back from the shock of losing their 4x100 relay crown.
Lochte, who got his Games campaign off to a flier on Saturday when he crushed compatriot and long-time rival Michael Phelps to win the 400m medley, suffered a reality check on Sunday in the United States' relay loss to France.
The 27-year-old will line up in the 200m freestyle final against China's Sun Yang, who will also be targeting his second gold of the Games after his win in the 400m freestyle on Saturday.
Lochte has the opportunity to avenge the USA's relay defeat when he lines up against Yannick Agnel, the Frenchman who reeled him in over the last leg.
Phelps meanwhile will attempt to get his individual campaign back on track following his chastening loss in the 400m medley final when he begins the defence of his 200m butterfly crown.
The four swimming medals on offer are among a total of 12 up for grabs across all competitions as the Olympics gets into full swing on Monday.
Read More: Lochte chases more gold on Olympics day three - Yahoo! Sports
The United States men's volleyball team is deep and features some big hitters. This squad will return a lot of the same faces to the London Games that led them to the gold at the Beijing Games. If they fail to repeat, it will not be due to a lack of experience.
They will have their work cut out for them. According to Bovada, they have the fifth lowest odds at 14/1 to take home the gold.
If they do win the gold, it will be thanks in large part to the next four guys.
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Ladbrokes has dismissed its head of online business in the latest blow to the bookmaker’s troubled digital gaming strategy.
In a statement Ladbrokes said that Richard Ames, a board member since 2009 who ran the company’s online division, “has ceased to perform his executive duties with immediate effect”.
The United States had to settle for the silver medal in the women's team all-around gymnastics competition at the Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, but they're poised to claim the gold medal heading into the final of that event on Tuesday in London.
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The Americans finished first in qualifying for the women's team all-around final over the weekend, putting up a score of 181.863. That included scores of over 60 for three of their competitors – Aly Raisman (60.391), Gabby Douglas (60.265) and Jordyn Wieber (60.032). Those three gymnasts had qualifying's second, third, and fourth-best scores.
The United States entered the event as the -110 favorite on the odds at Bovada to win the women's team all-around title, with Russia second on that list at +250 odds. The Russians finished second in qualifying on the weekend with 180.429 points, led by Victoria Komova and her top score of 60.632.
China, which won the gold medal at this event in 2008, is third heading into the women's team all-around final with 176.637 points, while Romania – the bronze-medal winner in Beijing – is fourth with 176.264 points. China entered the meet with +275 odds to repeat as the Olympic champions, followed by Romania at +1000 odds.
The other four countries who qualified for the final are Great Britain (170.656), Japan (170.196), Italy (168.397), and Canada (167.696). Germany, Australia, France, and Brazil were all eliminated in the qualifying round.
The United States won the women's team all-around title at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Japan, with Russia taking the silver medal at that event and China claiming the bronze medal.
Find all your betting odds for the 2012 Olympic Games in London at Bovada.
American Michael Phelps will try to defend his Olympic gold medal in the men's 200m butterfly as the swim meet continues at the London Summer Games early this week, but he'll have to once again contend with Japan's Takeshi Matsuda.
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Phelps swam to the gold medal in the men's 200m butterfly in Beijing in 2008, and he's also coming off a win in that race at the 2011 FINA World Championships. Matsuda was second in that race last year behind Phelps, and he won the bronze medal back in 2008.
That has Phelps as the 1/5 favorite on the swimming odds at Bovada to come out on top at the event once again, with qualifying races on Monday and medals set to be handed out on Tuesday. Matsuda is next at 5/1 odds, followed by Hungary's Laszlo Cseh at 12/1 odds; Cseh won the silver medal at this event in Beijing.
Australia's Nick D'Arcy (16/1) and China's Wu Peng (25/1) round out the top contenders to win the gold medal in the men's 200m butterfly this week; Peng finished third in 2011.
The Americans are also favored to win the men's 4x200m freestyle relay on Tuesday, and they'll be looking for some revenge on rival France in that race. France beat the United States for the gold medal in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay on Sunday.
Phelps, Ryan Lochte and company are the 1/4 favorites at Bovada to win the men's 4x200m freestyle relay, with France next at 7/2, and China at 12/1. The Americans won this event at the 2011 FINA World Championships, with France second, and China third.
It's also the women's 200m freestyle gold medal being handed out on Tuesday, with world champion Frederica Pellegrini of Italy the 7/4 favorite over Americans Missy Franklin (5/2) and Allison Schmitt (4/1) plus France's Camille Muffat (4/1). Muffat was third at the 2011 world championships, with Australia's Kylie Palmer (18/1) finishing second at that race.
As well, Ye Shiwen of China is the 2/3 favorite to win the women's 200m individual medley ahead of Australia's Alicia Coutts (6/1) and American Ariana Kukors (7/1); those three swimmers finished 1-2-3 at the 2011 world championships.
Find all your betting odds for the 2012 Olympic Games in London at Bovada.
Ryan Lochte already has a gold medal in the men's 400m individual medley in London, and he'll try for another first-place finish on Monday as he takes on China's Sun Yang and the rest of the field in the men's 200m freestyle final.
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Lochte entered the event as the 10/11 favorite on the swimming odds at Bovada to win the gold medal, followed by Yannick Agnel of France (1/1), Paul Biedermann of Germany (9/1), Yang (10/1) and Taehwan Park of South Korea (10/1).
Yang, who beat out Park for the gold medal in the men's 400m freestyle already in London, had the top semifinal time of 1:45.61, with Agnel, Park, Biedermann, and Lochte following behind. Danila Izotov of Russia, Robbie Renwick of Great Britain and Thomas Fraser-Holmes of Australia round out the field for the men's 200m freestyle final on Monday.
The men's 100m backstroke gold medal is also up for grabs on Monday, with pre-event favorite Camile Lacourt of France qualifying in second spot for the final; Lacourt had been listed as the 8/11 favorite at Bovada, ahead of 6/1 Matt Grevers of the United States. Grevers had the top qualifying time in the semifinals on Sunday.
Japan's Ryosuke Irie (11/2), Great Britain's Liam Tancock (14/1) and American Nick Thoman (25/1) are also in the field for the men's 100m backstroke final, along with China's Feiyi Cheng, Germany's Helge Meeuw and Australia's Hayden Stoeckel.
Elsewhere around the pool on Monday, Australia's Emily Seebohm will be taking on the United States' Missy Franklin in the final of the women's 100m backstroke; Franklin was the 7/4 pre-event favorite at Bovada to win the gold medal, with Seebohm back at 10/1 odds. Seebohm had the top time in the semifinals of the event on Sunday, with Franklin second, and Aya Terakawa of Japan (8/1) third.
As well, Americans Rebecca Soni (1/3) and Breeja Larson (10/3) were the pre-event favorites to win the gold medal in the women's 100m breaststroke, and they're both in the field for Monday's final after qualifying second and fourth in the semifinals.
Find all your betting odds for the 2012 Olympic Games in London at Bovada.
O.J. Murdock was still recovering from an injury that sidelined him all of last season, so the Tennessee Titans weren't overly concerned when the receiver said he'd be a couple of days late reporting for training camp.
''I talked to him and just assumed it was a personal issue,'' teammate Damian Williams said, recalling the last conversation he had with Murdock, who died Monday in an apparent suicide carried out in a car in front of his old high school in Tampa.
''It's tough. He was always a happy guy who played around a lot and always had a smile on his face,'' Williams added. ''I definitely didn't see it coming.''
Neither did one of Murdock's former college coaches at Fort Hays State. Nor did Titans coach Mike Munchak or general manager Ruston Webster.
Police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said officers found the athlete about 8:30 a.m. inside his car with what appeared to be self-inflicted gunshot wounds. The vehicle was parked in front of Middleton High School, where Murdock made a name for himself as a dynamic football player and state champion sprinter in track and field.
Read More: Police: Titans player dies in apparent suicide - Yahoo! Sports
Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara and the United States' Kristin Armstrong are the defending Olympic champions in the road cycling time trials, but neither of them are listed as favorites for the 2012 version of the event in London on Wednesday.
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Cancellara won the gold medal in the men's road cycling time trial in Beijing, and he's at 5/1 on the Olympic odds at Bovada. However, that has him behind both Great Britain's Bradley Wiggins (4/9) and Germany's Tony Martin (4/1).
Wiggins, of course, is coming off a victory in the Tour de France, and he finished second in this event at the 2011 UCI Road World Championships in Copenhagen. Martin won that world title in Denmark, with Cancellara finishing in third place and taking the bronze.
Chris Froome of Great Britain (14/1) and Taylor Phinney of the United States (16/1) are the second tier of contenders for Wednesday's time trial event, and Froome is coming off a second-place finish behind Wiggins at the 2012 Tour de France. Phinney ended up 15th in Copenhagen at the World Championships in 2011.
Germany's Bert Grabsch, who was fourth in Copenhagen, is a 100/1 long shot for the race.
Over in Wednesday's women's road cycling time trial defending Olympic champion Armstrong of the United States is set at 6/1 odds to win – which puts her behind Germany's Judity Arndt (15/8), Great Britain's Emma Pooley (2/1) and New Zealand's Linda Villumsen (4/1). Armstrong didn't race in the 2011 World Championships in Denmark, with Arndt, Villumsen, and Pooley finishing 1-2-3 in that event.
The United States' Amber Neben (12/1), Canada's Clara Hughes (18/1) and the Netherlands' Eleonora Van Dijk (18/1) are the other top contenders for Wednesday's race on the cycling odds at Bovada.
Neben was eighth in Copenhagen, while Hughes was fifth, and Van Dijk ended up sixth.
The Olympic gold medal will be handed out in the men's gymnastics individual all-around competition on Wednesday in London, and Japanese star Kohei Uchimura will be looking to bounce back from a lackluster qualifying performance to take the top spot on the podium.
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Uchimura had just the ninth-best result in qualifying for the men's individual all-around event on the weekend, falling on both the high bar and the pommel horse before rebounding with solid scores on the vault and the parallel bars.
Uchimura won the gold medal in the men's individual all-around at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo, and he was also part of the Japanese team that picked up the silver medal in the gymnastics team final on Monday.
China walked away with the gold medal in Monday's team final, with Great Britain settling for the bronze medal; the British team had originally been awarded the silver medal but were bumped down to bronze after the Japanese team won a protest of a scoring error.
The United States' Danell Leyva had the top score in the individual all-around qualification on the weekend, followed by Russia's David Belyavskiy, Germany's Fabian Hambuchen, the United States' John Orozco, Great Britain's Kristian Thomas, Ukraine's Mykola Kuksenkov, Germany's Marcel Nguyen and Russia's Emin Garibov.
Leyva ended up in 24th place in this event at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Belyavskiy was sixth, Orozco was fifth, Kuksenkov was seventh, Nguyen was eighth, and Garibov was 15th. Great Britain's Daniel Purvis, who was fourth in the individual all-around in 2011, qualified 10th over the weekend for the London final.
Find all your betting odds for the 2012 Olympic Games in London at Bovada.
Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte are set to go head-to-head in the pool on Thursday as the gold medal is handed out in the men's 200m individual medley. The heats and semi-finals for that event are on Wednesday, with the top swimmers advancing to Thursday's final.
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Phelps and Lochte are widely expected to be in that field on Thursday, with Lochte the 4/9 favorite on the swimming odds at Bovada to win and Phelps next at 7/4 to claim the gold.
At the United States' Olympic trials this year Phelps beat Lochte at this event, and he also won the gold at this race in Beijing in 2008 (with Lochte taking home the bronze). At the 2011 World Championships it was Lochte who edged out Phelps for the gold in this event.
Brazil's Thiago Pereira, who took the silver medal behind Lochte in the men's 400m individual medley in London on Saturday, is next at 20/1 odds to win the gold on Thursday, with Hungary's Laszlo Cseh at 25/1. Cseh won the bronze in this event at the 2011 World Championships and took silver in Beijing.
Lochte will also get a shot at the gold in the men's 200m backstroke on Thursday, as he's the 1/3 favorite over Japan's Ryosuke Irie (3/1). Lochte and Irie finished 1-2 at this event at last year's World Championships, with Lochte winning the gold in Beijing. Irie claimed the bronze in the 100m backstroke in London on Monday.
American Tyler Clary, who finished third at the 2011 World Championships in this event, is then at 10/1 odds to win the men's 200m backstroke.
In the women's meet, Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands is the 2/3 favorite to win the gold in the 100m freestyle on Thursday, after she picked up a bronze at the race at the 2011 World Championships. Aleksandra Gerasimenya of Belarus and Jeanette Ottesen of Denmark tied for the gold at that event and they're pegged at 20/1 and 16/1 for Thursday.
As well, defending world champion Rebecca Soni of the United States is the big 2/9 favorite to win the gold in the women's 200m breaststroke on Thursday, ahead of Japan's Satomi Suzuki (13/2) and Russia's Yuliya Efimova (10/1).
American gymnast Jordyn Wieber is the defending world champ in the women's individual all-around event, but she won't be in the field for the final in London on Thursday.
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The top 24 gymnasts from Saturday's qualifying round moved on to Thursday's individual all-around final, and Wieber had the fourth-best score that day. However, the American gold-medal favorite ended up behind teammates Alexandra Raisman and Gabrielle Douglas, who were second and third in qualifying.
And with each country only allowed to send two gymnasts to the final, Wieber was eliminated. China's Yao Jinnan, who finished third at the 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in the women's individual all-around event, ended up 22nd in qualifying on Saturday but was also eliminated because she ended up behind two teammates.
That leaves just Russia's Viktoria Komova from that 2011 podium in contention on Thursday; she grabbed the silver behind Wieber at last year's world championships. Komova turned in the top qualifying score of 60.632 in London on Saturday.
Raisman had a score of 60.391 on Saturday, with Douglas at 60.265, and Wieber at 60.032. Raisman ended up in fourth place in the women's individual all-around event at the World Championships in 2011.
Huang Qiushuang of China, who was fifth at last year's World Championships, qualified 10th for Thursday's final, while Great Britain's Hannah Whelan qualified in 17th place after ending up ninth at the 2011 World Championships. Fellow British gymnast Rebecca Tunney qualified in 15th place for Thursday's final.
Russia's Anastasia Grishina, who had the 12th-best score in qualification on the weekend, was also bumped from the field for the final because she was behind teammates Komova and Aliya Mustafina (fifth).
American Reese Hoffa is the favorite on the shot put odds at Bovada for Friday as the track and field competition gets underway at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
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Hoffa is pegged at 9/4 on the shot put odds to win the competition on Friday but he'll be looking for his first major title in the event since 2007, when he won the gold medal at the World Championships in Japan.
The American finished in seventh place in the shot put event at the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, fourth at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, and fifth at the 2011 World Championships in South Korea.
Teammate Christian Cantwell is set at 4/1 to win the gold medal in shot put on Friday, and he won the title at the World Championships in 2009. Cantwell earned a silver medal in shot put in Beijing, and he was fourth at the World Championships in 2011.
David Storl of Germany claimed gold in shot put at the World Championships in 2011, and he's also at 4/1 odds for Friday. Storl, 22, will be competing in his first Olympics.
Canada's Dylan Armstrong and Poland's Tomasz Majewski are both then pegged at 6/1 on the shot put odds at Bovada for Friday, with Majewski the defending Olympic champion; he was second in 2009 and ninth in 2011 at the World Championships.
Armstrong finished second to Storl at last year's World Championships, and he finished fourth in Beijing in the shot put. Andrei Mikhnevich of Belarus, who edged Armstrong for the bronze medal in 2008, is at 9/1 on the odds for Friday. Mikhnevich also won the bronze medal in shot put at the World Championships in 2011.
The other medal event in track and field on Friday is the women's 10,000m, with Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya (5/6) ahead of Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba (7/4) as the favorite for that race. Cheruiyot won the gold medal in this event at the World Championships in 2011.
Get your odds for the London Summer Olympics at Bovada. Raise Your Game.
Usain Bolt will be looking to make up for a disqualification in the men's 100m at last year's World Championships when he takes the track this weekend as the favorite to win the marquee event of the Olympic meet.
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Bolt is pegged at 7/10 on the track odds at Bovada to win the men's 100m, with the heats for that race on Saturday and the final being run on Sunday. That puts him ahead of Jamaican teammate Yohan Blake (3/2), who took the gold in the event at the World Championships in 2011 after Bolt was booted from the final because of a false start. Blake then beat Bolt in the 100 at the Jamaican Olympic trials.
Bolt won the gold medal in the men's 100m at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Tyson Gay of the United States and Asafa Powell of Jamaica finished second and third in that 2009 race, and they're at 10/1 and 25/1 odds, respectively, to win the gold medal in the men's 100m in London.
Americans Justin Gatlin (20/1) and Ryan Bailey (20/1) are the other top contenders for the race. Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis won a bronze medal in this event at the 2011 World Championships, but he's a long shot 150/1 to win the gold medal on Sunday.
The gold medal will also be awarded in the women's 400m on Sunday, with preliminary races for that event taking place on Friday and Saturday. American Sanya Richards-Ross, who won bronze in this race in Beijing and gold at the 2009 World Championships, is the 8/11 favorite on the track odds at Bovada. Richards-Ross, though, ended up back in seventh place in this race at the 2011 World Championships in South Korea.
That 2011 race was won by Botswana's Amantle Montsho, who sits at 9/2 odds to claim a gold medal on Sunday. Russian Antonina Krivoshapka is at 4/1 after finishing fifth in 2011.
Elsewhere around the track this weekend, Kenyans Brimin Kipruto (6/5), Ezekiel Kemboi (5/2) and Abel Mutai (13/2) are the top three favorites to win the men's 3000m steeplechase, with another Kenyan, Mary Jepkosgei Keitany, the 11/8 favorite to claim the gold medal in the women's marathon.
Krisztian Pars of Hungary (7/4) is then favored over Ivan Tikhon of Belarus (3/1) to win the men's hammer throw, with Ukraine's Olha Saladukha (7/5) favored in the women's triple jump. Saladukha claimed the women's triple jump at the 2011 World Championships.
Get your odds for the London Summer Olympics at Bovada. Raise Your Game.
With 20 Sprint Cup events on the auto racing odds already in the books this season, veteran Jimmie Johnson is making a determined bid to regain the championship crown that eluded him last season for the first time in six years as the NASCAR circuit heads to Long Pond for the Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday afternoon.
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Johnson now tops the updated auto racing futures at 5/1 to win the Sprint Cup this year after Tony Stewart interrupted his five-year reign last season by winning his third drivers championship. Stewart currently ranks third on the list at 13/2 odds to repeat the feat, behind only Johnson and current points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is at 6/1 odds.
Johnson, who recorded his third win of the year last week in his familiar No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy at the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard, sits fourth overall in the driver standings heading into the Pennsylvania 400 and picked up a previous victory in this race on the NASCAR circuit back in 2004 – when it was a 500-mile event.
Both Stewart and Earnhardt Jr. are still looking for their first victory at this event, although Stewart recorded runner-up finishes in 2010 (behind Greg Biffle) and 2008 (behind Carl Edwards). Earnhardt Jr. finished in second place back in 2007 behind winner Kurt Busch, and wound up third in 2003 behind Ryan Newman and Busch.
Brad Keselowski, a 12/1 long shot on the futures to win the Sprint Cup, won the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway last year and was followed across the finish line by Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Johnson and Newman.
Get your auto racing odds for this week right now at Bovada. Raise Your Game.
Michael Phelps will get a chance to add one final medal to his collection on Saturday as he competes on the last day of the swim meet at the London Olympics in the 4x100m medley relay along with his American teammates.
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Phelps and the United States won this event back at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, with Australia taking the silver medal in that race and Japan settling for bronze on the day. The Americans also won this race at the 2011 FINA World Championships, finishing ahead of Australia and Germany at that event.
Heats for the men's 4x100m medley relay go on Friday, with the final set for Saturday and the United States pegged as the big 4/9 favorite on the Olympic swimming odds at Bovada.
Australia is next at 4/1 odds to claim the gold medal in the race, followed by Japan at 5/1, and Germany at 6/1. Longshots for the event include the Netherlands at 20/1, both France and Great Britain at 33/1, and Canada at 40/1.
The women's 4x100m medley relay will also be contested on Friday and Saturday, with the American team the 1/9 favorite to claim the gold medal in that race. Australia beat the United States for the gold in this event in Beijing, with China finishing third. At the 2011 FINA World Championships the United States won gold, followed by China and Australia.
China is second at 5/1 on the odds to win the women's 4x100m medley relay this weekend, with Australia at 14/1, Russia at 22/1, and Japan at 25/1 on the Bovada odds.
The gold medal in the women's 50m freestyle race will also be awarded on Saturday, with Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands (7/4) ahead of Therese Alshammar of Sweden (3/1) on the odds for the event. Alshammar won the gold in this race at the 2011 FINA World Championships, with Kromowidjojo ending up with the silver medal that day.
Finally, Sun Yang of China is the big 1/10 favorite to claim a gold medal in the men's 1500m freestyle race on Saturday, putting him ahead of Park Tae-Hwan of South Korea (10/1) and Ryan Cochrane of Canada (14/1). Yang won this race at the 2011 FINA World Championships, with Cochrane ending up second, and Gergo Kis of Hungary (20/1) third.
Get your odds for the London Summer Olympics at Bovada. Raise Your Game.
Jamaica's Usain Bolt sealed his status as the greatest sprinter of all time after retaining the men's Olympic 100m title with an electrifying display early this morning.
The world record holder turned on the after-burners at 60m to clock an Olympic record of 9.63sec, the second fastest time in history.
"I executed and that was the key," Bolt said. "When it comes to the championships, it's all about business for me and I brought it."
Jamaican compatriot and training partner Yohan Blake, long tipped as Bolt's successor as the fastest man in the world, claimed silver after equalling his personal best of 9.75sec.
American 2004 Olympic gold medallist Justin Gatlin completed his remarkable comeback from a four-year doping ban by taking the bronze medal in a personal best of 9.79sec.
The 2007 double world champion Tyson Gay came in fourth, one hundredth of a second off his teammate Gatlin in 9.80sec, with a third American, Ryan Bailey, fifth in 9.88.
The sell-out 80,000-capacity crowd at the Olympic Stadium were on their feet when the eight finalists, including the four fastest men in the world - Bolt, Gay, Blake and Asafa Powell - lined up.
As the television cameras picked out each racer, the excitement mounted as they reached Bolt in lane seven, dressed in black shorts and the yellow and green singlet of the Jamaican team.
The 25-year-old showed no signs of nerves as he bid to replicate his gold medal showing in the Beijing Games in 2008.
A push for more school sports funding amidst Australia's poor Olympic performance has been backed by a Northern Territory expert on physical education.
Borroloola parent Bill Russell has double-majored in anatomy and physical education, and believes the Territory is in dire need of new sports funding in schools.
Less than a quarter of Northern Territory schools have qualified physical education teachers, and the Government instead employs regional coordinators for physical education in schools.
While the Australian Olympic team sinks to its lowest performance since the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Australian Olympic Committee chief John Coates has blamed the decline of sports in schools.
Mr Russell says the bedrock of elite sports performance is physical education in schools.
"There is certainly a difficulty in filling the positions [in the Northern Territory]," Mr Russell told 105.7 Mornings.
"But if we look at what's happening with curriculum across Australia not just the Northern Territory...with the implementation of a national curriculum, education has dropped the ball as far as physical education goes."
"When we were going into the 2000 Sydney Olympics we had a larger amount of money directed into sports in schools."
Read More: School sports push may not save Australia's Olympic future - ABC Darwin - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The United States' Jason Richardson is the defending world champion in the men's 110m hurdles, but it's his teammate Aries Merritt who is pegged as the favorite to win the gold medal in that event at the London Olympics this week.
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Richardson claimed the men's 110m hurdles at the 2011 World Championships in South Korea, with China's Liu Xiang finishing second in that race, Great Britain's Andy Turner ending up in third place and Merritt settling for a fifth-place result.
Cuba's Dayron Robles – the Olympic gold medallist in the men's 110m hurdles in 2008 in Beijing - was disqualified from that race for bumping Xiang.
Heats for the men's 110m hurdles will take place on Tuesday this week, with the semifinals and finals of the race on Wednesday. Merritt is pegged as the 5/4 favorite to claim the gold medal, with Xiang at 3/2, Richardson at 13/2, and Robles at 7/1 on the Bovada odds. Andy Turner is back at 66/1 odds on that list.
The gold medal in the women's 200m race will also be handed out on Wednesday, with the United States' Allyson Felix entering Monday's heats as the 2/5 favorite in the event. Felix won the silver medal in this race in Beijing, then claimed gold in the World Championships in 2009 in Berlin before settling for bronze in South Korea in 2011.
American Carmelita Jeter and Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown all then opened the heats at 8/1 on the track odds at Bovada to win the gold medal in the women's 200m this week. Campbell-Brown won gold in this race in Beijing and South Korea, and was second in Berlin, while Jeter was the silver medallist in South Korea.
Fraser-Pryce has already won the women's 100m gold in London, with Jeter taking the silver, and Campbell-Brown claiming the bronze. American Sanya Richards-Ross, who has won gold in the women's 400m in London, opened the heats at 12/1 to win the 200m.
The women's long jump competition gets underway on Tuesday, with the gold medal being handed out in that event on Wednesday and the United States' Brittney Reese pegged as the 10/11 favorite on the Olympics odds at Bovada.
Reese won the gold medal in women's long jump at the World Championships in both 2011 and 2009, and she was fifth in the event in Beijing in 2008. Russia's Anna Nazarova (6/1) and fellow American Chelsea Hayes (8/1) follow behind Reese on the long jump odds.
The quote has appeared so often over the years that the words tend to play back through our heads with the still-thick Brooklyn accent of a certain elderly football coach.
"The name on the front of the jersey is what really matters," Joe Paterno once said, "not the name on the back."
The man's fashion sense did not change over the decades. An empty patch of navy or white fabric above the back number was as typical as a packed house in Beaver Stadium.
But the months after his firing have brought about new wrinkles to the game-day experience. Players will sing the alma mater after games. Paternoville is now called Nittanyville. And the greatest difference yet ... the team and new coach Bill O'Brien decided to add names to the back of their jerseys for the 2012 season as a sign of each individual's dedication to uphold the program's traditions after this tumultuous year. The front of the jerseys also will include a blue ribbon to promote awareness for child sexual abuse.
Read more: Uniforms will sport new look this fall - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Britain's biggest bookmaker is preparing a legal challenge against government plans to tax online gambling in this country from the end of 2014.
William Hill has asked its lawyers to build a case against the UK’s proposed “point of consumption tax”, which will impose a 15pc duty on online gambling profits generated in this country.
Almost all UK bookmakers, including Ladbrokes, have shifted their online businesses to gambling-friendly tax havens such as Gibraltar and the Isle of Man over the past decade.
Read More: William Hill prepares to challenge UK online gaming tax - Telegraph