Premier League tips

The bookmakers have made Manchester United the pre-season favourites to go on and win the Premier League again next season, with current odds of 9/4, which may seem slightly surprising to some football betting fans – given the shock departure of Alex Ferguson at the end of last season, the fact that Wayne Rooney may be set to join him and the fact that replacement manager David Moyes has no championship winning experience, but in fact there are good reasons why United should still be considered favourites for the title.

Not the least of these is that the transition at Old Trafford is matched by similar upheaval at Chelsea and Manchester City – expected by most to be the other two teams vying for the league. City have also appointed a new manager who has never won a title, and have seen one of their best strikers depart, in the shape of Carlos Tevez, while Chelsea face the problems of an ageing team and a chronic lack of stability throughout the club.

Neither of these teams can be ruled out of the gambling – and they haven’t, with odds of 12/5 apiece – but United deserve to be considered the favourites pre-season. Nonetheless it is set to be a hard one to call this season, and there is a good chance of losing money on it, so some sports betting lovers might be viewing football games at online casino as a preferable alternative.

One of the many such games that these sites have to offer football fans these days is Soccer Safari, which can be found online, it's a five reel video slot game with the eccentric premise of animals playing each other at football – making it the ideal game for anyone who has ever wondered whether a warthog would beat a rhino at the beautiful game.

It also has an impressive jackpot of $8000 (more than you are ever likely to win by betting on the Premiership), alongside the entertaining graphics and cheap game play, but it is just one of a number of football casino games that you can play at both online and mobile casino websites, if you don’t fancy the risk of betting on the Premier League title.