One Step Forward, One and Half Steps Back!

Slow day today with another win from Equine Investments - Marosh 6/5 in the 1.45 at Wolverhampton. Best price available was the recommended 5/4 but not with any of the bookies I currently have cash with!! Need to shuffle the money about and get that back in order.

3 losing bets from Tipping Legends turned into a losing day overall with 7 points lost. Didn't get on at any of the recommended prices on their bets - this was more because i was slow on getting the bets on and because bookies appear to be shifting Tipping Legends prices quicker. Jeremiah has done well to address this though usually with a short note each morning giving the approximate time of delivery of message. Good move there but not good for me when i'm stuck in a meeting at the time the bet comes through.

This is the reality of trying to successfully bet when working full time unfortunately and once again I'm on the road again for the remainder of the week and staying with friends over the weekend so gonna be a tough week overall on the betting front.

Interesting stats from Football Elite today about price movements on their bets so think I'll try to change my strategy in terms of timing of bets - at the moment it looks like I'm betting at the lowest point and it'll be easy to increase ROI by following the advice. Great service Football Elite - faultless this season i'd say.

Will update as much as I can while I'm away.

Topsy Turvy & Iphone pain

After posting a great week on Thursday night, the weekend hasn't been so good with not a winner to sniff at on the horses. I'm finding it a struggle to get prices on at the moment and am missing the best. Betting at the moment overall is a struggle. I would say that 95% of all my bets are placed on the move and while my iphone is a great tool it's not delivering completely on the betting front - a few reasons;

1) The betfair app for the iphone is a poor man version of their standard mobile app which is really disappointing - you can't see market depth or place a bet at SP which you can on the general mobile app.

2) Picking up reception is no better than my old handset which i was disappointed with. Think that is more to do with Orange network not being the greatest where I live but it's frustrating as I though the Iphone would be better with weaker signals. More fool me!

3) Everytime I have to flick out the Ladbrokes application I need to login again and start from the front page! Frustrating! Not sure of a way round this!

4) Bet2Go isn't working properly and I have the same probs as the Ladbrokes app!

So all in all frustrating when you need to move quickly and get bets on. Suppose I'll get used to it but it's taking time!

Great week, hard work

As I mentioned in my last post I've been away with work all week sorting the bets on has been hard. But it's certainly been worth while. Equine investments have been on fire and 4pa boosted profits today. Will provide a full update asap. Like I mentioned i wanted to focus on the difficulties of getting prices when out and about.

Super Saturday

After a terrible time towards the end of the year I was really beginning to doubt some of the decisions I had taken in terms of trying to earn a decent 2nd income from betting. The whole game had lost it's sparkle, it's enjoyment and it wasn't a lot of fun.

Going on holiday and finally making the decision not to bet while I was away was just the ticket and I came back earlier this week re-invigorated! Putting the bets on on Wednesday felt like fun again and I felt like it all had a purpose again. My first post of 2010 was positive even though at that point it looked like it was going to be a losing day.

It's good to feel that way again and my mood is helped very much with a stunning day today with Equine Investments and Steve Lewis Hamilton leading the way with decent price winners. Another solid day from Tipping Legends as well. If my records are correct that was SLH's first out and out winner since 17 November so very very pleased with that.

Highlights of the day for me were;

SLH - Iconoclast (11/2) - 2.05pm in Kempton (2pt win)
Equine - Exceedthewildman (8/1) - 2.40 Lingfield (1pt win)
TL - GeeDeeNan (25/1) - 2.45 Kempton (1pt e/w).

Not so good today from 4PA or Double the Odds (although DTO produced 2 places out of 3 bets so on the right track). But this is what it's all about - having enough on the go to produce a profit even when some fail to deliver, but as I said Wed / Thurs not too many to make it unmanageable.

What I'm going to do this is year is to display the odds I get vs. odds quoted by the tipsters. More often than not I don't get bang on odds quoted and I want to try to portray how difficult it is to do so - more because of the reality of the way I run things (and the flaws in that) rather than how realistic the tipster is. For example - best price may be with Skybet but my account with them is restricted and effectively closed so I have to go elsewhere or I whack the cash on through Ladbrokes as it's the quickest way of doing it on the go or best price is with a bookie I haven't opened an account with yet. etc etc.

Talking of restriced accounts - I'm no high roller but some bookies have restricted my account - named and shamed below (none of whom I've won more than a couple of grand with - which is amazing);

Skybet.com - all bets - I was told that they were "running a business" so had to restrict my account.

Sportingbet.com - all bets - stitched me up with their free bet offer when I opened the account (they refused to give me the free bet promised - when I queried - I was told they didn't have to give a reason and their decision was final). Was quite pleased I took some money off them before they restricted by account.

Blue Sq - all bets - although manageable as restrictions aren't too bad and a bit random for some reason. E/w definite no no and golf bets capped at about £2!!

Boylesports - golf / darts - very very quick to restrict these bets (especially the darts). Ok still with horse racing and very generous with free bets which is a definite plus. Certainly wary of going through oddschecker with them.

So with more restrictions it gets harder and harder.

Anyway a great day overall and a brilliant start to 2010 - long may it continue.

Skipping through the snow...

Well Indian Skipper did the job last night at Kempton winning at 20/1 for the Each Way Value system. Meant the first day back in business was a winning day for me which you can't ask better than that for!!

Quiet-ish again today with not much happening - Equine Investments put up Copper King in the 2pm at Lingfield which came 2nd after just about leading in the final furlong so nothing happening. Missed the recommended price of 6/1 as I was out for lunch with my boss... and only got 9/2 15 mins before the race. Did notice that SP was 6/1 - unusual to see an Equine tip drift.

Tipping Legends had one non runner and one third place producing a small profit for their tips on the day - Orpsie Boy coming in at 12/1 SP so got best odds for that. Couple of selections from Each Way Value today in the 17.10 at Wolverhampton with Resplendant Ace pipped into 4th so no return there. Overall a small losing day but still in profit for the year!!

Need to do a few things over the next few days - tot up my total for 2009, need to set some targets for 2010 and as I mentioned before re-assess my portfolio. Going to be hard with work commitments meaning I'm away from home pretty much for the next three weeks but at least my new iphone is doing the trick in terms getting bets on quickly and easily so happy with that Christmas present!!

Initial thoughts are that I reckon I made about £9,000 before deductions in 2009 - going down to about £6,000 after taking off expenses. So I think I'm going to aim for about £15,000 this year (aiming for £10k profit). If I achieve anywhere near that I'll be well pleased indeed!

Belated Happy New Year....

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. I'm just back from 3 weeks break visiting friends in warmer climes so bit of a shock being back and the snow is still here. Reality bites big time tomorrow when i head back to work...

Anyway I tried to keep up betting over the period I was away but in the end I gave up after the 2nd day - the time difference was too much, the cost of calls / downloads was greater than I thought and I felt I needed time to relax rather than worry about getting bets on. So the phone was switched off and left like that - felt after getting the 3pt 10/1 shot from Tipping Legends it was time to stop pushing it!

Probably in the end not a bad time to be away - no idea what's happened on the betting front since I've been away but with so much racing and football called off I hopefully haven't missed a too much.

Back onto the betting today and no luck with my first Equine bet of the year with Kings Miracle not playing the game. Nicky Henderson got a treble at Southwell today but couldn't make it a four fold with Chef Junior - the only selection from Punter Profits today. Got a couple of runners in Kempton later through the Each Way Value system so will see how they go.

Hopefully 2010 will be as good as 2009 - going away has made me take stock as to what I was doing. Come to the conclusion that in the time I've got to bet I'm following too many services and the cost is too great so I'm going to cull some from the portfolio. The Sporting Life golf tips are the first ones to go for me - too much proportion of my investment relatively spent on golf and feels like I need to just focus with the Tipping Legends golf service. Others will follow - clearly based on performance.

Will keep the blog more updated also so please keep coming back if you are reading!