Service Review

As I mentioned I was going to spend some time over the last few days having a think about what i was going to do with the services that I subscribe to following what can only be described as an awful year so far.

I spent some time thinking about the article that appeared in a recent secret betting club betting portfolio magazine by "Mr Gekko" and comparing that to where I am with services that I subscribe to and my personal experience with them.

I rated them in my spreadsheets Red, Amber and Green - you can tell I've been a project manager in my time!! My thoughts are below;

Steve Lewis Hamilton
It would be fair the last 2/3 months have not been good for SLH. With a few successful side bets I've managed to make SLH work over a longer period where other people have struggled I believe. I confident that things will turn around and my subscription is due to end in Jan 2011 and I will continue to bet with my current staking plan. Clearly there's always a chance to review if results fail to move again but at the moment, despite the set up and structure and lack of transparency I am happy with SLH and the service has been wildly successful for me since i signed up in the middle of 2008.

Status: Green
View: Retain subscription

Equine Investments
I'm into my 2nd year of subscribing with Equine - the first year in terms of ROI was spectacular. Reviewing my bets and staking following some of that Mr Gekko information it was particularly clear that for an expected 10% ROI I was staking well below the average bet level.

This is because Equine Investments is an expensive service. Justifiably so - my ROI for 2009/10 was 49%. This is below official figures but I have limited access sometimes and prices do move. I accept that as the reward is greater than the limitations.

So I need to up my staking to make my minimum criteria which is 3x the monthly cost. To do this I have increased my 1 point stake to £30.

Status: Amber (not because of quality of service but because of my betting structure)
View: Retain subscription

More later...

Bank Holiday Weekend Washout

Well it didn't rain here but my God the tipping was absolutely bloody awful this bank holiday weekend.

Make it now 37 bets;

1 winner, 1 place, 35 losers.

Now I'm totally bought in to this long term chat and that you're going to have periods like this but this really is awful. Is this the best that there is????

It was a real blow to see JP signing out his blog on Friday. But I can totally understand why he has done it and I'm sure the feeling of responsibility of updating the blog every day was an added burden with so many people following and commenting. It was a great read. But when someone like JP is struggling to make it work you have to wonder whether it's worth doing.

Lets be honest the last 6 months have been inconsistent for a number of tipsters and all I've managed to do is break even and just about cover the subscriptions for all the services. What's the point of all the time spent on it if that's all you're going to do? Clearly there are exceptions to the general awfulness - Equine Investments, Football Elite, and Each Way Value are the three I subscribe to that would be excluded from this - but overall it's been poor poor poor.

I'm finishing off my April results which will look ok but once you take subs into account thats the money gone. I'll hopefully post these shortly.

I'm away with work for a few days but taking some stuff with me and making some decisions about what to do next.

31 bets!!! Guess the return!

31 bets this first weekend of May from tipsters that aren't too cheap!

The return? 1 winner, 1 place and 29 losses.

Maybe a pin and a copy of the racing post and I'd get on better??