There are certain things in life that are solely a man’s domain, changing a wheel on the car, midday starts in the pub, taking out the rubbish on bin night, barbeques, and sports betting. And let’s face it, we like it that way.

So it was an intriguing proposition to be invited to a night of football gambling with Louise Cliffe, Maxim cover girl, to find out whether or not girls can bet.

Well they can certainly drink, and as the booze started flowing, we discussed the form, and got some bets on.

The game was Roma v Man Utd in the quarter-final stage of the Champions League, and we were going to be punting with Sky Bet, with the use of two laptops.

Plenty of decent markets, plus in-running betting which is always good for a bit of value and fun.

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Inside knowledge

Louise is a proper Man Utd fan, i.e. she actually comes from Manchester, and went to school with Paul Scholes, or his brother, or lives round the corner from him, or something, and so she had a few ideas on which way the game would go.

Meanwhile I applied some well-honed knowledge and razor-sharp betting instincts to the recent performances and starting line-ups.

We had very generously been given £100 each to bet with, and the broad strategy was to put some on before the game, dabble with some in-running in the first half, reassess at half-time and then try and clean up in the second half.

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Easy peasey

Sound simple? Well I thought so. First up was the correct score market. I had a good feeling about this. United were well backed into the match, but I felt that Roma were being under-rated.

So I had £5 on 2-1 to Roma at 9/1. Louise went the other way, backing the Reds to win 2-1 away from home. This was my only big win of the night, netting £50.

We also had a tickle on the first corner market both putting down £10. I went for Utd, sensing they would start quickly before Roma’s measured passing slowed them down. So much for that, Roma started lighting fast and won a corner in the first minute, and it was pretty much downhill from there.

Bets on Totti first scorer, time of first goal at 31-40 mins, Roma next goal at half-time and Utd to win corner handicap off scratch among others all lost me money, although I did mange to claw a bit back in the second half with a couple of quid on Roma’s second goal as next goal scored.

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Ker-ching!

Lousie on the other hand was going great guns. She cannily backed Wayne Rooney as first goal scorer £10 eachway at 15/2 (e/w terms of 1/3 for 1, 2 ,3) for a chunky £70 win.

And despite her mate Scholes being sent off, the wins kept coming. She cleverly hedged her 2-1 Utd with a £5 back of three total goals at 7/2, and had first goal of second half in 56-65 at 4/1, which all came in!

Granted, there were a lot of bets going on, we both had a dozen or so throughout the entire game, but that’s the beauty of in-running, you set up your strategy and away you go.

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Lump on

Sky Bet is incredibly easy to use, and although she needed a few pointers to kick things off, Louise got the hang of it and was soon plonking down the bets with gusto.

So yes, girls can definitely bet. A passing knowledge of the sport and teams playing helps, as does a quickly updated and well designed betting interface, which we definitely had.

So who won the betting battle of the sexes? I’d rather not say - but you can watch the video to find out!

For further bets with Sky Bet, press red on your Sky Digital remote when watching a Sky Channel, alternatively you can visit www.skybet.com (http://www.skybet.com) or call Freephone 08000 724 221 for Sky Bet telephone betting.

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