For many years sports teams have been sponsored by large corporations whose brands have become household names, and to name just a few there are Nike, Adidas and Fosters.

In the past tobacco companies played a big role in sports sponsorship, though today that has been banned in much of the world. However, since tobacco sponsorship lost its grip, there has been a growing trend for the gambling industry to become involved in sports sponsorship, and it has generally been good for sport as a whole that today many sports teams are sponsored by casinos and online gambling companies.

The UEFA president Michel Platini has said that soccer betting and match fixing have emerged as major threats to the team in recent years.

There have been several incidents of racism and crowd violence affecting the image of the sport in recent years, but Platini thinks that match fixing and soccer betting have an even bigger role to play when it comes to damaging the image of the sport. He has said that football will be dead when people go into the match already knowing the result. Match fixing has become a major incident in areas like Italy.

Liverpool have been rated as high favourites to get the first victory of the New Year in the first match itself. Liverpool will be facing Sunderland in the first match of 2013, and they will be looking to continue where they left off in 2012.

Manchester United will be taking on West Ham at Old Trafford looking to maintain their position at the top of the table. The draw for Manchester City during the weekend meant that United went top of the table following their 3-1 victory over QPR.

It has been a great season for United in the attacking front, but not so great in terms of the defensive abilities. They have conceded a lot of goals this season, which is unlike United. However, they come into the match against West Ham looking to extend their advantage at a key stage of the season.

Liverpool have signed a new deal with the Turkish betting company Misli.com in order to increase its sponsorship revenue. Liverpool have been extremely suffering from the lack of Champions League revenue in recent seasons.

Liverpool are becoming into the weekend's match with Arsenal knowing that they are still without a victory in the new season, which is the same position as their opponents.

Liverpool lost in the opening match of the season 3-0 to West Brom, but they staged an amazing comeback in the second match of the season against Manchester city. Even though they could only draw 2-2 in the match, there has been a lot of positives from this match. Arsenal will be coming on the back of two goalless draws against Sunderland and Stoke city, and they are searching for their first goal of the season.

The Juventus manager Antonio Conte has said that he feels that he is being made to look like a scapegoat after being banned for 10 months from management for his role in the match fixing and soccer betting.

Even the Everton manager David Moyes was the favourite to take over from Harry Redknapp as the manager of Tottenham, the latest soccer betting odds predicted that it will be former Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas who will be taking over the hot seat at White Hart Lane.

The Portuguese manager has been out of work after having been sacked by the London club back in March. Even though he guided FC Porto to an incredible four trophies in one season, he has been extremely poor in his spell at Chelsea. He has been unable to manage the big egos at the club.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has said that Chelsea are the favourites to lift the FA Cup this season.

Chelsea and Liverpool will be competing in the FA Cup final on Saturday. Liverpool rested a number of players for the match against Fulham with one eye on the FA Cup final. Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez were the big names who missed the 1-0 defeat at the hands of Fulham.

Following the defeat, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said that Chelsea will certainly come into the match knowing that they are the favourites to win the FA Cup.

Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes has praised AC Milan by saying that they are very dangerous team ahead of the crucial quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Barcelona have been drawn against the Italian champions in the quarter-final stage of the competition, while they also have the possibility of facing Chelsea in the semifinals once again should they get past AC Milan.