Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez’s betting odds of making a return to the Premier League in the next five years have been slashed by English bookmaker Ladbrokes following the official confirmation of his departure from Inter Milan today.

He is at odds of 12/1 to make a sensational return to Liverpool within the same time period. Inter Milan are also now 20/1 to win the Champions League again next year.

Alex Donohue, spokesperson of Ladbrokes, said: “If a vacancy opens at Anfield then Rafa’s name must be one of those thrown into the hat.”

Meanwhile, David Beckham is odds-on for knighthood according to the bookmaker who make him just a 1/3 chance to get knighted in his lifetime.

Latest Betting Odds – Rafael Benitez Coaching

Benitez to manage Liverpool within next 5 years (before season end 2014/15) – 12/1
To manage another English Premiership club within next 5 years (before end 2014/15) – 7/4, from 5/1.

The police in Cyprus have upped the anti-online gambling pressure in a pre-festive season blitz that has included raids on two online gambling centres on the Mediterranean island.

Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos revealed that premises in the Engomi and Lakatamia areas in Nicosia had been targeted as part of an intensified campaign to fight illegal gambling over the Christmas period.

“The operations will be intensified in view of the holidays and will cover all of the districts, with some of the operations taking place in premises where investigations have already taken place,” he said, reporting that in one night raid police teams seized five outside cameras, one computer used for storing CCTV footage, one laptop, 27 computer towers, three cheques and cash. Eight people were detained, including the owner and the manager.

He did not supply names or companies involved.

Katsounotos claimed that the raid in Lakatamia revealed that illegal betting was taking place on the premises, and that police raiders had found computers that transformed into gaming machines. From the Lakatamia premises 14 computer towers were confiscated as well as a total of €2,000 in cash and cheques, along with other evidence.

According to official estimates, the annual turnover of online gambling in Cyprus is €2.5 billion. The government has drafted laws banning the pastime, which have been submitted to the European Commission for approval. A response is expected soon.

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The legislative scene on internet gambling legalisation in California has been revitalised this week with a fresh attempt by the Morongo Band of Indians and its associates to legalise online poker and now a fresh attempt by Senator Rod Wright, who launched his SB45 proposal late Wednesday.

The Capitol Weekly reports that the senator’s latest bill has echoes of his previously proposed SB1485, which was moderately successful but failed to survive before the mid-term elections truncated the last state Senate session.

The newspaper reports that both bills would require the California Gambling Control Commission to enter into contracts with up to three hub operators. The operators would be allowed to offer online poker to California residents under contracts lasting up to 20 years.

On Monday, Senator Lou Correa introduced poker legislation on behalf of the California Online Poker Association (COPA), an outfit led by two southern California gaming tribes, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. Correa’s SB 40 calls on the California Gambling Control Commission to offer a licence to offer online poker within California.

A COPA spokesman referred to attempts at federal level by Nevada Senator Harry Reid to federally regulate and legalise online poker, telling The Capitol Weekly:

“COPA opposes the current lame-duck effort by Harry Reid because it hurts California. Reid’s effort rewards the Nevada gaming interests that gave him hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations during the recent election.

“California has a $25 billion deficit and an unemployment rate of 12%. Any revenues generated by Internet poker in California should stay within the state and not be shipped off to Washington, D.C., or Nevada or even offshore.”

The latest development in the ongoing dispute between Britain’s horse-racing fraternity and bookmakers has seen the Levy Board, which comprise three members appointed by the Government, recommend that bookmakers pay a levy on foreign racing and that the “threshold” system, designed to benefit smaller betting shop operators, be abolished, reported the UK publication The Guardian, this week.

Recommendations in the report include:

• That the target yield for the next levy should be £75 million to £80 million, well short of the £130 million to £150 million that the racing fraternity insists it requires.
• Suggests the abolishment of the “threshold” system, which was initially instituted to protect small betting shops who operate on tight margins.
• Reintroduction of a levy charge on foreign racing which could raise several million pounds per annum and is currently retained by the bookmakers.
• That the idea promoted by racing that profits from gaming machines should also be subjected to a levy be rejected.
• Suggested that the portion of bookmakers gross profits, returned to racing, be reduced from 10% to 9%.

Fierce opposition is expected from bookmakers on the “threshold” system abolishment, however, the report argues that with racing comprising a smaller portion of shop turnover because of sports betting and gaming machine competition, the thresholds are no longer required.

The issues of offshore bookmakers who do not pay tax or levies and the acceptable level of levy contributions from betting exchanges were not addressed in the report as they are outside of the Board’s mandate.

Patrick Nixon, Chief Executive, Association of British Bookmakers, said that a detailed response to the report will be delivered via the Levy Board’s bookmakers’ committee

Paul Dixon, President, Racehorse Owners Association (ROA) used his address at the association’s annual awards night to welcome the Levy Board’s report. “This development shows how the Levy Board itself recognizes the need to modernise its own structure. Certainly, substantial strides will have been made if recommendations to abolish the outmoded threshold system and re-introduce Levy payments on foreign racing are accepted.” He went on to say, “That achieved, racing must then continue to press the Government to bring about legislation that ensures offshore-based bookmakers pay levy.”

Jeremy Hunt is expected to make a final decision within the first few weeks of 2011 and both the racing fraternity and the bookmakers association have until the end of 2010 to make submissions of their own to Government.