Guest post by Alexia Krause - With the New York state deficit hitting $8 billion, steps need to be taken in order to right the ship that is the state's budget. Recently New York Gov. David Paterson stated that the projected deficit for the upcoming fiscal year has grown by an additional $750 million. There's no doubting that the Empire State is in dire straits trying to fix their deficit. It is extremely difficult trying to balance a state budget at a time when the country as a whole is going through some of its most difficult economic hurdles in recent history. This forces us to take a fresh look at which programs will continue to receive funding. As a result, the state has been forced to cut, reject, and outright shut down many state programs and projects in order to make some type of movement out of the red and back into the black. Many of these budget cuts (like closing down state parks and cutting funding to public schools) were rampant and have cast an unfavorable light on politicians in Albany in the eyes of many New Yorkers. However, something must be done in order to fight the ailing state economy. As coincidence has it, a good fight might just be the answer to the budget problems.

A week ago I posted my personal betting tips on the 2010 Oscar winners. I predicted an easy win of Hurt Locker, Jeff Bridges, Kathryn Bigelow and Sandra Bullock. But the betting tip that stood out was tipping off El Secreto de Sus Ojos' nomination in the Foreign Language film Academy Award. The betting odds were over 5.0 at that time, and for those who read that and followed my betting predictions, have just made money!

Betting on the Oscars 2010 can make you money if you can make good predictions. Betting graphs and charts can help a lot! Academy Awards 2010 take place in a week but the betting odds of best picture, director and actors are already predicting the winner! The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow, Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock pose as big favorites in online betting bookmakers. Here are my betting tips about Oscars 2010.

Betting on the UK show Celebrity Big Brother 2010 is available as a special bets market in Betfair. Big Brother is the most popular betting market among other special bets in UK or in any other country, and that is why I selected it for a betting tip. Alex Reid is the big favorite at the time of writing, followed by Dane Bowers. Can Vinnie Jones turn things around though and come out winner of the reality show? The answer may be hidden in the betting charts. Who's for a betting prediction?

Betfair commission starts at 5% and can be decreased down to 2% by betting more and accumulating Betfair Points. More Betfair points will lead to a bigger discount rate, thus lowering your commission and turning a losing betting system into a winning one. Of course, a larger discount rate would increase the profits of a profitable betting system even more. The discount rate of Betfair commission can generally improve the profitability of a system by 100%.

Betting or sports trading on Formula 1 next grand prix at Singapore 2009? Want to know how the public reacted after yesterday's qualification? Interested to see how much money are at risk on each Formula 1 driver? Here are all F1 drivers' betting graphs from Betfair 3 hours before the off. Best of luck!

Can election polls be trusted when betting on politics? Greek Election 2009 may provide the answer needed for political betting. The 2009 election results will be known on 4th of October but until then there are a lot of published polls that proclaim an easy win for PASOK. By scanning them and comparing the available betting odds, we could make money by betting in Greek politics!

Guest blog post by Andy, who provides details of spread betting and his trading strategies on his spread trading blog.

I am tempted for a little sports diversity from my normal stock market trading. Sports betting for me is a hobby giving me some light relief from the normal daily chores, but noting that I managed to return 700% on my account last year I'm thinking of starting to take it more seriously.  My friends are pretty good and were on the back page of the telegraph for winning £750,000 on the football spread bets some years back; I think they did it twice, they were ex-stock market lads and led a hell of a life style. They used to bet on anything like number of corners, sponges...etc. They won (and lost) heaps.

Yesterday evening Karamanlis, Prime Minister of Greece, made an announcement regarding the next Greek Elections which will most probably take place in early October.  Thus, rumors that his party will not complete their 4-year incumbency as the ruling party are verified and every poll shows the opposition to be up to 6% ahead in the forthcoming Greek election.  Betfair was quick once again to add a special betting market under their politics section, and for the time being the only available bet is which party will have the most seats in the next parliamentary election. If you trust the election polls, PASOK seems like a sure bet offering 1-10 odds.

Searching in google for a winning tennis betting system didn't help at all. The first 3 pages returned advertising pages and affiliates' links to so-called amazing tennis betting systems that guarantee instant profits. I understand that internet offers great potential for everyone to make money following different routes, but I was just looking for tennis gamblers sharing their knowledge and possibly their experience testing several betting systems. I will keep on searching though for ideas to include in a tennis betting system I am interested in.