GERMANY and Holland battle it out in tonight’s Nations League encounter at the Allianz Arena in Munich.

Bookmakers BetMGM are offering brand new customers a cool £40 in free bets when you register an account and stake a tenner on the Nations League encounter.

Find The Sun’s betting publishing principles here

How to claim..

Advertisement

BetMGM £40 welcome bonus

1. Visit the BetMGM website HERE*
2. Select SPORTS OFFER on the website
3. Register a new account – No Promo Code necessary
4. Opt in for this promotion by depositing and placing at least £10 on football at odds of Evens or greater
5. Once that’s settled – win or lose – your account will be credited with £40 in free bets

Germany vs Holland: Get £40 in free bets — claim yours here*

Not got a BetMGM account? No problem!

This offer is just for you, and it’s incredibly easy to claim!

Simply register a new account, deposit and stake a minimum of £10 on football at odds of Evens (1/1) or greater.

This must be done within seven days of opening your account with the bookmaker.

Once that’s settled – win or lose – your account will be credited with £40 in free bets!

Germany vs Holland: Get £40 in free bets — claim yours here*

*New cust only. 7 days to opt in by placing a £10 qualifying bet at 1/1 (2.0) odds or greater to receive 4x Free Bets: 1 x £10 horse racing, 1 x £10 Bet Builder, 1 x £10 Acca and 1 x £10 football. 7 day expiry. Exclusions apply. Stake not returned. 18+. T&Cs apply.

Remember to gamble responsibly

A responsible gambler is someone who:

• Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
• Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
• Never chase their losses
• Doesn’t gamble if they’re upset, angry, or depressed
• Gamcare – www.gamcare.org.uk
• Gamble Aware – www.gambleaware.org

Find our detailed guide on responsible gambling practices here.

For help with a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or go to www.gamstop.co.uk

The MLB regular season is complete, October baseball is here and there’s a familiar favorite expected to win the Fall Classic.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are sitting atop the oddsboard as the lone favorite to win the World Series after taking down the New York Mets 9-0 in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.

Can anyone challenge the Boys in Blue?

Let’s take a look at every team’s updated 2024 World Series odds at DraftKings Sportsbook as of Oct. 13.

ODDS TO WIN 2024 WORLD SERIES: 

Los Angeles Dodgers: +115 (bet $10 to win $21.50 total)
New York Yankees: +180 (bet $10 to win $28 total)
New York Mets: +475 (bet $10 to win $56.50 total)
Cleveland Guardians: +700 (bet $10 to win $80 total)

The Dodgers odds shortened from +165 to +115 prior to their Game 1 win, and will play Game 2 of the series on Monday, October 14. New York and Cleveland will kick off the American League Championship Series with Game 1 on the same day. 

Which team do you like to win the next World Series? Follow FOX Sports for the latest MLB news.

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

Heavyweight Frazer Clarke has had surgery on his jaw and cheekbone following his first-round stoppage loss to Fabio Wardley in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

The 33-year-old was taken to hospital after suffering a fracture high on his jaw in their British title fight.

Boxxer promoter Ben Shalom said Clarke underwent “minor” surgery in Riyadh on Sunday. He landed back in the United Kingdom on Monday morning.

“He’s feeling more motivated than ever to come back bigger and better in the new year,” Shalom told Sky Sports.

Clarke, a 2020 Olympic bronze medallist, lost for the first time as a pro as Wardley, 29, retained his British title at the Kingdom Arena.

In a rematch of March’s fight of the year contender which ended in a draw, Wardley hurt Clarke with a strong right hand in the first round after a flurry of punches.

Clarke rose to his feet but with his jaw visibly out of place, the referee stopped the contest.

DREAM TEAM managers should be taking stock of their players during this international break.

A flurry of fixtures will take place across the next four Gameweeks before another momentary pause for international commitments in November.

It’s imperative gaffers ditch the dead weight and replace any under-performing assets with in-form stars if they are to make the most of this crucial period.

3

Advertisement

This brings us onto the topic of Anthony Gordon (£4.5m), who has the unwanted distinction of being the most-popular outfield player in Dream Team yet to reach the 50-point mark.

Emi Martinez (£3.7m) is the most-selected player overall still short of a half-century but the bar is lower for goalkeepers as they tend to earn fewer points across the board.

The World Cup winner is currently fifth among assets in his position and just ten points behind leader David Raya (£5.1m) – he’s not a problem.

The same can’t be said for Gordon, however, who is currently 24th among midfielders, behind the likes of Mario Lemina (£3.2m), Antoine Semenyo (£3.1m) and Christian Eriksen (£3.1m).

Such are the fine margins, Newcastle’s No10 would have climbed into the top 15 midfielders had he converted his penalty against former club Everton in Gameweek 7.

But we can only gauge him on his actual points total at this stage, which has to be considered underwhelming.

3

Expectations of Gordon were high prior to Gameweek 1 after his impressive 2023/24 campaign, as evidenced by the fact he was among the most-popular players in the game during pre-season.

He’s still the seventh-most selected midfielder at the time of writing.

The Magpies have enjoyed a relatively positive start to the season having lost just one of their nine games in all competitions so far but Gordon has contributed just two goals (one a penalty) – the 23-year-old is yet to provide an assist.

It’s sometimes the case that a player has been a tad unlucky not to notch more goal involvements but Gordon’s underlying numbers are concerning.

He’s registered five shots on target in nine outings this season and created just one big chance for his team-mates.

For comparison, defenders Ola Aina (£2.7m), Tyrick Mitchell (£3.2m) and Micky van de Ven (£4m) are among the vast number of players to have created more big chances across the first seven Gameweeks.

Score Predictor

Play Score Predictor with Dream Team this season!

• FREE to play
• £250 weekly prize
• Predict scores of five selected Premier League fixtures and earn points for accuracy
• Most points wins weekly cash prize
• PLAY NOW

3

This is not to say Gordon has suddenly regressed into a bad player – his tally of 13 bonus points is only bettered by James Maddison (£4.5m) and Eberechi Eze (£4.9m) – but Dream Team bosses should acknowledge that his returns have fallen short of expectations.

Newcastle’s fixture list suggests the England international may have a hard time of improving his form in the coming weeks.

Eddie Howe’s side are due to face Brighton, Chelsea (x2) and Arsenal in their next four games.

In terms of replacements, Tottenham midfielders Brennan Johnson (£3.8m) and the aforementioned Maddison are available at no additional cost – in fact the former is £0.7m cheaper than Gordon right now.

MOST-POPULAR OUTFIELD PLAYERS YET TO ACHIEVE 50 POINTS THIS SEASON

• Anthony Gordon (14.1% ownership) – 45 pts
• Marc Guehi (11.4%) – 40 pts
• Cristian Romero (10.8%) – 44 pts
• Phil Foden (9.8%) – 30 pts
• Micky van de Ven (9.5%) – 38 pts
• Alexander Isak (9.1%) – 28 pts
• Morgan Rogers (8.5%) – 43 pts
• Bruno Fernandes (7.6%) – 40 pts
• Emile Smith Rowe (7.6%) – 35 pts
• Riccardo Calafiori (6.8%) – 32 pts

BetMGM sign up offer

BetMGM: Get £40 in free bets — HERE*

*New cust only. 7 days to opt in by placing a £10 qualifying bet at 1/1 (2.0) odds or greater to receive 4x Free Bets: 1 x £10 horse racing, 1 x £10 Bet Builder, 1 x £10 Acca and 1 x £10 football. 7 day expiry. Exclusions apply. Stake not returned. 18+. T&Cs apply.

Commercial content notice: Taking one of the bookmaker offers featured in this article may result in a payment to The Sun. 18+. T&Cs apply. gambleaware.org

Can a driver with a 52-point lead with six rounds of a Formula 1 season remaining really not be considered the favourite to win the world championship?

To many F1 observers, the Dutchman’s current points pile and cracking capabilities combine to make him unstoppable in 2024. This is regardless of how good McLaren and Lando Norris were in winning commandingly in Singapore last time out, or the fact that Max Verstappen and Red Bull haven’t won since Spain in June.

But Verstappen’s position remains precarious.

For a start, the momentum is firmly with McLaren now. When you add Norris’s similarly crushing Zandvoort win to what he achieved in Singapore (and surely should’ve done at Monza), that’s two from the last four races in 2024’s mini-post-summer break phase of the campaign where the title chaser has delivered wins worthy of Verstappen’s brilliant start to this season.

Verstappen hopes – saying in Singapore that “we are moving in the right direction now”– that Red Bull is over the worst of the car problems that have held it back really since Miami in early May. But even if the work the team has been putting in of late does draw it back level with McLaren around an eagerly anticipated Austin upgrade package, Verstappen is still at risk of just a single DNF blowing this title fight wide open given how many races there are still to come at this stage.

Verstappen’s record in these – Austin, Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi – is, overall, formidable.

At both the Circuit of the Americas and the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Verstappen is undefeated since they rejoined the F1 calendar after the COVID-19 pandemic. His wins at these tracks in 2021 were critical in eventually winning his first world title that year.

Podium: Race winner Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Advertisement

His past is chequered in Brazil. He has two Interlagos wins, but this is also a track where he lost a certain victory in that bizarre clash with Esteban Ocon in 2018, then in 2021 Hamilton roared back (boosted by a fresh engine but still with more to lose in a collision from his grid penalty recovery) and famously won.

The next year, any hope Verstappen had of winning in spite of Red Bull’s tyre trouble was undone in another crash with Hamilton, before his refusal to help Sergio Perez over minor places played out late on.

He has a 50:50 record in Qatar – losing to Hamilton in 2021 before winning on the track’s second GP last year. Verstappen did, however, lose the 2023 Qatar sprint race to Oscar Piastri and of all the remaining races this is the one where McLaren must be considered the overwhelming victory favourite given its high-speed nature.

Las Vegas is another outlier where Ferrari will surely be strong with its ‘Monza special’ rear wing and McLaren no longer running its ‘mini-DRS’ that made headlines in Baku.

Verstappen won the first race with Vegas back on the calendar in 41 years, but really, Charles Leclerc should’ve taken victory but for his misfortune (and Verstappen’s gain) around the mid-race safety car.

At the Abu Dhabi season finale, Verstappen’s form is sensational – he has won every year since 2019 and hasn’t finished off the podium at the Yas Marina track since he was fifth there in 2017.

There is, however, a rather glaring asterisk from that 2021 Abu Dhabi race, as Verstappen was seemingly well beaten by Hamilton before the officiating saga that followed Nicholas Latifi‘s late crash.

Yet, three years later, Verstappen can surely draw inspiration from his 2021 title rival ahead of this final bout of contests against Hamilton’s former team, McLaren. This is how on several occasions through his title steamrollering years with Mercedes, Hamilton often turned the screw on threatening opposition with a series of pivotal, successive victories.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid, 1st Position, arrives in Parc Ferme after securing the win and the 2014 World Champion

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

In 2014, his five wins in a row after that controversial clash with Nico Rosberg at Spa overturned his team-mate’s once hefty points lead. In 2016, having allowed Rosberg to build momentum with three walk-off wins at the end of 2015, his season-closing four successive wins couldn’t overturn the damage of points lost to several bad starts and that Malaysian GP engine failure that year, but it meant Rosberg couldn’t be sure of the title until the final Abu Dhabi tour.

In 2017, Hamilton came out of the summer break with five wins from six races – Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel now his closest challenger (and ahead in the points before this streak started). This was where Hamilton’s trait of hammering critical points of the season really took on a new dimension, given for the first time in its title run Mercedes was having to deal with what Toto Wolff called a “diva” car.

Perhaps most significantly here, because as for Verstappen in 2024, 2018 was really not a season where Hamilton regularly had the clear best car package.

But he produced another four-race post-Spa/summer break victory streak that snapped any faint hopes Vettel had of wresting back control of the championship. Again, the German had led Hamilton in the standings – until that infamous home-off at Hockenheim.

Hamilton usually rose when the pressure was highest during his title run. And, as Austin and Mexico 2021 showed, Verstappen can do this too – although that is the only season he has really had to work for a title and it came with plenty of controversial moments that could be argued as unresolved weaknesses too. Nevertheless, such rising at critical moments is a trait that separates the great from the good in F1 driver history.

Of course, that current 52-point gap to Norris can’t be forgotten. More often, a driver that has built a critical early points lead will get over the line – with famous examples such as Ayrton Senna for McLaren in 1991, Renault’s Fernando Alonso in 2005 and Jenson Button with Brawn GP in 2009.

So, if Verstappen can pull out a winning streak at this critical moment now in 2024 – starting on what must be considered favourable ground at Austin and in Mexico given his recent records at those tracks – he can make certain of matching Hamilton and Vettel (and Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio) in securing four F1 titles in succession.