Scorchio!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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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.