Merry Christmas Folks

Sorry I've not managed to update the blog recently, work's been crazy, several nights out and the subsequent hangovers have impacted my ability to blog (but not bet!!!!)

After one of the worst periods of betting since I started things seem to slowly turning around again with a good few winners over the last few days.

Equine Investments certainly picking up which is fantastic news and Tipping Legends are back on form - especially finishing off the pre-Christmas betting with a 16/1 winner at 1pt e/w today.

A winner tonight from Football Elite as well so definitely heading in the right direction although I still think December overall will be a losing month once I've totted up all my figures in early January.

So on the assumption there will be little to update until Boxing Day I will sign off here and wish you all a fantastic Christmas!! At least with the weather it feels Christmassy! Hope Santa is good to you!

The respite was brief!

After another bad day on Friday which i reached the point of despair, Saturday was a real tonic with a great day - put on almost £400 so was happy with that. Punter profits especially was pleasing to see get a 12/1 winner after all the doom and gloom.

Over the last couple of days I've managed to give most of it back though with the dismal form of some tipsters continuing. Tipping Legends have performed superbly in the last three months there's no denying that but they've had a bit of dip in December which I'm sure is just a dip but doesn't help when everyone else continues to dip. Three up from SLH today but another 3 points down. Not had a winner from SLH for almost a month but 1 winner from him can turn things back around. Not overly fussed but could do with one before Christmas to pay for the presents!!

Busy week coming up so will keep the blog updated as much as I can!

Spectacularly....

...bad again today.

I remember on reviewing Saturdays tips with the view that after slapping on a huge wad of cash that I would expect to get some form of return across the piece. It didn't happen.

Today felt like deja-vu with the same thing happening. A largish number of bets with another big big loss. It's so frustrating to see this happen and so depressing (especially at this time of year).

I read an interesting post on punter profits threads today which flagged that some of the error in the nh tipping could be due to the rapid softening of the ground due to the heavy rain late Oct / early November. Makes sense to me because it does feel with so many of the nh tips going awry across the piece that there is something not quite right. The light at the end of the tunnel is hopefully here as the ground apparently is where it now should be!! Always look on the bright side....

Anyway the bottom line is that its dismal at the moment and i'm in serious danger of reaching a tipping point. Money extracted for good living is going to have to be pumped back in for the first time in 18 months of doing this!!

Anyway today panned out like this for me;

12.40 Ludlow: Genari (PP NH), 3rd LOSS
1.30 Huntingdon: Picaroon (Tipping Legends) 3rd LOSS
2.00 Huntingdon: Tartak (Tipping Legends), 2nd LOSS
2.00 Huntingdon: Albertus Run (4PA), 3rd LOSS
2.00 Huntingdon: Tidal Bay (TL), LOSS
A 6 horse race with 3 win tips and not one of them winning! UNBELIEVABLE.
2.10 Ludlow: Fourty Acres (TL), LOSS
2.30 Huntingdon: Kerada (TL), WIN 5/2
2.40 Ludlow: Classic Chic (PP NH), LOSS
3.00 Huntingdon: Pantalaimon (DTO), 3rd by 1/2 length LOSS
3.40 Ludlow: Ceilidh Royal (PP NH), LOSS BY A MILE (just about)
5.30 Kempton: Viper (TL), LOSS

3 personal bets at kempton

One 2nd, 12/1 beaten by a neck
One 3rd, 25/1 beaten by two lengths
The other is probably still finding its way home but you get the drift.

Here's to a good Friday - the weathers good, its cheltenham....

Wednesday? Losing Day!

Another losing day on Wednesday. Unbelievable.

Thankfully most of the tipsters took the day off yesterday on what was a low key day of racing - probably a good thing as the way things are at the moment I'm not sure they could tip the winner in a one horse race! ;-)

I am joking of course and losing runs are to be expected - just this the longest, deepest I've had since starting this game and I had hoped things would start to turn round!!

Here's to another day!!

Personal Profit / Double The Odds

Realised that I forgot to include DTO in my table yesterday. Looks like by the end of the year I will have broken even with them at best (taking into account the annual subscription). They're a very long term service but I'm not sure yet whether I;m going to stick with them. Reason I mention them today is that they managed to find the only winner of the day on the tipster front.

Was a quiet day but Tipping Legends put up 9 points worth of bets which saw a zero return.

I mentioned i was going to review some stats from Punter Profits about December trainers - had a good look last night and managed to sneak a winner out of my analysis today so was quite happy with that. A good starting point at the very least!

Overall ended the day a few quid up thanks to the personal bets there and DTO which compared to recent days is a good place to be - I'd just like to start coining in some cash again - it's really been 2 weeks of awfulness.

Anyone have an idea why?

Musselburgh Magic (Oh and Business As Usual)...

I spent the afternoon at Musselburgh races - first time there and it's a great wee track - perfect day for racing for me - quiet so you could have a nose around and a superb winning day which could have been historic had Portavadie (50/1) and Chester Lad (28/1) both not got pipped at the post in their respective races. Good day out though.

Elsewhere it was quiet but business as usual with Tipping Legends and Punter Profits both finishing the day in negative territory. Been a dismal December - just added up my figs tonight and doesn't make for pretty reading with only Football Elite, 4PA and my personal bets showing a profit - see below;

December to 7/12
SLH -£188
Equine Investments -£98
Equine (Mentions) -£24
Math (acc) -£24
Tipping Legends -£20
Personal Bets £57
Elite Football £24
Punter Profits -£187
SportLife Golf -£111
Paul Burns £37

Total -£534

Things can only get better!! (Remember Tuesdays are usually good days!!)

Got some good December trainer stats from Punter Profits which i'm going to get my teeth into - will let you know how that comes out.

Dismal Diversification

Sorry I haven't been on to update recently - it's been a tough couple of weeks with 11 straight losing days in a row making a serious dent in my betting bank.

One thing that I would always say is don't put all your eggs in one basket - I haven't and I now follow 11 different tipsters. Depressingly the majority of them have been performingly poorly over the last two weeks.

I did think by signing up to a number of tipsters that the profits and losses would even themselves out - unfortunately, while losses haven't been as great as they could have by diversifying, it's still tough to see the money flow out day in day out and I had thought there would be some smoothing of the profit flow by this diversification.

I was travelling for the football yesterday so as i lumped on cash through my mobile I was thinking well I've bet the best part of £400 today - surely I can expect something back, surely the luck is going to change!! Well it didn't and I had one of my worst losing days ever.

It's hard to know what to do other than to ride it out - and keep plugging away - things have got to change - who knows when though - and it would be nice that it happened sooner rather than later!! Especially with Christmas coming up!! This is the true test of the long term view and betting banks - lets just hope we make it to the other side!

Still Treading Water...

Well after a hell of a long week away I'm back!

Things haven't really moved that far on my account with a pretty uninspiring month continuing.

Tuesday was the bumper day, winning the best part of £600 but it was pretty much all down hill from there and that £600 has all been wiped out in the last few days with another dismal weekend of bets over.

The only bright spots being Sporting Life Golf bets finally coming up trumps with a 40/1 winner - they have a great record but this is the first time I've had a win out of them since I joined so very pleasing indeed.

Football Elite continue to perform very well with 3 winners out of 4 this week.

Racing has been poor in terms of tipsters over the last few days with the changeable weather not helping at all.

Must remember to pay my SLH subs tomorrow!!

Hopefully a consistent winning week next week and end the month on a high!! Will be blogging alot more!

Treading Water

Well it looks like the racing gods were shining last night when Wicked Daze won by a nose only to be disqualified (i'm not sure why) and demoted to 2nd BUT the bookies seem to pay out on first past the post. For once the bookies doing something in the punters favour for a change!!

My early post on Saturday was full of doom and gloom and while Wicked Daze didn't turn a losing day into a profit it certainly stemmed the flow.

A good day today with Punter Profits turning a couple of winners finally - a bit of a relief there due to a poor streak for most of the month. Tipping Legends also managed a profitable day despite the 5 pointer strong bet coming a cropper.

4PA had a dismal start to the new regular service with not a single point won over the three days. I'm not fussed about it as there's profit there and it will come but for brand new subscribers it's a bit rubbish to say the least.

Anyway, "Treading Water" refers to the month of November as a whole where after a bumper October I appear to be just about breaking even so far.

Think it's heading in the right directon though and I'm happy with my portfolio.

SLH renewal at the end of the month which I will be signed up to for another year.

It's going to be a difficult week this week as I'm travelling with work again from Tuesday to Friday. A nightmare but as long as i remember my phone and charger should be ok! Might not be any posts though so may be next week before I'm back!

Fear and Loathing in Cheltenham, Wetherby, Uttoxeter, Punchestown...

Seems my nervousness of the big meet on Thursday was justified. Two dreadful days that have pretty much drawn a complete blank for every tipster.

Think the volume of bets unnerves me more than anything but in the long term game you have to accept these lows. Just frustrating as these are supposed to be the exciting events but end up being miserable as you watch loser after loser.

Oh well, moan over, at least I've got one more still to run and the darts tonight so hopefully fortunes will change!! And of course tomorrow is another day!

Spreadsheet Slob!

Still failing miserably to get things sorted on the old spreadsheet front. I am a completely lazy fecker when it comes to this. Working on it though, working on it!!

Losing day today but gearing up to a big few days with Cheltenham, and Grand Slam Darts to look forward to.

I've signed up to the 4 pronged attack brought to us by the gents at Secret Betting Club so looking forward to being part of that.

Big meets can easily be a disaster so I'm nervous.

Here's to a good weekend...

Clock Watch

Just noticed the times on my posts are wrong - presume they're showing US time. Any ideas how to change are welcome!

Spreadsheet Slog

One thing that I am hopeless at is keeping my spreadsheets up to date. Working in an office all day the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer at night tapping figures into a spreadsheet. So I leave it for weeks and then it becomes a monumental task and an even bigger pain in the beak!

So here I am working my way through October and reaching a point which it's looking like it could have been my best month ever. Pretty much every service hitting some form of profit. However I've still got a few bets to go through and I might get there sometime this week so I can give you my overall October position.

Been a steady few days and another good winner from SLH yesterday and TL today. Time is pressing against me at the moment and I'm missing prices which is so frustrating.

This was partly due to a busy old weekend where it's difficult to spend time on the mobile while you're spending time with friends without looking like an anti-social idiot. This is mainly of my own doing though as I absolutely steadfastly refuse to tell anyone I'm doing what I'm doing (apart from my wife). A golden rule confirmed when I had a few pints the other night and blurted out to a couple of guys this was the way i was making money and they looked at me like i was mad. Really disappointed with myself for that.

Knackered

Two days away from home with work are a killer. Just back in having been on the go pretty much since 5am on Monday morning.

Managed to get all my bets on over the two days which is great news as overall in profit. Missed some prices but I have to accept that this is going to happen. Really lucky with the Tipping Legends selections today as my meeting finished early and quickly got the bets on just before the first race. As it happened it was the later race that produced the profit.

All my recent travelling etc made me wonder if I could do this full time. Not sure - think I'd have to run it for a couple of years before making that decision. Would need to build my staking, get a proper portfolio running and be better at money management. Definitely something to consider and work towards.

I've got a trip to foreign-ish shores next week so putting the bets on then will be even more challenging!!

Got the Sporting Life betting zone golf tips to whack on tonight then I'll catch the end of the footie. Not had any real return since I started the golf tips but sod's law the way it works with these is the week i stop is the week there's a bumper pay out. Golf betting is definitely a long haul process!!

Bumper Times

Been so busy the last few days its been hard to catch up.

Been a great few days on the betting front for sure. SLH delivered a massive profit for me on Friday with the two winners which I also combined into a half point e/w double. You can imagine my delight when they both finished first and especially when Tarvini drifted out to 12/1! Wonderful.

A good weekend on the Football Elite front so far and On the Oche delivered some more profit so all heading in the right direction. Double the Odds continued their sensational run as well.

The latest Secret Betting Club monthly newsletter is out and I'd recommend anyone sign up to this as its a great source of info. Some top quality info this month which has given me some food for thought. Also means I don't have to do my Hugh Taylor analysis as the guys there have done it so saved me a huge amount of spreadsheet work... Happy days.

My TL subscription is up next week and will certainly sign up for another period. Just thinking about that - a lot of subscriptions up soon so a good thing I've made some significant profit over the last few days... Hopefully next couple of months are going to be as good as the same time last year!!

My plan is to post my monthly p&l on the blog to give you an idea of how things are going - need to get my spreadsheets up to date first. October P&L will hopefully come in the next few days but I'm travelling with work so it's going to be a challenge to get bets on never mind do anything else!

Oh one thing I discovered over the weekend (again with help from the SBC boys) is oddschecker mobile website. How happy am I about that!!

Speak later in the week.

Where do we go from here?

Not a reference to bets today as I probably came out about evens on the day. Prosystem delivered another winner at top notch odds - 16/1 at SP although I settled for 12/1 with Blue Square. Other results didn't go my way unfortunately.

All the golf bets are on for the weekend with the Singapore Open already underway tonight.

Title reference? I'm a Newcastle United season ticket holder. Need i say more.

Daydreaming....

A great day today with a top whack 5 pointer from Tipping Legends delivering the goods and another winner from the prosystem team which I got at 13 on betfair and a good return on the place part too. So happy days indeed.

Although I did spend most of the afternoon thinking what I would do with the cash if the TL yankee bet came in... I also put a small acca separately as well for some reason but the 10000/1 odds I couldn't resist. But the odds are as they are because really I'm more likely to get struck by lightening....

....and it wasn't to be as i sat on the bus home checking the results I realised it was back to reality and hopefully another good betting day tomorrow!

Blue Monday...

Not because of the betting of course but more like a dreadful day at work all in all... Monday's are never good.

A small profit on the day with prosystem coming up with a 1st (which I bet at under 11/1 recommendation at 10/1) and a 14/1 2nd in the same race (5.10pm at Kempton). I say a small profit as I've got tiny stakes on the prosystem stuff at the moment as I got my fingers a bit burnt earlier in the year by wading in just as they hit a horrible losing streak. To be fair to the guys there they were totally up front and honest about it all and offered refunds.

I decided to stick it out and paper traded for a wee bit before dipping my toe in the water again in July. Think I will be back in profit eventually but just slightly nervous before I up my stakes again.

Nothing much else happening today although close to being a great day as I had a cheeky bet on the 4.40 at Kempton based on the draw bias and nearly got myself a 37/1 winner from the top draw - Absa Lutte won again (after delivering for me over the weekend). Close but no cigar although looking at the race review I believe it didn't have a chance of winning in the end but a worthy second!

Just had another nose at the ATR website and looks like Hugh Taylor isn't in the Bermuda Triangle but actually just off on hols. Made me chuckle when I saw a note from the Editor confirming he was ok as so many punters had emailed to see where he was!! Great stuff.

Quiet Day

Pretty quiet today with only a few bets coming through. Both Tipping Legends and SLH tipping horses in the 3.20 at Aintree. I added a reverse forecast and came away with nowt.

Not the best week for SLH but I've reviewed my stats from last year and the next few months should hopefully hot up. SLH is a NH specialist and the NH season is kicking off now and form will become apparent as the days go by. Listened to his review message tonight and as he quite rightly says one winner can turn things round despite the 10 point knock on the week. I'm not worried.

Hoping some delivery on the golf later on but Ryan Moore hasn't started off too well. Football Elite delivered another couple of winners today so far with one more to go - stunning performance for this season so far and a great anaylsis going with each bet.

Had planned to do some analysis today in terms of where i'm at, the punter profit nh stats and look at some of Hugh Taylor at ATR results to see if there is any value going in at SP. The price for his tips always falls quickly so with me working full time its impossible to get on at prices suggested. Not had a chance to finish any of this and Hugh Taylor seems to have disappeared off the face of ATR when I looked about 10 mins ago...

I need to get better at updating my spreadsheets as it takes forever when I leave it for three weeks as I have but so far in good territory for October - thanks mainly to Tipping Legends from what I can see. Want to get bang up to date and we can see where we are for October.

Another thing for the to do list is to work out if my portfolio is skewed right and I've got the balance ok in terms of £ per point for each service.

Time is always against me though...

A good good day

Well after all my moaning on Thursday, the last couple of days have been really good days. Tipping Legends delivering the goods once again and Double The Odds adding to the fantastic winner last Saturday with another excellent long-odds winner. Swept up some of the early price which made it feel even better - think I doubled my winnings by doing that which is always great. The day ended with a good winner from a personal bet at Kempton.

Some Saturdays I spend quite a bit of time getting the bets on and seeing if there is anything I can add with personal bets but today was a kind of up and out day where i was on the go from start to finish and trying to get the bets placed with my mobile phone - something thats not always easy to do with variable reception from the mighty Orange and the tedious slowness sometimes of the bet2go software.

Don't get me wrong bet2go is a godsend for me as it lays out the prices for a number of bookies and is easy to bet through but its pretty slow sometimes and the odds aren't always completely up to date. Often I have to settle for a price a couple of pips off the best price on offer. Be good if more bookies joined the frame on there as I'm slowly get pushed out by all of them signed up to the software as I use them the most and two of them on there are hopeless - mainly sportingbet and skybet - two of the worst bookies out there in terms of restrictions and odds slashing. More on that sometime in the future.

Anyway my original point being is that betting on the go means that I have to accept that best prices aren't always available to me. Not ideal but its a trade off I'm happy to make as it means that I can have a life as well as getting the bets on and winning some cash.

Got some NH Punter Profits stats that the guys there have pointed us to to mull over if I get time tomorrow to see if it can help me with my personal bets, but again it's another busy day out and about and may have to leave that for another day.

Frustrating Times

Even more frustrating times when i type up a post and it doesn't save as my wireless connection fails!!

One thing I still haven't got used to in this tipster business is the highs and lows and the inevitable losing streaks that happen. I was on a role over the weekend, all tipsters performing well and by having a portfolio it didn't matter if a couple didn't deliver - I managed to add about £1800 to my account so very happy with all that. Since then i've managed to lose about £700 of that through a nasty losing streak where every tipster has failed to deliver.

Now it's not bad being £1100 up in 7 days and i shouldn't really complain and I'm just really sounding off. Think I'm more frustrated that I always hoped by spreading risk and having a number of tipsters then if one was having an off period then the others would pick up the slack. However it doesn't appear to always work like that. Understanding things more now then it makes sense that that is the case. A really good article in the SBC Betting Portfolio explains it in terms of time of year its clear when horse racing is going to more risky. Worth a read if you subscribe.

Think spreading across sports is the way forward and I'm now covered with Football and Darts too. Enjoying the analysis that these guys are providing too.

I'm not having a go at the tipsters at all as they've all made (just about) a good profit for me since i started up it's just soul destroying seeing the money going back out to the bookies!! I did hope a couple of cheeky wee winners in the first few 5 furlong races at Kempton would deliver but absolutely no success so a pretty much whitewash today except for a small winner on leamington lad and another small e/w punt on Whisky Magic!! Down about £200 today though!!

We live to fight another day...

My Betting Life

Hi All,

Over the last year and a bit I've been working on building a portfolio of tipsters to help me earn a size able secondary income and pay for the little luxuries in life.
I've been an avid reader of JP's betting blog in that time which has helped me stay focused and appreciate there's big highs and lows in this business and you need to ride them out and focus focus focus on the long term.

Joining the Secret Betting Club and their Portfolio Service also very much helped and has increased my knowledge exponentially in a short period of time. It has also definitely saved me a great deal of cash and made me a lot more money than i would have if i'd just done it myself. A great access for information and a must for anyone wanting to start getting into this business.

I'm going to try and not re-invent the wheel by producing a similar blog to JP's but just give you a view of how I'm feeling things are going and if there's anything much else I've been up to.

We'll see how things develop from here and take each step at a time.