Sportpunter

Coming in at number 8 for the best sportsperson of the last decade is American tennis ace Serena Williams.

Currently ranked number one in the world, Serena Williams is the younger sister of Venus who has dominated the female tennis tour in the 2000s. In total she has won a staggering 23 grand slams and 2 Olympic gold medals. Ten of these grand slams have been in the last decade in singles tournaments. This makes her equal 9^th on the all time number of grand slam wins for a female, and equal 4^th with Margaret Court with the most number of singles grand slam victories in the open era. She currently holds both the singles and doubles trophies for the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

Of course with so many victories, comes quite a lot of money. Serena has gained more prize money than any other female athlete in any sport. That’s right, she’s even made more money than Laila Ali! In 2009, Serena became the first person to make a cool six million dollars in a single year. And that doesn’t include endorsements.

Between 2002 and 2003 she won 5 of 6 grand slam tournaments that she entered. For four grand slams in a row (France 2002, Wimbledon 2002, US Open 2002 and Australian Open 2002) Serena and her sister Venus met in all singles grand slam finals. This made the sport kind of boring for a while, which is credit to Serena and Venus. I mean who wants to sit down and watch tennis all day when we already know the end result? Thanks god for Maria Sharapova, who entered the tennis tour around this time and made tennis worthwhile watching again, for maybe different reasons.

Speaking of worthwhile watching, Serena has also fancied herself as a bit of a fashion guru. Her cat suit at the 2002 US Open definitely turned plenty of eyes. It’s just a pity that Ana Ivanovic didn’t think of something earlier. I guess there is still time. Her demin skirt and boots at the US Open in 2004 were also grabbed people’s attention. I’m not sure if she was intending to play tennis or hit the town. Interestingly, she failed to be victorious at both those two tournaments.

Yet despite this Serena has shown her dominance in the female tennis circuit and, in my opinion, is well worthy of making the top ten sportspeople in the last decade.  Do you think Serena should have made the list? What other females will make the top 10? And will tennis great Roger Federer rank higher? Make sure you comment below.

Previous Top 10 Sportspeople:

9. Kenenisa Bekele

10. Shaquille O’Neal

Coming in at number 9 for the best sportsperson of the last decade is Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele. Ever since the movie The gods must be crazy did the world wake up to the fact that the Africans have a special ability to run, run quick, and run very long distances. In the 1990’s, Ethiopian long distance runner Haile Gebrselassie made himself an instant star, climaxing to his victory at the Sydney Olympics; the third person in history to defend his gold medal at the 10,000 meters. A massive feat it was, and many claimed Gebrselassie to be the greatest long distance track runner of all time.

So why all the talk about Gebrselassie when it is his fellow countryman Bekele who has been nominated at number 9 for the best sportsperson of the last decade? That is because Bekele didn’t just match Gebrselassie’s amazing record, he managed to beat it.

Bekele currently holds the world record and the Olympic record in both the 5,000 meters and the 10,000 meters. Over 10,000 meters Bekele has never been beaten, never. These were his victories at this mileage: Gold at the 2003 Paris World Championships, Gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Gold at the 2005 Helsinki World Championships, Gold at the 2007 Asaka World Championships, Gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Gold at the 2009 Berlin World Championships.

An amazing record. Even at 5,000 meters he is unbeaten in the last couple of years winning the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, and 2009 Berlin World Championships. Only five people before him had won the 5,000/10,000 meter double at an Olympic games.

Bekele is the most accomplished runner in IAAF World Cross County Championships history with 6 long (12,000 meters) and five short (4,000 meters) titles and was the cross country champion in years 2002 to 2006 and 2008. From 2002 to 2006 Bekele won both the short and long distance race, events that were held in Dublin, Avenches, Brussels, Saint-Étienne and Fukuoka.

Bekele had a setback in 2005 when his fiancée, Alem Techale, a fellow long distance runner, died of a heart attack while training. This death queried many to believe that Bekele might have been involving himself with performance enhancing drugs, however never has Bekele been implemented. It did however effect his running for a short time. After grieving for a month he lost his next two short distance runs. In the later indoor 3,000 meters he lost by sprinting to the finish line one lap too early.

It didn’t take him long to regain composure, just a couple of months after his fiancée’s death Bekele won both the short and long distance world cross country championships.

In 2009 Bekele became the first person in history to take out both long distance victories in the Berlin World Championships. Take a look at the 10,000 meter victory below.

Bekele would have to be arguably the greatest long distance runner of all time. But is it enough to be higher on the list than Usain Bolt? Perhaps Cathy Freeman will make the top 10 sportspeople of the last decade? Voice your opinion in the comments below.

10. Shaquille O’Neal

Coming in at number 10 for the best sportsperson of the last decade is American Basketball Player Shaquille O’Neal. No player in basketball has had the same influence as the “shaq” in the past ten years. Standing at a daunting 7 foot 1 (216 cm) and weighing 325 pounds (147kg), the shaq is one of the biggest players to play the game. Starting the 2000s playing for the LA Lakers, he took them to championships in the first three years of the decade, winning himself NBA Finals MVP in all three years and regular season MVP in the year 2000. His regular season MVP win in 2000 was just one vote off being the first unanimous MVP win in NBA history.

In 2004 he was traded to Miami heat, a move in which O’Neil specifically said that he was to bring them their first NBA Championship. It didn’t happen straight away, but in 2006 the Miami heat recorded their first ever NBA Championship. O’Neil finished the 2006 season as league leader in field goal percentage, equalling Wilt Chamberlains record of obtaining this feat nine times.

Injuries and age have since hindered his form, but his record in the last decade is not one to look over too lightly. Four NBA Championships, 3 NBA Finals MVP’s, 1 Regular Season MVP (not including a close runner up in  2004/05), NBA All-Star representation from 2000 to 2007 and 2009, and all-NBA First Team representation from 2000 to 2006.

Other basketballers that came into contention for the top 10 are Tim Duncan who won 3 NBA Championships in the 2000s and 2 MVP’s. Kobe Bryant also was a possibility with four NBA Championships, one most recently in 2009, and 1 MVP. However three of Kobe’s championships were alongside the more dominant O’Neal. Maybe we will see another basketballer higher up the list?

Shaquille O’Neal might well have been higher up the list, if it wasn’t for his very forgettable “music career” that spanned five albums.

It’s hard to see someone with a more honourable list of achievements in the last ten years make it higher up top 10 players of the last ten years, but there are.

And tomorrow, we will give you number 9.

Who do you think should be number ten on the list? Should Shaquille O’Neal be higher or lower than fellow basketballers Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant? Make a comment on your opinion below.

Federer? Tiger Woods? Tendulkar? Marion Jones?

Who do you think will make the top 10 sportspeople of the last ten years? Sportpunter will be counting down the list. We are looking at all sports from Javelin to Judo, from baseball to boxing. We’ve looked deep and hard, weighing up all the variables using Sportpunter’s latest mathematical technique to come up with the top ten sportspeople of the last ten years. Unfortunately for all pro wrestling fans, none of your stars made the list. Hulk Hogan didn’t quite make the cut.

But there are plenty of others that well might. Will Kobe Bryant make the list? Johnny Wilkonson or Kelly Slater? And what of the female stars; the Williams sisters, Annika Sörenstam or Cathy Freeman? And who will come in number one?

From this Monday, we will be counting down the top ten. One position per weekday. All crescendoing to the number one sportsperson of the decade on Friday December the 4th.

But the list starts this Monday. Who do you think will make the cut and who will make get the chop? Write your answers in the comments below.

My French Impersonation

How I travelled the world and still managed to make a great living

I have three major loves. In no particular order they are sports, travel and technology. Combine these three amazing things and you get this article. For the past 2 years I have been travelling the world while still being able to place all my bets and stay connected to the internet, all the while keeping my data completely secure.

My dream, which I was living for those past 2 years was to travel the world and see all the major attractions while still making money. If I could make more then I spent on plane tickets and hotels every month then I could do this forever. I am currently planning my next trip which should last the whole year, I will be watching every tennis major and following the ATP tour around the world, all the while visiting many new places and making money.

From mid ’07 to mid ’09, I travelled to England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy, Monaco, Canada, Germany, Spain, Austria, The Netherlands, Russia, America, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia.

In all these places I had fairly reliable internet connection, apart from Cuba, where the internet seems to work when it wants to. I was able to log in, check my emails, place bets and watch my profits grow. There were a number of ways I connected and a number of different things I used to keep my data as secure as possible.

Connecting to the Internet

There are many different ways I connected to the internet. These included mobile broadband, Wi-Fi, internet cafes, hotel connections, Airport Wi-Fi, and 3G mobile phone networks.

Mobile Broadband

These USB devices have become very popular around the world in the last few years and are getting cheaper every day. I even have one in Australia in case my home broadband ever goes down. These devices connect to your laptop via the USB port and you just need to install the software and connect and your online as long as you are in a coverage area. If you are in a poor coverage area you may only get dial up speeds, but it was still adequate for placing bets. In the UK, I went with 3 Mobile wireless broadband which cost $200 for the prepaid option. This required no bank account info or ID to purchase. It gave me 12gig of access that could be used over a year and worked all over the UK. As I spent 9 months travelling and living in the UK, this device was a life safer. You can see more info about costs for these devices here. The same usb mobile broadband devices are available all over the world, I have bought them in Australia and the US as well.

Wifi

Most pubs, mcdonalds, starbucks and so on offer free wifi. Sometimes a purchase is necessary to get a password to access the wifi.

Internet cafes

If you have any of the Lonely planet books while travelling, they have all the internet cafes around the area you are in. These places charge per hour. I paid anywhere from 50cent to $5 per hour at internet cafes.

Hotel connections

Whenever I book a hotel I make sure it has in room broadband or at worst some sort of internet connection. The majority of hotels around the world now have some way to get online and usually it is included in the room price, if it isn’t they usually charge a stupid price to get connected. At the marriot in Bristol I had to pay 15pounds for 24hours access, luckily that was the day Volandri beat federer and I made 1000 times the cost of that connection, and that one bet paid for the next 6 months of travel.

Airport Wifi

Same as above really, sometimes it is free, most times you will have to pay. I spend a lot of time in airports and am usually in the club lounges where internet is free. A good reason to get a FF card and join airlines rewards programs.

3G Mobile phones

This is deffinantly a last resort, as roaming charges are extremely expensive, costing about $5 a megabyte. I have an iphone that is not locked to any one carrier, so in each new country I get a prepaid sim card and this makes things cheaper. The new iphone can also connect to your laptop, so you don’t need to use the tiny screen to surf the net.

Keeping your details safe

So now you have many choices of how to get connected in other countries, the next hurdle is making sure everything you send is secure. Another thing to keep in mind is that most bookies will get suspicious if your logins are coming from other countries, so either tell them beforehand you will be travelling or use one of the following options below.

Depending where I am in the world and what sort of connection I have, I use a number of different things to make sure all the data I send over the internet is secure. I use logmein, vpns or proxy servers.

Logmein

I have a computer at my home that is on 24/7. Whenever I travel I also let any friends or family live in my house rent free on the proviso that they make sure my computer is always on and my internet is always connected. If there is ever a problem I can give them a quick call and get them to fix anything.

Logmein is a program that allows you to log into your computer from over the internet. So once I am connected to the internet I then log into my home computer and place all my bets over my homes internet connection which I know is secure. The overseas connection only intercepts data between my laptop and the logmein website, so it makes it 100% secure. I use this 99% of the time to place my bets, check my emails and bank accounts. I use the free version of logmein.

VPN

Virtual private networks are another secure way to place bets and do other browsing, once you are connected to the internet you then connect to this private network and all data is routed through that. This will give you a static ip address from whichever country you want it to. The company I use charges me $15 a month. To find out more about VPN’s visit the wiki page.

Proxies

I rarely if ever use proxy servers. I would never use one that I hadn’t looked into. These allow you to connect to a server anywhere in the world and have all data routed through it, much like a VPN tunnel, but some proxies are run by criminals who then look at everything you do and can steal your username and passwords. Only use a proxy server if you trust the server 100%.

Connection Devices

Now we know how to connect and how to keep our data secure. The last piece of the puzzle is the hardware. There are hundreds of different laptops designed specifically for travel. For the last 4 years I have been using a stock standard dell Inspiron with a 12inch screen, it is small enough to carry around yet big enough to watch TV shows and movies when I’m bored. Netbooks are fairly new and I love the functionality of them. I will be buying one before my next trip. One other thing to think about is how much battery life the laptop has, as sometimes there might not be any power points around for hours at a time.

How to get started

Partying with friends in Honduras

That’s it, you now have the hardware, connection and security. All you need to do now is throw that dart at a world map and book a ticket to wherever it lands. Once you get into the flow, it really is easy to work and travel at the same time. Travel is one of the greatest things you can do and it has made me a better person. Waking up each morning in a new place always brings a smile to my face and then logging in to see another winning night and more profit in the bank just makes that smile even wider.

Let me know if you’re planning to travel and work soon in the comments section. If you would like more in depth advice just contact us in the forums. Let me know if you would like me to post some travel stories and picture, I have many of both.

In the last article about sports models I talked about how as human beings we can often find patterns in randomness. I want to talk a little more about this in the real world.

One of my friends recently had a baby which they named “Jordan”. Its cool to give surnames as first names at the moment, and even better it gives me an excuse to post a picture of the great man (as opposed to the “great” women) . Thing is, even though Jordan was born, I had no idea if it were little Jordan boy or a little Jordan girl.

So on further perusal, my friend said, “of course he’s a boy, just take a look at my family, they are all boys!”. And he was right. My friend had two brothers, one of them had 3 children – all boys, and the other had a boy and another boy in the oven.

But my friend wasn’t entirely correct. This is because gender is not hereditary. If it were, then there’s a good chance that we would have no such thing as males and females and we would all be the same sex. This would of course lead to interesting times, but that’s a thought for another story.

Still the unlikelihood of his side of the family being comprised of all males, made my friend believe that it is of no fluke. But of course it is.

This kind of finding patterns in randomness has had a very long history. In ancient times, people used to worship the sun and the moon because it gave them light, warmth and consequently life. But on rare occasions, the moon seemed to gobble up the sun. This is what we now know of as a solar eclipse, but without the inhabitants having a good depth perception or any idea of the cosmos, to them it must have looked like the moon was indeed feasting on the sun.

Naturally, this was of great concern for our forefathers, and they used to perform a typical dance ritual so that eventually the moon would spit out the sun and all would be fine again. Thing is, it worked. Every time, the moon looked as though it was gobbling up the sun, if they performed this dance and ritual, all would be good.

No one dared to stop performing the ritual, just in case the sun was no more. This type of ritual continued for a long time across many generations, until some bright spark worked out that you can actually predict when a solar eclipse would happen. Using mathematical principles, our ancestors worked out exactly when eclipses would take place, and every time they were right.

It seemed after all, that because of the predictability of solar eclipses, it could not be that the moon was just hungry, and hence, the dancing ritual was in vain.

A mathematical model that predicts outcomes trumped people who merely found a pattern that has no logical consequence or predictable power.

In the same way, Sportpunter’s mathematical models are doing the same thing, just on a different level. Sportpunter are attempting to mathematically model the outcomes of sporting events. We may not be as accurate as those who predicted when the solar eclipses would occur, but we are more accurate than the bookmakers, whose odds are dictated by the punters perception.

Punters may find patterns that are valid, and may find patterns that are invalid. At Sportpuner we have the advantage, because we can mathematically test the validity and predicting power of sports data.