Villa v Blues... and the things us editors have to do...

Placing £5 on Blues to win in today's derby versus Villa may seem a very odd thing for me to have done this morning. But I can assure you that at the same time, Mrs D placed £5 on Villa to win. Why?

Well, on Friday, a new promotions partner called betNOW offered every reader a FREE £5 bet to place on the derby. All it would cost readers was the price of two text messages at standard rates. In return, readers were offered odds on the game.

As always, I'm keen to make sure these things work for our loyal readers, all 200,000+ of them. If these don't work, we stand the chance of hacking off the audience that keeps us in business.

Two texts later, I'm told that if Blues do win I will pick up £18.55 in winnings. If Villa win, Mrs D gets £6.43. Whoever wins, the winnings will go to the Birmingham Mail Charity Trust. But, more importantly, I'll find out whether this offer worked properly for readers... and I'll let you in on my findings tomorrow.

Good luck Villa and Blues in five mins time... for different reasons you both need to win.