Team Pages give football fans a new way of proving their club loyalty as well as benefiting from stats, form, and, most importantly, free bets!

Your team might not be lighting up the league on the pitch but Paddy Power isn’t letting your wallet feel the pinch. So far this season the boss has used Team Pages to put an arm round fans and give them a chance to win once in a lifetime prizes.

• Paddy sent three Liverpool fans to Melwood to meet some of the players and take part in our very own ‘Eyes on the Prize’ game

• He gave Manchester City fans a free bet after Manchester United won the title to try and cheer them up after a miserable league campaign

• And he gave Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham fans a free bet after some FA Cup chaos earlier this year. In one January weekend Liverpool lost away to Oldham, Tottenham were beaten 2-1 by Leeds and Fernando Torres only just spared Chelsea’s blushes with a late equaliser against Brentford. To make fans feel a bit better after a tough weekend there was a free bet waiting for them on Monday morning

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What this Team Pages Infographic tells us…

It won’t do Roberto Mancini any favours if Sheik Mansour sees Manchester City languishing in ninth, after a season that has been as disappointing as every episode of How I Met Your Mother.

Celtic win the battle in Scotland, although Rangers do make an appearance with 2.7 per cent of fans supporting the Scottish Third Division champs.

Newcastle, Everton and West Ham’s traditional fanatical support is well-backed up by an appearance on the leader board and Aston Villa fans are probably suffering from vertigo seeing their team up in 13th.

Paddy Power’s Team Pages set a new standard of football betting for fans. The section brings together all the betting and statistics connected to your team in one place and provides the latest odds and betting on your lads.

For instance, you can see the cold, hard facts on:

• Recent results from your chosen team
• Head-to-head against the opposition
• What time your team is most likely to score…or if you’re Aston Villa, concede
• Squad stats and information

It’s a lot easier than trawling the internet looking for Fulham’s recent away form. You’re more likely to stumble upon a cat wearing a tuxedo, the web is full of them. Instead get your team page set up and benefit from all the stats and Paddy’s moments of blind generosity.

These are the acts of kindness that have the shareholders calling for the men in white coats.

Make sure you don’t miss out on any more free bets or once-in-a-lifetime opportunities with Paddy Power’s team pages. Your team might be suffering but your bank balance won’t feel the hit.

• Register your Team Pages here
  

It’s the most famous horse race in the world. The Grand National is as exciting, unpredictable and filled with drama as your average night out in Liverpool.

This Saturday when the tapes go up at 4.15pm millions of armchair tv viewers will tune in across the globe to watch the once-a-year spectacular over 4m 3f on the hallowed Aintree turf.

There’ll be joy, there’ll be tears, there’ll be enough fake tan sloshing about to redecorate your house – but most of all there’ll be dodgy theories to help you pick the winner.

Will Ruby Walsh and Willie Mullins win it with the favourite On His Own after guiding Hedgehunter to victory 13 years ago. Can Paul Nicholls and Daryl Jacob get back-to-back wins after  their Neptiune Collonges became the first grey horse to win in almost 50 years.

Or will Seabass – ridden by Ruby’s sister Katie –  go two places better than last year and become the first lady jockey to win the Grand National.

We’ve a few clues on the blog but if you’ve got a shiny pin handy, close your eyes and pick away.

Here’s the Paddy Power Blog team take on the major events in this extraordinary race’s extraordinary history.

[Click infographic to enlarge]

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#IronMan

Two-time Grand National winner Ruby Walsh has given the Paddy Power Blog an outline of some of his most serious injuries in his 15-year professional career.

Ruby’s injuries highlight the dangers jockeys face in the sport, especially after the injuries suffered by his pal JT McNamara at Cheltenham last month.

Ruby has suffered more concussions than he can remember, broken more ribs than he can count, ruptured his spleen and smashed bones from head to toe. The Iron Man doesn’t have a pin, plate or screw in him though and keeps breaking records and winning races.

‘Physical pain always goes away. It is 20 minutes, half an hour, two hours or a day maximum. The mental pain is always there. You’re sat looking at your injury, looking at your body, looking at the rides you could be on and the winning money you’re missing out on. You watch everything and you’re itching to get back. The mental pain is far more uncomfortable than the physical pain,’ he told us.

‘Falling off a horse isn’t always sore. People say not falling right is the reason you get injured but that is wrong, that’s just a theory. The longer you can stay on the horse the better. The horse hits the jump and the horse hits the ground before you fall off. The closer you are to the ground and the slower you make it, the less likely you are to get hurt.’

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Design: Melissa Stolberg @PaddPower

‘There’s lots of tough sports-people but there are plenty of soft ones as well. Hurlers are incredibly tough sports-men. They don’t wear shin-guards and you can see someone break a hurling stick across Henry Shefflin’s shin and the guy won’t even break stride. Then you watch someone brush off an International football player and he rolls around like his head is going to fall off. There are tough sports-people and soft sports-people.’

‘I don’t like people who feign injury. I can’t watch football because there is no point. They’re not playing football they are acting and they are bad actors. I don’t have time for that. You’re either hurt or you’re not. When you deal in a sport when serious injuries take place, to see someone feign injury is actually a little bit revolting.’

‘The tough guys in the weighing room are the most successful. Look at AP McCoy and what he is prepared to go through. The rest of us have to follow suit. You have to get tough quick and there is no sympathy for the soft.’

‘We don’t see ourselves as hard, we see ourselves as fair, and tough, and honest. If you want to be a wuss go and play something else. This is a mans sport.’

Ruby Walsh told the Paddy Power Blog more about his injuries and how dislocating his hip at Listowel, Co Kerry, was the worst pain he has ever felt. (He’s never watched a full episode of The Big Reunion).

Broken left ankle – Killarney, 2009

I broke this in a fall in Killarney. I fell off a horse called Imperial Hills and had to spend six weeks on the sidelines. This wasn’t a major injury and I walked out of the racecourse. I used a crutch but convinced myself it was fine. It is only when you cool down and you see the swelling that you realise something is wrong.

Broken right ankle – Galway, 2012

This didn’t hurt at all because I was knocked out! When I woke up in hospital they were x-raying it so it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t feel that one.

Broken right leg – Czech Republic, 1999

In 1999 I collided with a running rail and smashed it – my leg not the running rail. It was a clean break across the middle so that was lucky.

Right leg spiral break – Down Royal, 2010

This was a lot more severe than in the Czech Republic. It was in 2010 and I fell in a handicap chase. I did a very bad job on it this time. In a sense I was lucky with the treatment because I was in Northern Ireland and they put a frame on it. It is like having four wheels on a bike around your leg with the spokes going through the bone. This takes off the pressure and straightens up the leg to heal it. I have no metal or screws anywhere but I had the spokes in during this operation. Because it was a spiral fracture from my knee down to my ankle it was a tricky break and took four months to heal.

Broken left hip – Listowel, 2003

I was unseated off a horse of Joe Crowley’s and I was falling off him for some amount of time. He hit the fence hard and I was down at his tail, hanging on and hanging on. When I did fall off I landed square on the road-crossing, right on the ball of my hip. Luckily it only broke 75 per cent of the way through. If it had broken all the way across it would have required a pin and a plate, but because it was only three-quarters of the way across there was something holding it together so it closed itself. That 25 per cent was very significant. It was the only thing between having to have an operation and not having an operation. That’s was the only plus out of that fall.

Dislocated right hip – Listowel, 2001

In regards to physical pain this is the worst injury I have ever had. The hip is different to your shoulders. Your shoulders don’t sit in a socket but there is a socket with your hip. Your leg sits in your hip socket so to get it out through it is extremely painful. I had a general anaesthetic to just pop it back in. Two hours later it was done but in those two hours I was sorer than I have ever been.

Broken right wrist – Aintree, 2012

Left wrist – Cork, 2000

Ruptured spleen – Cheltenham, 2008

I ruptured my spleen at Cheltenham at the November meeting but I had damaged it the previous February in Kempton. A horse beside me fell at the third-last and as I was in mid-air the falling horse kicked me with his hind-legs as he rotated. That was very sore for a good few days. I went on to win that race but genuinely thought about pulling up before the final fence I was in that much pain. I damaged it that time but your spleen can’t heal itself.

I had another scar in the spleen after another incident at Listowel in September. I got a fall in a Novice Chase and the horse landed down on my back and tore the back pad off me. It was incredibly sore that night as well. There were a couple of scars in my spleen so I had definitely damaged it at those falls before eventually rupturing it at Cheltenham. When they took it out there were multiple scars in it and they only took it out when it eventually burst.

Now I can only take 1/8 of the antibiotics that a normal person can take because the spleen cleanses the blood.

Crushed T7 vertebrae – Cheltenham, 2006

I think this was in 2006 at Cheltenham and I didn’t know it had happened for three weeks. The doctors couldn’t find it. I was back riding and had ridden a few winners but I got a very soft fall in Gowran Park. I remember thinking I can’t deal with this pain anymore and that’s when they found it. I had crushed my vertebra three weeks earlier.

Fractured C6 vertebrae – Killarney, 2011

This was just a small fracture but I got lucky to be honest. As soon as you get above T and start into C you’re getting high and should be worried.

Broken left humerus – Aintree, 2010

I broke this in three places after falling off Celestial Halo in the Betfair Hurdle. This took the longest to heal. It was from Aintree right through until August because for bones to heal you need a blood supply running through the bones. That meant the top break and the bottom break had to heal before any blood got to the middle break. I didn’t know until I broke it that the humorous is the second largest bone in your body behind the femur. I only got told that when I wrecked mine. That was a very severe injury. This was awkward because of the cast. After 10 weeks I went on holidays and I hate going away in a cast because it’s not a holiday. You can’t swim, you can’t do anything, the heat is making you sweat in the cast, it’s a nightmare. Even when the doctor took the cast off and I was in a brace, the surgeon told me the most I could lift was the equivalent of a pint.

Dislocated right shoulder – Navan, 2007

Dislocated left shoulder – Cheltenham, 2007

Broken collarbone – Dundalk, 1999

This was the first serious injury I ever got as a professional jockey. This was back in August 1999 and I took a heavy fall at Dundalk.

Broken ribs

I’ve broken a few ribs over the years but they don’t really count. A rib injury doesn’t keep you out.

Concussions

I’ve had a few of them but when and where I can’t remember. The last time I got knocked out was at Galway (2012) and before that was in Kilbeggan. I broke eight teeth and cracked my jaw. You can still see the lump. I think I was spitting out teeth for about two days.

• Betting: Grand National
• Ruby’s Exclusive Grand National tips

What we can do is give a little bit of solid history on Cheltenham and the greatest week of jumps racing in the world. Britain and Ireland go head-to-head but thankfully without all that nasty bloodshed, although we can’t bank on no bones being broken (fingers crossed though).

Cheltenham pits the world’s greatest jockeys against one another, riding the greatest horses, trained by the best in the business. This infographic shines a light on key statistics for the Festival and crunches the numbers as punters flock to the Cotswolds. Giddy up!

Words: Josh Powell
Design: Eleonore Kellenberger

• Betting: Cheltenham 2013

Dodgy signings (highlighted by FourFourTom), criticism of his coaching at the Emirates and rows with the Press have Wenger in the Premier League firing line. In this updated infographic, the Paddy Power Blog casts a critical eye over Wenger’s years at the Gunners, from the glory of the Invincibles, to the current misfits. (It’s seven years, 9 months without a trophy but we’re rounding that up).

Update: Sack race odds cut to 7/2

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• Betting: Arsene Wenger specials

RYDER CUP INFOGRAPHIC [Click to enlarge] Design by Rachel Merrigan/Paddy Power

If foursomes are something you only normally come across on dodgy websites then you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Because for three days, 24 players are going to war for the US and European teams for golf’s most-coveted prize, the Ryder Cup.

The Americans are slight favourites in Paddy Power’s online betting at 8/11 with the European team at 11/8. The tie is 10/1.

Europe are the reigning champions after Graeme McDowell sank the winning putt at Celtic Manor, Wales, in 2010 to see off the Yankee invasion 14.5 to 13.5 to keep the Ryder Cup this side of the Atlantic. If there is a tie, Europe retain the trophy.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are the standout names in the field but their individual genius and flair can’t win this competition alone.

Ryder Cup format explained

The format sees eight foursomes where a European team of two plays a US team of two. Each team plays one ball. The lowest team score per hole wins the points. If both scores are equal the hole is halved. The eight fourballs see two teams of two with each player playing his own ball and the lowest score wins the hole for the team.

If the rival team matches the other’s score, the hole is halved.

The 12 singles matches on the final day will decide the outright winner of the Ryder Cup. It is straight-forward match-play and all 12 players are on the course. Matches are won, halved or lost.

When the Ryder Cup starts expect tense-looking team captains doing passable impressions of SWAT-team commanders as their players high-five and fist-bump their way around Medinah’s testing 18 holes.

But most of all expect plenty of noise and excitement as the partisan American crowd becomes the 13th man as the United States look to bring the Ryder Cup ‘home’.

Get in the hole!

• Betting: Ryder Cup coupon

[Wayne Rooney Infographic: Click to enlarge]

Updated

Wayne Rooney has raised fears about the affect of injuries on his talents. After recent revelations about his weight problems, the striker has admitted there is more to it than that.

He says: “Physically, I’ve taken a bit of a battering over the years; being lumped by Transformer-sized centre-backs or having my muscles smashed by falls, shoulder barges and last-ditch tackles, day in, day out, has left me bruised. When I get up in the morning after a game, I struggle to walk for the first half an hour. I ache a bit. It wasn’t like that when I was a lad.”

Rooney’s latest absence for Manchester United and England comes after he suffered a deep gash on his thigh during their win 3-2 over Fulham on August 25.

As the Paddy Power Blog infographic shows, young Rooney has suffered his fair share of injuries, amongst them being compared to Shrek by bucks like us. And, although Rooney looks better up top these days (marginally), Ferguson will be concerned about when he can have the fully-fit scally back at his disposal alongside Robin Van Persie.

Lord Fergie has confirmed 26-year-old Rooney will return to action sooner than first feared. “It’s nothing serious on the actual gash — it’s a bad one but it was treated carefully very quickly. We don’t expect any complications from it. I think he’ll be back in four weeks,” said Ferguson.

Rooney will miss England’s qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine, and Premier League games against Tottenham and Liverpool next month.

• Betting: Premier League

Design: Eleonore Kellenberger

By Josh Powell | Northerner

The rivalry between the North and South of England has been simmering for as long as time with both sides of the invisible border believing they are the dominant national force. Whether you’re a ‘Northern monkey’ or a ‘Southern fairy’ is decided by where you were born and dictates what you wear, what you eat, and whether you tune in to Albert Square or Coronation Street.

More importantly in the struggle for power between the North and South is football. It is a battle that many will fight together despite their differences. Newcastle and Sunderland will put their rivalry aside, the Manchester clubs will even unite with their neighbours on Merseyside and the North will come together.

Below the border the London clubs will put a stop to their bickering to fight the bigger cause, Reading and Southampton will join the teams from the capital and the South will combine forces to get one over on the Northerners.

The North took a huge hit last season with the loss of loyal (although unspectacular) warriors Bolton and Blackburn. The South gained three more recruits through promotion from the Championship and now this season it’s all even as eight teams from each side of the border scrap it out.

Representing the North:

• Manchester United
• Manchester City
• Liverpool
• Everton
• Wigan
• Sunderland
• Newcastle
• Stoke

And fighting for the South:

• Chelsea
• Arsenal
• Tottenham
• QPR
• Fulham
• Reading
• Southampton
• West Ham United

The battlelines have been drawn ahead of another Premier League season. The Northerners are kitted out in their flatcaps, drinking pints of gravy. The Southerners are looking down their noses while polishing their monocles.

(Infographic design by Melissa Stolberg/Paddy Power)

• Betting: Premier League outright
• Betting: Premier League opening day of the season

They’ll be worried that the £15m spent on the latest YouTube wunder-kid striker who’s barely started shaving looks to have gone south as he couldn’t kick his way out of a paper bag pre-season.

Meanwhile, the promised teak-tough 6′ 4” centre-half has let every runt of a forward use his eye socket for leverage to leave the defence with more holes in it than a closing Olympic ceremony. And they weren’t even HIS signings. B****** director of football better start using the back stairs.

It all looked so easy at the end of last season. Get a new man in, spend a few bob and the results will flow. Reality is about to dawn now though for them and for you. Is your guy really that much better than the one you got rid off?  Soon find out.

As the old saying goes: Players win matches, managers lose them. So beware Andre Villas-Boas, Michael Laudrup, Steve Clarke, Paul Lambert, Brendan Rodgers, Chris Hughton and Roberto Di Matteo. The clock is ticking.

[Click the below infographic to enlarge]

• Betting: The Sack Race
• Betting: Premier League matches
• Betting: Premier League outright
• Betting: Paddy Power team page and stats

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN: The managers who will decide your Premier League team’s fate

Rodgers was spotted at an early stage by Jose Mourinho. He managed the Chelsea youth team and the reserve team between 2004-2008. When Liverpool announced their new manager he was given a ringing endorsement by the Special One for his style of play and his philosophies. It was very high praise indeed.

Last year under Kenny Dalglish Liverpool had their worst finish since 1994, coming eighth in the league and a massive 37 points behind the champions Manchester City. The team lost 14 of their 38 league games and although they picked up silverware in the form of the Carling Cup it was a disappointing season for one of the world’s biggest and most successful clubs.

Under Rodgers there is a new-found faith and belief that Liverpool can start challenging for the title again. The Irishman took Swansea to promotion from the Championship before guiding them to an 11th place finish in the Premier League last season. It was the quality of football he played and the ‘tika-taka’ style that earned Rodgers the most plaudits. Very similar to Spain and Barcelona, Rodgers utilised an effective 4-3-3 with pacey wide-men and liked short crisp passing to feet.

There is no doubt he can instil those values into the Liverpool side and achieve great things but the Kop faithful will need to be patient. An upheaval like this doesn’t happen overnight but can lead to ground-breaking changes.

It’s an exciting time to be a red as Rodgers leads the Liverpudlian revolution — click on the below infographic to enlarge.

• Betting: Premier League outright
• Betting: Brendan Rodgers specials

[Click infographic to enlarge]

Snobbery, elitism and military processions can only mean one thing – you’ve pitched up in the historic county of Berkshire and it’s Royal Ascot week.

Almost a third of a million race-goers will throng Ascot’s enclosures with one thing in mind: to get their mates to post a picture of them on Twitter and watch the highest quality few days of Flat racing this side of the Arc de Triomphe or Breeders’ Cup.

Ascot is England’s answer to the Galway festival in Ireland except nobody outside a few descendents of a dodgy German bloodline is actually welcome.

They’re just there to fund it. And in time-honoured doorman tradition if you don’t dress properly, you ain’t gettin’ in mate.

From Tuesday to Saturday jellied eels, chip butties and cans of Tennents lager are stuffed down the side of the couch and replaced by foie gras, caviar and pink champagne as Britain goes racing mad.

And if it’s Black Caviar you’re into, the Australian sprinter puts her unbeaten record on the line in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes while Frankel tries to enhance his lofty reputation record in the Queen Anne Stakes.

(Infographic design: Rachel Merrigan/Paddy Power)

• Royal Ascot betting
• Why the fuss about Black Caviar?

Infographic design: Eleonore Kellenberger. Words: Josh Powell and Sean Goff

There have been many false dawns in England’s challenge for top international honours since that memorable day at Wembley when Sir Alf Ramsey’s side won the 1966 World Cup.

This time it may just be that England’s troubles are all behind them as the fall-outs, resignations and race-rows are usually eve of tournament events or after the players have spent way too much time together. Usually two days.

New man Roy Hodgson who replaced Fabio Capello when all that messy qualifying work was done, has kept his players’ feet on the ground conscious of the usual media frenzy that usually decrees England world-beaters before a ball is kicked.

But for once, England come into Euro 2012 somewhat under the radar. And maybe that can be their secret weapon as they look to break the 1966 jinx that no English side has ever lived up to since.

• Euro 2012 betting

Infographic design: Eleonore Kellenberger. Words: Josh Powell and Sean Goff

What do you really know about Spain? Be honest.

Sunshine, Sangria, Siesta and plenty of the other normally found on the 110,000 Club 18-30 package holidays that prop up the Spanish tourist industry every Summer. Hangovers, Headaches and Pink Skin.

But for the next 30 days, the nation that has a strange affection for Bulls – either fighting them or avoiding being gored by them at Pamplona will try to win a third footballing Championship for the first time in football’s long and mainly proud history.

Spanish sides used to be perennial underachievers. But in the last five years the manuana mentality of a free-flowing footballing style was complemented by teak-tough defenders who thought it was their ball and you weren’t getting a go.

Diego Maradonna was at the receiving end – and it has to be said, the giving end – in an Atletico Madrid v Barcelona cup game hundreds of years ago (1984) when divisions between Catalonia, Community of Madrid and the Basque Country ran deep.

They’re almost all friends now of course but Ireland, Italy and Croatia shouldn’t expect too much charity when they face La Furia Roja in Group C.

• Euro 2012 outright betting
• Bluffer’s guide to Spain

Infographic design: Melissa Stolberg. Words: Josh Powell and Sean Goff

Every four years since 1960 the little continent of Europe has hosted 16 teams to contest the European Football Championships.

2012 is one of those years and the good news is that Ireland, its most westernly outpost (except for Iceland) has qualified for the first time since 1988 when Ray Houghton (last seen filling Irish fans’ camper vans with Paddy Power in Dublin this morning for the trip to Poland) put the ball in the English net.

To celebrate our good fortune and to help with the general mood of optimistic Irish banter before the tournament begins Paddy Power’s Blog team has put together a few fun facts ‘n’ figures. These can be used to either fleece the company for a few quid or impress your mates in the pub when the inevitable “How’ll we do at the Euros” question gets popped.

And any references to 1988 you don’t get, just ask your Da who’s been dining out on the “I was behind the goal in Stuttgart when ..” line ever since.

• Paddy Power’s Euro 2012 football betting 

It comes but once a year. And most of the time that feels a little too often.

Yes, it’s that of the year when we dust down our camp costumes and out-dated national stereotypes for the glory of the Eurovision Song Contest. No other competition unites a continent through the medium of bad music in the quite the same way. Come Saturday night there’s every chance you’ll be begging the Moldovan jury for ‘douze points’.

This year’s event won’t disappoint when it comes to the right combination of the surreal and the cheesy. [Click on Eurovision infographic to enlarge]

The Swedes have ramped up the catchy for their effort. The country that brought us musical giants such as Abba and Ace of Base are favourites to win, but using what looks like Cher’s [slightly] younger sister is a move that will send children across Europe to bed with nightmares.

Russia have targeted a niche market with their granny-centric slice of mental. It’s a bold and very ‘Eurovision’ move, but you’d wonder if Wayne Rooney will vote often enough to see them to victory.

Closer to home, both Ireland and the United Kingdom are reckoned to have a better chance of winning than in recent years. In a daring decision, the UK have reanimated the corpse of Engelbert Humperdinck for this year’s attempt.

It looks like he’s stolen his hair from a Lego man, but the 76-year-old can still belt the tunes out. They have made the crucial error however of having a decent song and decent songs rarely come out on top of the Eurovision voting.

Ireland threaten rest of Europe with Jedward victory

Jedward get their second attempt at Eurovision glory this year. Last year, they finished 8th, which was considered a creditable performance. Especially for lads with the musical flair of a piano rolling down a staircase. With outlandish costumes, a weird stage and an absolute ear-worm of a tune, you can understand why they’re fifth favourites and in with a real chance of being crowned Europe’s cheesiest.

After securing their place in the final by qualifying from Tuesday’s 1st semi-final, one of them looked ahead to Saturday. “We’re just going to keep our cool,” John or Edward said. “We’re going to go out there and do an amazing performance and who knows what’s going to happen. But no matter what happens, we’re going to have the biggest homecoming ever in Dublin Airport.” The biggest homecoming ever and possibly the most customs officers offering to do body cavity searches ever.

Anyway, with all the bloc voting, politics and danger of being blinded by colourful spandex, it can be hard to figure which of Europe’s cat-stranglers are going to win the competition. We’ve put together this helpful Eurovision Infographic including stats and facts which may help you pick the winner. It may not, but it’s good to have as a distraction for key cringe moments throughout the night.

• Eurovision betting