Sportsbet Price Up 2014 NAB Challenge Ahead Of AFL Starting

This week sees the start of the 2014 NAB Challenge, which will give teams two more chances to finalise their preparations for this year’s AFL season.

Wednesday’s meeting of the Geelong Cats and Collingwood is the first of 18 games over 18 consecutive days and Sportsbet will be running markets on every one.

The Australian online bookmaker has Geelong priced as 1.61 favourites, while they have Collingwood at 2.25 to overcome the Cats.

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Thursday and Friday’s fixtures then sees both Hawthorn Hawks and Richmond priced at 1.31 to win against Brisbane Lions and Melbourne (both priced at 3.30) respectively.

Sportsbet also have the North Melbourne Kangaroos as 1.61 to succeed against Carlton Blues (2.25) in their Saturday match.

And while the NAB Challenge will take centre-stage for the next couple of weeks, thoughts are already turning to the actual AFL season starting and who might emerge as the 2014 champions.

Defending champions Hawthorn Hawks (4.75) are unsurprisingly favourites to retain their title, even after Buddy Franklin’s departure from the club.

The Sydney Swans and Fremantle Dockers follow at 5.00, although Sportsbet are already reporting that they’ve already had more money placed on the Dockers to win the AFL this year than any other team.

A spokesperson for Sportsbet said: “We can’t really split the Hawks, Swans and Dockers to win the flag, but the punters certainly have and think Fremantle will go one step further this year.”

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