Monday, November 7, 2011

October Review - Part 2

Apologies I have neglected the blog recently for a variety of reasons but am back in business and will complete the October review finally!

Systematic Betting -38.65pts (-£773). A miserable month for Systematic Betting which has is part of a long period of treading water. Since the beginning of June I've made £468 on this service which isn't enough to justify the sub cost for me. Clearly if I was playing to higher stakes that would be fine but I'm not. Admittedly this has been a spell that hasn't been experienced before and the evidence is clear that the long term profit is there - would be nice to get back on the winning road though. There was a decent recovery at the end of the month - at one point the service was down a whopping 63 points on the month. Headline rate suggests a return of -18.4 points - a whopping 20 points difference to where I got to - which shows how difficult it is to get prices on this service (and that best price is often with shocking bookies like Stan James which one has no chance in hell of getting a bet on with). I'd be interested to see what the return of the service was if we took out SJ prices.

Mr Gekko Bets (-£71). I've not put a points figure here as the staking changed during the month following the pause in service. While I was getting frustrated with the service there is no doubt you have to give MrG some praise for taking things back to basics, re-evaluating the service and getting things back out there. The new criteria seem to be working and things certainly have picked up for the end of the month. Would be good to claw back the losses incurred quickly and start enjoying this service again. I changed my stake from £35 a point to £10 a point so will probably keep with £10 until Christmas and then re-assess.

Part 3 later.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm with Systematic and have just renewed for the second time. I've read what you say and I admit things have been a little static of late but I take the long term view and there have been troughs in the service in the past - Mark could not be more transparent about his results and over the last nine or so years the service delivers consistently. That said there have been times when there have been dips just as pronounced as the one you mention.....but it has bounced back.

SBC recommend a 125 point bank but I play to a 200 point bank and my results show a big surge in July and just a gone a bit static since then.

Share your frustration that some of the prices disappear very quickly. Paddy Power must have someone on the inside because I'm pretty quick out of the traps after the email - within two minutes - and the price has always gone!! Stan James, Boylesports, Sportingbet and Betfred closed me down a long time ago but I still have a pool of bookmakers I use, Even Bet365 still accomodate me even though Systematic do not advise with them.

BOG prices usually iron out the price discrepancies when you can't get on at the advised price. Many do drift.

What I like about Systematic is the consistency of the service and it is the central plank of my small portfolio.

mrh-beats said...

Hi Anon - thanks for your post. I've just renewed as well and do have faith in the service - and like you say there is transparency of results and the service does deliver consistently. I do expect things to bounce back - just sooner rather than later!!

Paddy Power are definitely the quickest to move their price. I do need to get more of my bets on with BOG bookies - but that is easier said than done!!

So don't get me wrong - it's a great service and even with my gripes there is long term profit without a doubt.

Be interested to know how much you bet per point if you are happy to say?

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I must admit I have a bit of mixed feelings about the Mr Gekko Bets service. Don’t you also feel that we have been some sort of beta testers for this service?

It was launced last summer, getting quite a bit of critique on the SBC forums for the process. There was no live testing, just us being told that a lot of research had been done. It’s kind of a principle over at SBC that after backtesting, a service should also show live that it is profitable. As far as I know, this service was only live tested a couple of months in-house before release. Compare this to a service like TFA who first backtested and found the systems, then live proofed it in public for a whole year before even considering going commercial and charging a subscription fee (way cheaper than MGB too).

To me it looks like Mr Gekko Bets was a service all to eager to start making money from subs way too early.

First year was rather disappointing. We were told this summer that every stone would be turned to try to find out if there was something wrong or we had just been unlucky. Starting the season we were assured that there were no faults found in the system or filters.

Then we had this horrible start of the season, another research break and now suddenly he has found faults in the filters that has been used for almost 1,5 years.

It’s kind of frustrating that looking at it now, after this last change, it seems like the systems and filters had not been thoroughly tested before this turned a paid service.

Anonymous said...

Systematic seem to be picking up profit for last week,and slh bet sat won so hope there yet followed a lot of services but I think systematic is the best what do you think,I dont really know why slh is not getting involved sun to wed but NH season starting to get into full swing so I think there should be more selections(today his exchange bet won 11/4 but I bet it to small stakes(frustrating) I think he could start to as he says to step it up a bit.still have faith but waiting to see if he delivers the points previous seasons have.
Baz

mrh-beats said...

Hi Anon - thanks for your comment. I do know what you are saying regarding MGB and I voiced some of those thoughts a few weeks back - i really do agree with you that things should have been resolved over Summer but the effort wasn't put in or maybe it was felt that it wasn't needed.

I also agree that they started charging too soon without the appropriate proofing.

Suppose where I was coming from was that they've at least now managed to sort it (hopefully) and we've been given some free subs out of it and they've been relatively transparent about the whole process - I'd admit though I'd be disappointed if they turned around before Christmas looking for subs!

Hi Baz - Yes things have turned around a wee bit for Systematic but we definitely need the up turn sustained. Good to see SLH get a winner on Saturday (although typically I missed the bet....) Definitely was hoping for an upturn in activity - think I will start to look at the "mentions" again - there seemed to be profit there before.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, we'll see what happens. I suspect subs are coming before Xmas, but must say I agree with you.

I would actually like this service to be free for the rest of the year, to prove itself, but I guess that won't happen :-)

mrh-beats said...

Yes you are probably right - but it wouldn't be very appropriate!!