Roker Riches 16/17: Week #1 - We're Back!

Last year's Roker Riches winner was Rory Fallow, who returns this time around in an attempt to reclaim his crown.

Also continuing on from last season are Gav, Danny and Andy, who will be looking to have a better season this time around.

Joining the cast for this campaign are two of Roker Report's latest additions, Chris Sparks and Dan Parker.

Starting this little venture with fifty pounds, how we spend it is our own choice. Each week we select our bets, and we'll see how far we can make our money go - or how quickly we can lose the lot. It's pretty simple. We are allowed to go into minus figures in order to build our money back up should things get that bad.

Every Thursday we'll pick our bets ahead of the weekend's games, and we'll keep track of our monies in a lovely little league table.

Pundit	Last Week's Profit/Loss	Current Balance
@Gav1879	N/A	£50
@RoryFallow	N/A	£50
@SAFCSource	N/A	£50
@DGP202	N/A	£50
@ChrisSavedLatin	N/A	£50
@DjRoberts22	N/A	£50

All of our odds are taken from the Dafabet website - make sure you visit to check out all of their price-boosts ahead of this weekend's football.

Here are our first picks for this season - will anyone nab a big win and take an early lead?

@Gav1879

New season, new start. Dafabet are offering to refund up to £30 on first bets for new accounts - I'm all over that. As such I'm going to chuck my first thirty nicker on something because, well, it doesn't really matter if it loses.

Manchester United are 4/5 to beat Bournemouth on Sunday and I feel it's nailed on that they will. Jose Mourinho's men have invested superbly this summer in quality players and have already had a competitive game, having beaten Leicester at Wembley last Sunday in the Community Shield. £30 on that returns £54, with the added bonus that if it loses then I get my money back regardless.

Over 1.5 goals before half time in our game with Manchester City is 5/4 - not bad considering a Pep Guardiola team are at home against a Sunderland side that don't exactly struggle to find the net. £5 on that returns £11.25.

Picks:

Manchester Utd to beat Bournemouth: 4/5 - £30

Over 1.5 goals in the MCFC v SAFC game: 5/4 - £5

@RoryFallow

Here we go then, time to start defending my crown as the Roker Riches champion.

He's looked sharp in pre season, he looks great with his new white hair and Dafabet have a nice price boost on him to score first at 20/1 - It's Fabio Borini! I'll have £5 on it, getting this season bets off to an optimistic start.

Ronald Koeman will take charge of his first Everton game when they host Spurs on Saturday in a game that's tough to call. I fancy The Toffees to edge it but think the visitors will make it tough for them and score at least once. Everton to win and both teams to score is a decent price at 5/1 and I'll place another £5 stake. A much more modest potential return than my first bet but it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Picks:

Fabio Borini to score first in the MCFC v SAFC game: 20/1 - £5

Everton to win & both teams to score: 5/1 - £5

@SAFCSource

The opening game is probably the hardest one we could have got, away to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City. Although it couldn't have got any harder, it may actually be the best time to play City. They have only had four pre-season games and travelled to Germany, China and Sweden for three of them, with their only victory coming in a hastily arranged friendly against St Johnstone in Manchester. That's not to say they will struggle this season but by Guardiola's own admittance his team may be undercooked for the start of the season and with not enough time to instil his style of play, it may well be for the best that we play them away so early.

Our pre-season has not exactly been smooth sailing either - off the pitch at least - but on the pitch we have looked good and had the perfect preparation for Man City in the 1-1 draw with Borussia Dortmund last week. With that on the field preparation behind us and City not quite at it yet, I am going to go for another 1-1 draw.

Hull are in a complete mess at the moment, they barely have enough senior players to put out a full side - with Jake Livermore expected to fill in at centre-half - Steve Bruce left in acrimonious circumstances, with seemingly no-one willing to take over, they have yet to sign any new players and their fans are in revolt against their owners. They will be wishing the season was still a few more weeks away and could do without the last season's champions visiting so soon.

Leicester have lost N'Golo Kante but have made some good purchases like Ahmed Musa and Nampalys Mendy and should win this game easily. Which means I am going to go for a surprising Hull win. I fully expect Leicester to dominate but I am betting on Hull scoring from a rare chance and holding out for a 1-0 win, a win that will likely be Hull's last for sometime.

Picks:

Sunderland and Man City to finish 1-1: 11/1 - £5

Hull to beat Leicester 1-0: 10/1 - £5

@DGP202

I'm new to this lark and I've gone in hard with my first bet. Dafabet wooed me with their promise that they would refund my first bet up to £30. With that in mind, I've gone for a Manchester United away win in their opening fixture against Bournemouth. The Red Devils will be solid this year and I'm hoping Zlatan can fire Mourinho/me to glory on day one.

I'm going to level with you - I'm far from confident about our trip to the Etihad. This bet is genuinely based on a dream I had last night. I will never apologise for dreaming about Borini (those eyes, man) but, in hindsight, backing anyone in red and white to score in this game seems foolhardy. Still, the Italian Stallion has looked fiery in pre-season and is as likely as anyone.

Picks:

Manchester United to beat Bournemouth: 1.75/1 - £15 returns £26.25

Borini to score anytime: 5.50/1 - £2 returns £9

@ChrisSavedLatin

Well here it goes - how to blow fifty quid as quickly as possible.

The new football season is upon us and as always it will be difficult to predict with many surprises along the way. I'm going to go for a relatively safe option for my first bet with Dafabet offering 21/10 for BTTS and Man City to beat the mighty Sunderland. Now I'm not one for betting against my own team, but when you face Man City, you would be foolish not to; I'm just hoping we can steal a goal along the way.

Elsewhere I am jumping on the Zlatan bandwagon, taking up Dafabet's decent odds of 13/2 for the Swede to bag two or more against AFC Bournemouth this weekend. I will be putting a fiver on these two bets, returning £24.30, and come Monday morning I will be well on my way to becoming a Roker Riches millionaire.

Picks:

Manchester City to beat Sunderland, both teams to score: 21/10 -  £3

Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score two or more goals: 13/2 - £2

@DjRoberts22

My first bet, I’m going to take advantage of Dafabet’s acca refund. So, if one of my five bets loses, my stake will be returned to me. So, those up road to beat Huddersfield, Leicester to beat Hull, Coventry to beat our FLT cup oppenents Shrewsbury, Leyton Orient to pick up a win against Newport County and finally, Blackpool to beat Morcambe. Coming in at 28.23/1 odds, I’ll place a fiver on that too.

My second bet will be a single. Although Sheffield Wednesday are strong, I think Norwich will pick up the victory, which is at Carrow Road. The evens odds are too tempting too, so I’ll stick £20 on that and hopefully that’ll kick start my betting campaign nicely.

Picks:

Newcastle, Leicester, Coventry, Orient and Blackpool all to win - acca refunds at 4 out of 5 wins: £5 - 28.23/1

Norwich to beat Wednesday: Evens - £20