The Scottish Football Bets Season Review 2008-2009 is available on request. Drop me an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Below is a chart that compares fractional odds, decimal equivalants and probabilities.

We first became aware of The World Football Elo Ratings in 2006 when my colleague Andy Coyle was looking for new angles on the then upcoming World Cup in Germany 2006.

The World Football Elo Ratings are based on the Elo rating system, developed by Dr. Arpad Elo (not to be confused with Birmingham Beatles-soundalikes ELO who racked up twenty UK hit singles in their 1970s heyday).

Dr Elo’s system is used by FIDE, the international chess federation, to rate chess players. In 1997 Bob Runyan adapted the Elo rating system to international football and posted the results on the Internet. He was also the first maintainer of the World Football Elo Ratings web site.

The system was adapted to football by adding a weighting for the kind of match, an adjustment for the home team advantage, and an adjustment for goal difference in the match result.

What I particularly like about the Elo ratings are that they allow you to look at close match-ups with a view to exploiting bookmaker’s price variances.

Invariably, on any given card, the stats will suggest that some opponents are well matched even where the bookmakers’ prices suggest not. As such, these ratings are ideal for throwing up draws, low scoring games or handicap bets that favour unfashionable teams against more illustrious opponents.

www.eloratings.net

There are lots of ways to get the most out of these Scottish selections and that has been reflected in feedback I have received from members over the last two seasons.

Some prefer mixing and matching my selections into their own bets, others have done well backing them in doubles, trebles and accumulators, while others prefer to use my advices as the basis for laying unfavoured teams on the exchanges or to back them via Asian Handicap bets.

Brian Sweeney has been a prominent contributor to the world's leading music and lifestyle magazines for more than 15 years and one of the most significant chroniclers of every significant musical movement in that time - particularly in his role as a chief photographer at Melody Maker.

In an age when Britain's biggest clubs scour the world for stars, prospects can seem limited for our own players on a bigger stage but it wasn't always the case.

In 1966, the year England won the world cup (as they never tire of reminding us), Scots contributed a remarkable 20 per cent of players within the squads of, what was then, the English First Division and throughout the 70s and 80s no self-respecting top tier dressing room was complete without a Scottish contingent at its beating heart.