My Betting Life

Priorities

2012-01-30T22:43:00.002Z

January has been a bit of a topsy turvy month - started off very well, took a double dip and has built back up into profit.

Up until Saturday 28th I'm sitting £291 in gross profit so a decent turnaround since the last update. It's still not net profit though and once subs are taken into account it will be another net losing month.

A lot of promise though...

4PA has had a great month with 20 points profit and the underlying basic system continuing to deliver, topped up with a separate account bet winner.

Piecost remains in cracking form with approx 35 points profit - after an awful start - things have certainly improved and I've increased my staking to £10 per point.

Systematic continues to deliver with 13 points profit.

Equine Main has done well to turn things around with just under 10 points profit for the month. Well below the par for the season but good to see now turning a profit.

Market Examiner has delivered the first ever monthly profit for me - hopefully this is a sign of things to come!

Fair to middling....

Equine Turnover and The Football Analyst both having flat months so no damage done but no profit!

And not so good....

Northern Monkey had to give some money back I suppose and down 20 points on the month brings us back down to Earth - we had to wait until the 18th to get the first winner of the year. A blip I'm sure.

Steve Lewis Hamilton really is in trouble - there's no doubt its been a rough few months and the jacket is on a shaky peg. Down 15 points this month compounding the problems.

Farewell to...

I've packed in Mr Gekko Bets - really going nowhere and time to draw a line under it, accept losses and move on. Additionally I've surprised myself by pausing on Football Elite as well. Decided that while subs are low, I'm not willing to commit a big tick up in stakes and without that there's never going to be huge profit. Performance hasn't been great for a year and while in the grand scheme of things (in terms of bet volume) the period I'm talking about is quite short its not for me.

So down to 9 services from 11. I want to cut 2 or 3 more out to make things more manageable. Equine Investments Main will definitely be one of those for reasons I've already covered on the blog.

The others will be decided on return + potential.

Feel positive about the year - getting my priorities right and feel more in control. It's all about making money - pure and simple.

Will be back as and when the rest of my life permits (priorities again)....

Still Here!

2012-01-30T20:11:00.003Z

I am still here - will post an update later.

Thanks for all your comments - some of which are certainly not publish-able though!

In short

4PA - On fire

Piecost - On a roll

Equine - recovery mode

Northern Monkey - giving money back

SLH - downward spiral

Portfolio - some changes made

Seriously though - will post a full update later

Weekly Update - 15 Jan 2012

2012-01-15T17:02:00.004Z

Will aim at the very least to do an update once a week. In this update I'll cover off the first couple of weeks in Jan.

The account is sitting at -£308 so it's been a poor start to 2012 with 10 losing days out of 15. No major damage done overall but it's always preferable to rack up some profit at the start of the year - means that I'm swimming uphill already!

A good time for... It's been a good start to the year for both 4PA and Piecost with some healthy profits made on both services. 4PA account bets have performed well as the basic system. I'm playing minimum stakes on the non basic system bets - and missed out on a big payout on Saturday because of that - however based on previous results it is the right decision. Great to see Piecost doing so well - I think we were all despairing at the end of November with 3 losing months (of which I'd seen 2) but December went well and January is up 30 points. A few more winners and I'll start to be in profit.

Nice also to see The Market Examiner in profit for the month with the wins topped up with 14 places in the month.

A bad time for... Not a good start to the year for Northern Monkey - Wayne is yet to find a winner this year, but I suppose we were due some form of drawdown after the previous stellar performance of the service. Poor start from SLH, Equine Turnover, Systematic and the Football Analyst. Nothing to worry about for most of these in the long run, apart from Steve Lewis Hamilton who has been treading water for too long now with no movement on the account since late June. I've been here before with SLH but we really need to see some winners soon to restore full confidence.

Clearly Equine Investments continues to worry and interesting post on SBC Forum from Laurence re the service. It does feel that the main account is needing serious revamp if it is to continue. My thoughts on launching a new service while the main hasn't done so well are documented!

Anything else... I continue to debate how to move things forward and increase profit and am just need to stop talking about doing stuff and get on with it. With a full time job the biggest drag on what I can and can't realistically achieve is time. There simply isn't enough of it to try to achieve everything. The bottom line is the job comes first and this is next.

Lets see if we can get the 2nd half of January into profit!

Struggle

2012-01-12T18:57:00.003Z

After what looked like an excellent start to 2012, the last 7 days have been awful with over £900 wiped off the account. I've not totted up the scores on the doors per tipster but everyone seems to be performing badly - after the highs of late 2011 it is back down to earth with a bump!

Not totally unexpected I suppose but would be nice to (a) either have the odd winning day or (b) at least one tipster performing well.

Interesting to note that Piecost have had 17 2nd places in January which is quite incredible. The wind will change and our luck will be in again.

Appreciate all the comments. I've not published all as I've mentioned in the past that I'd prefer non-anon and constructive comments! But I do understand frustration!

2011 into 2012

2012-01-09T22:57:00.004Z

I've finally managed to bring my stats up to date so have a clear picture of what 2011 looked like and how well I finished - the problem being that I have writers block at the moment and am trying to put everything into words so I will just start and see where we get to.

December finished strongly with a total profit of £1,621 made in the month making it the 2nd most profitable month of 2011. This brought my overall profit to £5,179 for the year. Whoopppeee you may say and quite rightly so, however taking subs into account left me with a negative £46 on the year.

So for all that work and effort and scramble I lost myself £46. Theoretically I should be banging my head against the table and wanting to throw the towel in after that but to be honest I'd say 2011 has been a fascinating year - even though I've been doing this for 3 plus years now I think I've really learnt more this year than any of the previous years and if this means I've only broken even then so be it.

What I can't let happen is for the same to happen in 2012 and that has got to be my clear intention. I'm not laying out an agenda or mission statement or whatever the phrase is but I've got to make a net profit or there really is no point in doing this (no matter how much I enjoy it).

Regular readers to my blog will know that I set myself a notional figure of £20 a day and I'm sticking to that as an aspirational goal but really all I would like is something that will pay for the holiday this year and some nice treats that we couldn't usually afford... Lets what and see what happens but I will set out some thoughts over the coming weeks as to how I address this.

Back to December - it was another great month for Systematic Betting with £1,168 profit made, also was delighted to see Piecost back in the game with £213 taken off the losses and hopefully this is the start of movement into profit. 4PA, Northern Monkey. The Football Analyst and Equine Turnover all providing good returns with Steve Lewis Hamilton propping up the rear with a small positive.

Dreadful month for Equine Main Account with not a single winner found in the month. While drawdowns are part of the game the performance of the main account has been woeful - especially considering the cost of the service. Poor also for Mr Gekko Bets and Market Examiner (on the prices I got). Headline rates for Market Examiner suggest a profit on the month but I was well down so need to find out where things are going wrong.

If anyone is interested in me reviewing any particular service from 2011 give me a shout and I'll provide some detail - otherwise I'll pull together some summary paragraphs on performance over the next few days.

Back in Business

2012-01-05T23:07:00.002Z

Happy New Year to you all. Hope the festive break was good and here's to a prosperous 2012.

As I mentioned I was away for most of the time so while I managed to get bets on I didn't manage to update spreadsheets etc so the constant battle to keep up to date continues. Also haven't had much time to gather my thoughts etc for plans for 2012 so hope to do that throughout the month.

2011 ended on a high lets hope the good run continues well into 2012.

Final Ramble of the year

2011-12-21T23:47:00.003Z

Once again time is against me in the lead up to Christmas but I did manage to get everything back up to date on my train journeys today. Pity my team couldn't produce the goods - our good start to the season is beginning to seem like a distant memory.

Looking at things at a very high level December has been an excellent month. The 2nd best of the year so far and if things continue over the final week of the year we could beat May's figure of £1,981. Clearly I don't want to tempt fate but it's been great so far, however I am sure I'm due a correction at some point soon.

Star performer again is Systematic Betting who have had a spectacular month with 54 points profit to date. Closely following behind is Northern Monkey with another tremendous profit. Also good to see Piecost turning things around. The Football Analyst looks like a good thing now as well - still delivering a profit during a tough time for football betting.

My only real concern lies with 3 services Mr Gekko Bets who have fallen back again after showing signs of recovery, The Market Examiner who are finding winners but just not enough to eek any profit out the service and I'm wavering with the service and finally Equine Investments Main Account which has started the all weather season abysmally with 8 losing bets in a row. When you see services like Northern Monkey delivering consistent profit month on month for next to nothing subscription you expect more when paying well over £1k subs. Luckily Equine Turnover is still producing (just).

Anyway the bottom line December to date I'm £1,515 up which takes my ytd gross profit over the £5k mark. If you asked me in the middle of October whether I thought I'd get to that position I would have laughed my head off.

This is more than likely going to be my last post until the New Year. I'm away for most of the break so won't have the opportunity to keep posting. Sorry things have been sporadic over the last month - it really has been hectic - I do intend to keep going in 2012 and will post as regularly as I can.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has commented on the site and also to you who just view - its great to know people read what am writing and I do hope it gives you an insight as to how hard it all is but also helps you with your own plans. I find it very therapeutic and it helps me focus on the task at hand

Anyway enough prattling - have a great Christmas and here's to a prosperous 2012.

Cheers!

Profitable Weekend

2011-12-18T22:31:00.002Z

Decent weekend saw the recent slump turn around. Haven't totted up my figures yet but feels like I broke even this week. Hoping to bring everything up to date this week - travelling to the Newcastle game on Wednesday so have some train time to fill. Really need to set some plans out for next year as well.

Sorry Thursday

2011-12-15T23:10:00.002Z

Thursday continues to be a poor day - if not the poorest day of the week - with another big loss today - with Steve Lewis Hamilton, Systematic Betting and Equine Investments all performing poorly.

The dismal day was brightened as Northern Monkey and Piecost continue to perform well.

1/2 a length was the difference today though with Rebeccas Choice at 8/1 just behind the winner for SLH and then Sunglasses / Petit Ecuyer at 1.10 messing it up for us on Systematic by banging in to each other. The margins between great success and poor returns remain tight! A slight change in fortune could've netted upwards of £1,000 today...

Dust ourselves down and tomorrow is another day!!

Forex, Smashing Prices and Rant Potential

2011-12-12T22:54:00.003Z

No not Castlemaine XXXX - the piss poor australian lager of my youth - which is apparently still going strong in Oz!

But Forex!

I constantly get bombarded with Forex offers and don't pay much heed to many of them but as the year draws to a close I'm looking to spread my wings a bit and diversify away from betting on football and horse racing.

Sorting the wheat from the chaff looks nigh on impossible in terms of systems / trading techniques etc. If anyone has any ideas let me know.

I know I should really be updating my stats etc but I'm writing this quickly between ordering Christmas presents / preparing for meetings / making eggnog etc.... Full service will be resumed shortly.

Anyway on the betting front - today ended up being a good day with Eastward Ho delivering for Systematic Betting at 6/1 for me (13/2 tipped). I mention the prices as Mark, quite rightly grumped about someone smashing into the price on Betfair and getting 10/3 just after the tip was released - bit daft really when the SP was 5/1, BFSP 6/1. I'm not sure why anyone does that - the price on tips for later races always seems to dip sharply soon after the tip comes out and then bounces back relatively rapidly. Anyway each to their own.

Equine hasn't started the new season very well unfortunately and I was slightly concerned when I heard about a new service offered which is producing a number of winners in a short space of time. Will need to investigate before commenting further... but if that is the case then it really does make me wonder what I'm paying substantial subs for...

AWOL

2011-12-06T23:32:00.003Z

Sorry I've gone a bit AWOL recently - was at a wedding over the weekend and all Christmas related activities are beginning to catch up with me so am trying to get back up to date.

Excellent start to the month though - highlight being Red Tanber winning yesterday for both Systematic Betting and Steve Lewis Hamilton. Was hoping Venetian Lad would follow that today but can't win them all!!

Will aim to bring everything bang up to date by the end of the week!

November Review - Part 1

2011-12-04T12:08:00.001Z

The month didn’t end particularly well with a couple of losing days but no massive damage done and a decent month in the end with £641 gross profit posted. Net profit therefore was £205 which gives me £6.83 a day – well below my “modest” target of £20 per day. Subscription fees continue to punish the profit at my stake level and clearly there are things I can do to change that.

Obviously luck plays its part and I suppose it evens out in the end but missing 3 winning bets one Saturday cost me £200+ profit on the month. C’est la vie.

So November my 6^th winning month of the year so far and total profit for the year stands at £3,545 which on paper looks and sounds lovely, the reality being that unless December proves to be a stormer I will finish the year in a net negative position. 2009 and thousands of pound profit seems like a long time ago.

Anyway here’s the number for each service;

Steve Lewis Hamilton: -£224 (-4.5pts). Admittedly 1 winning bet missed which would have made a difference but still a negative for Steve with another disappointing month to post. Think the fact that we’re into the NH season proper now makes the result much more frustrating. A lack of bets doesn’t help matters but I think its worth keeping the faith. One winning bet would’ve turned things into profit. My level staking approach paid dividends with 1pt bet Prophete De Guye delivering and 3pt Tempest River flopping. I’ve just re-subscribed to SLH until 1 April 2012 so we shall see how the rest of the season goes.

Equine Investments / Equine Turnover. Small losses on both these services as they kicked off the AW season proper on Saturday 26^th. Hopefully both can turn a substantial profit throughout the winter. I need Equine Investments to do tremendously well to break even. I’ve mentioned before my staking level with the main service is not sustainable with subs how they are, this joined with an impossible task of getting bets on at recommended prices make the service unsustainable for a punter like myself. A great service with handsome profit over the long run so cannot be criticised too much but not one I will continue with at renewal point – I just can’t make it pay. Equine Turnover has performed magnificently this year and I do plan to keep going with that one but it’d be fair to say pressure on prices appears to mount as each passing tip delivers.

Northern Monkey: +£190 (+19pts). Another very good month for Wayne at Northern Monkey. I had to laugh at his end of season review where he mentioned he wasn’t very happy with annual performance. Give yourself a break man! Happy as larry, could not be happier… Highlight of the month has to be Sugar Beet. It’ll be quieter over the next few months but tipping at its best for very low cost.

Football Elite: -£101 (-4pts). Disappointing month for Football Elite. I’d say this was a service that was on my watch list. Matt sent an interesting email at the end of the month which overall I couldn’t disagree with in terms of volume of bets and long term profit. I think the question is – how long do I want to wait before I return a decent profit? Again my level of staking is the issue here – not so much relative to the cost of the service – which is a very reasonable £15 a month – but in terms of volume of bets and odds achieved. It probably feels like you should be betting £100+ on each tip to feel the benefit of the service. However whatever the level of tipping over the last two years including subs I’ve made a loss and it does reach the point that you have to draw a line and move on – can I wait another year or two to turn a profit. I don’t think the nature of who I am will allow me to do that!

4PA: +£14 (+0.7pts). A poor month for 4PA with a flourish of winners in the middle helping us scrape over the line in the black. I’ve flipped my betting on this service with and am following the basic system bets over the account bets. Any account bet that isn’t a basic system bet I’m covering to minimum stakes. Clear evidence from the stats to show that this is the right thing to do and good profit can be made from simply following the basic system at £20 a point. As you will know I’ve re-subscribed for three months to see how things go and to allow me to try and do the basic thing myself. Well last weekend it never happened as I had no time and this weekend will be the same as I’m away for a wedding. So there is value in paying £400 a year for a service that can deliver +£2.5k a year on profit. Now questions are – could some one provide the tips at less than £400 a year and if they did would that be ok to do considering it’s a SBC tool. Answers on a postcard. PS – if anyone from SBC is reading this – I’m not going to do it so don’t have a go!

Weekly Update

2011-11-28T22:11:00.003Z

Sorry there's not been much activity over the weekend - busy as always and trying to squeeze everything is hard work! Anyway here's the update for last week (Monday 21st - Sunday 27th).

Overall... A decent week with a healthy profit made of £457. Five days in positive territory and no major damage done on losing days. Excellent performance from Systematic Betting really driving the profit forward. Takes the yearly profit up to £3,635 and November to date up to £746. With a few days left should be a profitable month after a difficult period. Football services all had a nightmare and Steve Lewis Hamilton had a dreadful week.

A good week for... Systematic Betting stormed back to form with an awesome week which was concluded with Carruthers getting home on Saturday at 20/1 recommended price (I managed to secure 18/1 with an SP of 10/1). Total profit for the week for the service was a stunning £1,038 (just under 52 points) and after what has felt like an eternity of treading water we're over where we were at the previous peaks in July and at the beginning of October. Long may it continue!

A bad week for... The overall profit of £457 vs. Systematic Betting profit of £1,038 shows how poorly other services performed this week and in particular Steve Lewis Hamilton had a stinker with a whitewash of a week and £250 down. 8 losing bets for Steve in a row now and the NH season I had so been looking forward to has been not been forthcoming. While Steve acknowledges the poor run, we've been here before and 1 or 2 decent priced winners will turn things around. So I won't lose hope yet and will re-subscribe. The "mentions" are doing well so is a good way to mitigate main account losses - appreciate that's not the point but may be worth following.

Any other news.... Slightly worrying run of form from Football Elite with 4 losing bets out of 5 on Saturday puts us in negative territory again for the season. I have this service on my "watch list" now along with Piecost and The Market Examiner - three services on my portfolio that are hardly setting the world alight. May be forced into making some decisions at year end if there are no signs of improvement. Not much else to report - Equine is back up and running for the main all weather season but no main bets yet and two losers from Turnover on Saturday - here's hoping for a good winter of profit!

Another good day

2011-11-24T23:28:00.003Z

Systematic Betting finally on a bit of a role with 6 days profit in a row. Longest run of profit since beginning of May. Market Examiner and Northern Monkey also contributed to todays profit and another very good day despite a poor day from Piecost and two losers from Steve Lewis Hamilton. Disappointing start to the NH season from Steve - and we are running through a plateau in performance of the service with zero progress since July. This does tend to happen with the service although I hope things turnaround soon as we progress into Steves area of expertise.

I've had a look at the stats from 4PA provided by SBC which make interesting analysis. If I had solely followed the basic system bets over 2011 at my current level of £20 per point then I would be £2.3k up on the year! Going back in 2010 this would've been £1.9k. Odds are rarely achievable on the service so lets reduce the 2011 profit by 30% and take the £399 sub into account - which would still mean that I would've made £1.2k net profit year to date.

So why has my profit only been £269 for 2011 - simple reason is that I'd followed the account bets for most of the year rather than the basic system and the official account record (at £20 per point) is only showing a £194 profit.

So what does this mean - well if I just continue to follow the basic system bets than there is decent profit to make despite the cost of subs and the odds of availability. The big question is - could i do it myself for free? The answer is probably not but I've decided to re-subscribe for a shorter period to get the basic system bets and at the same time look at whether it is easy or painful to work it out for myself. I suspect that its the latter rather than the former but will give it a go alongside the subscription and let you know how it goes!

Renewals

2011-11-23T22:40:00.004Z

A couple of renewals have come up this week - a bit of a surprise but the timing is right - wish I'd planned better for these!

Steve Lewis Hamilton - pretty straightforward this one and will definitely re-subscribe.

4PA - now this one is slightly more thought provoking - firstly the short notice deadline of paying subs - I've got until Friday to decide. Admittedly there has been a long free extension on last years subs so can I really complain - probably not - so I will park my grump there!!

Also the price is the same as last year (but you can subscribe for a shorter period). The question really being - with the under performance of the "tips" vs. the simple "basic system" - is, should the price be the same? Especially considering that you can get the 4PA basic system for free and do the work yourself. Probably not - but could I do the work and get the bets on myself - probably not! So subs price aside, paying to get the basic system bets is probably worth it.

I do have an additional consideration to bring into the mix - what staking is required before I can make money on the service? I haven't made a net profit this year and made a small profit last year so I need to get a bit more ruthless on who I subscribe to and what the net return will be.

So my decision - pending - but the clock is ticking!

Continued Progress

2011-11-22T22:23:00.003Z

Another good day today with Systematic Betting continuing a promising run and Piecost finally posting a profitable day for the first time in 9 days.

Tuesdays are normally quiet but Systematic delivered 6 winners out of 8 which is impressive after 9 out of 14s yesterday. Here's hoping the run continues - it's been a long time coming.

Got a tough day tomorrow in terms of getting bets on with meetings and travel for my real job taking over again but I can only do what I can do - I read somewhere someone said its the hardest way to make an easy living! Too true.

Couple of things I've been meaning to do and hopefully will get to it in the next couple of weeks is analyse Systematic Betting odds and what strike rates / roi is for different odds horses as well as reviewing my days of the week performance for the overall portfolio.

Weekly Update

2011-11-21T22:22:00.003Z

Here's the weekly update for the last week (Monday 14th - Sunday 20th).

Overall.. What started as a pretty depressing week with Monday to Thursday providing dismal result after dismal result ended up in profit after a dramatic turnaround over the weekend. Total profit for the week was £114 which doesn't sound like much but when I was £418 down by end of Thursday is a great result. For a change Saturday was the best day of the week - helped mainly by Northern Monkey and bets from The Football Analyst and Mr Gekko Bets. Total of the year is back in the right direction and it may be a sign the treading water is over.... Up to £3,178 for the year by the end of the week.

A good week for... Well a great start really for The Football Analyst delivering me 5 wins out of 6 bets and a £97 profit. Having looked at the systems and reading the reply to my comment - I am following a small number of the systems - 7-21, 7-22, 8-21 and 8-22. Working on a small stake basis of £5 a point - which if I follow these systems could generate up to 4 point bets. Will run with trial stakes for a while and see how it goes. So a good start for once when joining a new service - and all the info is free on the blog - here if you are interested - http://the-football-analyst.blogspot.com/.

A bad week for... Well the wooden spoon goes once again to Piecost who have had another nightmare week with a strike rate of 1 out of 33 this week. Shocking doesn't describe it - and offering up further bets (which admittedly aren't on the account) suggests a wee bit of panic to me. However it's a long term service and I'm sticking with it for a while longer. Pity these runs always happen when services go live. 76 points down in 1.5 months isn't good though.

Other news... I mentioned in an earlier post regarding the success of Northern Monkey - certainly makes me think about the price of subscriptions vs. the success of a service and the two don't necessarily correlate. One of the things I really need to do next year is drive down the cost of subscriptions or increase stakes on the bigger priced services. Suspect I will be doing the former rather than the latter!

Good start to the week today with Systematic Betting delivering a decent profit today - lets hope it keeps going!

Master At Work

2011-11-21T19:05:00.004Z

I was away for the weekend hence the lack of blog action. Before i respond to comments, complete my weekly update etc I wanted to drop a note in about Northern Monkey. What a service! Struggling to find a service that stakes right, reads races very well and when things go right - spot on! And all for less than £17 a month. Others please take note! Well done Wayne.

Here's the notes for Saturday;

This weekend has been one punters and racing enthusiasts up and down the country have been looking forward to greatly over the past few days - myself included. However, whereas the majority have been poring over the Long Run vs Diamond Harry vs Kauto Star clash in the Betfair Chase, part of a terrific weekend of jumps racing from Ascot and Haydock, I've been struggling to concentrate on anything but the 3 o'clock at Lingfield after seeing the final declarations for this 0-85 handicap on Thursday!

Quite simply, this race has the potential to be run at an absolute hellish gallop and I think there is a very strong angle in looking for a horse that will be delivered late, from off the pace. The fact the race takes place at Lingfield makes the race even more intriguing too because, of the four AW tracks in Britain, you would have to say that it is Lingfield that is most suited to hold up horses, with many runners catapulting themself into late contention after turning the home bend. If we adopt the angle that closers are the ones to be on, LENNY BEE and SUGAR BEET look the pair to focus on.

Lenny Bee has outstanding claims and has a favourites chance. I priced him up at 11/4 before Time Medicean and Bertoliver were withdrawn yesterday and I think there is still a small value margin in his present price. He lost his way when trained by A G Foster but is now trained by the capable Debbie Sanderson and could start to make up for last time as he was a useful handicapper two years ago for David Brown. With an excellent mark in this sphere - he was beaten by a quarter of a length off 10lb higher twelve months ago - I expect him to go very well. He is the most likely winner by some margin.

However, I have decided against backing him as the main bet, purely for reasons of value. I think the better value in the race is with Sugar Beet. Although Ron Harris' charge is a little bit of a quirky customer and undoubtedly deserves to be a bigger price than Lenny Bee, she looks overpriced as, if things drop right, she too has outstanding claims this afternoon, yet can be backed at four times the price (Sporting Bet and Sky offer 10/1 if anyone has an active account with them).

Sugar Beet is a 6f winner at this track but won't mind this 5f trip today, indeed, her subsequent progression has come since stepping back to the minimum trip, over which she won very nicely at Goodwood on her penultimate start. The handicapper reacted with a 7lb rise which demands further improvement from her but, at the age of three, there is good reason to beleive her improvement hasn't stopped and she will be slightly helped by a 1lb drop for her last run at Pontefract, when bumped leaving the stalls and racing out the back of the field in a race not run to suit (also worth acknowledging Lenny Bee finished ahead of her).

There is every chance that Sugar Beet could get scrubbed along out the back of the field and never land a telling blow and Lenny Bee, who I expect to be held-up in mid-division, could win this cosily. However, I am going to stick to my principals and side with Sugar Beet as I think the potential margin for value in her price is considerably greater than that if we were to back Lenny Bee. Rather than going in on Sugar Beet with a big each-way bet, however, I am advising Backing Lenny Bee as a saver as his odds of 5/2 are slightly bigger than the 2/1 from a Sugar Beet place (in a race paying each-way at a quarter of the odds. There are also only 8 runners left in the race and if another horse were to withdraw we'd only get paid out each way on two places) and I also want to have an egg in two baskets, rather than one, in the event of traffic trouble (which is quite possible given the way the race may unfold).

Advised bet: Lenny Bee 5/2 Paddypower, 0.75 pt win

Sugar Beet 9/1 Ladbrokes, 1.5 pt win

And the result taken from Sporting Life:

Pos.	Dr.	Dist.	Horse	Wt	Jockey	Trainer	Age	SP
1	2		Sugar Beet	9-4	L Morris	R Harris	3	8/1
		in touch, ridden and headway entering final furlong, driven to lead final 75 yards opened 13/2 touched 8/1
2	9	nk	Lenny Bee	9-3 t	J P Fahy (3)	Mrs D Sanderson	5	11/4
		in rear, ridden and headway approaching final furlong, ran on, not reached winner opened 3/1 touched 3/1 £825-£300

Enough said!

So Close

2011-11-17T23:22:00.004Z

The margins sometimes in this game are very tight - the case and point being the 1.05 at Wincanton with Steve Lewis Hamilton Calico Rose coming third missing out by 1/2 a length. Harder to take as I'd also bet on Wise Hawk beaten by a head in the same race. Wise Hawk followed through the great TVB blog by the way.

Then Emily's Flyer failing to win in the 4pm at Hereford for Systematic after apparently trading at 1.01 on betfair topped off another losing day which with those results turning around would have been a bumper day. I am amazed at the difference short heads, heads, necks, half lengths etc make to the profit margins - the problem being that it's more likely to fall on the wrong side rather than the right side!

Lets get the hoof forward for a Fabulous Friday??

This is the losing week!

2011-11-16T22:36:00.002Z

So the vicious circle of winning spell followed by losing spell continues this week with three losing days in a row contributing to what is turning into a miserable week. The lack of progress is soul destroying at times. The damage has been minimal this week but when you go nowhere you do wonder why you do this!!

High volume services like Systematic and Piecost continue to perform poorly with very little progress being made. While there appeared to be light at the end of the tunnel last week, we're back to square one again.

The lack of bets from Steve Lewis Hamilton is also telling - is he scared to enter the market or is the quality / type of racing just not worth taking the risk and he's doing the right thing in biding his time.

Whatever is going on I'd like to get out this rut!!

As I mentioned I'm starting following The Football Analyst bets from this weekend and am just in the process of working out which systems to follow and how it all works. Will keep you posted as definitely looks like a promising site to follow (and it's free!!)

Back Under

2011-11-14T19:27:00.003Z

Well back down to earth with a bump today with a losing day - can't win them all!

Quiet day but takes me back under the £3k ytd figure yet again.

Steve Lewis Hamilton has been quiet recently for the start of the NH season but I've started following the mentions again so will see how that goes - was quite profitable last NH season so hopefully a good addition for this season.

Weekly Update

2011-11-13T22:41:00.004Z

On the ball this week with my update!

Overall... A near perfect week with only Thursday letting me down. 6 winning days out of 7 and a profit of £752. If only all weeks could be like this! Brings the annual total to £3,064 and nice to be back over the £3k mark again!! Which amazingly is the 8th time this year I've been over the £3k level. The month of November is now in profit as well at £157 profit. Doesn't sound much but is good progress! A hard week in terms of getting the bets on as I was out and about quite a bit and used betfair mainly - to be fair prices have held up ok and haven't been impacted too much.

A good week for.... Systematic has performed well this week and put on 20+ profits so is this the start of the turnaround? Good week for Piecost too and nice to see a turnaround for this service with what has been a challenging start. Market Examiner also delivered profit this week and again it would be good is this was start of a change of fortune. Northern Monkey turned around a relatively poor spell, Steve Lewis Hamilton in profit and 4PA continues well!

A bad week for... a clean sheet this week so no one in the betting world to nominate! I'd like to start a rant about Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias but that's not really what this blog is all about.

Other news. I'm thinking about following some of the picks that come through the excellent blog http://the-football-analyst.blogspot.com/ run by Graeme Dand. Certainly looks interesting, and really progresses my aim of diversifying and not relying totally on horse racing. Equine re-start their services the last weekend of November so will be good to get back into that and hopefully will deliver more profit throughout the all weather season.

The blogosphere is awash with betting and trading blogs - many of which are great reads and I keep coming across more and more to nose at. What I don't see many of is blogs like mine where the blogger follows a number of tipsters - Playing It Safe is a good read - but if there is any more out there that someone can point me to that'd be great.

Here's to a good betting week!

In Place

2011-11-12T23:50:00.002Z

Decent day today and nice to see Saturday being successful.

A rare winning Saturday for Systematic was great to see, as was a good profit from Market Examiner which have finally turned the month into profit! Could I see my first winning month with Market Examiner this month? Here's hoping!

Slightly frustrated with my 4PA bets in the main race at Cheltenham with My Shamwari finishing 5th - and usually I'm very careful with checking place terms on these races but I missed the bet365 5 place offer and put the bet through Ladbrokes instead. So a £40 loss registered rather than a small profit on the bet.

Lets hope the good run continues.

Flatline

2011-11-10T22:53:00.004Z

Well the title and graph says it all - since 30 June 2011 I have chugged along winning some days, losing other days, winning some weeks, losing some weeks and 4 months later the vicious circle continues.

Why is it happening??

Well i'm often criticized for having too many services so I did some quick analysis tonight on what would have happened if i hadn't been following one particular service over another and while there has been progressive growth with some services like Equine Turnover and Northern Monkey the remainder of services have pretty much flatlined at best since the turning point of the year. This surprised me - I'll be honest I thought Systematic Betting was the cause of the flatlining and while it has contributed to it - it's not the only service that is treading water at the moment. So unless I'd just followed Equine Turnover and Northern Monkey through pure chance then any mix of service would've delivered similar results.

Certainly a few services are due a change of fortune - Systematic, Piecost and Market Examiner are delivering plenty places that surely will bring wins instead over time but other services haven't performed - SLH, Equine and 4PA have all been below par for a long period.

So where do I go from here? How long do I wait for everything to turnaround - whether it is fortune, statistics or performance?

Answers on a postcard...

Weekly Update

2011-11-08T23:38:00.002Z

A slightly later than planned weekly update for last week.

Overall. A disappointing week with a loss of £569 posted. Only 2 small winning days out of 7. So not a good week and certainly one I was getting thoroughly fed up with - so not a good start to the month of November. Clearly not helped by missing 3 bets on Saturday - all of which won and 3 winning bets from Mr Gekko Bets midweek. That cost me £300 and I only have myself to blame but it's a great example of how luck plays its part.

No excuses for missing the MGBets - I just forgot, but Saturday was an example of luck and also how difficult it is to have a normal life and try to run a portfolio. I was out and about with a few friends at the football and I simply couldn't get the bets on as there was no network data coverage in the ground. I gave up because I actually wanted to watch the match rather than try to get bets on!! Typically they were 2 of the 4 winners from Systematic and the 1 winner from SLH. Argghhhh... But c'est la vie - I've missed plenty losing bets so I presume it all evens out - just frustrating! Well at least Newcastle won and it was a great day out!

A good week for.... no one! Certainly not me. Although it's worth pointing out I use a service called "Racing Angles" for advice and I place small personal bets sometimes on the back of that info. That delivered the winner Zuider Zee in the November Handicap so that offset some of the losses as I had a fiver on at 14/1.

A bad week for... me! See overall!

Other news. Other than the whole thing hacking me off at the moment... I have switched my betting on the Market Examiner to e/w - evidence suggests that a large number of horses place so I'm going to see if it's worth pursuing. Certainly worked today with one place and one winning bet increasing profit.

October Review - Part 3

2011-11-08T23:23:00.003Z

Final service to review for October;

Piecost Premium Selections -42.33pts (-£212). Dreadful start to my piecost subscription with the service suffering a 2nd hefty losing month in a row. Missed the first month so started October with anticipation that profit will be forthcoming... timing is everything!! An email from Piecost has reassured me that losing streaks are within parameters but the service does need to turnaround if it isn't going to wipe out the 150pt bank that is recommended. I'm only playing Piecost on Betfair as I don't want more cash going through my bookies for now and as I'm taking early prices I'm only 97% off the recommended price so seems to be working ok from that respect. Not sure of the BOG impact though although the service officially lost 35 points so doesn't seem to be that much. Here's hoping November turns things around.

October Review - Part 2

2011-11-07T19:40:00.002Z

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.

October Review - Part 2 - the ongoing saga

2011-11-03T21:58:00.005Z

I'm having a bit of a mare at the moment as I've lost my charger for my laptop so am now tapping away on my wifes netbook! But it does mean I've no access to my spreadsheets and data so I can't complete a full review of October and needed my stats to complete my thoughts on Systematic Betting in October so will continue with that as soon as I can.

Much apologies for those of you waiting for the update - been a frustrating week for many reasons!!

Looks like today was another losing day but only just. Treading water is probably the best way to describe things!

Nothing much else to report at the moment although the pressure of a full time job and trying to get the bets on has been tough this week and it all becomes a bit wearing when there's little progress in the profit.

October Review - Part 2 - Coming soon

2011-11-02T22:44:00.003Z

Never got a chance to post last night as a quick trip to the pub ended up with a few pints of San Miguel being drunk! Never go near the computer if I've had a few drinks - would maybe make for livelier posts though!

A struggle today therefore so won't make much sense at this time of night tonight so will post further tomorrow.

November hasn't started too well and frustratingly missed the Mr Gekko Bets for Tuesday night - all three won so lost about £50 profit there. I suppose it is karma for the extra profit I made last week!

As a side note a healthy debate about the BetButler service on the smartsig forum has been keeping me interested over the last few days. Worth a read of the emails if you are a member.

October Review - Part 1

2011-10-31T22:20:00.004Z

A tremendous win for the mighty Toon tonight has fair cheered me up. Up to third so will enjoy that while it lasts!

So October started very well, fell apart during the middle of the month and then recovered slightly towards the end but it wasn't enough to finish in profit with a £323 loss posted. There really was a mixed bag of results from the portfolio but with Systematic having a very poor month there was little chance of ending up in profit.

A review of each of the services;

Steve Lewis Hamilton. -1.65 pts (-£83). Moved to level stakes in October but didn't work in my favour but despite there being 6 one point bets in the month the difference in loss was only £60 thanks to Wherrimon winning on the 27th. Poor month really for Steve and hope he picks up now the NH season is fully under way.

Equine Investments / Turnover. Out of season for both services really this month and nothing really to write home about with both services dropping a small amount. Hopefully pick up again once the AW season gets into full swing!

Northern Monkey. +27.65 pts (+£274). Tremendous month for Northern Monkey, in the main due to My Girl Anna winning with a 3 point bet. Ignoring this bet would be wrong as Wayne got the point structure of this bet perfect. Top rated bet and wins. Continues to impress at a very low cost.

Football Elite. +1.37 pts (+£34). Topsy Turvy month for Football Elite but good to see profit and a stabilisation of the service. Many suggest I should up my stakes with Football Elite but I think I'd like to see another season of good performance before I do that.

4PA. +24.18 pts (+£484). After a dreadful start to the month which appeared to herald a terminal decline 4PA has bounced back with tremendous results - both Edinburgh Knight and Exmoor Ranger being the highlights. Clear though that the basic system bet is delivering the profit and not the additional thoughts of PCB. Certainly following the BSB staking this month delivered additional profit that would've been lost if following the official staking. Question is - what happens now with the subscription of the service? Any SBC member has access to the system and could do the work themselves. Be interested to see - I'd probably pay for the bsb so I don't have to do the work.

Part 2 tomorrow!

Weekly Update

2011-10-31T19:24:00.004Z

Obviously today we've reached the end of the month so will be doing some number crunching later. Thought I'd do the weekly update first though.

Overall. Bit of a mixed bag of a week with 4 good winning days giving an overall total for the week of £227. Always good to have a profitable week clearly!! I was hoping that there would be enough to turn October into profit but unfortunately not and looks like I've had another poor month. While the Saturday debate continues - this Saturday was a profitable one so pleasing to see - thanks in the main to the 4PA basic system bet again outperforming the tips.

A good week for... Mr Gekko Bets looks like it may have started the turnaround. A few points profit added to the weekly total with both midweek and weekend bets ending up positively. Clearly I've reduced my stake beyond what was recommended and not a lot of £ profit made but decent return points-wise and its good to see. I will keep going for another couple of weeks on £10 a point and decide whether I'm going to re-stake.

A bad week for... Piecost. No doubt the dunce of the week and October looks like following September as a losing month. I don't think from emails that Piecost have sent that there is anything to worry about it's just disappointing joining a service on a two month losing streak. Pretty sure things will turnaround!

Other news... I've renewed my subs to Systematic for another 6 months. Hopefully the current spell of treading water will come to an end soon. Not much progress has been made over the last few months and it would be good to see this turnaround - especially with subs cost of £750 for six months. I had considered increasing my staking for Systematic to £25 per point as surely we're due a decent run. But think I might be pushing it a bit too far.

Back soon with a look back at the month.

Another decent day

2011-10-27T22:44:00.003+01:00

Forgot to mention that luck also played in my favour last night as Football Elite bet was lost when Atalanta missed a last minute penalty and I'd completely forgotten to put the bet on. So a relief for me that I didn't miss a winner but gut wrenching if I'd actually had the cash on!!

Another decent day today and the profit total has ticked over the £3k mark again for the year. Nice to finally get a winner from Steve Lewis Hamiltion which breaks a poor run (and finally my level staking paid off!!) and Systematic Betting continue to turn things around. Couple of solid places from Northern Monkey adding to things with only Piecost failing to deliver with the 2nd blank day in a row - I'm down 39 points on the month (thankfully I'm on test stakes of £5 a bet) but I'm reassured that its one of these services that can have long losing runs but bounce back.

Nothing much else happening - just hopeful the good spell continues into the weekend...

The Saturday debate continues

2011-10-27T08:15:00.002+01:00

For those of you who are SBC members I started up a topic on the forum a few weeks ago regarding Saturday betting - seems to have generated some discussion - well worth a read here;

http://secretbettingclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=622&start=20

You need to be a member to view.

Luck plays it part

2011-10-26T22:51:00.004+01:00

Would be fair today to say that luck played a part in me making a profit of just over £100 today. I was in a meeting for most of the day which meant that I missed the SLH telephone call, and 6 other bets. Fortunately all lost and meant I was up on the day rather than taking a loss. Nice to have these things work in my favour for a change.

With a little more luck we could end the month on profit although I've got £473 to make up to get there - we shall see but looks like October will chalk up as a losing month - the 5th of the year so far.

I'd always set myself an unofficial target of making a modest £20 gross profit a day - doesn't sound like much but this year so far I've only managed only £9.26 per day. If that tells you one thing - is that this is a tough business!

Turning a corner

2011-10-25T23:25:00.002+01:00

A decent day today with both Systematic and Piecost delivering profit. Certainly today helped by me mistakenly staking £20 on Comrade Bond (a Piecost tip) rather than the £5 I should've staked! It duly obliged! Nice to get a mistake delivering for a change...

Also started betting on Mr Gekko Bets again - have moved back to £10 a point due to the increased number of bets. Seems the removal of the filters have done the trick - there was 5.5pts profit over the weekend (which I missed) and another 3.3pts today for me. Will continue to bet and review stakes in a couple of months. Probably goes against what I have said in terms of dropping services but feels right considering the review Mr Gekko took and the tweeks made to the service. Be good to continue with more than 1 football service in my portfolio.

Weekly Update

2011-10-23T22:49:00.002+01:00

Well that was interesting... as if by magic Systematic Betting produce a belter of a day and clawed back 21 points today - is this the turnaround??

Overall. Another losing week although it ended up not being as bad as it could have been with a £329 loss, but thanks to today it doesn't feel too bad. Clearly not great obviously and it would be good if things could start turning around!! Three winning days but Saturday was another shocker and the damage was done. Dust ourselves down and look forward to another week!

A good week for... This week the honour go to Northern Monkey for having the balls to put out a 3 point bet on a 10/1 shot and it smashing home. Certainly glad I kept my subscription going and for £49.99 a quarter it's difficult to find a service that offers better value for money.

A bad week for... It was going to be 2 weeks in a row for Systematic but redemption today so I'm afraid it goes to Piecost - 15 points lost this week but again a high volume service so suspect things will turnaround soon.

Other news... Getting into the NH season proper now so will see how that develops over the next few weeks. Fingers crossed I can start the trading this week. Mr Gekko started sending bets again this weekend but I haven't checked if results have improved - I decided not to follow (on MGB's advice) but will see how things pan out over the next few weekends before making the final decision.

Onwards and upwards!

Challenging

2011-10-23T09:25:00.003+01:00

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few days - as I mentioned in the weekly update this week was going to be challenging in terms of work and getting bets on at the same time. While I managed to get everything done it may have been better if I hadn't bothered!!

Certainly been a challenging week with Systematic Betting dropping another 30 points over 6 losing days which brings the current losing streak since the 7th October to 73 points. Not sure how it compares to other Systematic losing runs but feels by far the worst since I joined and is certainly punishing the betting bank and the portfolio.

Graph below shows Systematic performance since 1 August and certainly not moving forward. I've chosen 1 August simply because thats when I upped my stakes to £20 a point.

Admittedly while the current run is worrying I know from past results that the service will turn things around and we'll get back to winning ways - it's just part of the game getting through these runs - and that's mainly about psychology.

With Piecost, Steve Lewis Hamilton, Equine and 4PA all underperforming this week it's been a frustrating time... again...

The only bright spot being the top 3 pointer My Girl Anna from Northern Monkey on Wednesday winning at 8/1 for me. So glad I re-subscribed to Northern Monkey and finally a service where I upped my stakes at the right time.

On the trading front I've managed to download the software and have a tinker with it but haven't yet had the time to get my teeth in and try it out - am hoping to do that at some point this week.

Weekly Update

2011-10-16T19:33:00.004+01:00

Just on my back from a cracking game of football at St James Park. Scorcher of a goal from Ameobi. Good day today on the betting front with a decent profit made.

Weekly update covers Mon - Sun.

Overall - down £184 on the week so a good recovery from the two profitable days out of the 7. Unusually these two days were on Saturday and Sunday which as we all know are two of the toughest days to make a profit. Doesn't feel too bad after the weekend and hopefully that's another poor run tackled and we can move onwards and upwards. So YTD just sitting shy of £3k gross profit. Need a whack above that to turn the net loss into profit before the end of the year.

A good week for.. no doubt about it, the week belongs to 4PA and the basic system bets. 2 winners and a place made for very happy reading on Saturday night and while I didn't get the 33/1 for Edinburgh Knight I'm satisfied with the 25/1 a did get. Definitely still feels the basic system bet is the place to be. Interesting to see what they do at the end of October when subs are due.

A bad week for.. unfortunately it's got to be Systematic Betting - just over £500 down on the week so a poor period. The large volume of bets means things can turnaround quickly and can easily recoup that loss in a day or so. Hopefully fortune turns and things will start to head back in the right direction.

Other news.. interesting to see The Football Analyst (see http://the-football-analyst.blogspot.com/) having a top quality weekend with results. Have been tracking the results to see if they matched the general trend of Mr Gekko Bets which they appeared to have over the last few weeks. Now does this mean that maybe MG was a bit premature in pulling the service - or at least letting us have the bets without adding to the official account? I'd be interested to know and extremely frustrated if it was a very profitable weekend.

Looking forward.. desperate to get tucked into the horse trading but I'm not sure it's going to be possible this week -am away with work for a few days this week and standard betting will be tough (if possible at all) never mind getting trading up and running.

Super Saturday

2011-10-16T14:26:00.002+01:00

I sometimes feel the general tone of the blog is negative with me constantly lamenting how badly things are going so I thought it was time for a positive post.

Finally had a winning Saturday with £434 profit yesterday. First positive Saturday since 27 August! The success was from an unlikely source as well with 4PA basic system bets delivering the whacking profit - through Dancing Rain and Edinburgh Knight winning and a healthy place from Castles in the air. As mentioned I played the basic system bet rather than the 4PA bets which delivered more profit than if i'd followed the account so extra happy with that. As a recent poster mentioned there could be some merit in continuing with the basic system as it's still delivering healthy profit.

Northern Monkey, Steve Lewis Hamilton and Football Elite all delivered positive returns while Piecost and Systematic's poor runs continue.

Poor run continues

2011-10-14T22:51:00.003+01:00

Well after soaring to new highs late last week we plunge to new depths today with an astonishing £1,400 lost since last Saturday. I don't often criticise Systematic Betting but it's certainly been a shocking 8 days with 41 points lost. Yikes! Things can turnaround quickly with Systematic but the service feels like its been treading water since I upped my stakes to £20 per point!

Steve Lewis Hamilton isn't on a great run either - 4 losing bets in a row - bringing us back even for the month with my new level staking!!

And Finally Piecost have managed to turnaround a profitable month into a losing one over the last couple of days!!

I did say I wouldn't worry too much about the short term but it's hard work sometimes!!

Anyway at least we have Saturday to look forward to....

To Diversify or Not To Diversify

2011-10-13T22:35:00.005+01:00

One of the things that often gets commented on or observed about my portfolio is that I follow too many tipsters. This doesn't surprise me and it's something that constantly troubles me - do I indeed follow too many tipsters?

My reason for doing this is diversification! But does it work?

When I first started this game I started out with The Mathematician, followed by Steve Lewis Hamilton, followed by God knows how many tipsters - truth was at that time I wasn't really thinking about diversification I was thinking about making as much cash as possible in as short a time possible!

But more recently the main reason for following the number of tipsters I do is to diversify. Clearly we all know what this means - when one tipster runs poorly, one does well and it smooths out the profit curve. It's an age old principle of investing.

Of course diversification does work - but I suspect the problem with my portfolio is that diversification isn't just about racking up the number of tipsters its about making sure that those tipsters focus on different areas of business just as you should spread your investments across the four main asset classes. Additionally though my staking is incorrect and not appropriate for some services - in other words staking is too low to ever make some services profitable.

So what do my tipsters cover and how do they operate;

Steve Lewis Hamilton - Racing - mainly National Hunt - opinion

Equine Investments - Racing - flat / aw - opinion

Equine Turnover - Racing - flat / aw - opinion

Northern Monkey - Racing - flat / aw - opinion

Football Elite - Football (European major leagues) - opinion

4PA - Racing - mainly big races / tv fodder - system / opinion

Systematic - Racing - All - system

Mr Gekko - Football (UK football) - system

Piecost - Racing - All (handicaps?) - system

Market Examiner - Racing - All - opinion

Clearly as betting portfolios go it's one that is heavily focused on racing, more focused on opinion than system and more focused on flat than national hunt. So while I think I have diversified the reality is that I haven't enough. Which doesn't mean that I am going to sign up to more tipsters - so don't worry!!

What probably needs done is some re-balancing and re-adjusting. This all needs supported by realistic staking which ensures that the portfolio is balanced in terms of funding and the weighting isn't to heavy on one service. I want to also add a few things to increase the opportunity for making money out of this business.

So what am I doing?

Well a few things;

1) While I'm still getting the emails from 4PA I will continue to follow the basic system bets. Once subs come up for renewal I'm likely to drop the service and not follow the basic bets at all. Think there is profit there in the long term but time to move on.

2) Dependent on the outcome of Mr Gekko Bets review I am likely to finish following this service - I won't be paying to re-subscribe.

3) Once my subscription of Equine Main is complete I won't renew. This isn't a criticism of the service - but a reality in so much that I can't make the service work for me on the stakes I can afford to play with. It's hard to get prices as well and the combination of the two make it the wrong service for me to follow.

4) I will use some of the stakes saved from stopping following services to increase my staking in remaining services.

5) I am going to look at some of the racing stats support services - and see if I can use these to create my own betting systems

6) I want to start trading and I've spent some money on the services of www.horseracingtraders.com just before the doors closed on subscribers. In the short term will only be able to dip in and out of this but I am quite excited at trying to work at this. Have got a few hours on a train on Sunday going to the football so will review all the info and strategies then.

A number of things therefore that will help improve diversification - it won't make things perfect but should help spread risk and improve profitability.

So a long post which has helped me get some things in my head down and has rambled along a winding route, ending where I hadn't expected when I started.

Of course, comments welcome.

September Update - Part 2

2011-10-12T23:34:00.005+01:00

Before continuing with the September review just wanted to mention that when doing the daily totals tonight I'd actually reached a new high for the year which surprised me - a welcome surprise though with yearly total peaking at £3,896 on 7th October. But no time to celebrate as a dismal performance over the last few days (mainly from Systematic Betting) has seen the YTD total drop back by £1,199. Some feat losing £1,200 in 5 days!! Suppose it reminds me of one thing - that things can rise and fall quite quickly in this game and don't worry too much about the short term.

Anyway back to September - here's the table of points and cash earned for the month;

And here's the graph for YTD to end of September;

As I said yesterday - ended up being a pleasing month - lets hope October can get out this awful period and come up the same way.

More thoughts tomorrow.

September Update - Part 1

2011-10-11T23:43:00.003+01:00

Finally managed to get back up to speed on the spreadsheets and have logged all the bets. Just working out the analysis but a brief summary of September performance below.

Total profit for the month was £634 which was a pleasant surprise bearing in mind the month wasn't progressing much at all until towards the end of the month.

A good month for a number of services - Steve Lewis Hamilton, Equine Turnover, Systematic Betting all providing decent levels of profit backed up by Football Elite with a good 2nd month of the season. Unfortunately the overall profit was brought down significantly by terrible months from Mr Gekko Bets and 4PA - and we all know these services appear to be in some disarray.

Taking subs into account the month was also profitable - I estimate this to be just shy of £200 a month. This is clearly well short of where I want to be post subs, but with the way things have been going recently I take this as a positive.

Will post points total / latest graph further thoughts over next day or so.

Pause in service

2011-10-10T23:44:00.002+01:00

No I haven't come to my senses and decided to jack this all in. Just thought it was worth posting that Mr Gekko has put a pause on the football service after another disasterous weekend.

I have to say I appreciate the honesty and communications from this service but do feel that some background investigation should've been going on while bets were still available to prevent a break in service. But fair play on holding their hands up and we shall see what comes out the other end!

My likely view is pretty much whatever the outcome, that i'll probably stop following though.

Up to my eyes...

2011-10-09T22:42:00.003+01:00

....in spreadsheet updates at the moment trying to get September finished and bring October up to date.

Will have it done over the next few days and update with some further thoughts after yesterday.

Back to work tomorrow...

Stinker

2011-10-09T00:01:00.003+01:00

I head home tomorrow after my break and get back to the grind of working life... This week had ticked up nicely in terms of profit and things were looking rosy until we hit Saturday and I've had yet another stinker of a Saturday. I've not totted up the total losses for the day yet but Betfair alone is sitting at -£504 on its own before I look at returns from bookie bets - first indications are you can add another £100+ to the losses.

Mr Gekko and 4PA both had complete wipeouts. These services are both disasters at the moment. For 4PA its the 3rd weekend in 4 that there has been a complete wipe out. All the more depressing and frustrating when the basic system (which is free from SBC) would've delivered a small profit today. Annoyingly this morning, I'd debated as to whether I should just follow the basic system or advised from now on.

My knee jerk reaction is to stop following both these services, accept the losses and move on in the direction i was wanting to head in. I should accept the fact that they might turn around in the future but be confident that I'm better spending my hard earned money on more reliable services. Clearly I can follow the basic 4PA system without paying a £400 pa sub (although advised service is currently free due to poor performance).

In terms of Saturday betting today has been another clear indication that Saturdays should be set aside and enjoyed rather than slogging over a pc getting bets on for half the day. Do I do this though??? Who knows.

Progress / Piecost

2011-10-04T23:32:00.003+01:00

Looks like things have gone well over last few days - haven't managed to bring things up to date but progress definitely made.

Will be interested to see if September ends up in profit - October has certainly started well.

Piecost have started well with the launch of the full service from 1st October - looks like for once I have joined at the right time after a poor month during the free period in September which I missed. Feels like a good service in terms of communication / service as well as tips. Glad I got in. I'm only betting small trial stakes on this service for first 2-3 months (£5 per point) to get a feel for it. Additionally am only betting on betfair and will watch how this impacts ROI - its a heavy betting service in terms of volume and throwing more bets at the bookies is potentially going to damage my accounts. If the ROI holds up at levels suggest for Betfair then it looks like it could still be a very profitable service.

Back on a regular basis next week. Good luck with your betting in the meantime

Scorchio!

2011-09-30T23:55:00.003+01:00

Now.. I bet you thought that title related to the hot weather at the moment - I chose a good week to holiday in the UK!

But really I was referring to Equine Turnover form - a 20/1 winner on Thurs and 16/1 winner today! Struggled with odds today though and best I could get was 10/1 rather than 16/1 quoted - more to do with a short delay in getting on for me but I noticed SP was 4/1 so cracking value bet!

A brief post really also to say I've published, read and commented on all recent comments - thanks for input. Worth reading comments if you don't already.

Still on hols - betting been easy to get on in the main although my laptop is now playing up. Visiting family tomorrow so may struggle to get bets on - maybe not a bad thing considering this weeks days of the week topic!

What a difference a day makes - part 2

2011-09-28T23:56:00.003+01:00

Thanks for all the comments from last nights post - good to generate a bit of debate. Certainly food for thought and what to do on Saturday!

Profitable today thanks in the main to Northern Monkey who got us a 12/1 winner and a 9/1 place - perfect timing for my new staking! Systematic ticked up another notch today with a small profit but a loser from Equine Turnover.

As I mentioned I thought I'd look at Systematic Betting daily and here are 2011 figures;

Monday +£1,439

Tuesday +£1,156

Wednesday +£621

Thursday -£1,349

Friday +£452

Saturday +£22

Sunday -£532

So slightly different profile to the portfolio and the early part of the week is much more profitable than the latter half. Thursday is a shocker, and Sunday is poor, whereas there is a scrape of a profit on Saturday. (quick addition - my numbers for systematic aren't reconciling but they are only a few quid out so doesn't impact the overall point)

Interesting figures. Sunday racing quality is generally poor so our argument that competitive racing makes it difficult doesn't stack up with that.

Anyway more food for thought. Comments / thoughts welcome.

Couple of additional points tonight;

* I've signed up to the Piecost Private Service - this is the type of service I want to follow going forward - based on systems rather than opinion. This statement may seem at odds with me signing up for another 3 months with Northern Monkey but Waynes service is profitable so why give it up? Additionally good "opinion" services - SLH, Equine Turnover are worth keeping going while I shift from other services to ratings / system services as well as look at other potential angles (i.e. trading / my own systems).

* I'm about to head off on holiday for 10 days, which will involve a bit of a tour round the UK visiting friends and family. The iphone and laptop are coming with me so plan to be betting but the blog posting may be slightly more erratic.

Good luck!

What a difference a day makes

2011-09-27T22:30:00.004+01:00

Not much progress today - well none at all really - as my staking change on Northern Monkey and Steve Lewis Hamilton has yet to work in my favour.

Following my post the other day on how Saturdays weren't really working out that well on the betting front I thought I'd add up each day and see where it ended up - and here are the results;

Monday +£818

Tuesday +£1,463

Wednesday +£666

Thursday -£1,228

Friday +£1,599

Saturday -£1,159

Sunday +£270

So - what does this tell me? Take Thursday and Saturdays off? Who knows! I have seen and heard as well as spoken to people who always say you should never bet on a Saturday as it's too tough to call. God knows what the problem is on Thursday though although it looks like Systematic Betting contributes to the majority of the loss on this day for some bizarre reason.

I'll look at Systematic and all individual services over each day out of interest more than anything. Not sure we can draw any conclusions. Thoughts welcome.

Why do I do this - part 2

2011-09-26T22:59:00.001+01:00

For part 1 refer back to my post through the links on the right hand side.

So after reading the Observer articles I spent the best part of the next 3 months debating as to whether I should take the plunge!! I finally signed up to The Mathematician, choosing that over Steve Lewis Hamilton or Sport4Profit simply because I thought the subs were more manageable.

The service ticked along nicely and I made a small profit but the account bets were few and far between and I was hooked that this could potentially be a good way to make money. I decided to join SLH to try to ramp up the potential profit - I joined bang on the right time as Steve hit a massive long purple patch.

About the same time as joining SLH I had a brief email conversation with Greg Gordon to ask about how I got decent proofing of other tipsters - and Greg introduced me to the Secret Betting Club and I was amazed that all this was going on and I'd known nothing about it!! I immediately joined and anticipated the monthly newsletters with as much anticipation as I had waiting for my weekly Record Mirror magazine when i was a kid.

And really thats where portfolio betting kicked off for me.

2008 and 2009 were both very good years. Things haven't gone so well for me since then - last year was a tough old slog and this year hasn't been much better. I've made plenty of mistakes, been burnt by following some poor performing tipsters; I chopped and changed too much over time while not really having the right balance across the portfolio but am beginning to pull together a plan as to how I take this forward to try to run it like a proper business which will make me a respectable 2nd income each year. I'm not looking for much. £20 a day profit would give me £7,300 a year tax free income. You'd need to earn £10k plus to get that from a taxed income.

There's been more than once that I've thought about jacking it in, but I've enjoyed it - Steve Lewis Hamilton's 33/1 shot the day before Cheltenham 2009 being the memorable highlight - it was the 1st day of my honeymoon and I slipped the bet in and the resulting profit paid for the week!! Tremendous.

More to follow.

Weekly Update

2011-09-25T23:22:00.002+01:00

Ok - back to business - here's the weekly update;

Overall - surprisingly a good week - with a £167 profit on the week. I had expected a loss so a pleasant surprise. 4 winning days and 3 losing days - the saturday shocker causing serious damage. So progress in the right direction - but still a long way off the peak of the year.

A good week for - Systematic Betting - putting on £365 on the week. Thanks in the main due to a bumper £440 on Friday. Pretty volatile service sometimes but to be expected due to the volume of bets. Difficult to get prices on a lot as well - especially as I don't have a Stan James or Sky bet account due to closures.

A bad week for - both Mr Gekko Bets and 4PA continue to perform appallingly. 4pA having another wipe out this weekend and MGB ratings failing to do the business. Question is, are these services broken?

Other news - Northern Monkey subs up and am going to continue with the service. 6 profitable months this year. Am going to remove my "trial" staking and double up to £20 per point. Watch the service plunge.... Have moved to pure level stakes with SLH - i.e. £25 e/w or £50 win no matter what the points recommended are. Lets see how that goes as well.

Here's to a good week!

Integrity

2011-09-25T22:49:00.004+01:00

Thanks for those of you who have commented on my post last night re SLH. I do believe that the feedback received was constructive and I take some of the points mentioned (especially re telephone line etc).

I have to admit that I was beginning to feel that my blog was becoming a vehicle for one or more person(s) who had a grudge against SLH and it was beginning to wear me down. While admittedly the service hasn't progressed over the summer, it certainly has been a decent year so far. I'm on £25 - £50 stakes and I've made £1.6k gross profit. Not bad!

I want to post every comment that i get as I want the blog to be an open forum for debate, thoughts, advice and general chat. However I do believe the integrity of the blog is being damaged by constant remarks over the perceived quality of this particular service - I think perhaps I've been naive in publishing and responding to some of the comments. From what JP mentions in his comment some of these are nothing new.

Anyway to cut a long story short - I'm drawing a line under this and we move forward from today! Lets hoping the betting does the same!

Another Saturday Shocker

2011-09-25T00:21:00.001+01:00

It's reaching the point where i begin to dread Saturday betting. If I'd sat out Saturdays all year I would be £1.1k better off which is quite an unbelievable statistic.

Not one of the services I follow could manage a profit today and £417 was knocked off the account - despite a huge number of bets being placed. It does make me wonder if Saturdays are just too hard even for the pro's.

The damage wasn't too bad overall as a bumper day from Systematic Betting on Friday with £440 made in one day cushioned the awfulness of today.

------

Loads of comments have come in recently regarding Steve Lewis Hamilton service - the service does seem to attract a lot of attention and a huge amount of negativity, especially when there are losers. I am happy with the comments coming in and am keen to debate the merits of any service but I am surprised at the overwhelming issues some people have with the service. Equine Investments Main Account hasn't had a great couple of months but no one comes in and moans about that. So if anyone can answer why Steve Lewis Hamilton attracts such criticism I'd be interested to hear.

I have no interest in promoting or publicising a service - I just pass on the facts and sometimes get annoyed / frustrated / happy with each and every service - but if you look at the SLH private service for this year - I'm 65 points up and well in profit (even taking into account the subs) - so if everyone has followed for the same period then they must be doing well so not sure why there is so much criticism. Anyhow look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Auto-stress!

2011-09-22T23:39:00.000+01:00

Was out this morning so when I got back in I thought I'd run the Systematic autobet system to run the bets for me in the afternoon to save a bit of time! Well in terms of placing bets it certainly did but I spent most of the afternoon checking betfair to see if the bet was placed and also checking prices and whether I was going to get a decent price. Made for a stressful afternoon and not very enjoyable.

That was my fault and no criticism of the system. Think it will be useful when I am away for the day and struggle to get my bets on but not when i am available to put them on at the time they are tipped. This in the main because of lower prices just before the off which is going to reduce the ROI significantly.. and not because of my neurotic behaviour of checking all the time!!

Decent couple of days on Monday and Tuesday followed by a losing day today with SLH and Systematic going awry.

Finally got a winner out of Equine Main yesterday although the price I got was way off the headline price but that was partly because of the delay in me getting the bet on. Great couple of days for Equine Turnover - the younger brother of the Main account but significantly outperforming his older brother this year and a double bonus of it being much much easier getting the prices on. Certainly makes me think for subs renewals.

Am going to look at upgrading my spreadsheets following the new ones on offer from SBC Advanced - haven't had a chance to review as yet but will look at over the weekend.

Weekly Update

2011-09-21T23:47:00.001+01:00

Finally up to date with my spreadsheets (well not today) but doesn't make for happy reading and thought I'd show last weeks performance

Overall - £264 loss on the week. An excellent start to the week again - putting on £351 on Monday and Tuesday and then having 5 losing days in a row. Puts the year on £2,432, taking subs into account that turns into a £1,487 loss. Mmm - not good. I originally climbed up to the £2.4k on 24 June - so three months later and I'm back in that position.

A good week for... Northern Monkey - £96 on for the week even with my £10 per point stakes. Excellent performance. Also Football Elite - back on form with 3 winners out of 4 and £121 profit. Lets hope these good runs continue,

A bad week for... Equine Main Account - dropping £120 and another disappointing week.

Other news... First time I've had 5 Systematic Betting losing days in a row - frustrating after an excellent start to the week. I also should've had a proper break over the weekend and would've been £530 better off over the four days by having a break. A lesson learnt?

Looking forward... To nothing really - continues to be a hard and unappealing slog! Although am going to see if I have time to trial my Systematic staking on getting on at 1 min before the off using the autobet system and see how that feels and what the price differential is between getting on quick and the off.

Expensive Weekend!

2011-09-19T23:30:00.004+01:00

And I'm not just referring to the €7 bottles of beer in Spain!

Not had a chance to tot things up since I last updated on Tuesday - a huge number of bets over the last few days and while it was easy to get the bets on while I was away, thanks to high speed wifi where I was staying and new cheaper data plan from Orange. There was little point in doing so as from what I can tell the portfolio made very little progress and I suspect there's been a few more steps backwards despite the volume.

I've replied to comments and hopefully will be able to provide an update over the next few days.

Auto - success!

2011-09-13T23:35:00.000+01:00

Systematic Betting have introduced a new automatic betting tool for placing bets on betfair and I used it for the first time today - seemed to have a magical effect on the horse running as we had 7 winners out of 9 who started giving me a £329 profit on the day.

It's a good tool, but places bets just before the start so long term ROI will be lower than early prices - but still profitable with a good rate of return. It'll be useful for when I'm short of time - as is the case on many days these days - as I can add the file and leave it to run on the computer. Definitely also worth using to minimise bookie bets and I may use it when I start to increase my stakes. So really pleased with this addition to the service at no extra cost!

Not much happening elsewhere, couple of small losing bets from Northern Monkey which would be especially frustrating when Secret Millionaire who Wayne has followed won and we weren't on!

As I mentioned earlier in the week I'm away on a short break from Thursday to Sunday so with a nice 5am start on Thursday this will probably be my last post until Sunday / Monday night. I aiming to bet over the coming days but if there is no wifi access where I'm heading, the cost of using 3G is so extortionate I may not get a chance.

Last thought.. if I could win £329 a day then that would be a cool £120k a year!! Nice work... LoL

Fair Play to Mr Gekko

2011-09-12T22:42:00.002+01:00

Fair play to Mr Gekko for his email today to members - apologising for the weekend results and offering to continue the service for free until further notice for existing members. I don't know whether this is a knee jerk reaction but it does feel that the ratings have been underperforming for a while now (last period of last season and now the start of this season). The question is - is this a blip or a flaw in the ratings? If it's a blip then we ride it out, if its a flaw then its better to know now. I think analysis from last season suggests that the ratings are fundamentally sound so its a blip.

Unfortunately I can't compare to last year as my results records are poor but I seem to recall a poor start to last season.

I also want to direct you back to the comments on my "Boyle-ing" post - great comment from Banaz which is worth a read. Many thanks for posting.

Really do appreciate all the comments everyone adds to the blog - makes it's a much much better read for me and I hope everyone else reading it.

Not a lot much else to say today other than a small profit made on the day of £28 - thanks to Systematic Betting - unfortunately another loser from Equine Investments - Little Black Book - which seemed to be appearing on nearly every tipsters radar... (I'm still not buying Mr Gekko's multi bet success ROI!!)

If i made £28 a day every day I'd be happy - that'd be £10k+ a year. Maybe that should be my target????

Reflection / Weekly Update

2011-09-11T23:12:00.000+01:00

Have been reflecting on my post last night and how things have been going in general and I suppose it's fair to say I'm probably most annoyed with myself for a number of reasons - not being aware of total subs and the impact on my net profit for one.

I'd asked Mark from the Trading Horses blog how I would get into trading as I consider other ways of making money out of this business. Mark mentioned there were three key things - patience, discipline and overcoming the disposition effect. These are certainly relevant to my betting portfolio as well. Certainly need the first two - definitely lacking and do sometimes bury my head in the sand. Overcoming the disposition effect - or cutting my losses rather than dragging poor performing services on forever - is also key.

As I mentioned yesterday I'm not going to rush into anything though and will play things out over next few months.

Anyway thought I'd give a weekly update to see how things are progressing.

Overall - £94 profit on the week. An excellent start to the week - putting on just shy of £600 up to and including Wednesday and then falling back the rest of the week.

A good week for... Steve Lewis Hamilton - £341 on for the week with two good winners. Wrestled back most of August's loss now which is good to see - with the NH season just round the corner hopefully we'll see some more scores on the door.

A bad week for... Mr Gekko Bets - 1 winner out of 12 on Saturday - dreadful start to the season.

Other news... Equine Main Account continues to disappoint with £67 loss on the week.

Looking forward... this week I'm away abroad for a few days Thursday - Sunday so will struggle to get bets on but will aim to keep going I think.

FFS

2011-09-11T00:03:00.002+01:00

And the title of the post isn't because I've just spilt a bowl of peanuts over the floor while watching MOTD...

It kind of sums up how I'm feeling at the moment about this whole game. Today wasn't a particularly bad day - cracking 8/1 winner from Steve Lewis Hamilton in the St Ledger (why only 1 point though!!!) and decent show from Equine Turnover (again!) and 4PA (thank goodness!) but three things have annoyed me over the last couple of days;

1) Mr Gekko Bets - stinker of a day today - 12 bets average price 6/5 and only 1 winner!!! Now I know it's just the start of the season but it's been a bloody awful start which continues an awful finish to last season. It would've been a lot worse if I followed aways at 1 point. But the story is we're 10 points down after the 2nd week of the saving and that's already a lot to make up at these prices. Pumped today into the loser bracket. I do have 6 weeks free - needs to be a serious turnaround if I continue subs.

2) Failure to get on at prices recommended by Systematic. No criticism of the service but a spot check of September shows that my lack of price success has already made a difference of £200 already in the figures. It was a difference of £530 last month and you know how that impacted my figures. Not sure how to tackle this one but it's immensely frustrating.

3) Most importantly I did a tally of subs vs. profit this year last night and taking YTD subs into account rather than being in profit I'm down £1200 on the year. I thought I was breaking even but clearly not!! Really was a bit of hammer blow this one.

So where do I go from here??? I'm seriously beginning to wonder if following a portfolio of services is the way forward. Interesting comment on the blog on last post made me think as well.

Now this is all easy in hindsight but lets say I followed SLH, Equine Turnover, Northern Monkey and Systematic only. These are the services that I think the subs match the performance and low and behold I'd be £5k + in gross profit for the year which would be a healthy £2.6k net profit for the year. Doesn't sound like a lot but I'm not actually looking for much a year - just a few hundred quid extra a month in my pocket would be good.

There is the added problem in so much as you continue to follow tipsters who are successful your card is marked by the bookies which makes it exceptionally difficult to continue and get the best you possibly can.

There's a couple of things i'm probably going to do over the next 3 - 6 months;

1) Reduce the number of services I follow to 4 or 5.
2) Look at some of the ratings software out there and use some of that.

I'd also like to get into a bit of trading but that's a pipe dream to be honest.

My advice to anyone who is getting into this game - it certainly isn't the get rich quick world so many people think it is.

Boyle-ing!

2011-09-09T22:52:00.000+01:00

Mmm... a poor Friday with all services posting a loss.

Equine - 2 losers out of 2
Equine Turnover - 1 loser and 3 x double losers.
4PA - 1 loser out of 1
Systematic - 10 losers out of 12!

And I missed Northern Monkey's bet - but it lost so no harm done!

Ouch.

My post title comes from the following email received from Boylesports;

As you are aware, Boylesports.com provides extra value for its customers through regular promotional offers such as Cashback Specials, Best Price Guaranteed and Free Bets.After a review of your account we have decided that it will no longer benefit from these and other gestures classified as ‘special offers’.

Well it could be worse and they could've closed my account but another knock for the betting portfolio. And people really can bet £250 on bets and not get their accounts closed?? Max I've ever bet with Boyle is £20!!

Ticking Over

2011-09-08T23:12:00.001+01:00

Things are ticking over ok again and we ticked back over the £3,000 mark for the year yesterday before dropping back after a losing day today.

Nothing much to report other than 4PA's poor form continues which is a growing concern. Since the peak of 25 June when basic system bet Tominator came in (which wasn't an account bet!) the service has dropped 27 points for me. It doesn't sound a lot but adds up to £545 drawdown for me. Hopefully the wind will change and things will improve but at the moment it doesn't feel like we're going anywhere.

Systematic Betting have posted August headline results up of +9 points which is no surprise but hard for me when I posted -18 points so a big difference in results - simply for missed bets and failure to get on at recommended price. Will need to work harder re this - my lack of Stan James account doesn't help.

Here's a quick analysis of my points vs. Systematic each month this year;

Jan: 42 (me) / 45 (sb)
Feb: 6 / 28 (includes a holiday)
Mar: -9 / 10
Apr: -34 / -26
May: 70 / 69
Jun: 6 / 10
Jul: 73 / 90
Aug: -18 / 9

No real complaints but would like to get closer to headline.

Why do I do this? - Part 1

2011-09-07T23:07:00.001+01:00

A while ago someone asked a number of questions as to why I do all this and how I get started. This is my attempt to respond. I'll answer the questions in a series of posts rather than in one long rambling post!

When did your interest in betting begin?
I've always been interested in betting (well for as long as I can remember of my adult life) but absolutely hated losing money. I was a classic part time punter - maybe going to the races once or twice a year, having a few pints and betting a fiver a race as well as £2 here and there on the football and a bit more on accumulators in the betting shops. Also on occasion you would find me down the local casino betting on roulette with my 25p chips!

I remember being hugely excited when I opened my first internet account with blue square, putting a couple of accas on and seeing potential winnings popping up!!

To be fair sports betting hadn't been on my radar at all as a way to make serious money back then - I was, however, keen to supplement my main income to give me a chance to enjoy a few finer things in life rather than endlessly breaking even month in month out. I'd signed up to a lot of free money making websites and would get bombarded by endless "get rich quick" ideas (scams??) that looked awesome but in the end (thankfully) my cautious nature told me that these were generally too good to be true. Additionally I started selling stuff on e-bay but there's a limit to how much you can buy and sell to make a profit on there unless you have a huge amount of time to devote to it and I ended up buying tonnes of 12" dance records instead!!

Eventually my interest in sports betting was pricked when one of these emails advertised a service called Football Betting Data / Sports Statistician (forgive me if the names are wrong). Looked quite interesting and the cost was minimal - £97 or something for the year. I got the emails through etc and made a small amount of money through the service - but with the Sports Stats service you had to do some work and analysis and I wasn't for that - I wanted to make money without a lot of effort clearly.

My interest in trying to make more serious money out of it was sparked in 2006 when I stumbled across the series of Greg Gordon's (of progambler fame) articles that appeared in The Observer. You can find the concluding article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/jun/04/observercashsection.theobserver1

More to follow in future posts.

That's more like it...

2011-09-06T22:56:00.000+01:00

...thankfully!

A good day today and a nice £300 profit made thanks to Steve Lewis Hamilton and Systematic who were the only active tipsters today.

Good to see a winning day from Steve who has had a poor run of late and nice to see some of the seconds from Systematic coming in as winners with 4 winners from 10 bets. Missed some of the best prices as I was on the road and used betfair mobile to get on when I could.

Been reading a lot of different blogs etc over the last few days and has given me food for thought as to how I can squeeze more profit out of this business. More to come... probably.

Frustrating

2011-09-04T22:58:00.001+01:00

Saturday was a very frustrating day - Bated Breath looked like it'd won it to me only to be stung by the stewards in the photo - I think a dead heat would've been the best call but hey ho such is life - it turned a bumper day to a losing day - with both systematic and 4PA tipping it would've been a nice £300+ profit.

Too many places elsewhere so we continue to tick over with no massive harm done. Hopefully these 2nds / 3rds will click into 1sts and I'll start raking the cash in again!!

Only other point to note was that Mr Gekko Football Bets kicked off the season this weekend. Not a great start with 2 losers and 1 winner producing a negative return. Decided based on last years stats I'm going to play £35 for home bets and £25 for away bets. Definitely an argument for playing the draw no bet market as well. Haven't decided on that one yet though.

Here's to a good week - although I note the weather forecast is tricky all week so could be a struggle.

August Update - Part 2

2011-09-02T22:24:00.001+01:00

Before I start just wanted to say farewell from the blogosphere to The Portfolio Investor who's hanging up his typewriter! Unfortunate but understandable - it does take time to type up thoughts etc. Was a good blog and I will miss reading it.

Anyway back to business - here's the ytd graph until end of August -

Really does show the devastating impact of such a poor month on profits. So we go into September £1200 off the peak of 1 August of £3.7k. Some recovering towards the end of the month as you can see but nowhere near enough. I'm all for diversification but it always seems to be the way that if one tipster is performing badly then they all perform badly. Maybe I don't diversify enough!! There is definitely some overlap - with a number of duplicate tips day in day out - and mostly they don't seem to deliver but August is just one month in 12 and I move into September with high hopes!

Looking at the year as a whole there's been 4 losing months and 4 winning months and when you add subscription costs I've barely made a profit. Looking at subs in detail over the next few days but wanted to give a quick summary of whether I think I'm in net profit or not with a service - a simple yes or no will suffice for now with limited comments;

Steve Lewis Hamilton - Yes
Equine Investments - No - mainly due to my low staking
Equine Turnover - Yes
Northern Monkey - Yes
Football Elite - No
4PA - No
Systematic Betting - Yes (just - low staking and bad increased staking has caused this)
Mr Gekko - No
Market Examiner - No.

It's a slog - there's no denying it. I have an idea of what to do in terms of change but need to mull it over and see how things go in the next month or so.

August Update - Part 1

2011-09-01T23:37:00.004+01:00

Well the August review makes pretty grim reading with poor results pretty much all round with a couple of notable exceptions.

Note that I missed a few bets over the month so my results will not match any official figures.

This set of results means I post a loss of £1,057 for August which isn't great but is better than it was 2/3rds through the month when I was down £1,500!!

Only positives were Equine Turnover and Northern Monkey. Hats off to Northern Monkey who are my most consistent performer of the year - 6 winning months in a row. No other tipster can now match that on my list with Steve Lewis Hamilton posting a heavy loss in August.

Equine Main disappointing for August and it looks like Equine Turnover is outperforming the main service. Maybe not in cash terms but in ROI most definitely. Interesting in itself.

Certainly joined Market Examiner at a bad time and got my £20 stake wrong for Systematic Betting but suspect that with getting right prices I'd have been close to breaking even with systematic in August. Will be interested to see how my loss of 18 points matches the headline figure.

Will updater further tomorrow.

Living in the sticks

2011-08-30T22:58:00.003+01:00

Been away for the bank holiday weekend, hence the lack of activity on the blog.

Managed to get most of the bets on but I was visiting someone who lives in the sticks yesterday with no wifi so missed a few bets despite going to the top of a hill to get a flicker of a reception from Orange!! Betfair mobile on 1G doesn't work very well. LOL. It reaches a point where some days you just need to put the phone down and enjoy a wee break.

Anyhow doesn't look like I missed much. Working through the updates and likely will do my next post on Thursday with a review of August.

Only other thought is multi - tipped horses are doing my head in at the moment - The bells o peover being the latest villian today!! So much for these being gold - more like glue!!

Second-itis

2011-08-25T23:37:00.002+01:00

Quick post - firstly thanks for all the comments over the last couple of days (mostly about SLH) and I'll respond as soon as I can.

Been a decent few days - mainly thanks to Systematic Betting - but a poor day overall today - amazingly 8 tips from Systematic - no winners but 5 seconds and 1 other place - the fine line between an awesome day and a stinker!! Couple of other 2nds / places from others as well which is highly frustrated but c'est la vie!

Equine and SLH certainly having a very poor month.

Figures Adjustment

2011-08-23T22:16:00.002+01:00

My "Falling of a cliff" post should've said Steve Lewis Hamilton is down 13 points for me in August not 6.5 points. So even worse than posted!

The Fightback begins.....

2011-08-22T22:34:00.003+01:00

...well here's hoping. Bumper day for Systematic Betting today so hopefully this is the turnaround time for the month. I managed a 13 point profit today - would've been better as slightly tainted by missing another winning bet cause of my own stupidity!! That's £210 lost because of missed bets. Very very frustrating.

Falling off a cliff....

2011-08-21T22:22:00.003+01:00

Thought I'd pop this graph below onto the blog to show what's happened in the last few days...

Quite spectacular - so much so I double checked my figures to make sure the graph was actually right but the numbers paint a picture on their own;

August as a month down over £1500 so far. Last week took £1,040 off the scores.

So where has it gone wrong this month? Simple really - all tipsters bar Equine Turnover and Northern Monkey have performed abysmally. Diversification is all well and good but doesn't work when pretty everyone is doing badly;

Systematic Betting - the drop made worse by me moving to £20 a point of course. But down 46 points since 1 August on the prices I have managed to get on at. Not overly worried about this as things can turn round quickly but painful nonetheless.

Steve Lewis Hamilton - no winners this month so far and down 6.5 points. Typical SLH summer performance unfortunately.

Equine (Main) - minus 5 points. Turnover service is outperforming the main account this year on the stakes I follow which in itself is interesting.

Football Elite - poor start to the season with 4 losers out of 5 bets so far.

4PA - return to form seemed short lived and winnings earlier this month have turned into a 3 point loss.

It's a short term blip probably and this is a long term game but it's really disappointing to give back so much over such a short period.

I'd be interested to get any thoughts on why people think tipsters are performing so badly in August??

I've got a few posts to do in answer to peoples comments including info about bet banks / why i started etc so will try to get to answer some of these this week.

So - lets get back on the horse and earn some cash this week!!

A day to forget

2011-08-20T19:48:00.002+01:00

Just on my way out for a good drink after what has been a truely awful day of punting. One runner still to go which won't make much difference and I have my head in my hands!!!

Bad results all round - but made worse by my own forgetfulness. Didn't put the system bet on from 4PA at 8/1 and it romped home and forgot to put a Bfsp tip from Systematic as I was out and about when it came through and betfair mobile doesn't support sp bets for some reason so figured I'd do it when I got home... You know the rest of the story and that was at least 90 quid gone. So £130 minimum winnings lost cause of stupidity and from what I can see these were the only 2 winning bets of the day!!!!!!

Sods law and the icing on a shit cake of a day.

Dust down and take stock tomorrow - meanwhile maybe tonights trip to the casino will be profitable...

The rot hasn't stopped

2011-08-17T23:10:00.004+01:00

Another poor day today with only Systematic and Northern Monkey posting a profit - wasn't enough to cover losing bets from Steve Lewis Hamilton, Equine, 4pA and a shocker of a day from Market Examiner who lost 7 points today.

Particularly poor time of it from Market Examiner in August although as Sam's email said tonight still within strike rate parameters. To be fair I joined the service after a long period of putting profit on - invariably the worst time to join a service - and this losing spell statistically wasn't unlikely.

Results from the Ebor mixed with little action but 4PA producing 2 losers but Northern Monkey getting a 10/1 shot right and Systematic only bet at York coming in at 11/2.

So 12 losing days out of 17 in August now - will tomorrow be any different???

Who do I follow?

2011-08-16T23:24:00.002+01:00

No posts for ages and then loads at once!! What's happening??

A quick update for those asking on who I follow and my staking;

Steve Lewis Hamilton - £25 per point (max 2 points per bet). Probably should be higher to match subs cost.

Equine Investments - 20% of recommended stakes. Definitely needs to be higher to match subs cost. A big dilemma.

Equine Turnover - 20% of recommended stakes.

Northern Monkey - £10 per point. Trialing this service this year so happy with staking. Easy to profit due to low subs.

Football Elite - £25 per point. Not sure whether to up stakes - last year put me off but long term profit is there.

4PA - £20 per point. Probably not enough.

Systematic Betting - £20 per point. Have slowly moved up from £5 to £20 per point during the period I've been a member. Ideally want to get more but need a large bank for this one!

Mr Gekko - £?? per point. Haven't decided yet on this one for this season.

Market Examiner - £5 per point. Am trialing this service as well so happy with staking. Low cost makes this viable.

This year I also followed Neural and EW Value who both stopped tipping, Roger Green Racing who wasn't cutting the mustard and The Nagman who I felt was going nowhere.

I'll get subs figures and post these some point soon.

Awful August

2011-08-16T23:14:00.002+01:00

Well after painting the happy clappy picture of July, August is proving to be a bit of a stinker of a month with a draw down of £809 since 2 August - which means that I'm 21% down from my peak in just 14 days which is quite astonishing.

Clearly I've once again increased my stake for Systematic at the wrong time - a lesson learned I suppose as 26 points down on the month at £20 a point accounts for a lot of the drawdown. Unfortunately neither Steve Lewis Hamilton or Equine Investments have performed particularly well this month and I was lucky enough to completely miss Steve's call today at 4.30pm as he'd put down another 2 point loser.

It should just be a blip in the long march upwards but so far it's been a pretty hefty correction.

August 2010 was a dreadful month so I'm not holding out much hope for the rest of the month and my big meet nerves are jangling again as the Ebor festival starts tomorrow.... The weather forecast looks ok tomorrow but with some big fields it all adds up to.....

Will things change?

July Update - Part 2

2011-08-15T22:50:00.006+01:00

Here's the YTD graph to end of July;

So to end of July a pleasing picture and a sharp upward line from May onwards. In the back of my mind I'm looking at a pretty awful August shaping up and I suppose an adjustment was inevitable.

Where does leave each service points wise YTD - see table below;

Not surprising to see Systematic and Steve Lewis Hamilton top of the pile. Also points-wise Northern Monkey performing well relative to other services.

No real changes into August other than I've upped my stake for Systematic Betting to £20 per point. Not the right time to do it as I've dropped 23 points on Systematic in August!! I should warn other Systematic subscribers every time I up my stakes!! Same happened with the move from £10 - £15.

Does mean that Systematic dominates the portfolio and will influence strongly performance for remainder of year.

Broadly ok with how things are going across the portfolio though and no plans for radical change.

July Update - Part 1

2011-08-14T23:41:00.004+01:00

A rather belated update from July which is long overdue. Apologies for the delay - if I don't update on a daily basis it becomes somewhat of a chore to do.

Here's the table;

A cracking month overall with the third £1k + month in a row making the horrendous start to the year feel like a distant memory. If every month could produce £1k a month or more then it would certainly be a great way to earn a 2nd income.

July didn't come without its challenges - bookie restrictions on William Hill were a bit gutting and Stan James closing my account appears to have been inevitable. It's made me shift more to betfair - but liquidity on there seems to be drying up and I've seen plenty evidence that the premium charge is destroying the business. More on that another time.

Additionally you'll see that 4PA had a shocker of a month with a 21 point loss (this even with following a 40/1 basic system bet that wasn't on the main account!!). Luckily diversification does the job and the loss was more than compensated by other tipsters.

You can see Systematic remains the star performer - 73 points made is not far off the 90 headline rate and in the range I'm aiming for. Solid performances from SLH, Equine Main and Equine Turnover. My worry with Equine remains the odds availability and my level of staking is too low to deliver significant profit above the subscription. I can't change this at the moment and need to think about what to do.

So overall an excellent month and long may it continue (although August is proving extremely tricky again).

Will update tomorrow on daily peformance and YTD figures.

PS - thanks for all the comments over the last few days - will respond tomorrow to you all. Many thanks.

Steve Lewis Hamilton - Staking

2011-08-11T22:12:00.003+01:00

One of the things I'd been keen to do for SLH staking was to see if switching to level stakes would improve return as my gut feel has been that it would. I've completed a quick analysis of the last few months to see the results - outcome is quite interesting.

Here's the table;

What this tells me is that following level stakes produces a better ROI overall and a better profit figure - certainly seems like you get more bang for your buck.

A couple of words of warning - my current staking doesn't match SLH's recommended staking as I stopped betting above 2 points after my last review as I didn't think there was value in it. Have to say there haven't been many 3 or 4 point bets this year so not sure it makes a big difference. Also remember these are based on my stats and price I get so may be off official figures.

Not sure what I will do but certainly food for thought!

Hope it helps you with your betting!

Commenting and posting

2011-08-09T23:52:00.003+01:00

Thanks to everyone who has commented over the last week. I've neglected the blog a bit over the last few weeks. Appreciate that if you're an 'avid' reader then you want updates and info I've promised.

Whole point of me doing the blog was to give you my thoughts and feelings of how things are going with updates of progress and the occasional service review.

Dead keen for that to continue (and it will) and some times there will be gaps in updates as I've got a day job, travel alot for that and a 3 month old at home so please bear with me if there's delays in updates.

Great to get all the feedback so keep commenting! Full update including July review and SLH level staking analysis posted late on Thursday.

Cheers all.

July Update - Steve Lewis Hamilton

2011-08-04T21:06:00.005+01:00

I know a couple of people were keen to find out SLH performance in July before considering joining - and someone had mentioned an 8 point profit for the month.

Well for July I had just a whisker under a 4 point profit. 17 bets with 25.5 points staked giving a excellent ROI of 15.56%. Definitely missed out on a few points as I missed the best prices available so 8 is quite possible and if a 3 pointer came in then I've lost points there - annoyingly i think King in Waiting was a 3 point bet so that was probably the 4 points I missed.

Could've been a bumper month if Lost in the moment had come in at 16/1. I watched the race on replay - so unlucky.

YTD looking good - my figures giving me a 67.75 point profit - this produces a mighty ROI of 40%. No other tipster can match that as far as I'm aware.

Someone else mentioned the staking - definitely something I'm about to look into - level amount vs. points.

Hope that helps.

Steve Lewis Hamilton Update - Part 2

2011-07-31T22:45:00.006+01:00

One of the things that is always worth looking at when following a tipster is to see if there are any angles at eeking out extra profit or perhaps smoothing returns.

While tipsters maybe great at what they do (or otherwise!!) sometimes staking can be slight off. I certainly found this when reviewing Steve Lewis Hamilton last year - there appeared to be no value in betting more than 2 points on any of his bets - the 3 or 4 point bets didn't deliver extra. This meant I knocked my points back to a maximum of 2 points - something that I've followed since and it's not had any detrimental impact on overall ROI from what I can see.

Part 2 of the update looks at recent months and e/w performance vs. actual performance. Steve definitely has a lot of places and might be worth doing 1 point e/w rather than 2 points. I've looked at the last four months (April - July 23rd). While it's a relatively short period of time I think it gives the necessary indication of whether its an angle worth pursuing - haven't had time to bring my account up to date for July. I've knocked out the double bets as well (if you are wondering why the figures don't match the last table).

Here's the (small) table;

What does this tell me? Straight up following staking is better - less points, more wins, higher points and higher ROI! Simples.... Well yes but... - the ROI for the e/w performance is lower but certainly the returns are smoother and May and July have certainly proved better. Points profit isn't much different though - ROI is reduced simply because you need to bet more!

My view - sticking to staking better but I'm definitely going to keep an eye on the e/w option.

Hope that helps.

Part 3 of my review will look at whether it's better to move to level stakes vs. current stakes and I'll update table.

Excuses excuses...

2011-07-31T09:23:00.002+01:00

Sorry i've not been on for a while. My 'real' job has been somewhat hectic over the last while and clearly that takes priority. Anyway just a quick post to say I'll pop my part 2 of the Steve Lewis Hamilton review on the blog late tonight - just working through the figures today.

Hope u all had a profitable Goodwood. Think I treaded water at best from the looks of things. Good to see 4pa having some winners though and there were a couple of very near misses again which would've landed bumper payouts!

Shaky Ground

2011-07-27T22:48:00.003+01:00

Wasn't particularly excited about "Glorious" Goodwood in the lead up and nothing in the last 2 days has really changed my feelings about it!

4PA's dismal run of form continues with a 5 point whitewash on Tuesday and no bets today. Feels like a lack of confidence as well as although Frankel came up as a 4/5 system bet this morning PCB passed on it - seemed like decent value when you see it go off at 8/13 SP. Lets hope things will turn around - really need to as all profit in 2011 has been completed wiped out over the month of July for 4PA and I always bet small stakes on the basic system bets - would be a lot worse without them.

Does feel like 4PA is on shaky ground - while long term profit figures are excellent - and there's a lot to like about the service - it's not overly cheap and 7 months into the year we're in negative - think you should expect more from a premium service. HOWEVER one dog year doesn't make a dog life.

Not much really going my way today with Equine and Equine Turnover both drawing a blank today with a number of bets although Systematic continues to plug away quietly and efficiently.

Disappointing overall though - maybe day 3 will change things......

Looking forward to Goodwood?

2011-07-25T21:51:00.003+01:00

After a dismal weekend for many reasons things turned around today with good winners from Systematic, Equine Investments and Equine Turnover and put a few points back on the board after 5 bad losing days.

There were two two tipster tips today with Mariners Lodge with both Equine and Systematic and Royal Blade for both Equine Turnover and Systematic - both coming in as winners! So maybe I should add a bit of extra to my stakes when there's more than one tipster tipping?

Goodwood starts tomorrow - fingers crossed it's good one - I could well miss a few bets tomorrow as I'm on the road and won't be able to get to my phone too easily but thats a fact of trying to do it part time.

Sorry I haven't had a chance to update my SLH review - time is a bit tight at the moment - hopefully will get it to this week.

Hong Kong Island

2011-07-23T10:01:00.002+01:00

Just a quick note to say it was Northern Monkey who tipped Hong Kong Island rather than Systematic. Given a dreadful ride by all accounts.

The bubble has burst

2011-07-22T22:15:00.004+01:00

Inevitability is striking again as the bubble of ever increasing profits has been burst over the last few days with three bad days knocking the best part of £500 off YTD profits.

It's been a tough week with bookie restrictions / rapidly falling prices and other pressures preventing me getting bets on.

Today saw a few tipsters covering the same horse - a good thing according to Mr Gekko of SBC with stats showing that multiple tipped horses perform better - well it didn't happen today with Hong Kong Island (tipped both by Equine and Systematic) and Colour Vision (both Equine and Steve Lewis Hamilton) failing to win. Very frustrating.

Hopefully Saturday will turn things round but it's a bumper day of racing and that often isn't a good thing. Really need 4PA to find form again - we haven't had a winning bet since Brown Panther on the 16th June! Thankfully I follow the basic system bets as well which has dampened the pain of the losing streak but I'm still down £317 for the month on 4PA bets.

Nervy about Goodwood coming up as well - last year was a complete disaster and with none of my big guns performing too well at the moment doesn't help the feeling!

Suppose the highs and lows are to be expected and overall the year is still looking good.

Steve Lewis Hamilton - Updated Review (Part 1)

2011-07-19T22:34:00.007+01:00

It's sometime ago since I reviewed Steve Lewis Hamilton and the time I did it was the beginning of what felt a long treading water period. The purpose of the latest review is to provide a few answers to questions that I've been asked on the blog.

The last review was on the 27 March 2010. There is a bit of gap between then and the start of this review which begins from June 2010 and there's also a period where my records are incomplete but I am hoping this paints a picture for you looking for information.

Today I'll just focus on an update on points profit month on month from June 2010 upto June 2011 and here's the table;

As you can see there was a long lean period from June 2010 to January 2011 but things have certainly perked up from February onwards. Overall ROI for the 13 months still sits at an impressive 18% but the June to Jan was tough. I know I've missed some bets but there wasn't much else in the period.

Feb - Jun 11 we have an exceptional ROI of 62% and while results haven't been as "meteoric" as they were in 2009 - the profit has been ticking over very nicely and SLH is a key part of my portfolio - and despite the long lean period I'm still a loyal member of the service.

I'll have a look at some more detail in the next few days and some further analysis / thoughts but hope that helps in the meantime.

Interested in Steve Lewis Hamilton?

2011-07-14T23:06:00.003+01:00

I've had a few comments requesting performance of Steve Lewis Hamilton over the last while - I'll do an update and post a blog entry on performance - if there's anything particular you are interested in that's not mentioned in the comments let me know.

It'll be a few days before I can get to it but will definitely do so you can make your own judgement. Not been a good July for SLH so far but one winning bet will turn around the loss.

Stan James - an update

2011-07-12T22:59:00.003+01:00

Well my account with Stan James has now been closed and my balance transferred to my bank account! Think they'd had enough when I won a couple more bets on my restricted level.

Here's an edited version of my chat online with them. The most interesting comment being at 10.57.26pm regarding arbitration and 35%!

10:51:14 PM [SJ] Hello, Welcome to Stan James Live Support, how may I help you
10:51:38 PM [me] Hi - it looks like my account has been cleared of fund automatically - i don't remember making a withdrawal
10:53:20 PM [SJ] your account has been closed by our Traders, we have sent a email to you regarding this
10:53:45 PM [me] I didn't get an email - when was it sent?
10:53:48 PM [SJ] Please check your junk email as well please
10:54:11 PM [SJ] it was sent a few days ago
10:54:52 PM [me] Nope no email in my junk mail either. I had a chat with someone who said you were restricting my account but that was it - why the further change!!!
10:55:14 PM [SJ] the account is closed and can not be reopened
10:55:50 PM [me] Wonderful service. I managed to make £600 from you and you close my account!! Man alive! Not much of a bookie!
10:57:26 PM [SJ] I will be honest with you, you are beating us by 35% and also our Traders believe that you are using the account for Arbitration purposes
10:58:27 PM [me] Well I was on a lucky streak - I certainly wasn't arbing - surely that can be seen by the amounts I bet - thanks for the honest though. I presume there is no way of turning this round?
10:59:08 PM [SJ] I am afraid not....sorry

So there you go!

June Update

2011-07-11T23:07:00.005+01:00

Finally managed to finish my June analysis - here's the table and graph;

Year to date graph;

So... overall another decent month with Steve Lewis Hamilton, Equine Turnover and 4PA all delivering the majority of profit.

Made a decent profit with Equine Investments but the big problem was prices this month so hard to match the headline profit.

YTD looks good now and continues to tick up in the right direction. Lets see if it continues!

Pretty happy with my portfolio at the moment - I may add a couple of services run by SBC over the next couple of days - am mulling it over - but will be good to have another football service in there.

Stan James - A joke of a bookie

2011-07-01T22:37:00.003+01:00

Well it's no real surprise to me after reading a lot of other peoples experience with Stan James that my account was seriously restricted today. The account was initially restricted after a couple of weeks which was unbelievable and then today a could only get £5.70 on a 7/2 shot.

After contacting the live chat function I was told that "traders have decided my account is unprofitable". This is from an account that has been only open for 10 weeks, where I have placed 129 bets, never bet more than £25 in a single bet and made a whopping.... £610.... in profit.

My goodness - I must've brought them to their knees.... £610...

From their website... StanJames.com has become one of the most acclaimed names within the betting industry.

Mmmm.... I don't think so.

Hopefully June review over the next couple of days.

Ticking Upwards / Trouble with Prices

2011-06-26T23:15:00.003+01:00

With Mark from Systematic Betting on holiday it's been a quiet few days and has made me realise how much time I devote to Systematic tips!! But that's the nature of the service and I've just renewed for a further period as I'm still confident I can make it big with this service.

Good news though is the profit has slowly ticked upwards over the last few days with Equine Investments services doing the business and Tominator, a basic system bet with 4PA, landing the Northumberland Plate at 33/1. It's a shame they didn't put it up as a main bet as I would've had a lot more money on it but a decent return made.

There's a serious issue with prices on Equine Investments main account at the moment - Legal Legacy was the winner on Friday - I managed 12/1 on this horse but the price dropped like a stone as soon as the tip was put out. Not as bad as Racy, who was also tipped by Hugh Taylor and the price was gone within seconds.

On Saturday Silken Thoughts was tipped at 8/1 and by the time I got on to ladbrokes (2 mins) the price had gone to 6/1. It took Ladbrokes less than 2 minutes to drop the price.

I'm not sure how that happens but either they've got someone on the inside who's a member or they're reacting automatically to the exchanges. However it happens it makes it virtually impossible to get the advertised price which isn't good for me but isn't good for the service either.

To be fair to Equine they're trying to do something about it (although I'm not sure how much they can do) so we'll wait and see how that pans out.

Anyhow I'm off to Musselburgh tomorrow so will see if I can get some winners there!

Post Royal Ascot

2011-06-20T22:56:00.002+01:00

Well Royal Ascot produced a decent profit over the 5 days - nothing spectacular with a rise of £231 in the overall portfolio - majority of the profit coming from 4PA and (would you believe), Steve Lewis Hamilton who picked a couple of winners in Nathaniel and Veiled.

It could've been a lot better with a couple of mighty odds horses coming close - Bermondsy Bob at 40/1 and Vocational at 20/1 both coming very close to a bumper pay out for me. However if you asked me whether I would've been happy with £231 over 5 days at the start of the year of course I would.

Have to mention that Roger Green Racing has a VERY good Ascot producing 55+ points profit, not that I had any money on... and there were a couple of close calls that could've sent the profit soaring. Fair play to them. Long term ROI much improved but still not of "Hall of Fame" standard - will keep an eye on how things progress.

Overall it was enjoyable few days watching the racing on the TV - although I have to say I find Jump racing far more interesting to watch - I've always preferred the jumps to flat - and Cheltenham for me is much better than Ascot.

Royal Ascot - Day 3

2011-06-16T23:07:00.003+01:00

Disappointing day yesterday but didn't suffer too much.

A bit better today with 4PA producing the goods today with 2 big priced places and a winner in Brown Panther! Good day for Systematic which could've been awesome had Boomerang Bob won the first - managed to get on at 40/1 (set off at 20/1) and was beaten Bapak Chinta. Not too much pain as Systematic was also on that one as well - another decent forecast bet I missed!!

Been a couple of close calls on the big priced horses - maybe Friday will bring in a 40/1 winner!

Royal Ascot - Day 1

2011-06-14T22:19:00.003+01:00

A decent days results on the first day of Royal Ascot so happy with the start. Winners from

2.30 - Canford Cliffs - Tipped in a double with Frankel by 4PA

3.45 - Frankel - see above

4.25 - Power - Systematic tipped at 5/1 (also tipped Roman Soldier at 16/1 who was beaten by a neck!!) Should've had a forecast on as well!

5.00 - Veiled - Steve Lewis Hamilton tipped at 6/1 - a winner on the flat for SLH!!

5.35 - Frederick Engels - won for Roger Green (who tipped at 4/1) - interestingly a 5 point bet winner and if I'd followed my own advice about 5 point bets from Roger Green I'd have put some cash on but I forgot!!!

Decent day overall with a couple of good winners elsewhere from Systematic and Northern Monkey.

Some big odds tips could've made it a bumper day - not often I get tips in for 50/1 and 40/1 shouts!

Anyway took the profit year to date to a new high. Hope for the same tomorrow!

Fazza-tastic

2011-06-13T22:35:00.002+01:00

Well three of the tipsters tipped Fazza in the 2.45 at Carlisle and the horse duly obliged! Rare occasion when that happens.

Slightly dampened by the fact Systematic and Equine tipped within 3 mins of each other and the price had crashed before I got a chance to place my bets. 10.11am for Equine, 10.14am for Systematic. So I managed 5/1 best rather than the 8/1 quoted. Although Market Examiner spotted the trend and I picked that bet at the recommended price.

Not complaining but just shows the importance of being able to place bets quickly and not doing something else at the time. When you're working full time thats not possible.

Ascot tomorrow so hopefully not a big meet blow out. Working from home.... racing on in the background....

Roger Green Racing Review - Update

2011-06-11T23:06:00.003+01:00

As regular readers of my blog will know I've stopped following Roger Green Racing bets at the beginning of May. This was after what's been a poor year for me following this service. I missed a winning streak in February which obviously made things worse but I don't see much improvement in the service despite that.

The results in the tables below cover all bets (including the ones i missed) from 10 December 2010 to 10 June 2011 and results are updated to the best of my ability - there may be one or two missing but not much more than that!

The first table shows breakdown by point.

Points

Number

Points

Profit

ROI

1 Point

7.00

7.00

-2.14

-30.57%

2 Point

176.00

352.00

-37.51

-10.66%

3 Point

26.00

78.00

1.75

2.24%

4 Point

70.00

280.00

-54.38

-19.42%

5 Point

21.00

105.00

71.06

67.68%

6 Point

2.00

12.00

-12.00

-100.00%

11 Points

1.00

11.00

-11.00

-100.00%

Total

302.00

845.00

-44.21

-5.23%

As you can see doesn't make happy reading across pretty much all bets apart from the 5 pointers. (Note the 6 pointers were 2 e/w bets and the 11 pointer was an ill-advised Yankee).

The next table shows split by month.

Month	Number	Points	Ave Points	Profit	ROI
December	30	70	2.33	-0.71	-1.01%
January	38	93	2.45	-27.14	-29.18%
February	48	135	2.81	62.66	46.41%
March	64	191	2.98	2.23	1.17%
April	53	138	2.60	-60.24	-43.65%
May	56	175	3.13	18.00	10.29%
June	14	43	3.07	-39.00	-90.70%
Total	303	845		-44.2	-5.2%

In the end I missed a winning month by not following bets in May but the profit was only made on the last day of the month with a 9/2, 4 point winner but June has started badly.

There's no doubt that things could turn around and rack up 100+ points in a few weeks but, that as may be, it's a service that's not for me anymore, it doesn't suit my betting anymore and I'm not happy waiting months to make a profit only to be well aware there's going to be long lean periods.

There could be an argument for just following the 5 pointers and I might just do that but will play that one by ear while my subscription runs out.

Hope the info helps