Trading Times

I'll Be Back.

2011-02-20T17:01:00.007Z

Not a good weekend of punting for followers of my bets with every horse running complete nightmares. I am sure you have heard it all before but thats part of life in gambling. After making a superb +96 points in January ,this month now stands at a meagre +14 points. All that can be done after a shit weekend is to pick yourself back up and start again.

Still its a profit from the bookies and luckily for me my trading has been pretty good with the horses and football. Some of my own selections I have traded in running with my biggest win on Jump Jet that I put up as a selection on Friday i think. This hit about 1.4 in running before finishing third.

The horse lays are still in the middle of a cycle that I use so I havent posted any up on twitter yet, and to be honest I am having second thoughts about doing this as I dont need the grief if losing sequences occur. I think this very famous piece of work says it all:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Moving forward I like so many others have been poor keeping the blog going so I will take the decision that until I feel inspired to write more often and with a greater input I shall stop. I did this last year for about three months. I will obviously be on twitter posting my selections until everyone gets pissed off with them and just so you dont think I have done my bank here is my BF statement for last seven days.

Thanks for reading and for all the comments and as Arnie says " Ill Be Back". I wanted to put two of the best bits of comedy TV I have seen on the blog. One was on ATR a few weeks ago and one was sent to me by "The Professional Loafer"!! Please watch and laugh...

The second one I can not embed but heres the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3-E3mAQVyU&feature=channel

Update.

2011-02-07T13:48:00.004Z

Well a great Superbowl final last night which I managed to pocket a few quid from. I felt that the Packers who were 18 points ahead at one stage and trading at 1.09 were really not in charge of their destiny. The Steelers seemed to me the better team and it was a case of whether they were going to win or shoot themselves in the foot. As it was they gave it away with three turnovers that the Packers scored three touchdowns from. Strange type of game as I felt the best team lost and the team with a 10-6 regular season record won the Superbowl. Two teams with 14-2 regular season records came nowhere. Congrats to all cheeseheads though.

Had an ok week the horses are a couple of points ahead and all football lays have lost their matches, so this is about 3 points ahead as well.

I have been asked about the horse laying system I use. This is a system that has taken a long time to put together. It has made about 160 points profit at level stakes, but I use a daily 1-4 staking plan so this recoups loses quicker and has boosted the profits to about 360 points. It is not for the faint hearted but if you lay at £25,£50,£75 and £100 as per the staking plan it can build a nice bank slowly but surely. I use the same type of staking for my football lays as well.

At the moment I am in a cycle on the lays but have decided to also post these up on twitter in the mornings with the relevant staking plan for anybody to follow. I have had to lock my account as I had a lot of spammers and idiots following me which is not what I want but if you would like to follow just send a request.

Lastly does anyone have any experience of 1st Class Lays I have been following for a while but I beleive the results arent what they seem. The website says they proof to "Laying The Odds" but there is no such site. I had contact with "Lay The Odds" who do not proof them and after sending numerous emails to them I have not had a reply with a link to the proofed results. All looks a bit fishy to me !

Thank You Mr Grace.

2011-02-01T10:59:00.005Z

I bet the majority of you dont know what sentence comes before that heading..

So a great month for me with my own horse bets finishing +96, a really pleasing start which certainly amazed me as I usually average about 40 points per month. Yesterdays effort from Teenage Idol put the icing on the end of month cake as it got backed in from the 16/1 I got,to 7/1 at the off. It then pretty much bolted up winning by quite a few lengths. Unfortunately I had to split the stakes across three different bookies and two different accounts, but dont you just love that....

Sports wise a great weekend, I didnt bother watching much football as I was really engrossed in the Snooker Shoot Out. This turned out to be a great tournament which had more swings than a darts match, which I would say is the quickest sport to have a go at. Below is the blurb..

The birthchild of World Snooker Limited Director Barry Hearn, the event was designed to attract a younger generation and new sponsors to a sport with flagging attendances and recent corruption allegations. The format sees the world's top 64 players play one frame knockout matches lasting a maxmium of 10 minutes.

Other such rules include a 20 second shot clock for the first five minutes, a 15 second shot clock for the final five minutes and a free ball in hand for any foul. Players must also make a pot or ensure at least one ball hits a cushion, eliminating the common tactic of rolling up behind a colour to enforce a snooker.

After much trepidation beforehand about whether the idea would be a flop, fans and players alike embraced Hearn's new competition. Six time World Snooker champion Steve Davis said: "I was a bit sceptical about how stupid this tournament would look but he has the midas touch."

As expected, some players struggled to adjust and cope with the rule changes more than others, rewarding those that can play and think quickly. Peter Edbon and Dave Harold, regarded as two of the slowest players on the circuit and with no experience of the Premier League shot clock, fell at the first hurdle.

The winner of the whole tournament Nigel Bond in his first match was down about 20 points and his opponent traded as low as 1.13 to win. As soon as a ball was missed the odds flew to over 2.0. There was also a game with Neil Robertson running round the table to beat the clock and potting a black in the very final second to win his match by one point. Again his opponent traded down at 1.04.If you like to lay low this was fantastic and gave me my third highest profit of the month after horse racing and darts.

I am sure that everybody has seen another service hit their emails this month. "Never had a losing month" screamed the headlines. This is http://portfoliopowerhouse.com , funny how going back five years of backs and lays not one losing month in that whole time. This is the first month of free trials and guess what, both backs and lays made losses in January to the tune of £1k (following advised stakes) this happens all the time with back fitted systems that just pull out certain courses, grounds and distances trying to make the past replicate the future. This rarely happens, if you go to Adrian Masseys site you can pick any number of variants to make your own system and spend literally years looking for that one winner. But in the majority of cases one good year for lays becomes a bad year the next.I wish the service well but dont get suckered in to much.

While on this subject I got my old laptop out and looked under the favourites heading. There were about ten websites that I followed for lays back then and also some football stuff and do you know not one of the websites is now trading , all have gone.

Back to the trading and the most disappointing again is football, my only losses this month were from this. I am in that rut when I have lost confidence in what I am doing and going into trades thinking that they will go against me. Speaking of this, all the lay the draw merchants must be having a hard time because I have noticed the draw odds drifting on so many games as I imagine people pile into them, also they tend to be holding up more in play. This month I shall be keeping the faith but using lower stakes, at least my own lay system games have been good and a profit has been made so this has helped.

Finally congrats to Crawley Town for being in the last 16 of the FA Cup. I went to school and grew up in the town until I left for pastures new at age 25. I used to go to the old ground "Town Mead" by Crawley Fire station and watch the team play with a few hundred others.

The last time they had a meaningful game in the FA Cup was the 3rd round in 1992 I travelled down to watch them play Brighton at the Goldstone Ground , and they got stuffed 5-0 ! One of my funnist memories at that game was the first Crawley foul drew a chorus of "You dirty Northern Bastards" 19,000 were there that day.

Anyway should be a great day out against Man Utd and I have already had lots of texts about going......

Lax.

2011-01-25T22:24:00.003Z

Well very bad this month with the blogging as I have not been able to really find the time, or the inclination to put my thoughts down in writing. I am not the best with this twitter lark but as a newbie I have found it really helpful for posting up my bets and reading other peoples thoughts on this betting lark. I try to get my bets on line in plenty of time for anyone to follow if they so wish and make them clear and concise.

This month has been a great one with +76 points on the racing so far, today I had a 33/1 come 2nd and a 14/1 come second with one unplaced. It was a bumper Saturday for me with a 14/1 and 8/1 winner. The 8/1 went off at 7/2 and won on the line, which helped ease the pain of Somersby which just didnt get up to defeat Master Minded in the big race. If you follow you will see I only place value bets, which the bookies dont like which is why I keep my stakes to £25 each way. If I could get more off I would but its wise to not get to greedy.

A case in point was tonight where in the X Club one of the guys told me about a bet on Arsenal to score 4 goals against Ipswich. They were 5/2 (3.5) with Hills to get the 4 goals but any unquoted score on Betfair was 2.68 to lay so a fantastic opportunity to get a free bet ( as long as it wasnt Ipswich getting the 4 goals!) being greedy I tried to get £500 with Hills on this but got knocked back to just £200, and then a miserly £40 on another Hills account I have . Unfortunately they only got 3 but a fourth would have given me a nice profit of approx £190. So a nothing bet but I hope the knock back doesnt effect me in the future...

I am 3 and a 1/2 points down on the tennis so far but still have Woz who I backed at 9.8 before the start, she is now in the semi finals and I shall look to lay this off if she makes the Final. Mind you if it is against Zvonareva I might let it ride.

The football lays I have been posting up are in profit to the tune of 2 whole points! Again its better than nothing but I got myself out of the whole with the 4 point lay of Doncaster tonight.
Ten days ago on the Saturday I posted up an amazing free bet I found with Raith being 2.4 on Betfair to lay but backable at 2.75 with a couple of bookies, there was £3k sitting there early in the morning to lay.

Trading football wise I havent done many games at all apart from the Asian Cup games in the afternoon which have been ripe for the goal markets especially again today with both Japan/Korea and Aus/Uzbek games being very profitable. The odds gave a good amount of time to be in the markets waiting for goals to come and neither disappointed.

The horse lays are also up about 15 points this month bringing the total to over 350 points in the past 18 months. So all is good for the time being at least!

Back To The Future.

2011-01-14T00:37:00.006Z

I remember somebody saying to me that after visiting New Zealand it reminded them off England thirty years ago. I had an idea of what they meant but having never crossed so many time zones in my life it has always been one of life's great mysteries for me.
I know from looking back at my blog and obviously from my memory that one year ago I was sitting here watching the tennis from Auckland just as I am now, when suddenly it hit me what they meant.

In between games the music comes on, and while the watchers sit under the green parasols at the side of the court drinking pimms in the midday sun, the sounds being piped over the speakers are the sounds of thirty years ago.

Its like Dazzling Darrens disco as "Walking On The Moon" by The Police, then "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley, "Easy" by Lionel Ritchie , and then rounded off with a bit of Hall and Oates come drifting in the air reminding me of my youth. The more amazing thing for me is that they played exactly the same songs during the breaks this time last year. Groundhog day New Zealand style, so if you get the chance to watch on Betfair video, sit back, relax, enjoy and dont forget your pimms! Magic FMs got nothing on this tournament.

It made me think of when I go to the gym, I used to take an Ipod but its a pain having the lead dangling around you while trying to exercise so now I go and have to hear the same old stuff there too. Sometimes I think I'm in "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" and I am waiting for the loudspeaker to call out " medication time, medication time."

So a nice 12/1 winner with Dandy Boy winning in Meydan today wiping out the small losses from the last three days and putting me up 48 points for the month. Traded some tennis last few days and added 2% to my bank and some Asian Cup football but broke even there. The markets apart from the Australia game were saying no goals but I am hoping that a few more will be forthcoming especially in the knock out stages.

I had a winning lay with Ath Madrid and then a disaster with Southampton but that League will move on to lay no 2 this weekend which at the moment is looking like Brighton but I will know for sure tomorrow.

As I am not pasting anymore, so for decorative purposes, and for all you tennis fans here is Ms Sharapovas new Nike outfit for the Australian Open. Once the draw is made for this tournament I am going to put up a couple of backs to lay.

Round Up.

2011-01-09T21:18:00.006Z

So three bets Sunday with two places and a big 33/1 winner. Across The Bay ran a lovely race always near the head of the field and never looking in trouble.

This made up for a unlucky Saturday as 12/1 shot Giles Cross traded down at 1.40 in running before running out of the steam in the Welsh Grand National and coming second to APs mount. Good old good AP now has the Grand Slam of Nationals in his pocket. In the race before Professor Emery also traded at 1.5 with a couple of fences left before completely fading away in the heavy ground to finish third.

This gives a profit of 42 points for the week so if you are following on twitter I hope you had a few quid on as well.

The past week on Betfair has been its normal up and down, winning on Racing and Darts but losing on Tennis and Football, but last weeks profit has put my account at a new high!!

The Tennis has been my fault with some poorly executed decisions and one game where I thought a turn around was forthcoming which wasnt! The Football hasnt actually been that bad just had a down turn with following Pete Norsteds draw master which unfortunately is going through a rough spell but that is only to be expected with an ROI of around 50% which couldnt be sustained. I also signed upto his newsletter that has an Italian Strategy which has had four losers in a row. So hopefully better times around the corner with that.

I have mentioned before about going through spreadsheets of football data to try to get myself a system or basis of that to help with my trading. I had completed it last month but really didnt know how to harness the information to make it viable or profitable for that matter. To this end I have come up with two ideas both with staking plans based on fibonacci.I dont have fancy names so System 1 will be laying odds on teams in certain European leagues. The leagues will not be mixed into together but seperated so each one will have its own staking ladder. The plan will be 1/2/3/5/8/13, so basically if I call five losers in a row in a particular league then the sixth and final bet will be 13 times your original stake. If that loses then its back to the beginning.

The second system is again laying certain teams in European Leagues with the following staking plan 1/2/4/8. Again these will be favourites in their matches but not odds on favourites so the plan is more aggressive to get back losses. Just like my horse bets I will be posting these on Twitter so if you want to follow for small stakes please do. I have checked previous years results in the leagues I have selected but obviously that doesnt mean the future will repeat the past !

The 1st selection for system 1 (which was tweeted) was lay Crotone in Serie B for a 1 point stake last Saturday. I managed to lay them at 1.80 though this was a loser as they won 2-0, so this league will go onto lay no 2 when I find a game that matches.

Finally I am not going to be cutting and pasting my Betfair and Racing results on here anymore.

This is more for personal and time reasons than anything else, but if you see my twitter posts you can get an idea for yourself how things are going.

R.I.P

2011-01-07T18:57:00.002Z

Yes R.I.P Gary Mason who fought hard and fair, this obit from the guardian:

Gary Mason, who has died in a cycling accident at the age of 48, will be remembered principally for the only professional boxing match he ever lost – for the British heavyweight title against Lennox Lewis at the Wembley Arena in March 1991. The 28-year-old Mason was a 2-3 favourite, but had a problem that Lewis exploited mercilessly: a year earlier he had had surgery to repair a detached retina on his right eye.

Lewis had trained by placing tape just above the right eyes of his sparring partners. He closed Mason's eye, forcing a stoppage in the seventh round, but only after absorbing some heavy body blows. Several years later, he acknowledged to me: "You may be surprised, but of all my opponents, Mason hit the hardest."

Mason, the son of a Jamaican-born carpenter, grew up in Clapham, south London. By his late teens he had developed a powerful 6ft 1in physique, which he put to good use in the amateur boxing ring.

In 1984 he turned professional under the management of Mickey Duff, who developed his career carefully. By then Mason had grown to more than 17 stone, and was far too strong for his initial opponents. After a three-year apprenticeship, Duff arranged more challenging contests, and Mason proved that he was more than just a heavy-handed brawler. He had a tight defence, an accurate jab and – unlike Duff's premier breadwinner, Frank Bruno – one of the hardest chins in the business.

Mason beat Hughroy Currie in the Royal Albert Hall, London, to win the British title in January 1989, but by then his focus was on the world rankings. His biggest victory came later that year when he knocked out America's former Olympic super-heavyweight gold medallist, Tyrell Biggs, in seven rounds. This propelled Mason to fourth in the rankings of the World Boxing Council, but soon afterwards he suffered the detached retina and retired briefly.

Nine months on, following surgery, he returned to stop another American fringe contender, setting up the Lewis fight for a record British title purse of £276,000. Duff was delighted, accusing Lewis's management of "doing a Cecil B DeMille in reverse – taking a star and turning him into an unknown". Instead, the defeat, and the consequent loss of the British title, began a long downward spiral for Mason. "After losing to Lennox, I just didn't want to play any more," he told me. He changed his mind three years later, picking up a couple of wins in the US, but when he was refused a UK licence he retired for good at the age of 32 with a record of 37 wins, 34 of them knockouts, and one loss.

His party-loving lifestyle and doomed investments, including a jeweller's shop called Punch 'n Jewellery, had soaked up his savings, but he pressed on with fresh schemes. He made a pilot programme called Who's Gary Mason? and hawked it around the television studios, "but nobody seemed to want it". He signed for the London Crusaders rugby league side but gave up after three games. He invested in a clothing line called Punch and Style, "but that didn't work out either". He worked as a Sky Sports commentator, but inadvertent on-air swearing led to his being dropped.

Mason then headed for Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, where his activities included promoting arm-wrestling shows, "but no one would invest". He later set up stall as a boxing promoter, predicting: "In time I will be as devastating as a promoter as I was as a boxer." But again it flopped. Soon after his final tournament, his father died and his brief marriage collapsed. He took a job as a hospital security guard, but was fired for too much flirting with the female staff. One of his subsequent ventures was to front a charity called the Rhythmical Empowerment Group to "promote equality and diversity through music and rhythm".

Throughout all these setbacks, Mason came across as a bright, optimistic and avuncular man, always willing to help at charity events, full of ideas and schemes and always ready to break out into his deep "ho-ho-ho" laugh, invariably at his own expense.

Mason was riding his bicycle in Wallington, south London, when he was in a collision with a van, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

• Gary Mason, boxer, born 15 December 1962; died 6 January 2011

Cinzano Bianco

2011-01-04T22:42:00.006Z

No gripes today as everything ended in positive territory. After yesterdays post my old boss would have been happy that all departments were green if only by small amounts !

The horse bets finished up by £280. I picked seven horses and to be fair they all ran terribly apart from one Bianco Fuji and luckily for me it came home a nice easy winner at 16/1. I did list it on my twitter page so I hope I wasnt alone in punting it.

Think they should have called it Cinzano Bianco though, brings back memories of Leonard Rossister and Joan Collins, but I digress...

The BDO World Darts has been running for a few days and even though I dont think the standard is as good as the PDC its better for trading as more doubles are missed which means lots more price swings. I remember last year a 1.01 getting turned over and today we had a 1.02 nearly get done followed next game by a 1.06 getting a resounding beating. Darts is full of peaks and troughs it just whether you are brave enough to jump in and hold on for the ride !

Myself I dont risk much I lay low so have a very limited downside and steer clear of either player around the evens mark.

Tennis is now in full swing on the other side of the world. Last year I stayed up through the night on many a freezing cold January night and felt like shit the next day, so this time I am going to give it a miss until the AO comes about. Lots of surprises in Brisbane though on Monday, one Czech lefty took out one of the top seeds, as Kvitova beat No.3 seed Petrova. That theme came up again on Tuesday as another Czech left-hander, Savarova upset the tournament's No.2 seed, Peer.

The two had played three times before on the WTA, with Peer leading the series, 2-1. After they split the first two sets it seemed Peer was on her way to another victory, building a 5-2 third set lead; she even held match point with Safarova serving at 5-4. But Safarova finished strong, winning 10 of the last 11 points to upset the No.13-ranked Israeli in two hours and 30 minutes.

"Shahar is a fighter and the match was very long. In the end, it could've gone either way," Safarova said afterwards. "I'm very happy to win this match. It's nice to perform so well right before the AO. I worked very hard in the off-season and I'm happy to play these kinds of matches right now."

Safarova has now won four of her last six matches against Top 15 players.

"I'm happy I'm playing this kind of tennis now," the 23-year-old added. "My goal this year is to be in the Top 20. I'm going to work hard to get there."

I think the Womens AO tournament will be far more an interesting with Serena missing, Kim will be favourite and rightly so but after last years first round exit I will be interested to see Sharapovas draw.

Only had the one football bet today from Premier Betting which was a winner. For the money I think this is a great site with ratings, injury news, analysis, and the odd winner !

New Year.

2011-01-03T16:29:00.010Z

Belated Happy New Year to all readers of my blog. So after a busy Xmas, I settled back down to work on the January 1st. After the slowness of December the sporting feast has arrived in the New Year with a bang.

An absolute cracker of a World Darts Final with Adrian Lewis finally coming of age smashing records all over the place to overcome a gallant Gary Anderson. If you missed the amazing 9 darter at the beginning of the match have a look below.

As the German commentator says "Thats RocknRoll."

As mentioned before, this year I not following any horse tipsters just my own selections . I have added a twitter link on the right so if I do fancy anything it will get mentioned on there so if you are interested please follow, just dont blame me if they lose !

I had the typical moaning day on Saturday with a 11/1 shot that I backed getting over 11k matched at 1.01 but somehow losing. It was pretty strange as it had more to do with camera angles than anything because it obviously looked all over the winner but as the camera swung round it was actually behind.
It added to my frustration as I tried to get on Blazing Bailey at Cheltenham but couldnt get the 12/1 anywhere. I was being offered 10/1 by Stan James but believe it or not I didnt think it was good enough value at that price in such a large and competitive field. I then had to watch as it romped home. I then had another called "Junior" which I tweeted at 8/1 trade at 1.25 before coming second.

Just three bets on Sunday with one winning at 7/1 and one placed as well, and nothing today.

I imagine I will not have anywhere near the amount of bets I had last year but this will help free me up to follow some projects I want to and hopefully benefit my trading.

Talking of trading my 2011 P/L looks a bit messy. I find it a bit like my old job where I had four parts of a commission structure to complete to get paid well, I normally could get two or three but there was always something lagging behind dragging me down. Then when the boss wanted to see me that was what he concentrated on and not the positive.

So the balls up is with football. I did a few games over the weekend and things just didnt work out, goals came when I didnt want them to and goals didnt when I did. In three matches I had money next in the queue when goals were scored and once like tonight I had got my lay money matched and within seconds a goal was scored costing me £100. Poor choices, poor selections?
Time will tell.

The horses are going well so thats the positive and am looking forward to seeing some tennis again.

Top Man

2010-12-20T13:29:00.002Z

Well the masses voted,and they all voted for AP McCoy to be Sports Personality Of The Year.

AP's landslide success in the 2010 BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards on Sunday has been greeted with jubilation from the entire racing industry.The 15-times champion jump jockey was clearly touched by the overwhelming public support, which gave him 42 per cent of the vote. McCoy received 293,152 votes, 220,957 more than runner-up Phil Taylor. Ryan Giggs won last year's award with 151,842 votes.

McCoy, who came third in the competition in 2002, became the first racing figure to win the award, adding another accolade to his unrivalled collection. A sustained campaign by the sport saw the racing community and the general public rally behind this year's Grand National-winning jockey.

2010 Sports Personality of the Year results

1 AP McCoy 293,152 (41.98%)
2 Phil Taylor 72,095 (10.33)
3 Jessica Ennis 62,953 (9.02)
4 Lee Westwood 58,640 (8.4)
5 Graeme McDowell 52,108 (7.46)
6 Tom Daley 50,763 (7.27%)
7 Mark Cavendish 44,170 (6.33)
8 Amy Williams 43,056 (6.17)
9 Graeme Swann 13,767 (1.97)
10 David Haye 7,538 (1.08)

Well done to everyone that voted for him.

So after three Xmas do's last week I finally managed to do some football trading over the weekend. I didnt think the markets were to good on some games but then again if they are not helping you in one way then they should be helping you in another. To me it depends on how flexible you are to changing stratagies once the game has gone in play. This is where like all types of trading you have to have the correct mindset for each occasion.

Losses will come but stating the obvious its all about keeping them down to a minimum which I am trying to do! Traded the games in the X-Club room both days and really enjoyed the chat, got some very nice and knowledgeable people there. With the trading I am not sure if I will ever get to where I want to be. By nature I am a saver not a spender and my cautious behaviour seems to stop me from pushing forward to much because I am always trying to minimise my losses, where as to make money from this you have to be aggressive especially when in a winning positon. This is how I see it.

Still hoping to see some horse racing this month but that could just be a dream, and will have a look at the darts too.

In The Saddle

2010-12-15T15:33:00.015Z

Great to have some quality horse racing on last weekend and today at Fairyhouse, god its so much better than having to watch Southwell and Wolves all weather ! Had some decent winners over the past five days and some very close things as well so the month is looking up.

After a successful Cheltenham I picked four yesterday in the 16+ handicaps and had a winner at 14/1 and a placed horse at 20/1. Also got a 9/1 from two selections from Terry.

These big handicaps are easily my most successful types of races and maybe more of what I should concentrate my efforts on. Today just the one big field, the 12.25 where I had the second and fourth and again Terry weighed in with one from two.

Some high class racing then with Hurricane Fly establishing himself as Ireland’s premier Champion Hurdle contender after slamming a fair benchmark in Solwhit who had match fitness on his side, but sad news here as Twist Magic had to be put down after falling at Newbury.

Concerning my comments about football trading thanks to Cassini for giving his views on his blog and the comments he received. Its a difficult one because we obviously all think differently which is why betfair exists. I was just taking an example of a guy on the forum who said what he had done during the game. I was trying to get an idea of his mindset when entering a trade.
With the amount of in play games and liquidity in the markets I think that football has to be part of a traders armoury. My own thinking on the game was that I wouldnt open up any position until I saw the team news, formations and then watched to see how the game was going. If twenty minutes in the game was end to end but 0-0 then I would go in on the over 1.5 market and see how it panned out, I certainly wouldnt be bailing out because a goal at 55 mins would put you in a profitable position, and even one in the 70th minute would give a break even situation.

This particular game finished 0-0 so you could say he was right there,but he counteracted that by doing a chasing trade of laying 0-0 in the full time market.

A good example was last nights game with Hearts and Motherwell which was attacking from the start. With no goals coming I layed under 2.5 goals thirty minutes in and was rewarded with three by the 60th minute. Lucky? Well of course when entering this you need goals to be scored, I did the same in the other live match Charlton v Brentford that finished 0-0 , but it was just absoutely terrible finishing that didnt give me any opportunity to get out. If you saw the game you would know what I mean. This meant I was up in one and down in another, so maybe we are both right ! No I wasnt in the red card market though ...

Cricket starts in the early hours and a draw is definitely not on the cards here. The Waca pitch is known to deteriorate and crack very badly depending on the weather. I fancy Johnson to come back into the Aussie attack and if he can get his direction right he will certainly have the speed to get the ball bouncing around a few heads, a watching brief for me but with a start time of 2.30 am I doubt it will even be that.

Thats it for me until after the weekend, good luck with your betting.

Christmas Spirit?

2010-12-10T15:36:00.008Z

Well its been another exciting week in sport with the best news being England thrashing the Aussies. As I mentioned in my post last week I layed the draw from the beginning and was very fortunate that England took three quick wickets very early on Day One leaving me in a positive position from the start. I wasnt brave enough to let it run but did leave zero on the draw and green on any winning outcome .

The thing that struck me most about the match was the "Swann Factor." We now have a World Class spin bowler who can bowl at any time in a match not just on Day Five. No surprise that the media in Australia is praying for Shane Warne to come back because I can see a role reversal between the two nations and maybe we can have the Ashes for a decade or so. Lets hope so !

Below is a photo of who I reckon must be the most hated man in England right now.

He looks cool in his Newcastle track suit doesnt he? The below from the Guardian :

"Christmas must be coming, the Premier League has started to sack managers. This is the season of goodwill to all men but not if they are Chris Hughton whose departure from Newcastle United has confirmed that at St James' Park the spirit of pantomime is alive and well. If Hughton was Aladdin, restoring stability with the magic lamp of common sense, his successor,Alan Pardew, must be Buttons, which is about all he will have to spend.

The treatment of Hughton has been roundly condemned by fans, media and players. It seems his biggest mistake was in taking Newcastle to fifth place after the win at Arsenal. Next to losing matches, the worst thing a manager can do is to raise expectations to levels he will find difficult to maintain.

Apparently Hughton lacks managerial experience, which seems a bit rich coming from a club prepared to put Alan Shearer, whose experience of management was zilch, in charge towards the end of the season before last, when Newcastle were on their way down. Pardew is several sackings ahead of Hughton in experience and at least he is not a messiah, which should help.

Maybe, just maybe, Ashley will get this one right. Hughton was popular with the players but not so popular, apparently, that the team felt like breaking sweat at West Bromwich Albion last weekend, when Newcastle did not so much have an off day as a day off. A manager should never be one of the boys because boys occasionally play truant."

Well chat rooms, forums and the polls were not for Alan Pardew but Big Mike was as Maggie put it " Not for turning" so all the opinion fell on deaf ears. Personally I think he deserves a chance and I think it is a good appointment . Only time will tell ,but at West Ham he got us out of the Championship , to an FA Cup Final which being unbiased we were robbed of but most of all was tireless and shrewd in the transfer market. He is not naive enough to think he will last the five and half years on his contract which is why he got such a contract because when the time comes he will get a nice pay off. Football is a very fickle business and if it goes well he could be heading the next England manager market on Betfair ina few years time. So you might laugh but we had Keegan and Hoddle so why not? I remember when I went to watch West Ham play Aston Villa and they were at the top of the league and had a new manager in place called John Gregory. He was like sliced bread and the media loved his style and the way he spoke in a very forthright manner. He was being touted as the next England manager then. Where is he now? The media can pick you up and put you down very quickly in life.

Betting wise not a lot doing the last week. The racing kicked back of today in earnest with some proper stuff at Cheltenham and what a relief that was. I got stuck into the meeting and picked eight horses , two in each big field handicap race and also did a little e/w double which came in. I managed to get the winner in the 1.50 so a nice profit was made.

I havent managed to do any trading this week as I have had a couple of birthday do's and with one more tonight and three Christmas do's next week its a busy time.

I have read the X -Club manual a couple of times over but will need to do a lot of practise for a long time before I can get my head around all the stuff. One thing did hit me last evening when I watched an Argentian match on Betfair. I went onto the forum and read what peoples thoughts for the match were. One guy had put £300 on over 1.5 goals. No goals were forthcoming so after about twenty five minutes he said that he had taken a red book of £60 because he didnt want to lose his £ 300. Now this guy will never make money as far as I can see. You cannot do your homework, decide on a course of action and then bail out because the required result is'nt hit within twenty five minutes of your trade. In reality just one goal would have given him the opportunity to get out with a profit, or break even if the goal comes later on (within reason). To my mind he was overstaking and out of his comfort zone because otherwise while bail out? If he had bet £100 he would probably of let the trade run a lot longer than just panic. To compound his logic he said at half time he would lay the 0-0 full time result to get his £ 60 back. So as happens to all of us the game finished 0-0 and he lost £ 571.

The question is what would you have done in his situation? To me its the same in a lot of the blogs I read, mine included. Overstaking, taking a red to soon , closing winning trades to soon, chasing small losses and compounding them to bigger ones and not really knowing the dynamics of the markets before entering them. If I was Ian Erskine I could charge money for writing the obvious....Oh and by the way I did receive an email from him telling me why he deleted my comments on his blog and telling me that the bets were ahead this season but not by much , but over the last few seasons in his words he was "miles ahead." Maybe he meant "light years ahead" that would sound better. Sarcasm aside at least he sent me a reply.

Anyway I shall hope to trade some football this coming weekend as long as i dont get roped into anymore Christmas stuff, humbug !

Footballs Not Coming Home....

2010-12-03T01:07:00.013Z

Nothing more can be said after our bid for the 2018 World Cup went down in flames in Zurich. We cant blame our players as we sent out the best team we could. With a Prince in our team if this had been a fairytale we would have had it all sewn up with enough time for a bedtime story. Sadly from reading all the reports our bid was top in everything, and in the corridors of power when asked if we could depend on votes we were assured that we could.

As it was, only one other member voted for us, not the best way to spend £15 million pounds but as we all know you've got to be in it to win. Where we go from here is uncertain , if FIFA do want to send it to all parts of the globe then we could be waiting a long time for the football to come back to the "motherland" as Sepp called it.

So well done to Russia and lets hope that they can host a true and fair World Cup, and that recent comments from the Wikileaks about" a mafia state " are not true. Otherwise it could be a bit like betting on the ATP tournament in St Petersburg last month with some rather strange odds and results.

So to 2022, and a laughable result with it given to a rather rich country (Emirate)called Qatar. We cant even use playing in 115 degree heat as an excuse as they are going to air condition all the stadiums. I should think so to, if you watch tennis then the last few years at Doha the women have just withered away in absurd humidity.

So the good news is I have started tracing back my family tree to see if I am in fact related to any Qatari people just in case there's any chance of me getting a game .I'm sure Sir Stanley Matthews managed to play in his fifties, and with such a small population I bet they are always short of a couple of players to get a full team out. I also hear that they will be one of the seeds which is just pushing it a bit far.

This is what wikipedia says about Qatar:

"Qatar is a destination country for men and women from South and Southeast Asia who migrate willingly, but are subsequently trafficked into involuntary servitude as domestic workers and laborers, and, to a lesser extent, commercial sexual exploitation; the most common offence was forcing workers to accept worse contract terms than those under which they were recruited; other conditions include bonded labor, withholding of pay, restrictions on movement, arbitrary detention, and physical, mental, and sexual abuse.

The government maintains that it is setting the benchmark when it comes to human rights and treatment of labourers."

So to all those labourers this is what you will be building, and it all looks bloody nice.

Better get cracking guys....

El Classico ?

2010-12-01T12:29:00.006Z

What an amazing game of the football. The skill, touch and ease of these players was a sight to behold and really proved that dreams can come true as the scoreline showed. The last twenty minutes was just a show of keep ball as the game as a contest was over.

The oppostion only had two shots on target all night and to celebrate I even cracked open a couple of Stellas. When my other half came in from her evening university course I said " Can you guess the score" to which she replied "1-1."
I then moved out of the way of the TV and there it was in all its glory "What!" she screamed "West Ham 4 Manchester United 0."

So she joined me and had a glass of wine and we watched Alex's face getter redder together. Oh and by the way the game on Monday was pretty good those Barcelona boys sure can play some.

Back to reality and another month has shot by, December is here and the first snows landed where I live this morning. Not sure how much blogging I will do this month as I am not following any tipsters and with just my own bets it will be pretty sparce I imagine. After great months in August and October, November will go down as one of the worst this year. My own bets only made a small profit and the two tipsters both lost money. Luckily I traded some good profit from horse racing and amazingly football.

So this is where I am for now. I have dropped all tipsters and joined "The X Club" to try to improve my trading especially in the football department. I am sure if you read blogs like mine that you will have seen it on the web. I have bought enough crappy systems with the money I spent to join so personally I think this will be a great investment and help improve my mindset and skills in this area. Once I joined I spoke to Matt for an hour on Skype and I must say I have never met anybody before who is more astute and knowledgeable about Betfair markets. I do feel a complete novice because even though I have traded the markets for a number of years you speak to someone like him and realise you really havent got a clue. Whether I can cut the mustard is to be seen but I shall try my best!

Finally I have the Winners Market below for 2010/2011 I was going to set a goal to see how far I can get but I wont because I am not really sure and dont want to push it. As it goes up or down I shall update it and see where we are come May next year.

Adelaide.

2010-11-29T13:17:00.005Z

Good post on "Sport Is Made for Betting" about the cricket. A thoroughly great come back for England who 200 odd runs behind after the first innings made 517/1 in their second innings to claim the draw. How the Australians miss Warne and McGrath, and thank god they decided to hang up their pads.

Personally I think that England can get the twenty wickets needed to win the next test and a lay of the draw at such low odds should be taken. There are five whole days and at 2.16 this price must trade higher. Both Austrailian batsmen (Haddin and Hussey) who put together that record breaking partnership said that the bowling they came up against in the first hour of the second day was the toughest they have faced. We didnt get the rub of the green and who knows what would have happened if we had had the review that we needed to get Hussey out LBW within that first hour? There have been some funny results in Adelaide none more so than Englands last Ashes match there when England after declaring at 551 for 6,managed to get bowled out for 129 in the second innings and lost the match by six wickets. I expect plenty of runs and plenty of wickets to, I also expect the team to bat first's price will steam in.

Well a bit of chilly weekend for sure but no snow down on the coast where I am but plenty elsewhere in the UK. Obviously the weather killed a lot of the horse racing leaving me with just two bets, which both came the dreaded fourth place so no easy pickings there.

This gave me more time to concentrate on the weekends football matches to try and earn a crust. I got involved in a few matches on both days and though a couple of games went against me I managed to pick up a decent profit (for me!)

Both Soccer Insight and Premier Betting had winning weekends as well.

Memories.

2010-11-26T00:15:00.005Z

When I was a lot younger I used to love listening to sporting events on the radio, curled up under the sheets late into the night. I used to have some provisions that were needed like a bit of chocolate and maybe some lemonade and a torch.

To this day I remember listening in awe to a World Heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks. The commentary, the roar of the crowd, the whistles, the excitement being generated that I could feel coming down the air waves the feeling that this was happening so very far away in another country but here I was in my bed under the sheets being a part of this event. This was the first event I can remember listening to but it has stuck with me to this day and upstaris in my attic with loads of junk is an official programme from that night in 1978 in Nevada where Ali lost his title. My Dads business partner had flown out to see the fight and brought it home for me and boy did I treasure it. I feel that with the radio you can have your own thoughts, ideas, visions of whats happening and you can bring this all together by using your own imagination. Its a bit like reading a book and then seeing the film, we all come out of the cinema saying that the book was better because of our own personal interpretation.

The same can be said about the Ashes Down Under. As a boy this was a major highlight for me I used to love the way the commentators spoke, the love that they had for the game and the silly comments and banter that went on. I had the radio on all night and would drift off listening to thier dulcet tones.When I got my first girlfriend I hatched a plan to stay with her the night without my parents knowing but on arriving at her place I noticed that she didnt have a radio in her bedroom and at that time the Ashes were being played. So I went all the way back home to get my little portable so I could keep upto date with the game. On arrival my mother had a face like thunder as she told me that my cover had been blown and I wasnt going anywhere that night. So instead of losing my virginity I was listening to us losing a test match.

So tonight as per last night I am watching Sky with the sound down and listening to Five Live to Geoffrey and Jonathan feeling like they are lost old friends and still managing to have that relaxed and happy feeling that I had years ago, and I tell you what, it still seems more exciting just listening.

The last couple of days have been good. The Market Examiner obviously read my last post and pulled his finger out and got me a 10/1 winner though he had two losers today. But a profit of £200 and maybe the start of the comeback?

I have had only three bets but managed to find a 10/1 winner today.

And Betfair is green !

Next Year.

2010-11-24T00:03:00.010Z

So a very slow few days for me. Nothing really tickled me on the horses side of things with some pretty low grade stuff and small fields. The Market Examiner's woes continue with another five losers since my last post . Unless I get a free subscription next month I wont continue with this service. As I put in my last post I needed to have a think and plan for next year and what I am going to do. Horse wise over the years I have followed many tipsters and on other blogs many people still do but its not really the way forward.

JPs blog had many services and when you add in the subs it costs a fortune and then there are the shrinking prices and the trouble in getting the bets on. Thats just the start of the worries as then if the service flounders you are counting the cost and ultimately thats what happened to him and many others before him. His tipsters performed for a while then then they all seemed to hit a bad patch together and he seemed to do a lot of dough. So you flit from one to another until you have a decent run and think "I'm on to something here" so the stakes are increased and encouraged as you think " Its the eighth wonder of the world compounding, if this keeps happening at the same rate as at the moment, then my profits soar and Bobs your uncle and all that. Unfortunately it doesnt work like that, just like the "If I can increase my bank by just 1% a day in about a month my bank will have doubled and then in a year , well I'll be rich and all my worries will be over....

So for me starting from next month I shall just be following my own bets and the bets I get from my tipster friend Terry. Nothing else because in the end all these guys come and go under different guises trying to get you to part with your hard earned. I feel that this has come about more so because of the amount of crap I get bombarded with on email from system sellers and scammers. For example yesterday I went through all the system 3 games that Ian Erskine has sent though this season to check the results.He has had nineteen winners , one break even and three losers. Now laying at average odds of 7/1 means a loss for the season. I wrote to him to which I have had no reply and asked if I was doing something wrong or were these the results. Now I know I am not doing anything wrong you are basically laying 1-1 it aint rocket science but I was hoping for a reply so he would just admit it and say " Yep you are right but these things happen when gambling and I am sure we will turn it around" Or at least some kind of response. But this has not happened so I left two comments on his blog asking the same which have not been shown. So good luck to him mind you he has asked me in an email to join his newsletter for how much a month I dont know cos I deleted it. I imagine like all his stuff its going to open my eyes to the world of betting and scammers, and give me the do's and dont's. Hmmmm....

So to him and to me and anybody else who cares to listen have a read below if you can make out the small print.
I remember when I joined The Secret Betting Club (which I am not a member of anymore) about three years ago. They have a "Hall of Fame" for the top tipsters and these are the cream and I thought right I shall subscribe to these and make a fortune myself.

The first one was Asian Handicapper who actually three months later pulled there site as their results were awful, and there was Blue Sky Racing. I think he is still around but again terrible results and terrible customer service. The Tipping Legends with JC who from emails I have exchanged is a lovely guy , but again after an intial purple patch last year wasnt profitable and has wound up recharging his batteries for the next four months. He split from his racing partner Roger Green who is still going on now. Talking of which it looks like another blog has gone "Tipsters Uncovered" who was following Roger Green and Zafforzi . Zafforzi had five losing days and have closed to re evaluate and taken the site down. I gather they blamed it on Betfair SP not being able to handle the amount of money coming in from there bets. They were the new holygrail.

Anyway the point of the post is just for me to put it down what I want to do and planning a course of action for it. It might sound a negative and poor post, but over the last few years its been a learning curve and an expensive one at that, but with the amount of time I will free up I want to study some trading and try to specialise in one particular area. I have ideas and I have hopes, and I shall put in the hours and gain the knowledge to do it.There is nothing stopping me but myself.

So stick around for the ride.

Mystifying.

2010-11-21T23:43:00.002Z

A bit of a strange weekend for me as I had a multitude of bets and finished about £ 20 down. It must have been the busiest I have been for a long long time, and the pressure of trying to get so much done especially with the early racing starts didnt really help me.

It was really mystifying going through all the results and got me to thinking about where I am headed to next in my journey. I suppose the only positive is that I am not losing loads of money when things are going against me but really could do with a boost from somewhere for the end of the month. I have been treading water for the last seven days which is really no good and have now slipped behind my target. Results wise The Market Examiner lost another £ 200 and is now down 26.5 points for the month, my tipster Terry had a nice winner on Saturday at 11/2 so winning me £ 200. My own bets I had three winners all at pretty low odds but still gaining me £150. Bet Catalyst came up empty handed losing £ 180. I also layed a couple of horses and lost £ 275 there. I think there is a pattern emerging here of giving and taking !

Darts was good as I won £ 185, and what comes back from Beaton on Saturday to beat Taylor and then tonight as Waites came from 8-0 down to beat Wade in the final.

Football was profitable to the tune of about £ 80 but could have been five times that if Liverpool had scored a fourth goal. Leading 3-0 at half time I thought I was quids in but the game fizzled out and no more goals came. I did join Premier Betting this week and all four games were winners so that was a great start though and won me £ 197.

So as you can see a bit of a messy weekend and I shall decide this week what to do to make it easier for myself for these busy periods and how to go forward.

Brilliant Stuff

2010-11-19T17:06:00.008Z

What an amazing ride in the first race of the day at Mussleburgh today. I was amazed watching the race and the Racing Post sums it up much better than I ever can:

"Matt Crawley produced a miracle ride at Musselburgh to bring home Lastroseofsummer in front despite the conditional losing his irons at the eighth flight of the opening maiden hurdle over 2m4f.

Crawley's saddle slipped down the back, resulting in the loss of stirrups, but, incredibly, the 7lb claimer was not only able to stay on board but actually ride the four-year-old filly to an 11-2 victory.

Elation at victory was short-lived as he returned to earth with a bump when finally succumbing to gravity and falling off the winner after the line.

But Crawley returned to a warm reception from the public, who backed Lastroseofsummer down to 11-2 from 9-1, and received a "brilliant" response from his weighing-room colleagues. He explained: "My stirrup went down the back. I tried to get it back but the tack went to one side so I had to kick the other one out.

"She was going well so I carried on going."

When asked how he managed to defy gravity and ride without irons for the rest of the race, he said: "I don't know how I did it - instinct just kicked in."

He added: "She jumped better with me on her back than when I was up in the air - she got into the rhythm of it."

Lastroseofsummer was matched at 1,000 for £35 in Betfair's in-running market"

I have never seen a better example of horsemanship and he throughly deserved the applause when he arrived back in the winners enclosure. As for the layers at 999/1 , oh the pain....

So no updates for a few days as its been really slow for me and really slow for the two tipsters I follow. Terry has only had a couple of tips this week both losing and The Market Examiner is just not performing and is down another £ 225 since my last post. Add to that my own bets which are just not cutting the mustard at the moment and I have managed to give another £300 to the bookies.

I have managed to cover the losses with some trading on Betfair, but I really need to get some horses winning over the weekend to push me on as I have had a pretty static week.

Good luck if you are betting over the weekend and roll on Sunday when we get the tennis going again, just dont bet on this game tomorrow Anzhi Makhachkala v FC Saturn Moscow in the Russian Premier League, in fact I would steer clear of all the games. Some very moody odds especially with the Champions Zenit at 5/1 .

Hankey Pankey.

2010-11-15T22:00:00.005Z

Well todays sporting event was the two champs of darts going head to head in Wolverhampton at the Grand Slam Of Darts. We had Phil " The Power" Taylor and Ted " The Count" Hankey. You could see the difference as Hankey raced into a two nil lead in the first to five match but then the presssure started to tell as he realised that in their first ever meeting he was winning. As many players do when playing Taylor he started to feel the heat even though he is a World Champion in his own right. It then turned into a right ding dong of a match as Hankey led 4-3 and had two shots at double nineteen to win the match but neither landed near as he started to bottle it. Taylor then stepped up and banged in the double to send it to the final leg.

Hankey with the throw started off brillantly and carried on in great style to nail a double five and win a belter of a match 5-4. Some great trading in the darts tonight and could have been better for me if Barney had hit 1.20. He traded at 1.21 and my lay was sitting at 1.20 but it never got matched as he then went onto lose 5-3 to Colin Lloyd.

Todays laugh came from the Elite section of Ian Erskines blog and this is what was said;

"Saturday we had Man City as the first FTS straight forward for me out at 2.0, did think Man City would be more adventurous against a side they have a great record against but the game went against us. This was followed by Athletico which was a 100% win for me and I know some of you used it as a cover to win game so got back the first game losses."

Now I havent printed any of his mails before and wont do it again but to me this is laughable. So you lost £420 on the Man City game but decide to do a martingale to get your money back. So the risk liability on the draw in the Athletico game would have been approx £ 2k which is amazing. I ask you how many people in his group are really doing this type of trading? Do they really have that sort of money to risk?

Anyway enough of that and onto todays business. Firstly The Market Examiner had five picks and all losers. Add into the mix my four selections with only one place so a total loss of £ 270.

Luckily I managed to weigh in with £ 324 on Betfair so a slightly profitable day, had a few horse lays come good and traded a few football matches not the FTS ones!

Mugs !

2010-11-14T22:20:00.002Z

Yes thats what we the Great British public are for putting up with another travesty of a fight watching David Haye knock out an opponent who didnt even throw a punch in anger. If you are one of the people who paid £15 for such utter tosh than please give yourself a severe reprimand and dont do it again. I watched on Fromsport in Hd for free and still felt cheated. Talking about cheated the rumours are going round it was a fix anyway, the word was whispered in the ear in round three and down he went quicker than the proverbial lady of the night.

After this later in the night on Sky One was a true warrior and what an amazing fight between the Pac Man and Antonio Margarito, of Mexico, a man who refused to go down and by the end of the fight looked like a man who had been run over....by a tank !

Anyway some great sport with Cheltenham, the tennis in Paris , football galore and yet another big winner with Sunderland at 20/1 beating Chelsea 3-0. This scoreline was matched on Betfair at 999/1 so somebody is celebrating and somebody is getting ready to jump on a live rail somewhere.

Great tennis in Paris, really looking forward to the Finals in London the top eight in the World coming together. Ferrer should be the whipping boy, Berdych form has been terrible and I think Nadal and Roddick will struggle on the surface. Soderling won his first 1000 Masters tournament this weekend and with his indoor record I fancy him to do well along with the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)Federer and Murray. The crowd support will push Murray on and I think that he wants to prove to the British public that he can win big titles. It should be a bumper week with lots of trading opportunities.

For this weekend I ended up about £ 200 but my god it was a struggle and I did well to get this profit. My own football system gave me lays of Dortmund who won so I went to lay 2 which was Mainz who lost and then lay one in Spain was Mallorca who drew. I joined Soccer Insight and had one winner and one loser there. The two NFLbets from Mr X both won.

The Market Examiner had a bumper day today with profits of £ 437.50 but losses yesterday of £50. I think the total for this month is now -3 points. Bet Cat had a losing weekend costing me £ 120. My own bets had a winning day yesterday of £220 but a loser today of just £25.

Ian Erskines FTS and system 3 what can you say about that this weekend? If anybody who reads this subscribes to his picks then I bet it was a proper brown trouser weekend. Finally after a good part of the season is gone I can say in proper Theo style .... "Im Out"

The results for the weekend were poor but more than that I just cannot see any profit being made following picks that even I could come up with. The lay the draw games are always big odds on favs , with high draw odds and then when the dog scores first its just wait and see if it hits the fan. The system 3 picks are laying 1-1 scorelines and again at odds of 7/1 a couple in a row mean a long wait to get back in profits. I actually think from studying the picks that your best actually backing the draw, you have a much smaller liability and if the dog does score first the odds come in not out so giving a green book opportunity. The picks for the weekend were Man City the odds were about 5.2 on Betfair laying that for £ 100 gives a £420 liability , the other games were just as bad and todays pick was 0-0 until the 93rd minute which would have been another hefty loss, and even though both 1-1 lays today were winners you would have had to wait to the 85 th minute. Its just not worth it. So thats my take on the situation.

Finally I have had £50 on Linford Christie at 12 on Betfair after laughing my way through "I'm a Celebrity." I will lay off if he gets into to 6. No copy and pastes for the weekend as to many bets and I am going to bed now.

Another Long One.

2010-11-11T23:12:00.003Z

Another quickie as again I am feeling really tired after a long , long session. Got up early this morning listening to some podcasts and noting down figures for the weekends betting action. I seemed to have lots of work going on but not a lot to show for it at the moment. I hope all this hard work pays of come Saturday!

Slow day betting wise, one selection from The Market Examiner which was a loser, and just two bets from myself both finishing unplaced. So £125 in total gone. One of my two bets finished fourth when the jockey had third place in the last furlong but didnt ride the horse out which really pisses me off to say the least.

I had a couple of horse lays not go my way on Betfair but at least the tennis picked up and I finished down £2 ! I got some good breaks on the tennis and if I had held my nerve could have done better but there you go. The best win was on Llodra who beat Djokovic in straight sets.

Tomorrow we have Cheltenham so looking forward to some better racing over the next few days after the dross thats been on show this week. I think I was spoiled last weekend watching the Breeders Cup ! I am sure Dubai comes on very soon as well.

Update.

2010-11-10T22:20:00.005Z

Feeling knackered tonight so a quick update. No bets from me today , nothing for me to get excited about. Just the one bet from Market Examiner which was a winner recouping 5 points back and making me £ 125.

Two bets from Terry both losers , a loss of £ 87.50.

Betfair wise was ok, had a fairly easy day with the horses , made a few quid on the Zenit/CSKA game which was a cracker of a match. The place was jumping as Zenit just needed a draw to claim the Championship but lost at home 3-1. I was impressed with CSKA who I had a bet on to win the Europa League a few months ago at 25/1. If they play like that I might get a run for my money.

Tennis wasnt so good and for the fourth day in a row I lost money there. It needs to pick up and tomorrow would be a good time to start. Llodra beat Isner in straight sets shame I didnt bet on that one.

Keeping On

2010-11-09T22:13:00.012Z

Felt like a strange day today had a few PC problems and a lot of time spent just sorting out stuff, but no matter as a profit was made.

Firstly The Market Examiner had another 3 point loss for the day bringing the total to -18.5 points for the month. There was one winner but the rest of the selections all lost and to compound matters some of the losers were double point selections. A few of the choices really drifted before the off which has been a bit of a theme in recent days. My tipster Terry had just the one bet, an each way selection at 12/1 which came as they do fourth so just missing out on any profits. So a total loss of £110.

I had just the one selection which on a poor day's racing was an each way thievery job and my nag managed to get second at 18/1, winning me £ 65. I actually backed it at 10/1 and it drifted so I got the better price , which was an added bonus.

I made the profit from Betfair , where a couple of horse lays worked out and a couple of football trades went my way.

I also had a bet on Gyan to score at anytime for Sunderland against Spurs. This is probably the second time in my punting life that I have done this type of bet , but after hearing that Bent was out and looking on a few forums it seemed like a bit of value. Paddy Power was 3/1 which was better than Betfair and he obliged with a good bit of help from Gallas and Kabul.

After yesterdays post about Llodra, I checked his price on Betfair and there was another £5 available at 220 and 230 so I took that and put a lay in that got matched tonight so i dont have to wait for him to play Isner and have £975 free bet. So good news really.

Another retirement in the tennis world this being America's Taylor Dent who overcame some terrible injuries to keep on playing at the highest level, not the greatest of players but full of guts.

Ranked no. 21, Dent achieved his highest ever World ranking in August, 2008. Furthermore, prior to retiring, the professional was ranked no. 85 in the World. Taylor underwent three major surgeries in the year 2006 through 2007 as he had recurring back issues caused by injury.

Dent stated that he'd have a talk with his wife every year regarding his future. In the words of Taylor himself, "It's the deal we have had since my comeback, that at the end of the year we sit down and have a scheduled talk about whether to go forward or retire. I've been playing for 12 years now and I met a lot of my goals, almost all my goals after coming back from the surgeries and the time seemed perfect".

Additionally, he exclaimed, "I've got a son and a strong desire to be a family man. Pro tennis is a grueling schedule and it gets pretty tough after a while. My body was able to hang in there, a testament to my surgeon, but at the end of the day it's just a lot of little things".

My Lord, My Luck.

2010-11-08T22:10:00.006Z

A profitable day, so keeping the ball rolling forward . Firstly another three points gone as The Market Examiner drew a blank with his selections. All of the selections ran pretty poor races and seemed to run out of steam a long time before the end of their races. The service is now down 15.5 points for the month. Terry also had three blanks so total loss of £225.

I had two bets with the big winner for me being in the 2.35 at Wolves. I layed the odds on fav at 1.7 for £250 and backed the second fav My Lord at 5/1 each way. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesnt but my horse managed to get up to beat the fav near the line to win me £380 in total.

I also had Lukey Luke who came third. This was a bit of plunge horse as I backed it at 12/1 and it went off at 5/1, still another £ 35 quid in the bank.

After my morning post I decided to have £ 25 on Llodra to win the Paris Masters on Betfair. He has had a poor couple of months but is French and I like to back home players. He likes to play indoors and I feel the surface is good for his type of game, he has a fantastic touch around the net so who knows. After looking at the draw if he can get past Isner (who he lost to last week) I can see him going far. I got him at 200 on Betfair and will look to lay of at some point if he survives.

There were no selections for my football laying system last weekend but after going through the data there should be a couple in Spain and Germany this weekend, depending on odds.

Quick Roundup.

2010-11-08T11:51:00.009Z

Another cracking weekend of sport, it went like this. Kauto Star back and winning, Ruby Walsh back and not back after breaking a leg at the same meeting. Goldikova doing the business but Zenyatta what happened there? Jockey or horses fault? Lots of tears and apologies from all sides.
Paul Hanagan after a great tussle with Richard Hughes becomes the Champion Flat jockey. For a lot of the season he has been racing up and down the country and living out of a suitcase. Well done Paul now try to sit still and relax.
I shall be looking out for Peter Toole and Julie Burke this winter, two up and coming jocks.

Federer wins in Switzerland, Ferrer wins in Spain is there a pattern here? Maybe this week Monfils will win in France? Italia win the Fed Cup against the USA. Shame the Williams sisters didnt turn up but they are a law unto themselves. Heather Watson wins the biggest title of her career with victory in the Tevlin Challenger, an ITF tournament in Toronto, Canada. Is she Britains next Wimbledon hope ?

The Eagles win (Hooray) even if they do nearly throw it away with a ridiculous late 15 yard penalty for roughing the passer. The Ravens win(Hooray) and keep my NFL bets going strong.

Cricket ,Pakistani wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider has gone missing in Dubai, team manager Intikhab Alam has said.The 24-year-old's disappearance comes ahead of Monday's deciding one-day international against South Africa.Haider reportedly received a threatening message after helping Pakistan to victory in Friday's fourth one-day international.

Liverpool, Man City win ,Arsenal lose, Man Utd scrape home, have we got a decent title race this season?

I enjoy reading Green All Over Blog and Cassini has some great results concerning draws and ratings that he gives to each team. Now I have an interesting stat that I noticed a couple of weeks ago while I went through lots of European Football Data. This season, backing teams over 7/1 with Bet 365 which would probably be about 10% more on Betfair you would be showing to £ 100 stakes a handsome profit in the region of £ 7k, apart from Belgium where they have had twenty one losers in a row at last count.

In the Premiership there have been 16 losers and 4 winners giving a profit of +31 points, the winning games were Spurs/Wigan 12/1, Arsenal/WestBrom 14/1, Liverpool/Blackpool 10/1 and finally Arsenal/Newcastle 11/1. The Big leagues are Spain +18, Germany +16,Italy -9 and France +11.

In Spain Barca lost at home to Hercules who were 33/1 with Bet 365, I wonder what they were on Betfair. Anyway food for thought and it shows that this year there's a bit more competition, or maybe not?

Happy Days!

2010-11-06T17:08:00.015Z

A bumper day which really fires the month ahead. A really well done to Bet Catalyst who had a great day with their three bets.I only use half stakes on their bets so my winnings of £ 1303 are half of what they will post. The three bets were a win and two each way bets combined in a trixie. The first Simenon in the 3.10 at 14/1 came third.

This was followed up ten minutes later in the 3.20 by Meanus Dandy winning at 8/1.

The third leg of the bet was the 3.40 with Russian Spirit being the choice and this won at 25/1.

This meant that the trixie was landed.

I only had two picks myself . Both where in the 12.45 called Slew Charm and Gold Reef. A crazy race where I was so busy watching Slew Charm as it was challenging two out that I didnt notice Gold Reef come from absolutely no where to win on the line. The jockey Peter Hatton rode a race timed to perfection.The Market Examiner had three picks and for the first time this week he manged to get in on the act as Captain Americo in the 2.05 won very nicely. This service is now down 9.5 points since it re started.Terry had just the one pick and this came home second at 10/1 so another profit was pulled in.

On the Betfair front I lost about £ 120 but £200 of that was laying the above horses at low prices in running in case they got caught. Nevertheless a big day with approx £ 1800 profit.

Ian Erskine had three system three games that all came through and one FTS game that I didnt get involved in but that was a winner to.

Finally well done to the unbeaten Goldikova who won tonight in great style.

Exciting Night.

2010-11-06T13:42:00.005Z

Tonights the night for all horse racing fans with some amazing races for big money stakes. I shall be watching with a few cans of Stella hoping that Goldikova can do it. If you've had a bet good luck and enjoy !

From todays paper:

Zenyatta isn’t the only mare trying to set a record for victories at the Breeders’ Cup Championships today.

Irish-born Goldikova, like undefeated Zenyatta, will try to win a record third race at the event, which is being held this year at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

Goldikova, who has 11 top-level victories in Europe -- seven against colts -- would hold the record for consecutive victories in Breeders’ Cup races before Zenyatta. The 5-year-old runs in the $2 million Mile on the turf, which she has won the past two years, about two hours before Zenyatta runs in the $5 million Classic.

“Goldikova is a very special mare,” Freddy Head, her trainer, said during a teleconference. “She’s been running against the best in Europe, the best milers in Europe for three years now, and she’s beaten them all.”

Three races later, Zenyatta will try for her record 20th consecutive win and third Breeders’ Cup title. The 6- year-old became the first female to win the Classic last year and won the Ladies’ Classic in 2008.

“The unique thing about her is she’s come from last,” trainer John Shirreffs said during a teleconference. “How she does it, I have no idea because she’s always sort of at the mercy of the pace. She’s got to go wide or she’s got to cut a corner.”

Zenyatta is the early 8-5 favorite, running from the eighth post position against 11 colts in the Classic, the richest thoroughbred horse race in North America. Goldikova, given 6-5 odds in the morning line, will try to outlast 10 colts as she leaves from the 10th gate.

Zenyatta’s Shadow

“Goldikova, if she wins this, she’s amazing,” trainer Bob Baffert said on a teleconference. “I think she was shadowed a little bit by Zenyatta. It’s going to be exciting to watch Goldikova if she can repeat because she’s an amazing animal and she gets a little bit lost when she comes to the stage.”

The Breeders’ Cup is the richest two-day sports event, paying $26 million in purses, said Greg Avioli , chief executive officer of the racing series.

Baffert, who trained Classic entry Lookin At Lucky, says the fans will be rooting for Zenyatta to win her final race before she retires.

“That mare’s done so much for racing that I get goose bumps every time I watch her run,” Baffert said. “She’s just amazing, and we all want to win, but we don’t mind getting beat by her.”

Horse of Year

The winner of the Classic often earns Horse of the Year honors. Zenyatta lost the 2009 award to Rachel Alexandra, who had won the Preakness Stakes. Shirreffs said he is confident that she can win the title this year if she retains the Classic championship.

“Her legacy’s going to be how she changed the perception and how she engaged the fans with racehorses,” Shirreffs said. “The fans really get behind her and she sort of plays to the crowd, so she’s brought a lot of people into racing.”

Head said Goldikova has a good chance of being named European Horse of the Year after being passed over last year.

“This is definitely the decade of the filly,” Avioli said.

Squeezing.

2010-11-05T11:18:00.009Z

Managed to squeeze out my targeted profit yesterday though it was hard. There were two more losers for The Market Examiner which at £25 a point was £ 50 gone. Terrys only bet of the day came second but at 14/1 each way it made a profit.

Got £ 50 out of Betfair.

I had four bets with two unplaced, a 16/1 third and over in Ireland a winner.

Watched a bit of football the last couple of nights it does make you wonder. Man City are becoming the new Chelsea, with the neutrals wanting them to lose and my god they are poor for such a vastly expensive team. The fact of the matter is they have paid an exorbitant amount of money for players that really arent good enough. Last night they brought on a player (kolarov) never heard of the bloke and they paid £19 million for him from Lazio. It beggars belief !
This is the squad from their web site, look at how many players they've got.

Its not as if they even play that entertaining football, especially when compared to Spurs the night before. A great result but also a deserved one with Harry's team attacking from all sides and never trying to sit on a one goal lead against the Euro champions but taking the game to them. I hope that he gets the England managers job one day as he obviously wants it and he might be able to put a bit of fire and pride in the teams belly.

Slacking ?

2010-11-04T11:54:00.004Z

As the title says I have been a bit of a slacker lately, or have I? Had the first couple of days in November off as I wanted to "take stock" over what I am doing, where I am going and whether to take anything else on board.As well as going back through past results and trying to see if there are any angles or things I could improve.

At the end of the day this is my job and I could just sit here and watch re-runs of "Friends" but like everybody else I am always on the look out for new ideas and systems across the net. To boot I have been going through a lot of tennis and some football data, which is boring and tiresome but at the same time I think needs to be done when time is free to see if any little gems can be uprooted.

For the forthcoming month I have added "The Market Examiner" to see if he can perform as per his blog. I followed in the summer months and it worked quite well apart from the odds quoted compared to mine. For the cost of £15 for the month I am happy to give it a go and see if I can get the odds quoted achieved. If this doesnt happen in 90% of the cases I will drop it because there is 10% of any edge gone straight away. For the record he is 8 points down and all horses selected have run poorly.For the eight horses I have got the price as quoted in the email apart from today where both runners price had gone within seconds of me receiving the mail.

The other service I use is back on line as Terry took last month off. He started yesterday with the one bet which was a winner , so lets hope that continues.

These are the only two horse racing guys I will use apart from my own bets of course. Yesterday I had four bets of my own and lost £ 175, but overall a profitable one.

Flat.

2010-11-01T10:18:00.008Z

Out with old and as the clocks go back and the season changes so does my blog picture from Autumn to Winter. Lets all shiver our way through the next few months to Springtime and hope that the betting gods are smiling.

Had a very flat weekend making no head way. Cant really put any positive slants on it I just kept getting things wrong and the things that went right werent good enough profit wise. To add to my woes my favourite TV show "The Middle" also finished. If you havent seen it catch up with the repeats.

I lost the most money with Bet Catalyst who are running a master place system on placed horses which had as Richard put it in an email had" An unbelievable poor run." I will see if it can turnaround as results before were very encouraging.

The SBP had a losing A bet but a winning B bet on the NFL with Tampa +3.5 bringing home the bacon. On the college side of things I am not following anymore so I dont know.

The FTS had a good weekend but that was all lost and some more when a system 3 game that was picked on Saturday night finished 1-1. The system 3 has now a small profit for the season. I am still wondering where the £150k a year comes from, but Ian is helpful and does seem to want to help.

For myself I had just four bets all weekend with a couple of places for a loss of £55. I have managed to get an old Stan James account going again. Lets hope they take some bets on this one.
So I manged to drop in total £ 500 over the weekend but the month finished at over £3300 so beating the target. The last week had been a real roller coaster so I hope it can settle down a bit for now ! My own lay system performed well as all three picks AC Milan, Hearts and G Fruth all lost.

Finally thanks for the memories:

DOHA, Qatar - She fought alongside the biggest names on the WTA for over a decade, right until the end too. And following her last match of this week's WTA Championships - Doha 2010, Elena Dementieva called it a career.

After Anna Kournikova's stint at the top level in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Dementieva was the first of the current wave of Russians to make a mark, cracking the Top 20 on September 11, 2000 after a shock run to her first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open. She stayed in that elite for 524 of the next 529 weeks, including this week, and she spent an amazing 328 career weeks inside the Top 10 (peaking at No.3 for five weeks in the spring of 2009).

Dementieva seemed to get better and better with age, her most treasured title, the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, coming at age 26, and her two Top 5 finishes coming at 27 and 28 (at the end of the 2008 and 2009 seasons).

In addition to 16 WTA titles, Dementieva reached another 16 finals, including Grand Slam finals at the French Open and US Open in 2004. Players had to go to the ends of the Earth to beat her; who could forget Serena Williams' 67(4) 75 86 win over her in the semifinals of Wimbledon last year, where the eventual champion had to save match point in what is widely regarded as one of the best matches in recent memory. Dementieva reached the semifinals or better at Grand Slams nine times, doing it at least once at every Grand Slam.

Dementieva's success wasn't just limited to singles. She won six WTA doubles titles (including the WTA Championships in 2002 with Janette Husarova) and reached another seven finals (including two US OPEN finals, in 2002 with Husarova and 2005 with Flavia Pennetta). Her doubles career-high was No.5.

But after 12 years competing at the highest level, the Russian, who celebrated her 29th birthday earlier this month, decided to bow out on the WTA's biggest stage, her last match coming against Francesca Schiavone. The 30-year-old Italian would win that match in an hour and 33 minutes on center court, 64 62.

"This year in Doha was very special for me because it was my last tournament," Dementieva told the crowd. "I'd first like to thank Stacey Allaster. We're very lucky to have you as the leader of the tour. You do so much to make our tour better, trying to take women's tennis to a different level. It has been a big honor to be a part of the tour for such a long time. I'd like to thank all the people from the WTA - it was so nice to get to know all of you and work with you for so many years. I'm going to miss you so much. Thanks to all the players for the amazing experiences, all the years I spent on the court with you. And thanks to all the people around the world for supporting me, and my fan club, I could feel your support no matter where I was in the world. Thank you for your devotion.

"Most importantly, thanks to my family, especially my mom. You've been very supportive, encouraging, inspiring... you were always there for me. It was a long way and we did it together. I love you mom.

"It's so emotional. It's hard to say goodbye. I'm going to miss you so much."

"Russia is proud to have you. You've been a great inspiration and role model for kids,"Vera Zvonareva said on court. "You've done so much, not just for Russian tennis but for Russian sport. The whole country is proud of you."

"We kind of grew up together. I've been playing with her since the juniors,"Kim Clijsters said. "It's nice to see her look forward to something new in her life. She's been one of the most professional, nicest girls on tour.

"It will be rare to see another player like her."

Dont Forget....

2010-10-28T22:08:00.002+01:00

Vote for AP McCoy for Sports Personality Of The Year, and of course put a bet on it!

Legendary jockey snatches victory from the jaws of defeat ... again!

Throughout a career forged out of winning on horses that no other jockey would have got over the finishing line first, there are certain rides that stick out in the record of AP McCoy - the outstanding effort on Wichita Lineman at the 2009 Cheltenham Festival, getting Hennessy up late at Sandown the same year (hit an in-play high of 100), or the remounting of Family Business in a novice chase at Southwell in 2002, to name just three.

The latest we can add to the list is the victory of Drill Sergeant in the two-mile novice hurdle at Haydock on Wednesday. Things looked to be going smoothly for Drill Sergeant early on, McCoy having established a clear lead on the Donald McCain-trained novice, who had been sent off the favourite at a BSP of 2.15.

However, rounding the paddock bend on the first circuit Drill Sergeant pulled himself up, and his 15-length lead quickly eroded as he found himself in last place, hitting a high of 120.0 in running. The task looked hopeless at that point but, using what was described by Racing UK pundit Graham Cunningham as 'the iron hand in a velvet' glove', McCoy cajoled Drill Sergeant back into a prominent pitch.

Drill Sergeant was back in front three out, but several of his rivals were laying down strong-looking challenges at that point, and it needed a further demonstration of McCoy's strength in the saddle to deny Brother Bob, who touched and in-running low of 1.22.

Blindsided.

2010-10-28T12:07:00.008+01:00

Been watching my Bet 365 account as I feel it is in grave danger and what happens? Well my new Stan James account exactly two weeks old gets closed. After speaking to a trader it seems they dont like my type of betting, fucking great. All this at the end of a day when I had made back my previous two days losses and some more to boot.

I made the cardinal sin and I mean it when I say its the first time I have done this for ages and they clamp me. This is the story, I was going through the races yesterday morning on Betfair and there was money coming for a horse and it just kept coming. Everytime somebody put some money in it was snapped up and heading south. The price hadn't reacted with the bookies so I backed it with Stan James and layed it on Betfair. I also backed it to a smaller amount with Bet 365 each way. It was called Our Dynasty in the 3.15 at Musselburgh, and the thing dots up. It was more annoying because Bet 365 had a bigger price but because I was worried about the account I backed it with Stan James. So I lost £ 459 on Betfair but won £745 from the bookies.

I had some great bets with a 33/1 second place in Wayward Glance who went off at 80 on betfair and went down to 2.36 in running as it got beaten off in the last half a furlong. The same happened with King Of The Moors who I backed 16/1 and got caught on the line after trading as low as 1.05. Luckily I placed a lay on this horse at 1.15 so i collected the each way money £ 55 plus £ 191 from Betfair.

I also had Warnes Way and Starshine come second and third in the same race,and Bet Cat gave me Club Tahiti which also placed so all this combined to make it an £ 800 day.

Coming to the end of the month and its been a cracker, even after the trials and tribulations of the last three days.

The Midas Touch.

2010-10-26T20:10:00.005+01:00

There is a song that goes " I've got the midas touch everything I touch turns to gold" another classic probably from the eighties, well unfortunately for me that's not what's happened over the past two days.

If I sit back, look, and put it in perspective I'm still above my target for the month, but really I have performed very badly these past two days putting in some bad trades and then chasing them a bit, all to try to get to my best month this year. I also overstaked sometimes and this made me bite the bullet a bit sooner than I should have done. I shall go through my spread sheets and I wouldnt be surprised that If I actually put in half the stakes I am using now I would actually have made more money if that can make sense.

Well you live and learn and I cant even blame it on the gamblers most common foe "bad luck."
I have lost £ 685 on Betfair and another £100 from my own horse bets , but after the run I had been on with them a correction is sorely overdue!

Not even gonna mention "that" fixed tennis match yesterday a bit more annoyed with the tennis in Doha where the first two matches were a joke. Ok they have earned their right to get there but Jankovic and Dementieva were poor beyond belief. Both players were clearly injured, sick or both but getting a $100,000 just for turning up means they were gonna get on that court and the punters were never gonna get a fair crack of the whip. Both had their arses kicked in double quick time, I wouldnt be surprised if they quit and Na Li and Peer came in to take the spaces.

Anyway lets hope tomorrow is better.

A New Sport ?

2010-10-24T22:56:00.014+01:00

I didnt get where I am today without my power naps, maybe next year I can enter.

From the BBC website:

A jobless security worker has won a competition billed as Spain's inaugural siesta championship, napping for 17 minutes in a busy shopping centre.

Ecuadorean Pedro Soria Lopez took first place and 1,000 euros (£890) for his efforts - or lack of them.

Judges praised the 62-year-old not only for the duration of his 40 winks, but also for his volume, notching up snores of 70 decibels - around talking level.

The contest was run by Spain's National Association of Friends of the Siesta.

It was part of a campaign to revive the Spanish power-napping tradition, which is seen as threatened by the fast pace of modern life.

Over the course of nine days, 360 competitors were challenged to sleep for as much of a 20-minute period allotted to them as possible.

Participants stretched out on sofas in the Madrid shopping centre while their pulses were monitored to check they were asleep.

Judges awarded points for the speed with which participants fell asleep, the volume of their snoring, the most original sleeping position and the best-dressed sleeper.

Well a productive weekend which pushes October up to the second best month in the last year. If I can keep it up for another week I could have my best ever month but you never know in this game. Must of had a record on Saturday with the football as every bet/trade placed came off. The only loss was £3 which was me doing a late hedge in case Chelsea let in a goal as I backed them to win to nil.

My system lay of Swindon came off as they drew 2-2. I was too busy to get involved with Ian Erskines stuff and the SBP but I think that they both did the business this weekend and if any of you were involved you would have made a profit. All FTS games were good and the system three picks both won keeping the record to 100% for the season. The SBP bet in the NFL was Cleveland +13.5 which also came up trumps. Shame with these two as I missed profit making opportunities.

I took some pain on the horses on Saturday as a couple of hefty lays won their races but today I managed to get a lot of that back so showing a small but positive increase in my account for the weekend. The other positive came from my own bets. I had three on Saturday with two being placed at 20/1 and 12/1 and a winner at 14/1.

Today I had three again with two unplaced and one second at 25/1. The placed horse today Dear Sam got backed in from that price right down to 10/1 at the off.

The Wedge.

2010-10-22T19:00:00.009+01:00

Dark day for football today as the thin and the thick edge of the wedge met. A mega bucks player and a mega poor club. Just imagine if some of these very rich players from some of these big clubs just all chipped in a weeks wages to help Pompey, they wouldnt be in trouble thats for sure.

As a football lover it does make me wonder what has happened to the game I grew up to love. Just like many of you football fans I was taken to see my club when I was nine years old and I remember being in the chicken run at West Ham to see Bryan "Pop" Robson score the winning goal in an FA Cup 3rd round match against Watford. We had players like my hero Billy Bonds who played 500 times for the club along with Phil Parkes, Frank Lampard Senior and Sir Trevor Brooking. When we were relegated Sir Trev stayed with us down in the Second Division to help get us back to the top division. In those days players stayed and fought for what they cared about and maybe its all bullshit but to me it was more because they were part of a community.

The last time we went down in May 2003 our team consisted of players like Jermaine Defoe, Joe Cole, David James, Glenn Johnson and Freddie Kanoute. All of who went on to bigger and better things not giving a toss about the state of the club they left. In fact as many West Ham fans know we didnt want to sell Defoe but just like Rooney he had player power and we didnt have a choice. He managed to get himself sent off three times in the first two months of life in the Championship. He probably hasnt been sent off since then.

I hope Pompey survive and I hope that these mega stars put something back into the game, but most off them will just go back to their home countries and live like Kings. Its good that people like Ian Holloway can try to make the FA/ FIFA see the error of their ways, the unfortunate thing is he is manager of Blackpool not Chelsea.

So to today which was positive and puts my Betfair account on a new high for the year.

My first football lay went down with Ausberg winning 2-1 with a goal in the final minute of the match. As you can see from the above screen shot I came out of the match after 85 minutes so didnt make a loss, but for my actual system it is a loss so the next game in German Div 2 will be lay No 2. Tomorrow has another lay, No 1 in England Div 1 which is Swindon Town at 2.02.

Today I backed three horse who all ran poorly and finished unplaced so £150 gone there. Bet Catalyst had a bet which I am doing to half stakes which was called Macs Power. As its name implies it powered home and won comfortably at 12/1 . I won £ 150 from this.

So a busy weekend ahead and I shall post again Monday. Have a good one!

Moscow Mule.

2010-10-21T17:45:00.010+01:00

Well certainly a lot of disdain and disgust at yesterdays tennis match between Janko (The Fixer) Tipsarevic and Horacio ( Argy Bargy) Zeballos. Trawling the internet for anything on this game brought me up empty handed ,except for a quote from Neil Harman a writer for the Times who remarked what an honest tweet Janko made after he admitted that he choked. Choked wasnt the word I would use but hey it doesnt get reported it gets swept under the carpet. Just thank our lucky stars Neil Harman isnt a detective.

I was lucky enough to lay Janko the night before on Betfair at 1.23. ( That sounds wrong doesnt it.) I would like to say I had inside info but I get enough of that from all my spam mail. What i would recommend is if its not right jump in and try to make a few quid or ignore it altogether like the ATP do.

As you can see Janko had a relaxing smoke later in the evening in his crib,while listening to Cypress Hill, you go man !

Had a solid couple of days . Tennis is going well, I 've had a few profitable lays with my max liabilty always being £15 and have managed to make a dent in my £100 a day target. Yesterday I only had three horse bets as I couldnt see any value and today I didnt have any. There seems to be a lot of very trappy and low quality races about. Out of yesterdays bets I had a place at 14/1. The other two are probably just finishing now.

Tomorrow I will start my football five step lay system. I will only obviously be doing small stakes just in case it goes tits up early on, but each divsion will have five lays. If all lose then its back to the drawing board. The first lay for its division is Augsburg in German Div 2 at 1.74.
Lets see if I can get off to a flyer !

A Piece Of Luck.

2010-10-19T21:56:00.009+01:00

Well the hot streak continued on the horses. I had just the four today and even though three were unplaced I did manage to get a nice 10/1 winner which made me a profit of £150 on the day. As you can see below this is another new Stan James account I managed to get opened up. Still not got Victor Chandler though and my Bet 365 account is in danger I think.

One of the unplaced horses I picked was called Rougham in the 3.10. It was running against four other nags in a beginners chase. Paul Nicholls had put in Celestial Halo for his chase debut and it went off at 1.29 on Betfair. Coming to four out it fell when battling for the lead with my pick. Unfortunately my horse fell as well and at first I was fuming because I thought the favourite had brought mine down but after watching the replays I could see that Rougham had fallen on its own accord. Amazingly the three horses that were well behind were suddenly in a race for the line and the 50/1 shot got beat by a head. The good news for me was I had layed the fav at 1.10 as with still four fences to go it was trading to low. This bought me in nearly £ 500 quid.

That was the highlight of the day for me and kept me in profit as my other lays went a drift and the tennis and football let me down.

Today the FTS system had two picks which were Arsenal and Burnley. Both teams won fairly easily so all the blame for the football losses go down to me as some games I thought would go one way obviously went the other. My hall of shame was backing Leeds who lost, laying Forest who won, and laying Sheff Utd who also won. So a full house there just a shame its not poker.

On The Right Track.

2010-10-18T18:21:00.012+01:00

Its been a cracking few days for me since my last post with some lovely winners from only a few bets. I must have trod in something thats for sure. Starting with today I had just four bets with two unplaced , one placed at 14/1 and a 20/1 winner. The horse in question I backed in the morning but it returned at the same price which surprised me. It actually drifted on Betfair and went off at about 35/1 so a great touch.

Add to that the placed horse and today was a good one. On Sunday I only had three bets but again managed to find a nice priced winner in Ireland at 14/1.

And another place this time at 25/1. Again i took this at 20/1 and it drfited and went off at the bigger price which was nice.

Add to that I only had two NFL bets this weekend and both came through though one went to overtime. Thank you Mr X.

Saturday started my run off as I had another couple of winners out of six bets both at Cheltenham.

I didnt get time to put any SBP bets on over the weekend and I am not entirely sure of the results. In the college football he had an A B and C bet go down during the week but over the weekend the bets would have been profitable . In the NFL both bets won.

The FTS system is something I am having trouble with as every game chosen seems to go wrong and because Ian never shows screen shots or trades in running you are never going to know if he truly makes money at this or not. Reading his blurb and saying he makes £100k from this is pretty unbelievable to me. His system three selections are running at 100% so far this season but you are laying at odds of about 7/1 and there have only been about 9 selections so far.

I started my own football system this last weekend. The international break was good news for me as it gave me plenty of time to run through the results from 16 European leagues which was earthshatteringly boring and tedious but I have complied them all onto spread sheets. To give an idea of my strategy I have a five step betting strategy laying certain teams that are odds on. Some people will say its a martingale system but I do stop at five lays and come the end of the season we will find out. The only thing I can say is over the 16 leagues , going back to 2002 it never got beyond the fifth stage of the process.

The tennis has been going well over the last week so lets hope this continues with the Kremlin and Stockholm tournaments that have just started.

On Target...Just.

2010-10-15T20:51:00.009+01:00

Well exactly half way through the month and my spreadsheet says I am exactly half way towards my monthly target. I am never gonna be rich but I am doing something I enjoy and that is the best thing in the world.

The last couple of days have been ok. I didnt make a bean yesterday but today would have been a cracker if not for some really poor decisions made by your's truly. Pressure makes you do rash things and today I buckled a bit. Its a bit like giving up something and then lapsing back into it and wondering where it all came from and trying to retrace what went wrong.

I chucked about £ 300 away on one particular race and the only good thing to say is that its the first time in twelve months that I have done something so silly. When I started on Betfair about five years ago it was a regular occurence but back then I had a full time job.

Below as you can see are the last couple of days figures :

The good news is the losses were well covered by my own tipping. I had five horses today and after having a lot of placed efforts recently I managed to get two winners, two placed and one out of the frame. I got on Frankie after he won the first at Newmarket and had a 9/1 winner.

He went on to ride three more winners on the day and I imagine there will be some money being lumped on him tomorrow.

In the 3.45 I wanted to get £ 25 e/w on Inca Chief but only Bet 365 had 66/1 and they wouldnt accommodate so I had to settle for £ 12.50 e/w. It actually got up in the last furlong to make a challenge before fading very quickly but just made the line in third place as the other nags swamped him.In the 4.20 handicap I had two horses Catergorical at 22/1 and Bollin Greta at 12/1. The latter won which made for a great punting day.
Bet Catalyst also had Hubris in the big race at Cheltenham and this got placed at 33/1 so well done Richard.This bought me in another £ 73.

The jumps is my favourite time for backing the horses and it was great to have Cheltenham back on TV today. There are some great cards tomorrow with Newmarket as well, where if Frankel gets any shorter in the market I will be laying it.

Downer.

2010-10-13T21:31:00.007+01:00

Not the best and not the worst of days is how to remember this Wednesday. Sometimes its just luck that you're sitting at the PC and opportunity knocks and thats what happened to me this morning. I was going through the nag races on the internet and had the TV on beside me which was showing the Roddick game. I had already layed him and was red on both sides to the tune of about £30. I had got out of the bet as it wasnt happening and he was steamrolling his opponent.

All of a sudden he went for the ball and seemed to be in some sort of pain. The market didnt really react so quickly, thinking it was nothing major but as he was 1.03 at the time I had a sneeky lay of £300 for £9 liability . The rest as they say is history. He quit a game later after having treatment and I made a few quid. It was a shame for him as he was playing some great tennis and for low backers as well. Personally I never get involved backing at low odds on tennis, as today shows its not like a team sport were everyone can retire, with tennis its just one slip or twist and thats it, you've done your dough. There must be a website out there for players that retire the most, it might be worth hunting down. For the record the one I never get involved with is Bartoli she's a nightmare.

That was my only highlight as I lost a total of £ 240 today, £ 150 backing horses and another £90 on Betfair.
I watched the second half of the England game last night which was obviously disappointing but in the grand scheme of things doesnt really matter. What bothers me more is the lack of players turning up to play for their country, its worrying that half the team cant make the first team for their clubs. The club v country debate will always go on but with their vast salaries and all the aggro from the press if results dont go our way I'm sure a lot of them are happy not to take part.

Well Serbia, that was the game I wanted to watch. Last weekend they tried to stage the first gay pride event in Belgrade which obviously didnt go down to well as rioting insued. Last night they went to Italy and continued the fighting so getting the game abandoned. I gather FIFA are going to award the match to Italy 3-0 , I wander if I can get a bet on that......

The Appliance Of Science.

2010-10-11T19:14:00.010+01:00

God, what a boring day today has been, and tomorow with only two meetings on the card looks even worse. It got to the stage where I was casting the deciding vote in my own little election on what the most important appliance was but keeping to the betting mode it had to be "value" as well.

The answer that came to me was "the microwave." What an absolutely marvellous bit of kit for the man on the move, when you are busy trying to get your bets on and dont have time to cook then just whack in some pre cooked meal and wham, its done. My mate always said he was great at cooking "Sausage Ding" I thought it was some Chinese food but then I found out it was just the sound the timer made on his microwave when he had cooked his sausages, Ding !

Anyway mine is a sharp microwave and cost about £ 69 and its one of those things you cant remember how long you've had it. Its like when you go to the doctors and you've got a cut arm and he says " When did you last have a tetanus injection because if its over ten years ago you need another, to which you reply " Oh it was about three years ago Doctor" then after reading your file he pipes up with " It was actually 1995 before you went to the Gambia."

So £69 for about ten years worth of work, sounds like slave labour to me and tomorrow I will give it a loving clean as reward for all its sterling efforts in keeping me fed.

To more mundane matters. I had another up and down day especially with the horses where I traded very well but lost it all on one particular lay. The horse drifted and I could have greened it up but I didnt. Stll made a £55 profit overall on Betfair but lost £57.50 on my own horse bets.

If you followed the SBP predictions for the college football then another A, B and C bet all went down in the night on Saturday. As stated in my last post I am not doing them if they over lap so I was lucky not to get involved saving myself about £ 400. Thats now two system losses for the NCAA football this season which would have wiped out any previous profits. The question is with all gambles , is it worth it to continue?

I did however get on the NFL games but after the A and B bet went down in succession I went to bed with a feeling of dread for the C bet. Happily this came through as The Eagles +3.5 beat the 49ers .

Lets Go.

2010-10-09T22:35:00.010+01:00

A strange week on the betting front for me. The whole week had been up and down with me giving a bit and then getting it back and vice versa. A bit frustrating but not a lot I could do about it except having the added pressure of being a third of the way through the month with only a small profit.

Today that turned around. It started with SBP C bet coming in over night. For the record I havent placed any of the NCAA bets issued over the weekend as I mentioned last week they seem to overlap. The NFL bets I will do tomorrow because I can get access to the results a lot quicker and live TV pictures.

Bet Catalyst came good with their two selections coming first and fourth. I backed both each way and also in a double so making £ 390. I am only doing half stakes on these at the moment but hopefully its a sign of things to come for their picks and I will increase the stakes but not until i think the corner has been turned.
The winner was Gunner Lindley and the other bet The Betchworth Kid managed to get the precious fourth place at 16/1.

I have missed the last couple of winners from Packed Pockets but today I got on their only selection in the 5.15 at Bangor which then went and won by twenty lengths at 3/1.

I managed to chip in with a couple of winners as well. I had ten picks today with two places, two winners and six unplaced. One of the unplaced was Monkton Vale which at 33/1 lost a place by a nose which was a gutter.To help top it all off I have had a good couple of days on Betfair.

I have used the bettor logic software when I have had time and I really do think it gives you a real edge when looking for that most important word in the bettors bible "value". It reminds me of the saying "how long is a piece of string."
The reason why is they both mean different things to different people but when you have something that tells you in black and white then it gives you an added confidence when placing a bet in the market. If you can go back over the last five football seasons and see that the chance of something ending in a particular result is 16/1 but you can lay that result at 4/1 then that to me is value. Even if that result does happen you still wouldnt change your thinking or actions if you had to do it over again. I hope this makes sense, grammar is not my strong point as I guess you have discovered.

Anyway a great day with a good four figure profit and tomorrow is a day off.

Fragile.

2010-10-06T20:57:00.006+01:00

If you are old enough to remember bands like The Sex Pistols, Sham 69 and The Cockney Rejects then you know what the pogo is. For those that dont its a dance where the basic steps allow for a variety of interpretations, some of which might appear quite violent. Pogo dancers have their choice of:

keeping their torsos rigid or thrashing them about;
holding their arms stiffly at their sides or flailing them;
keeping their legs together or kicking about;
jumping straight up and down, jumping in any direction, or spinning in the air.

So last night I was going to have pizza and a quiet couple of drinks with some mates but there I was at midnight in Po Na Na Brighton with lots of students doing the pogo to the song below, it took me back some I can tell you. Great fun apart from the obligatory morning after headache which takes a lot longer to shake off then when I was a Teenage Dirtbag . I hope you have a listen to the song below and have a go yourself. It is most invigorating.

Not made any headway over the last couple of days literally finshing about even. I managed to make £ 4 on Betfair , and had a few horse bets with no winners but plenty of places.

The tennis system didnt work so well but it did have a bumper week so a correction was/is due. I did go through some data and what i am looking to do was profitable but I dont really have a big enough sample size to see if it was just luck, but I will keep a record.

The NFL A bet for SBP came in very easily, shame it wasnt the C bet from the weekend and there are over the next couple of days some more NCAA bets starting tonight with UAB Blazers ( whoever they are.)
Hopefully I will be fully functioning tomorrow.

Easy Does It.

2010-10-04T23:45:00.003+01:00

After a hectic weekend, today was a much more soothing, slower and profitable day. A lot less work but better profits, isnt that the way it should be?

The NFL game was reported in yesterdays losses but because of the time it finished it ended up in todays P&L but no matter everything else went well.

The horse lays seem to come in spurts like buses at the moment with few and far between and then many together. I managed to only hit one winner today so picked up a nice profit, along with the tennis system which again had a really good day. This week I am going to go through some more data on the tennis matches to see if I can improve this further more . I have an idea but I dont have a clue whether it will help but I will by the end of the week. I didnt have a single bet on the horses today as nothing struck me as value.

The biggest downer of the day was after spending all of last week checking football odds today I checked that my figures from the weekend matched with football data.co.uk and guess what? They didnt. My odds were different to what they posted up so I contacted them to find out why and found out they take the odds for the weekend matches on Friday before 5pm, where as I have been taking the odds about an hour before a game kicks off. Now you might not think it matters but two losing games for me this past weekend wouldnt have counted.

Got an A bet tonight on New England -1 with the SBP, fingers crossed.

The Boy Done Good.

2010-10-03T23:27:00.008+01:00

Magnificent weekend of sport with action and thrills and spills everywhere. The highlight for me was the great line up of racing at Longchamp and what a day for local lad (local to me!) Ryan Moore as he got Workforce up to win the prix de l'arc triomphe. The colt, who looked in fantastic condition before the race, was given a brilliant ride by Moore, who was also securing his maiden victory in the prestigious contest. For owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah it was a fourth success following Rainbow Quest (1985), Dancing Brave (1986) and Rail Link (2006).

If the closing stages of the race were exciting, further drama followed as a stewards' inquiry was called into what looked a rough race. It did not affect Workforce and the Stoute team were able to celebrate their victory.

Earler in the afternoon champion jockey elect Paul Hanaghan won his first group one race with Wootton Bassett who led from start to finish and sandwiched between these two excellent races the brillant filly Goldikova won her eleventh group one race the most ever by a European horse.

Had a really busy weekend of betting. On the racing front it was strange as on Saturday I didnt have a single bet of my own. I couldnt find any value with lots of uninspiring racing mixed in with big fields and terrible weather it was a pin in the paper type of a day. Instead I concentrated on football, tennis and some golf.

Today was more of the same with only three horse bets with two placing at 18/1, 12/1 and one unplaced.

Below is the weekends Betfair screen. A few horse lays came in, the golf strategy chipped in a few quid ( pardon the pun) and the tennis really helped after having a rough last week. My new football strategy got off to a poor start as is normal when you use real money and I had a few kicks in the teeth with this. The worst being Rangers scoring in the 93rd minute and Udinese doing the same in Italy. I have looked back at eleven leagues over the last eleven seasons so I have done it to death and I just hope its a blip ! Famous last words and all that.

SBP had a successful college football weekend. I am having difficulty with these bets as the games seem to over lap and I dont know whether the bet needs to be an A or B or C etc.

Last night the first game handicap was + 10.5 and the team were losing by 13 but obviously I had to wait to see if they scored in the last quarter before I knew if it was an A or B bet next up. By the time I found out the other game had already kicked off so I couldnt get the extra money on I needed.

The bet I did get on was the C bet in the NFL on the Colts -6.5 which lost so costing me £ 200 so not good, but i salvaged £90 back on the Chargers.

Ian Erskine had another three system 3 winners and a three FTS winners although the majority of the games it was seat of the pants time, especially the lay of 1-1 in the Palace/QPR game with Palace scoring at the death but Rangers managing to get a winner straight away.

A busy weekend with just over £ 200 profit which for all the hard work wasnt so good, but thats life !

The Sun Always Shines On TV.

2010-10-01T12:03:00.008+01:00

Remember those immortal words uttered by Aha many moons ago, well obviously it doesnt in Wales. The Costa has about three hundred odd days of sun a year and Wales probably has about three and they are all in July. I dont know much about the Ryder Cup or schedules but surely picking such a venue at such a time of year was going to be a nightmare. I reckon if the fog comes down to tomorrow as predicted then the USA team might get home for Christmas! At least I got my bets in play this morning and managed to have a lay in and finish my Ruth Rendall book.

Always nice to start a new month with a feeling of excitement to see what it brings, if anything in the way of profits. So the tennis system had two winners out of three today which would have put it nicely in profit if I had remembered to put the bets down. Typical but they are down on paper at least! Nothing doing on Betfair as I lost a bit on the horses and got a percentage of it back on football.Had a good day with the horses as Ballyvasey 9/2, Approve 12/1 and Zamina 13/2 placed , one other didnt and a winner came at 14/1.

Had various ideas as mentioned in previous posts and after spending a lot of time back testing one in particular, I shall start having some bets on laying particular odds on Football favs in leagues around Europe. I am going with a staking plan that hasnt broken the bank in the past and am confident enough to back this up with money.

Great piece from SP on his blog about the Betfair Float and this one thing in the article struck me and I quote :

As English points out, "one side effect of the float is that Betfair now has to make available a huge amount of information it could previously keep under wraps. That's likely to prove mouth-watering to wannabe competitors". In other words, the risks of rivals trying to muscle in on Betfair's business are rising.

Which hopefully can give them some competition and us better commission rates.

Belated Happy 40th

2010-09-30T10:12:00.018+01:00

I have been to busy to blog but its a belated happy birthday for Kimiko Date Krumm who turned 40 a few days ago. A lady who gave up tennis at the age of 27 and then because her husband wanted to see her play more often 12 years later came out of retirement.

At the 2009 Korea Open, she won her first WTA Tour level match after the return, against Lee Ye Ra then came up with a second victory right after over Alisa Kleybanova, coming back from a set and 5-2 down. In the quarterfinals Kimiko defeated top seed Daniela Hantuchova in three sets lasting over two and a half hours. Date Krumm prevailed with the score 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4. In the semifinals she defeated defending champion Maria Kirilenko 3-6 6-2 6-4. In the final, which was held one day before her 39th birthday, Kimiko Date Krumm defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-3 to win her first WTA Tour title since her comeback. Thus, she became the second-oldest player in the Open era to win a singles title on the WTA Tour, after Billie Jean King, who won Birmingham in 1983, aged 39 years, 7 months and 23 days.

This week the day before her 40th she beat Maria Sharapova in three sets and then on her birthday she followed it up with a victory over Daniela Hantuchova where after losing the first set 6-2, she produced ten winning games on the trot. Needless to say at 4-0 down in the decider Miss Hantuchova retired before I think she had a complete and total meltdown.

She then lost to French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in the third round 6–3, 6–3, but to still be competing and winning at the very highest level is a fantastic achievement.

Been a fairly quiet last few days. Been using real money for the tennis strategy as most of the games seem to be in the middle of the night so I cant really monitor them unless I stick money in to see when they get matched etc.. Not sure what to make of it but lets see. I was down to the tune of £150 but now its only a pound so the recovery is underway ! Watch this space for the ebook, just need Steve Davidsons email address...

Picked a few football games yesterday to lay the draw. The first was Spurs who after watching the first 10 minutes I thought this is going to be a goal fest but at 0-0 at half time I was starting to worry especially after the penalty miss. Came good though and all the backers off over 4.5 at half time made some money. The second game was in Argentina where looking at the stats I fancied a result and luckily the home team was two up by half time. I had come out of that at 1-0 though as I am still a bit wary of this type of bet.

Had a good day with the horses as having picked ten out I had two places at 12/1 and 20/1 six unplaced and two winners at 12/1 and 4/1 giving a profit of £ 340.

Tomorrow the Golf starts. I dont really understand all the hype but then again Golf and F1 are my least favourite sports but they are played and watched by millions so good luck to Europe. If any of you get Pete Norsteds newsletter I will have a go at his Ryder Cup strategy for Friday and Saturday.

FIXED !!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-09-27T19:27:00.006+01:00

I seem to be getting inundated with emails screaming FIXED. It must be the new thing to keep bombarding people with this crap. Yesterday I had ten from the same monkeys telling me that a game was fixed and to back Numancia it was free money. So they lost 1-0, what a surprise. Last week had a few regarding tennis and another Brazilian football match both again were losers !
As if there arent enough idiots on the betfair forum giving out free money tips.

Over the past five days I have been paper trading some ideas for football, horse racing and tennis without sadly, much success. As you can see from below its been quiet for me as I try to get some different ideas together for October.

The SBP had a mixed weekend with all three A bets coming in on the college football.

But both A and B bets going down in the NFL. So next weekend will start with the C bet.

The jury really is still out with Ian Erskine as I struggle with his selections. His FTS system had three picks and yet again this weekend he hit a draw. As i already said I didnt trade any football this weekend as I decided to sit back and paper trade this as well. I think now is a good time to reflect on a few things to see if they really are going to work or if it is just me.
I cant understand how the Betfair Football Trader Steve manages to get such a high profit for the FTS as a lot of games end in draws and if the dog scores first the price on the draw retracts plus you have to hit the odd 0-0 occasionally.

The other service under review is Bet Cat. I have being using half stakes on all their picks for a couple of months now so the losses are not as great but with the lack of bets and the lack of winners it is becoming a bit of a struggle.

I will be taking it easy this week as I protect this months winnings and try to get some new stuff in place for October.If anyone has any ideas please leave a comment.

A New High.

2010-09-22T21:49:00.005+01:00

A big day for me with a lovely 33/1 winner which pushes me onto a new high for the year. I had four picks with one placed at 10/1 ,two unplaced and that winner. It was in the 3.25 at Redcar called Sea Salt. I occasionally go for long shots, not as much as I used to but this one just struck me as a bit of value and so it proved as it won in a photo finish.

I've had a few hit the crossbar this month after a cracking August so this was really pleasing. This cleared me over a grand and to back it up later in the day I got a tip for Select Committee in the 5.40 which also won.

Had a great day on the footy with eight games picked out this morning on the BL software. I had two go against me but the other six were positive. I must admit its very time consuming ploughing through stats but at the moment I am shortlisting the right games and getting rewards for the amount of time and effort being put in. Lets see if its just a flash in the pan.
Only had a few horse lays and that was going well until the last one of the night bolted up costing me £175 but nevertheless a pleasing day.

Ying And Yang.

2010-09-21T23:37:00.009+01:00

How do you write that you are pissed off even after winning a few quid? Today was one of them days when I had so much going on with me trying to get involved in to much stuff. I really should know after a year of full time trading/betting that it doesnt work that way, at least for me. I know this but I still do it and today I will no longer write about it because it wont happen again, so there!
The last company I worked for one of their five philosophies was to focus on the positive, until it was time for your review then they would just giving you a slating so here goes:

POSITIVES :Today I have to try to do that and reflect on the good stuff. Starting with the horses some nice lays coming in. The famous lay an AP McCoy horse under 4/1, which in my case was two odds on shots that both got beat one by a nose! Apparently his horses are always over backed because of the jock, but does it work? I am sure somebody out there has got a bit of software that can work it out in no time at all. I didnt place a single horse bet today.

The football was profitable as per yesterday I went through the in play market and looked at the stats and came up with a number of games to have a go at. I ended up just doing two matches but both gave the desired result.

I also had time to try my horse lay system on the dogs with £ 2 stakes and won £ 21, it all adds to the kitty its just a shame there's not enough money about in that market.

NEGATIVES: Some terrible trading on one tennis match which I am still amazed I didnt come out with some profit on instead of a £ 40 loss, that was basically because I gave up trying to chase something that I was constantly cocking up and going against all my own trading rules. In the end I just took the loss and moved on. Unfortunately I had my head up my arse, and so while pissing about wih a tennis match I missed a horse lay. The horse duly lost and this error cost me £ 192 which is an awful lot of money. When I explained to my better half she said to me "Why dont you write it all down on a pad?" To which I replied " I do "

Because I am prone to sometimes forget a bet or two I think the thing to do is just lay them in the morning as i find they all drift or steam the same amount and it all comes out in the wash ( I hope.)

Final negative is my £ 50 each way I had on Everton to win the Carling Cup. Surely they could have given me a better run for my money I mean jesus they aint gonna win nothing else are they?

Legend Or Arrogant ?

2010-09-20T20:30:00.009+01:00

Ronnie O'Sullivan fired a remarkable 147 break at the World Open in Glasgow after halting play when on eight points to check the prize for a maximum.

He was told there was no separate purse but cleared up to beat Mark King 3-0.

The 34-year-old appeared content to end on the pink in the final frame and had to be persuaded to pot the black.

After potting the first red and black in frame three O'Sullivan halted proceedings to ask what the prize for a 147 was, only to be eventually told there was no additional purse and only a £4,000 sum for the highest break.

He potted some outstanding balls in his maximum, achieved in barely 10 minutes - even with the delay when researching about the 147 prize - but shook hands with King after disposing of the pink.

Referee Jan Verhaas persuaded O'Sullivan to finish the break and he duly slammed in the black in nonchalant fashion.

"I wasn't going to pot the black to be honest with you because I asked the ref and was told there was no break prize for a 147," O'Sullivan admitted to the BBC.

"I wanted to make sure because if there was a decent prize then I would definitely have gone for it and I thought I might as well go for it anyway.

"Jan talked me into it [potting the black]. My whole thing was I was going to make 140 and leave the black What's the point of making a 147 if they're only going to give you four grand for it?

"I'm surprised. They're getting stingier. I thought Barry Hearn was supposed to be putting more money into the game, not taking it out.

"I've had loads of 147s so I don't really get excited by it and thought I needed to give myself something to go for. I just thought 'why not?'"

My Betfair screen shot shows a £4 profit but believe me I am really happy about that as at one stage it was not looking to clever. I had a heavy horse lay that won in the first race and from then on it was damage limitation. I managed to get the majority of it back on a few other nags.

This morning i spent a couple of hours pouring over the in play football matches on Betfair and after checking up on some stats I came up with a few games that I wanted to get involved with. Amazingly they all went pretty much too plan ,I suppose the only issue was that I bailed out in all of them and greened up because I couldnt face the stress of watching the market waiting for the dreaded suspend sign to come up, followed by the couple of minute wait to see if its gone for or against you. I think thats why I enjoy the horse racing because if you are going to do your nuts its over quickly, where as football and tennis is sometimes like a death by a thousand cuts as you sit stewing at the PC. Anyway all the results went my way and if I hadnt of got out I would have had a £ 360 profit instead of £120, but I was taught that "your first profit is your best profit."

So it was a bit of a role reversal as the profits came from my own bets. I had eight bets with two losses, five placing at 20/1 Dramatic Jewel, 14/1 Trikirk, 12/1 Spinning Bailwick, 10/1 Tayacoba and 15/2 Strictly Lambadda and thankfully a winner at 8/1.

The total profit from these was £ 370. I cant be bothered to cut and paste them all so here's the winner.

The Irish racing has been good to me over the last six weeks and long may it continue.

Another Busy Day.

2010-09-20T00:28:00.004+01:00

A positive day to the tune of £ 250 but another very long one. My horse picks are still floundering, and out of seven picks I didnt get one place. It seems at that moment I am picking plenty of donkeys. A few of them really steamed in price and I definitely found value but the horses in question obviously didnt know that ! The seven of them cost me £ 350.

The only horse lay lost winning me £ 240 and I also got involved in more football than I have done for a long while. I used the bettor logic software to pick out a few games and I had one FTS game that also chipped in to the winning total of just over £ 200. In the tennis I lost £40 thinking that in a deciding Davis Cup rubber it would have some swings but it didnt really as Stepanek went down in straight sets. If he had won the second set tie break I could have greened up for a nice profit. He had the chances but didnt take them.

The SBP came through on the final C bet in the NFL . I had £ 122 on the Bills + 13.5 on the B bet but they got stuffed so i had £ 275 on San Diego -6.5. They won by about 20 points I think so netting me £ 107 on the day.

The NCAA SBP bets overnight also came through on the B bet but I didnt back it as I was asleep. There was an A bet that lost but I didnt do that either as I thought if that lost which it did I wouldnt be awake for the next one, so I missed out on another £ 50 profit.

The totals now stand at + £ 351 on the NCAA and +£ 50 on the NFL.

No Reward.

2010-09-18T23:48:00.007+01:00

Quick entry (as the vicar said to the actress) as I am most tired after a day off winning no wonga.

Horses, no winners from five picks but had a couple of places the best being Steele Tango @ 12/1 coming second, Bet Cat had three picks all losing and the poor run continues. Loss of £200 in total.

Below is my Betfair screen print. Again the horse lays were good but the Football brought me down and I showed a profit of a pound !

The killer on the football was an FTS game from Ian Erskine. AC Milan v Catania was the lay the draw call and at 5.2 on Betfair it was a bit on the high side. Anyway it finished 1-1 and gave me a hefty loss. I managed to get some back on the other FTS game and the system 3 bet which came in.
I am now down £500 with the FTS system on his picks since the start of the season and up £250 on the system 3 picks. I imagine he will get some grief in his inbox in the morning from his disgruntled followers !

SBP had an A bet overnight on Nevada +3 and they won there match easily so giving me £50.

There were three other bets to follow. The first an A bet on Vanderbilt +12, they actually won by about 10 points I think so that won another £ 50. I had to split the bet because Paddy Small Penis Power wouldnt take a lousy £50 win, muppets.
So the late bet was another A bet with Arizona State +12 going down by just the 1 point so giving another £ 50.

There is another bet overnight which will be an A bet and a couple tomorrow in the NFL which will be a B and if a loser the third will be the C!

Goodnight.

Fruitful.

2010-09-17T22:08:00.008+01:00

Friday turned into a stress free day as a nice profit was made from the first race onto the later ones. Firstly I picked six horses with four losers but finally a couple of winners instead of places. The first winner Sister Red led all the way and returned at 10/1 which was the price I got in the morning. It drifted a bit on track but done the business.

The second winner was a very nice touch as i had layed the odds on favourite in the same race and my horse got up on the line to pip it at 14/1 winning me £ 420 plus the £ 50 lay money. The other way round and I would have broke even.

I managed to trade a lot of races today as I didnt have that many lays and this helped concentrate me and keep me ticking over.

Thought I would use the Bettor Logic software and had a look at the Doncaster/Leeds game at half time. I discovered that Doncaster had only won 4 of 17 home games that were goalless at half time and the odds to break even would need to be 4.25. As they were 2.66 I had a very small lay on them.

I also checked how they fared against teams that were promoted as Leeds were, again with a half time score of 0-0. Believe it or not they had two other goalless first halves against promoted teams and both games had gone on to finish 0-0, just as this did.
So i made £13 on the footy, not a lot but a start!

Back To Work.

2010-09-16T22:27:00.007+01:00

Back to the land of the living after a great trip to Spain. I thought it was Alicante but I ended up in a lovely hotel slap bang in the middle of Benidorm, as you can imagine it was a bit lively. The weather was fantastic and I loved swimming in the warm med.

So lets begin with SBP the B bet I placed before going away came in so pushing my profit upto £195. After that he had three losing A,B and C bets on the same night which would have wiped out my profit and left me about £ 200 down. Luckily I didnt do any betting while away so missed these as well as the first A bet on the NFL which also lost. I shall continue with these as hopefully I have dodged a bullet but these types of bets carry a health warning as it really is the C bets that make you your money. Once these go against you you are in big trouble. Mind you its all swings and roundabouts for me as three matches I was emailed to back as draws all finished level so ( Everton 3-3, Wigan 1-1, Spurs 1-1) this would have covered my SBP losses anyway.

Todays horses were a bit uninspiring as I had just the one winner and three places out of ten bets so giving me a small loss of £ 70.

The Betfair account was better as a few lays lost and I did a bit of footy.

Ian Erskines systems are doing OK i missed the weekend when he kept the system 3 results at 100% with another two winners and also his FTS bets came in. Again I can only go on my results but the system 3 games have made me £ 200 but I am down £120 on his FTS games. I am an elite member so we are supposed to get mentored which is all well and good but it isnt showing any profit yet, and he never posts up profits or figures so you have no idea if what he says is true.

Finally today I signed up for Bettor Logic which is a football based piece of software which i have been playing with for most of the day. I dont really do much football mainly because I cant seem to make any money at it but from this weekend I shall have a few bets just from there stats. You can have pre match data and in play data and this is supposed to give you value odds as well as about a million other things. It could be information overload but as the first two weeks are a free trial I shall see if I can do anything profitable.

Below is this weeks game between At Madrid and Barca. As you can see backing Athletico would have given you a 13 point profit since 2005, so are they value at 4/1? I fancy the over 2.5 market which even at 1.52 looks good. Maybe there are some footy experts who can tell me ?

Round Up.

2010-09-09T21:37:00.011+01:00

Managed to get myself a trip to Alicante tomorrow and wont be back until next Tuesday so just a quick post up with todays results. Firstly got a B bet with SBP over night so will see how that goes and if it is a loser will try to get the C bet on while I am away.

A roundabout day as the lays lost me money for the first time in a while but I managed to back three winners out of six bets so actually made a small profit of £ 60.

Have a great weekend.

Black Balled.

2010-09-08T19:41:00.009+01:00

Todays big news concerning the snooker fixing probe. No surprise even with video evidence Higgins is cleared but charged with a lesser offence. Obviously if this had gone against him Snooker would have been thrown into chaos, was there ever a chance of a guilty verdict?

From the BBC:

John Higgins has been cleared of all match-fixing allegations made against him by the News of the World.

But at a hearing in London, he admitted bringing the game into disrepute by not reporting the illegal approach made to him to discuss throwing frames.

As a result, the three-time world snooker champion was fined £75,000 and banned for six months, backdated to May when he was originally suspended.

Higgins, 35, said he accepted the decision by an independent tribunal.

"I welcome today's judgment by Sport Resolutions and endorsed by the WPBSA [World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association] following their exhaustive enquiry into the allegations against me by a tabloid newspaper," the Scot said in a statement.

"I was not guilty of any dishonesty and had no intention to fix a match and no intention to do anything corrupt."

And he repeated his statement from May, made immediately after the accusations were made by the Sunday newspaper.

"I have never been involved in any form of snooker match-fixing," he continued. "In my 18 years playing professional snooker, I have never deliberately missed a shot, never mind intentionally lost a frame or a match.

"If I am guilty of anything, it is of naivety and trusting those who, I believed, were working in the best interests of snooker and myself."

Higgins was handed the ban and fine for "intentionally giving the impression to others that they were agreeing to act in breach of the betting rules" and failing to report the matter to World Snooker.

However, the charges of "agreeing or offering" to accept bribes and "agreeing to engage in corrupt or fraudulent conduct" were dropped.

It means he will be free to resume his career on 2 November.

The behind-closed-doors tribunal, which took place over two days, was conducted by Sport Resolutions UK, an independent dispute resolution service.

Higgins was suspended after he and his then manager Pat Mooney were filmed by the Sunday newspaper allegedly accepting £261,000 to fix matches.

The video appeared to show Higgins and Mooney meeting with an undercover reporter in Kiev, Ukraine, and agreeing to alter the outcome of frames in return for money.

The newspaper alleged that Higgins inquired at the meeting about the best way to conceal the money he would receive for losing frames in four separate matches.

In a published transcript, Higgins, who has won 21 ranking titles, said it would be easy to affect the outcome of a frame.

Ian Mill QC, who headed the disciplinary hearing, described Higgins as "foolish" for the way he handled the situation but blamed Mooney for instigating the meeting out of "financial self-interest".

The judgment said Mooney was aware at least three weeks before the meeting in Kiev that the journalist posing as a businessman wanted to "make money through gambling in circumstances where frames in snooker matches were deliberately thrown".

In his verdict, Mill said Mooney had "committed the most egregious betrayals of trust", putting the entire career and professional future of Higgins "at serious and wholly unjustifiable risk".

Mooney, who had already resigned from the board of the WPBSA, has been permanently suspended by the sport's governing body.

While match-fixing charges were withdrawn, Mooney admitted bringing the game into disrepute by failing to disclose the approach and "intentionally giving the impression to others that they were agreeing to act in breach of the betting rules".

The WPBSA issued its own statement at the end of the hearing in London.

"Having studied all of the evidence in its entirety, the WPBSA and Sports Resolutions accept that there has been no dishonesty on the part of John Higgins and accordingly the WPBSA has withdrawn the allegations of match fixing against him," it read.

"John Higgins has agreed to play a leading role in a new educational programme for snooker players, which will form part of the integrity unit to be set up by WPBSA disciplinary committee chairman David Douglas."

World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn added: "John made a mistake in failing to report the meeting in Kiev. He has admitted this mistake and expressed great regret at what happened.

"The evidence, which has been exhaustively studied by David Douglas and Sport Resolutions, suggests that he was led into this situation and did not instigate any discussions of corrupt activity.

"It seems certain, in view of his previous record and the ambassadorial work he has done for snooker, that this was a mistake he will never repeat. I'm sure Sport Resolutions took these factors into account in coming to their verdict."

Hearn added: "John has suffered a devastating blow to his career and reputation but he can come back from it - and he has pledged to help others learn from his experiences."

Following the verdict, the News of the World issued a statement defending their story, which appeared on 2 May.

"This result is a victory for News of the World investigative journalism," it read. "John Higgins has been found guilty, suspended and fined. Pat Mooney has been found guilty and banned for life.

"Today's judgement is testament to the extraordinary work of our investigations editor Mazher Mahmood. We hope that the exposure of Higgins and Mooney will act as a deterrent to any other cheats in sport and help restore the integrity of snooker."

Following another News of the World "fixing" sting operation, Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir are being probed by police and the International Cricket Council.

----------------------------------------

Still having trouble with my own bets as another three went by the way side with only one placing which was Noodles Blue Boy in the 5.20. It actually traded as low as 1.13 but only managed fourth place. When things arent falling for you this happens.

Still a profitable day with the lays working even though I was down about £ 300 at one stage of the afternoon.

The SBP has had one bet since my last post which was a loser. Thats three wins and one loser so onto the B bet which will be at the weekend. The bank stands at £+95.

Baffled.

2010-09-06T17:09:00.009+01:00

Had Sunday off and went to see "Inception." Reminded me of being on acid especially when they wake up on the plane at the end, one of those films you need to see twice, or maybe three times, or maybe more !

Stayed up to watch the Murray game and was baffled like everybody else about the poor performance and the amount of trainer calls from all the players yesterday. As mentioned before I cant ever remember seeing Federer calling for a trainer or having parts of his body strapped before the start of a match. Yesterday had two other retirements in Llodra and Stakhovsky and it seems to me that these guys play so hard to get to where they are their bodies are giving up on them. Its really amazing to see how tennis has changed over the years.Murray and Stan both needed the trainer, as they said on TV it was becoming like an episode of Casualty. I was really disappointed as he is suppose to be super fit but after three sets yesterday he was telling his camp he couldnt continue. To me I think a lot of it is mental and maybe he just doesnt have the strength to cope at the very highest level. I hope I am wrong, but a disappointing sporting summer continues for the UK.

Not much on the racing front today. I had two bets both losers and dropped £ 100 there. The lays are coming along nicely and gave me a nice profit along with a bit of tennis that I managed to see this afternoon.
SBP gave out another two bets yesterday both won so not had to go to the B bet yet. So three winners from three gives me a £150 running profit.

Army beat Michigan 31-27 so only four points so the spread easily covered that.

East Carolina won their match 51 - 49.

Their is another bet tonight which I will update tomorrow.

A New Season.

2010-09-04T22:03:00.007+01:00

Cometh the hour, cometh the man so they say and today saw the return of the Sports Betting Professor for the A,B,C bets on this seasons college football. I hope you know the drill but you bet an amount and if it losses you try to get it back over the next bet and if that losses then its last chance saloon for bet no 3. If by a miracle that one goes tits up then you start again with a hefty dent in the monetary fund. Unlike the government though you dont have the ability to print a load of dough to sort yourself back out.

Now the biggest problem for me was finding the bets as being told to back Illinois in the spread is fine but there are a couple of Illinois teams as I discovered. On checking this evenings results I thought my team had been beaten by thirty five points which considering the spread was only twelve meant I had lost. But wait, I had checked the wrong team and my team had lost by eleven so giving the first bet as a winner. The second is tonight and for the purposes of the blog I am betting to win £ 50 on each series of bets and will keep a record to see if he really does make money, but if it is as good as last seasons basketball it should help make me a few bob.

The horses racing was profitable I had a couple of lays that won their races but I managed to make it up and kicked in a nice profit .
The back bets just about broke even with six losers and just the one winner but that was enough to keep me level pegging.

New York, New York.

2010-09-03T22:31:00.008+01:00

So good they named it twice as the song goes. I just love the tournament it is so raucous with sights and sounds everywhere. The ballboys are wearing there Ralph Lauren Polo gear and strutting around chewing gum. No under arm rolling of the balls for these kids oh no they are throwing them over arm the length of the court, what a contrast to Wimbledon.

Not much of a day for me made a bit from laying the horses but lost about £ 150 from my own back bets with three losers, and one that returned me back my stake.

Had a bit of a slow morning so placed some bets for the future. After having New Orleans last year to win the Super Bowl this year I have had a small bet on Baltimore. I have also had the Eagles to win their division and in the football Everton to win the Carling Cup.

I am looking forward to the NFL which starts soon and the College Football that I believe starts tomorrow.

A Drifter,A Moaner,A Groaner.

2010-09-02T21:42:00.007+01:00

Amazing drift on a nag I backed this morning. Near race time I thought it had lost a leg on the way down as the price drifted like mad on Betfair. I had £40 on it at 11/1 with Stan James at BOG odds and the thing returned at 25/1 winning me over a grand. Fantastic !

This win and another I had helped me a little because I was gutted as another I tried to back at 20/1 romped home without me on it ! The nag in question was in the 7.10 @ Clonmel and I tried to get on with Lads and Bet 365 but was given the option of 12/1 which I didnt think was value so gave it a miss. Theres nothing more frustraing than watching a horse dot up but with hindsight I wouldn't change my mind as I would end up taking a lot more losers on board. At 20/1 it was worth a punt but at 12/1 I didnt think so, its a fine line sometimes.

My tipster gave me the winner below and a couple of losers as well but still a nice profit and I also picked another four with two placing giving a slight loss of £ 100.

The lays were good as all three picks got turned over at very short odds to add to a very good day. Still having a go at the tennis but its a bit all over the place at the moment to be honest.

Well Andy Roddick turned on his usual charm last night, being an obnoxious prick while getting his arse whipped and arguing with a line judge.Tipsarevic took control of the night match after dropping the first set and Roddick later admitted that his outburst after being called for a foot-fault had been over the top.

"I wasn't upset with the call, I just expect my umpires to know their left foot from the right foot," said the 28-year-old.

"The stubbornness... I let mine get in the way. I got called for two others after that and have no issue with it. In the moment I was just stupefied.

"It's the fact I couldn't get her to admit it wasn't the right foot which infuriated me, the lack of common sense was unbelievable to me. We have got to be able to have a test like 'Point to your right foot, point to your left foot, now call lines.'

"In hindsight, did I let it go too far? Probably. It was probably a correctable mistake and I let it get to me more than I should have."

Nice to see the back of him, now to horse racing after yesterdays amazing punt left a few down in the mouth.

Racegoers at Hereford have just seen the most astonishing improvement from Am I Blue, who had never won a race in 16 previous attempts but hacked up by 19 lengths in a handicap hurdle just now, having been backed down to 5-1 from 33-1 this morning.

Trained near Bridgend by Delyth Thomas, Am I Blue has been well beaten in all five previous starts this year. In her last two runs, also in handicap hurdles, she was beaten 75 lengths and then 88 lengths. "Always struggling in rear, tailed off" was the form book comment when she ran at Newton Abbot last month.

Fascinatingly, Am I Blue was trained by Tim Vaughan when she ran in March. She had moved to Thomas before her next run, three months later.

Today, she was due to be ridden by Dean Coleman, a capable 5lb claimer, but Richard Johnson was announced as the rider shortly before the race. Johnson sent the horse straight to the front and, by the second-last, it was clear that her rivals were struggling to stay with her.

In a brief interview on At The Races after her success, Thomas said that the horse had been treated for a shoulder problem. She professed not to know why the horse had been backed and suggested it was because Johnson was in the saddle - hardly a credible explanation, since no one expected Johnson to be riding.

Let's hope the stewards ask some serious questions and get some answers. This sort of unexplained improvement, accompanied by major support in the betting market, is the kind of thing that gives racing a bad name

3.42pm No formal enquiry at Hereford
: The stewards have announced that they will not hold a formal inquiry into Am I Blue's win, having heard from the trainer that the filly benefited from spinal therapy since its last run and appreciated the change of tactics.

Given the astonishing improvement in such a short time, surely they had no option but to call a full inquiry, or else refer the whole matter to the British Horseracing Authority, who would be in a better position to consider the betting-related evidence?

Downing Tools.

2010-09-01T21:54:00.006+01:00

Well the country will be up in arms if we dont qualify for Euro 2012 but what is going on? The players seem to be voting with their feet by opting out with injuries even though we all know that they will all be fit and raring to go in a couple of weeks when the teams that pay their vast wages call them into action. Are the clubs now completely ruling the roost, or are the players fed up with fans and the media alike and decided well if they slag us off we wont bother playing. Added to this is the Capello situation , where maybe the players are fed up of being treated like children by their head master and wouldnt mind seeing the back of him as well. Have a read below and decide for yourself what sort of team we will be sending out for the upcoming qualifiers:

Tottenham striker Peter Crouch is out of England's squad for the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria at Wembley on Friday and Switzerland next Tuesday.

Crouch has been ruled out with a back injury and will not be replaced.

Goalkeepers Ben Foster (knee) and Scott Carson (back) missed Tuesday's training and 19-year-old Arsenal reserve keeper James Shea had to make up the numbers.

Everton's Phil Jagielka, who had been expected to play at centre-back, missed training with an ankle injury.

Manchester City's Joe Hart is coach Fabio Capello's first-choice goalkeeper, but injuries to his deputies may lead to a repeat of the friendly win against Hungary on 11 August when Watford's Under-21 keeper Scott Loach and Blackburn's fourth-choice stopper Frankie Fielding were drafted in.

Goalkeeping options for Capello are fairly limited, with Paul Robinson having retired from the international stage, former first choice Rob Green awaiting a hip operation and Chris Kirkland dropped by his club Wigan after conceding 10 goals in the club's first two league matches.

England's squad is much changed from the disappointment of their World Cup campaign in South Africa earlier in the summer.

David James and Ledley King have been discarded by the England boss, while Liverpool stalwart Jamie Carragher has announced his international retirement.

Spurs winger Aaron Lennon has not featured in either squad since the World Cup, but the latest omission is thought to be because of concerns over an ankle injury.

In addition, Chelsea duo John Terry and Frank Lampard have been ruled out because of injury, Terry sidelined by a hamstring problem and Lampard missing the match to have a hernia operation.

Should Jagielka be ruled out of contention against Bulgaria, Bolton's Gary Cahill could be in line for a senior debut, with Spurs defender Michael Dawson another candidate, having made his first appearance as a substitute in the 2-1 friendly win over Hungary earlier in August.

One man left out of the World Cup squad who is now firmly back in favour is Arsenal's Theo Walcott, who is expected to start on Friday.

"I had a nice break through the summer and everything has gone well, so I just have to keep my feet on the ground," the 21-year-old said.

"It's one of those things," he added of his World Cup exclusion. "I didn't point the finger at anyone, I didn't blame anyone, it's disappointing, but I'm not going to blame myself, I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again by working hard on the training pitch."

Looking ahead to Friday night's match he said: "No game is easy at international level, we had a good result against Hungary and we managed to play well for the whole game.

"Sometimes the goals don't go in because people come to Wembley, a fantastic fortress, and they put people behind the ball so it can be very difficult to break them down.

Bulgaria, now without Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov who has retired from international football, have managed three draws and two defeats in five matches on English soil.

England also travel to Switzerland for another qualifier on Tuesday and also face Montenegro and Wales in qualifying Group G, ahead of the 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Onto the tennis and some pretty weird and wonderful results with a lot of form players getting beaten or struggling. A lot of talk about Gulbis and Berdych being the new breed but both getting beaten fairly easily along with Baggy. Then Fish who really has been playing well getting into all sorts of trouble with Hajek. This game was perfect for me as starting at 1.04 Fish was simply to low against a top 100 player. Again the recent form was taken into too much context, it isnt as overnight he had become Roger Federer.

As the draw gets more organised I will have a few wagers but I really cant see past Murray. Maybe someone less expected like Davydenko or Roddick might be the way to go.

Today was a loser as the horse lays which were looking good got a hit and all five bets I had didnt place. So starting off the month with a £ 250 total loss.

Time Off.

2010-08-28T18:58:00.013+01:00

Well today was a fantastic day and has really topped off my month, so much so that I am taking Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off to relax and go visit family in Devon. I have doubled my monthly target and will start afresh on September 1st.

The betfair balance has improved, and my thanks today to Winning A Fortune who I have been following over recent months. The double stake bets havent really been firing but today they did so and also well done to Bet Cat. It has been a poor couple of months for Richard but this game is full of ups and downs and a nice winner come home today. My other tipster Terry came through with about 28 points profit for the month as well. The main bread and butter though were my selections which had the best month in the last couple of years along with the lays.
Today I backed just two horses in an 18 runner handicap in Ireland and managed to get first and second this helped me get my biggest days profit in a year.

Here are the others:

And Betfair for Friday and Saturday.

See you on the 1st.

Ring, Ring.

2010-08-26T22:35:00.010+01:00

So the phone was ringing and I picked it up."Please do not put down the receiver" comes a voice "this is a public information call. " Jesus I thought, is the world ending? Is this how they tell us now days, no more wailing sirens like in the movies. No dark clouds hovering overhead and the rumble of UFO's like a Will Smith movie, no two hundred feet tall walking tri pods and a voice over from Richard Burton.
Then just as suddenly, "Are you in debt? Do you need help?"

Man, how many of these weird automated calls do you get in a day? Well I can tell you as I am home alone for most of it. It averages about three a day.

After replacing the receiver I go to my email and it doesnt get much better there, as many of you know that once you are down as a gambler your email address is sold to all and sundry.
Suddenly I am getting mail from the relatives of Nigerian King pins, who are unfortunately locked away.They have however managed to nestle away a very tidy sum and after scrolling through all the email addresses in the world have decided that I am the lucky one who can be trusted and offered a very large cut of the dough in return for my help. Then next up are the Russian and Thai brides and to help matters go with a swing a phenomenal amount of mail promising an everlasting supply of viagra from all over the World and to help with all this rigorous activity I can also get some pills and potions for making me bigger, thicker and harder than Arnie in Terminator.

On top of this junk I seem to get inundated with offers of systems and free trials and some of these are just the purest of crap. I think I will post up some web sites that I have experienced that dont work and if anybody does read this blog it might help you not make the same mistakes as I have done in the past. The first two in my experience are : Dreamlays and Its Lay Time both I have had the unfortunate luck to encounter. Both have scrapped their results from previous years and have restarted offering riches to behold. If you join either of these two services then good luck is I can say, because just like Keyser Söze, poof. There gone ....

Another strong day with a good profit, the horse lays are ticking over and three personal bets today giving me two places and an 11/1 winner.

The only fly in the ointment has been my tennis so called trading with me just constantly calling things wrong and having to bail out in the red . Over the past two days I have lost about £140 on this which is not a hugh amount but it grinds me because at the end of the day I need to make this sport profitable.

Fame And Fortune.

2010-08-25T22:38:00.003+01:00

Interesting piece on Mr Pietersen, has fame and fortune gone to his head as well ? Pretty amazing really like football players refusing to turn out for their clubs when was the last time he played for his county ?

A casual remark from Pakistan fast bowler Wahab Riaz last week illustrated how swiftly life moves on in elite sport.

Riaz was asked which of the five England wickets he had captured in his test debut at the Oval had given him the most satisfaction.

The answer was not Kevin Pietersen, England’s premier batsman with more than 5,000 test runs and 16 centuries. Instead Riaz nominated Eoin Morgan, scorer of 234 runs with one century.

Even six months ago such a statement would have seemed inconceivable.

One transcendent innings at Lord’s in the final test against Pakistan this week would silence the doubters but something is clearly something amiss with Pietersen, who has not scored a test century since March last year. He dropped out of the 2009 Ashes series with injury and averages 28 in the current series against Pakistan, including 80 at Edgbaston where he was dropped three times.

The decline dates back to the start of last year when Pietersen, then the England captain, called for the removal of coach Peter Moores before a series in the Caribbean. Moores did go but Pietersen, misreading the implications of his stance in a highly political role, also lost his job.

Pietersen is currently without a county, finding the demands of playing for Hampshire incompatible with his decision to live in the upmarket west London suburb of Chelsea. It is an instability that has marked his cricket career.

He quit his native South Africa to seek his fortune in England, citing a racial quota system he controversially claimed was hampering his career.

A contract with Nottinghamshire began brightly before ending in acrimony and he opted to decamp to Hampshire. Due to his international commitments he has not made played a championship at their home ground since 2005 and announced in June he wanted to leave.

In 2008, Pietersen was named as England captain, celebrating with a century against South Africa at the Oval, only to be ignominiously sacked early in the following over the Moores issue.

Pietersen’s meteoric trajectory recalls the rise of another South African, Tony Greig, an accomplished all-rounder in the 1970s who also sought fame and fortune in England. Greig ascended to the English captaincy before he was sacked for recruiting players for Kerry Packer’s rebel world series. He did not play test cricket again and has lived in Australia since.

Pietersen is only 30, a prime age for an international batsman. He was the player of the tournament at the Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean this year and still averages a healthy 48.23 in test cricket.

But does sporting immortality still beckon for a player who scored more runs in his first 25 tests than any other batsman aside from Don Bradman? Will the grind of test cricket without the glamour and high profile of the captaincy be fulfilling?

Could his future ultimately lie in the Indian Premier League?

A pretty boring day for me when the only highlight was getting the 1/8 fav in the 2.50 turned over and luckily for me I managed to get the winner at 8/1.

Catch Up.

2010-08-23T23:27:00.008+01:00

A weekend in which it helped having a few strings to my bow. After dropping money on last weekends football I managed to make a nice profit this weekend which made up for the horse lays which didn't pan out as expected. I missed out on most of this tennis as I had a busy weekend and am under orders not to work on Sundays anymore. This works out well for me as theres not to much happening apart from the same footy teams being shown on Sky Sports each weekend and any bets are placed long before kick off.

Below is from Saturday through til Monday evening.

As you can see nothing amazing but a profits a profit and to help bolster these my winning run continues when backing horses as on Saturday my only bet of the day came in at 17/2.

I havent put this on the blog or shown the results before but I also get tips from someone I know. He doesnt advertise but has a group of about twenty of us that he supplies tips to everyday. On average it works out at about two tips per day and I pay him per point, so if he makes a loss he doesnt get paid. Suffice to say he has been getting paid and has a year to date profit of over 270 points which I imagine would put him very high in any tipster leagues.

Concerning Ian's Elite I am currently standing £ 6 down after two weeks of bets. The first two FTS games he picked both finished 0-0! I couldnt believe my bad luck but over the past weekend the losses have nearly been made back.

All in all a profitable last three days that has put my bank at a high for the month.

Todays Bacon.

2010-08-20T20:39:00.008+01:00

August really has been the best month for me this year.I had five bets today and managed to nail the first two winners at York as Mount Athos in the 1.45 and then Rio De La Plata in the 2.15 brought home todays bacon.
The lay of Andy Murray came through as he bowed out to Mardy Fish in todays quarters losing the deciding set in a tie break. I am really surprised he managed to get that far as firstly Chardy and then Gulbis really did seem to crumble under the strain of possibly taking his scalp.

With the US Open starting in a couple of weeks he can now go into that tournament fresh and as one of the favourites if not the favourite. Unlike Wimbledon and Roland Garros I believe the weather will be one of the utmost importance features there. Obviously just like this week the top seeds will play a lot of the time in the evening where it might be humid but not half as bad as being out in the blistering heat. I reckon you would get short odds if Djokovic is playing in the afternoon of him calling for a trainer or suffering from some sort of heat stroke. He is a right drama queen who always seems to throw the market into panic.

After yesterdays blurb trumpeting my lays as is normal when you speak to soon I managed to pick up three winners out of three today which was a bit of a gutter and cost me about £ 270 !

Managed to get a lot of it back though and won a few quid on the tennis too.

Hip Hip Hooray !

2010-08-19T21:17:00.003+01:00

A nice touch for me with Hooray winning the 2.15 at York today. I managed to get on at 16/1 in the morning and though I didnt see the race reading the Sporting Life it stayed on well in the final furlong and done the business.

The lays keep on losing with another two today.For a couple of months over the summer I back tracked an idea. It did seem to work but as everybody knows putting it in practice is what matters so I did. I started with a £2k bank which took two months to double which was a bit sooner than I expected and is now standing at just over £4.5k. Now its whether the greed kicks in and I start raising the stakes or do I just plod on and hope in two to three months the bank doubles again. Being very sensible or very boring I will just continue at the current stakes, in case its just a flash in the pan!

Football wise I havent really got to involved the last couple of seasons mainly because of two reasons, number one being I dont have the enthusiam to sit through a game and more importantly I havent made any money! So this season I have joined Ian Erskines Elite Club and I will see if he really does as well as he says. I shall keep you posted on this.

Value Odds.

2010-08-17T21:05:00.005+01:00

Now I love to watch tennis and have the occasional trade, i have been watching solidly for the past year since finishing work. From staying up all night in January for Auckland to the Australian then on to the clay in Brazil,Chile and Argentina and Dubai and Croatia and Germany and France and Wimbledon and all over the USA, my body clock has slowly been adjusting to Tennis Tournaments around the globe.

Now I really watch OK ? I dont buy newspapers I dont watch any soaps,most of the time I havent a clue what is going on in the World.I would be good as a phone a friend or something like that if Chris Tarrent asked you why Ms Peer had to play Ms Venus Williams on some shitty court in Dubai this year in the semi final. The reason I am saying this is if you want to be good at anything you have to put in the leg work and you have to make it something you enjoy otherwise you are kaput ! I obviously browse lots of forums and blogs etc and that is the only thing I can say on the subject of trading. You need to know where the odds are going and why and you just need to sit and watch for as long as it takes. As i said it is nearly a year since I quit work and I am still a novice trader which is kinda of upsetting especially after staying up all through those freezing nights in December and January while the rest of the country slept.

Recently have I started seeing some really crazy odds being offered up on some players so maybe its loony season but there seems to be more value in recent weeks and I hope this continues into the US Open.

Today was a good day with all my horse lays losing and also a couple of winning back bets bringing home the bacon. Long may it continue.

As a special treat below is a trick shot that I taught Roger Federer.

The Weekend.

2010-08-16T22:27:00.007+01:00

Football season is back and in full swing. On Talksport the other day they were saying how boring certain leagues were because of lack of competition but to me the Premier league falls into this catergory. Chelsea 6-0 winners and then tonight I watched the first half of Man Utd game before I glazed over and switched back to the Tennis. Is there going to be any challenges to these teams this season? I dont think so somehow. I think the market will flip flop between the two all season.

Had a very tricky weekend following some so called tipsters on football dropping about £700, the only rest bite was getting back a couple of hundred with laying Arsenal when leading and also Sunderland who managed to throw away a two goal lead. The horses turned over well with my own lays pulling in about £ 300.

The tennis helped save me when Sharapova managed to throw away match points in the Womens Final as she traded at 1.02 and somehow lost.

I have layed Andy Murray to win this weeks tournament in Cincinnati in the Winners market and managed to get some at 4.0 and 4.2 which I am very happy about. I personally think this is far to short as the US Open is his main target, and I imagine he wouldnt mind some rest between now and then. Throw into the mix Nadal deciding to play here and Fed plus all the other top players including Roddick and i think its gonna be a toughy to win back to back tournaments.
As we all know time will tell.
On a sadder note another death from my musical past, you always remember the sounds of your youth ! Down the roller disco on a Sunday night ........oh the joy!

Crossroads

2010-08-13T13:36:00.005+01:00

To be honest ( isnt that a terrible saying) I have been a bit of a ditherer the last few days and I hate the way it effects my bets. This month has started of so well with my lays that I am getting nervous of continuing to do them. I have a nice profit for the month after having about 25 lays in a row lose at average odds of 4/1, so yesterday I decided not to do them, as expecting the wrath of the betting gods to strike me down and give me a load of winners so wiping out the last twelve days worth of hard work. As happens another eight losers came up yesterday so my abstinence cost me £400, on top of this I backed £275 worth of losers. So instead of showing a profit of £125 I showed the £275 loss for a long day in front of the computer.

Now this occurence happened half way through last month as well when I realised I had made my monthly target so decided to stop doing the lays. The same thing happened as all my lays carried on losing some even coming into 1.01 and still getting beat. As you can imagine I was aghast so I plunged back in thinking that sometimes you have to make hay when the sun is shining.

The next day the sun stopped shining....bloody typical! Anyway there are plenty of mind games when you are doing this full time that I dont think people realise. If I had a full time job I could go at these with gay abandon and if they won at least I would still have a nice monthly salary coming to bale me out on the last Friday of every month.

Football Talk

2010-08-12T11:22:00.012+01:00

Well if I have any readers I hope some took advantage of Mr Fallon yesterday who after my previous post obviously decided to prove me right by having three winners in a row. I wasnt on the first two but got a bit on the third one !

Meanwhile after the World Cup the English players went on holiday to exotic destinations around the globe while on the other side of the World there was anger:

Soccer officials are investigating reports that North Korea's outmatched national soccer team faced punishment by government officials back home after losing all three of its matches in South Africa.

Sepp Blatter, president of the International Federation of Association Football, or Fifa, said this week that the organization had received tips that players and coaches "have been condemned or punished" after an embarrassing appearance in which they conceded the most goals of all 32 teams in the tournament.

World soccer officials have sent a letter to the North Korean football federation about the allegations. "The first step is the federation and we'll see what the answer will be, and then we can elaborate on that," Blatter told reporters in Singapore on Wednesday.

In June, television images showed a dejected North Korean coach Kim Jong-Hun consoling players after the team was trounced 7-0 by Portugal, the last of three demoralizing losses. Playing in the tournament for the first time since 1966, the team had previously suffered defeats to Brazil and Ivory Coast.

Radio Free Asia reported that the team except for Japan-born Jong Tae-se and Ahn Young-hak was summoned to Pyongyang for "harsh ideological criticism." The report added that the players were ordered to reprimand Coach Kim, who was then sentenced to hard labor for the team's failings.

The players also faced a public scolding by more than 400 students and sports fans, according to reports.

North Korea's state-run news service has been silent about the allegations, which the radio station said were made by unidentified sources in North Korea and a Chinese businessman described as knowledgeable about North Korea affairs.

Soccer officials also considered claims made by Chung Mong-Joon, the former Hyundai chairman and president of the South Korean Football Association. Reached in Seoul on Thursday, South Korean soccer officials said they have no information about their counterparts in the north.

Asian Football Confederation chief Mohammad bin Hammam this week told reporters that he spoke to four North Korean players last month, and that they did not mention mistreatment.

"There was an unconfirmed report that these players have gone through torture or something like that, but…I haven't seen anything with my eyes or heard anything with my ears," he said.

The team's poor showing publicly embarrassed the officials in the secretive state, who had planned to ban the broadcast of the live soccer games to avoid ridicule.

But after the close 2-1 loss to Brazil, state TV made the Portugal match its first live sports broadcast ever.

One analyst on North Korean said Thursday that that punishing sports players and coaches for poor performances was a low to which even Kim Jong-il would not stoop.

"I don't think the North Korean government, however a despotic state it may be, would do such a thing resulting from an outcome of a football match," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

"I'm sure there could have been precedence of such punishment, but I'm not aware of any."

Just imagine poor Jermaine Defoe with his little diamond ear rings working in the sanitation department of London, cleaning out the city’s sewers for a few weeks wouldnt that be some reward for us fans?

"Oh Jermaine, Youve lost your ear-ring back down the shitter you go."

Nice Won Sam.

2010-08-10T12:55:00.009+01:00

Somebody, somewhere told me to follow jockeys that won the previous race and to back them. Its a bit like being in the casino when your number comes in, you double up your stake because low and behold that little white ball tends to land in the same spot again . Now it does amaze me and makes me wonder if its one of those things you only notice because subconsciously its in your mind or whether there is proof that it actually works? I am not talking about roulette here but jockeys and today was another case. I had a very easy day not to many stresses as all my lays were losing and a couple of bets came in. I saw Twiston-Davies ride a winner and then I looked for his next ride but didnt fancy it because I couldnt see any value in it. However his third ride was in my favourite sixteen plus runner handicap and looked a nice price at 14/1, 4 places a quarter the odds. So anyway his second runner won , so as quick as a flash i jumped on at 14/1 with Ladbrokes about a millisecond before other betfair punters woke up and backed him.

He then proceeded to ride a great race in which he really battled to get the nag to win, coming a few fences out I thought he was cooked but the horse stayed on and he drove strongly for it to win. A great treble for him and for my selective winning policy. Now before you rush off and throw all your money on another Paul Hanagan double/treble you must understand that like all gamblers my losing horses are deleted from my memory bank.

For the duration of the World Cup I joined Trading Football Markets which i am sure many of you have seen/heard. There is a chat room and everybody follows trades, I only bothered with a couple of trades because I felt it was a bit of a shambles but one in particular had me in fits of laughter as a two game trade went badly wrong and we all lost over £ 200. (Needless to say losing over £ 200 hard earned wasnt the laughing matter !) But there was one particular guy swearing and complaining about the trade , but also saying he wasnt bothered so much for himself because he had loads of money, it was just everybody else in the room that he felt sorry for. He wouldnt stop going on about the loss but also that he was a wealthy guy so it didnt really matter as well as mentioning that he wouldnt be back again ! When my renewal came up I popped in to see what was happening and guess who was there ! I only bring this up because they didnt show this in their monthly results and when I left a comment asking why on there web site after a few days it wasnt replied to but just deleted. Cheeky devils !

Newspaper Talk

2010-08-09T15:26:00.004+01:00

I watched the Sky interview with Miles Maclagan last night and thought what a nice guy who was genuiely happy to have had the chance to coach someone with the talent of Andy Murray. This was on one of the BBC blogs as well. Then when I go to BBC tennis headlines there is an article saying tensions caused rift . Now excuse me but I didnt hear him mention anything like this. This shows what is so wrong with some journalism. Just cheap headlining crap trying to fill column inches and its no wonder that some "stars" get fed up with being misquoted or just bullshitted about in the media.

This is what Miles said:

"I think a lot of people misunderstand the role of what a tennis coach is," Maclagan says. "Andy is a very smart guy and a very good tennis player. He doesn't need to be told all the time "you hit your forehand like this, hit your backhand like this".

"In my opinion the art of good coaching is knowing when not to say anything. You might only say one or two things in a week which might be important to Andy, that's why it's important to know when not to say anything so when you do, it's effective. That's my philosophy."

After two-and-a-half years in the job, did he feel sufficiently valued?

"I think so, yes. We had a good relationship, we still have a good relationship. We're not hugging each other and high-fiving every time something good happens. I was always aware that I'd been given a very good opportunity to work with someone like him. I was grateful for that and appreciative for the chance to be a part of the things Andy was doing"

During our chat, Maclagan never comes close to having a bad word to say about his former employer. Even when asked about the verbals Murray often dishes out, Maclagan says it was nothing personal, "just a general venting of frustration".

"I had to remind myself sometimes that he's a 23-year-old and not everything is perfect," he says. "I'd like people to wonder what they, or their kids, were doing at 23 and the answer may not always be as a comfortable as they'd like to think.

"Here's a guy who is driven, works very, very hard, is not falling out of nightclubs, and not being pictured with a different girl every week. He sets a very good example in a lot of different areas."

He also spoke about being in awe when watching Murray play some of his matches especially after beating Nadal at the US Open.

Currently I am reading a book about Tennis called "Double Fault" and after watching a documentary about the Nick Bollettieri academy it really brings home the amount of hard work and sacrifices from players, family,friends and coaches that is needed to make it.

So I have been here working hard in the background but never really having enough time to put my thoughts down on a blog. I have been keeping up to date with various blogs some funny, some sad and some just outright bullshit which makes me wonder why? I am currently running about nine different systems in a portfolio which are ticking over well and looking forward to the new football season, the tennis and horse racing.

Had a nice touch with the first race today when I layed the odds on fav and also had the winner, if only everyday was as easy.

After last seasons winning bet on Birmingham + 48 in the Premier Handicap at 15/1 ,this season I have gone for West Ham + 39 at 12/1 with Stan James. With new players, and a new manager to win the handicap league they would have to finish about tenth and this should be borderline but at 12/1 worth the risk.

Month End.

2010-05-01T18:57:00.013+01:00

Well doesnt time fly ! Its been an interesting week and month. Firstly congrats to Fulham for getting to the Europa Final what an achievement. I never hear the manager complaining about lack of money or resources unlike many others. How dignified were Hodgsons celebrations compared to Moan-rinho the night before.That was an awful game of football between a team who wanted to play and another that just stuck everybody behind the ball. I read about great tactics from Inter but to me if I was tuning in for the first time to watch a football match I wouldnt bother again. I hope Bayern give them a footballing lesson. Mind you the best match I watched this week was the Palace/ West Brom game which was end to end, I hope after all the crap they've had this season that Palace manage to get the result they need against Sheff Wed.

Tennis has been great this week with the Fed/Gulbis game being a stand out match, one of the best I have seen this year.I layed Fed at 1.07 as I was trying to get matched before that $1 million lump that was stuck there for a while ! Gulbis then went on to have another great game with Volandri but finally lost today to Nadal.

So blogging wise it is a shame that JP has signed off but maybe he will return in the future,I know how frustrating and soul destroying it is to lose money and sometimes it is like a dripping tap with constant amounts going out everyday and no sign off a let up. I get so many emails from web sites offering deals and great figures but how many of them really work? Look at Bet For a Living another candidate that said they make fortunes each month that have closed their web site after a poor last six months.

On to important matters and I can tell you that last month was £3k profit and this month I am feeling confident that will be beaten. I have a couple of ideas that I have been paper trading over which is why I have been much busier than usual, so i will be putting them into real stakes this month and I shall wait and see... These are some of this weeks results.

Today was the start of a new month and not the greatest of days as I lost £300. Last month was basically just my selections with Bet Cat and Packed Pockets, this month I will be including my tennis lays and some horse racing lays as well and lets see how it goes! I shall try to get some structure to my results as they are a bit all over the place, but there are some things that I want to keep to myself.

Doing My Conkers.

2010-04-27T09:25:00.002+01:00

Monday was pretty much a complete blow out for me. Bet Cat had just the one bet which unfortunately finished last I think.

Packed Pockets had a three point bet on Call Two Arms in the 3.00 which also came last, in fact I think it might have been pulled up which was no mean feat for a short flat race.

I have a bit of a complex about Ryan Moore as I think he is the best when he has a chance of a win but when beaten I dont think he rides for a place. I had one of my bigger bets on him last night and was really in two minds before the start because of this, and he came about sixth. Why I get involved in Windsor Monday nights racing is something I am still trying to work out. The last couple of years it has been a nightmare for me and I still havent learnt any better. This was the just one of the six bets I placed yesterday with two trading below 1.1 and both getting beaten !

SBP had another bet last night which won but again I didnt do it as if it had lost the B bet in the sequence would have been the next game which didnt start until 3am my time. This is the only problem with the SBP as some of the picks in the sequence kick in when I am safely tucked up in bed.

Moving On Up.

2010-04-26T12:04:00.002+01:00

RIP Guru, Cos Im like the Wizard and you look lost like Dorothy...

Weekend Witterings.

2010-04-25T19:15:00.007+01:00

A great weekend if you are a Hammers fan as we very luckily managed to dig ourselves out of a massive hole and save our skins. Its been a terrible season with lots of poor performances and goings on behind the scenes so lets hope we can pull together pre season and do a damn sight better the next one. I had a few pre season bets and my only winner came in today. I backed Birmingham with a 48 point start and after Stoke and Tottenham both lost this weekend this bet is now officially a winner at 15/1. I also had Chelsea +1 and in the championship Reading and Middlesborough to get promoted. The Birmingham bet will pay me out £500 but have losses of £100 on the Championship bets but will also win on the each way part of the Chelsea bet I think!
On Saturday I only had a couple of bets as I was out most of the day. I lost about £200 in total with Bet Cat having a double bet and an each way . The second part of the bet was Redwood at 16/1 and it got beat in a photo finish which was a bit of a gutter. The SBP had two losing bets on the basketball but the final C bet in the sequence won but I missed backing that as well.

Today was a much better as I started off with a 16/1 winner and then followed it up with another couple of wins. No bets from Packed Pockets or Bet Cat today but I also managed to get another £50 from the Tennis Final. The only down side was a trade that I completely cocked up costing me £135. I was obviously staking too much as I was out of my comfort zone and if I had just let it run I actually would have made a decent profit but the tide turned quickly against me and the negative thoughts came and I closed it out . If I had waited thirty seconds I would have been in a nice green situation.

In other news Bet Fred have limited my week old account already, them and VC what a pair....

On A Roll.

2010-04-22T19:57:00.014+01:00

Well its been an entertaining week with some big seeds getting turned over on the clay in Barcelona and the local football team going down to Inter. I thought it was a great game of football and made me wonder why Chelsea got rid of Robben but then I forgot they have Malouda.......... So back to my original question then.... Seems Moan-rinho hasnt lost his lucky touch.

Tonight we have Liverpool playing in the Europa Cup, how the mighty have fallen, well I say mighty but they havent won the league for maybe twenty years and the team that they have now must be the worst in a couple of decades. I remember growing up how much of a force they were. I was once behing the goal many moons ago at Upton Park when Souness hit a screamer from 30 yards ,what a player and what a squad of players they had back then ,now they have David Ngog leading the line ! Watching them tonight in Madrid I can only think the reason that Rafa is still the manager is because they dont have the money to pay his contract up if they sack him. God I bet all the Pool fans hope Juve take him off their hands in the summer.

So the last three days have been good for me now the flat season is underway. I have put on some bigger bets and am on the right path for April. Today was pleasing especially in the last race at Uttoxeter picking out Muldoons Picnic at 9/1 which went off as 5/2 fav and won very nicely. I have really been studying hard though starting at 9am and going through until around 10pm. I have been trying to get through the next days cards after the evening racing or until my eyes give in ! There hasnt been any bets from Bet Catalyst for the past three days and just a couple from Packed Pockets that have lost.

Below are some results :

I have managed to open a few more accounts which means I can be a lot more aggressive but am trying to spread stakes around still. I have only shown winners here but have had plenty of losers too !! But over the last three days am about £3k up so more than happy.

Lazy Bones.

2010-04-19T11:04:00.006+01:00

Been really lazy last few days, maybe the weather is effecting me ! Yesterday I took the day off and sat on the beach watching the world go by and drunk a few beers. I was intending to get back by about 4.30pm to bet on a few late races that I had marked down, but that went by the by as I switched into relaxed mode.

On Saturday I had a couple of nice winners and now that SBP is back with the basketball that winning sequence continues. My B bet came in but overnight I did miss another winner.

Bet Cat had a losers on Friday and Saturday with Stan and Faasel in the Scottish Grand national both unplaced. I am down about £500 so far this month with Bet Cat but one good priced winner will turn that around. I had two bets Friday which also lost but had a winner with Academy Blues at 5/1 which was emailed to me.

Saturday bought a really good day as in the 3.35 I backed two runners Rock County at 7/1 which won and Old School Theatre which placed at 20/1, I then followed that up with a second place with Confessional in the 4.10 which traded at 1.03 and then had a couple of bigger bets on horses I really fancied. So as you can see a bit of a bumper day.

With summer racing now getting in swing I am finding that I dont have enough time to commit to the blog and as such am finding it a bit of chore. I think I will post up when something interests me and once a week or so will give a round up of results.

Close.

2010-04-15T23:06:00.006+01:00

Hitting the crossbar ,I think is the expression to show in laymans terms that your shit out of luck. I have also heard it called the latin word seconditis by various more respected individuals on other blogs.

Bet Cat picked a beauty out at 28/1 for me to go at each way which was heavily backed but after trading odds on in running just couldnt get past the winner. It was called Alasi in the 3.20.

The above three were all second one is from yesterday and to add to that I had Blasket Spirit in the 6.00 at 10/1 and Asiya at 14/1 in the 7.10 also finish second. In the 2.35 I had Favourite Girl get placed at 12/1, so it was a profitable day. From eight picked out I had four seconds, a fourth and three unplaced.
I have started receiving selections from somebody I know and am betting at £12.50 a point. Today was my first day of actually putting down cash and as you can see from the above I had a winner which I backed at 12/1 that went of as 9/4 fav I believe. There was a rule four but still paid me out at 9/1.

I made £130 with the tennis on betfair and still have my two selections in the tournament though I have traded out for a couple of free bets. Heres a nice colourful graph:

I fully expect one of them to make the final against Nadal but even if they do I wont be able to trade out for much money as Nadal is just another level on the clay.

Uninspired.

2010-04-14T22:47:00.005+01:00

Amazing how time flies and I havent posted for three whole days ! Summing it up as pretty uninspiring. Over the last three days I havent made squat in fact I am about £10 down.
For my own personal bets I have had quite a few second places but no winners. Today I had Tajneed at 22/1 which came second and Medicean Man in the same race. Bet Cat have only had the one bet which lost losing me £40, and the Packed Pockets picks havent won either. In fact the one selection for yesterday was 5/1 by the time I looked at it and considering the price given out was 10/1 I decided the value had gone.

So Britain has a new Davis Cup captain, a nobody just like me except he has Andy Murrays number on speed dial , which I alas do not. All the money that gets thrown away by the LTA what an absolute disgrace they are, and as for Murray when is it ever not an honour to represent your country? I reckon he could do with the practice if todays awful performance is anything to go by.

This is what the BBC had to say about Leon Smith (who?):

"Probably the least experienced British captain in history, having neither played Davis Cup nor coached full-time on the professional circuit, the Scotsman has been thrown into the spotlight from a position of relative anonymity.

A tennis coach since the age of 18 who worked with Andy Murray through the junior ranks, Smith has recently been LTA national coach for Scotland, head of under 16s and under 18s before moving to the role of head of player development last year.

He feels he is "confident on coaching, people skills and developing players" and offers "meticulous planning and attention to detail".

And, more than anything, his bosses at the LTA hope he brings the mobile number, and the ear, of a certain Andy Murray.

Would Smith be the Davis Cup captain without his link with the British number one? Almost certainly not.

Can he persuade Murray to play in future matches? Hopefully. That's the idea.

But have the LTA misread the situation completely? Possibly."

Today was another nail in the coffin for honest sport when a top ten womens player is involved in a rigged game. You would think that a multi millionairess doesnt need to throw matches against a no hoper but ho hey nothing will happen and it wont even get a mention in the papers.
A player that was 1.07 to win a match in the morning that drifts to 1.6 when the game starts and keeps drifting out to over 3.0 even when she is a set and a break up how is that not a fixed match? Then out of nowhere she suddenly retires ...

Weekend Roundup.

2010-04-11T22:11:00.012+01:00

So I was in London Saturday but managed to get to a pub by London Bridge in time to catch the Grand National. Unfortunately I couldnt hear the commentary so just enjoyed the sights of but not the sounds of Aintree. Of course I knew that AP was there in the famous colours and it was fitting that after 15 odd years and 3000 odd winners that he should truimph. As I left the pub who was standing outside but the former Mayor Of London "Red" Ken Livingstone looking a little bit worse for wear I might add.

Where to start this weekend. Firstly the football bets direct that I have been paper trading for the last month do not seem to be profitable. It follows the same system as the SBP but over this weekend had two losing C bets which would have wiped out a lot of money. I make it that if you wanted to make£ 25 per game then at average odds of 1.7 it would cost you £525 for a three match losing run which means 22 games to get your money back. Unless I am doing something wrong this isnt goint to work. At least with SBF the record this year stands at 82 wins and only 2 lossses. So I am not going to even bother paper trading these anymore. I want to thank Neil though as he has been sending me the selections for free.

Next up SBP is sending out the baseball picks for this season and again I have decided to adopt a paper trading brief with this. I am slightly up so far with real money but only through luck rather than judgement. Last night we had three bets and all were losers but luckily for me I didnt get involved in any of them because of a couple of reasons. Firstly I cannot see any edge at the moment when looking at the odds and the selections given out and secondly SBP is trying to push version two for $247 when I have just bought version one. Now if version one is so good then why set up another? Also today I received by mistake the selections for version two which are nothing like version ones picks. This worries me so until I see some improvement I am not going to play.

So Saturday I had three bets from Bet Cat all losing which cost me £170. I was out so didnt get involved in anything else apart from another £80 loss on the National itself. I hope somebody made money on Dont Push It !

Sunday turned out to be really good day on the horses and a small win on the Golf. I layed Westwood in the Golf at 2.3 on Saturday evening and won £50 but lost £40 on Packed Pockets pick in the 5.10 at Southwell with his selection Mawsem coming second.

I had three horses in Ireland. In the Limerick 16 +handicap I had the winner Jack Absolute at 13/2 and another that didnt place. In the big listed race at the Curragh I had the winner at 16/1. Mr Murtagh I am sure could have done better on the 2/5 fav Fame Or Glory but gave the horse a very hands and heels ride and didnt go for the persuader in the final furlong allowing my horse to come from the back to win.

I also had a very large bet for me with £250 on the win for Aberdale which I got at 2.10. I thought this was a great price as I saw the horse at about 1.7 so with a 25% value cushion built in I got stuck in. I did lay it on betfair at 1.20 to cover my £250 so lost £50 but made a nice profit overall.

The tennis gets under away in Monte Carlo tomorrow and after missing most of it this past week I shall try to get involved as it is live on Sky Sports. Mr Nadal is 1.7 on Betfair to win yet another title as it is on his favourite surface but I have looked to the other half of the draw and had £25 on Verdasco at 28 and £25 on Nalbandian at 50. I hope that either one of these two can make it to the final. I would have had Nadal as well but 1.7 is too short considering no matches have been played. I was hoping for about 3 but maybe I was dreaming..

Friday Again !

2010-04-09T21:50:00.004+01:00

I only had two picks today, Camino Royal in the 1.50 and Noble Future and Departed in the 4.45. The only place was Noble Future which I got at 8/1 in the morning. It was backed into about 9/2 favourite and traded odds on in running as it seemed to have plenty of stamina but just faded from about two out and finished fourth. A loss of £75 in total.

Bet Cat gave me two selections in the same race but neither placed so a loss of £50.

Overnight the only baseball pick lost 5-4 and I also lost £100 on back Isner to win his match in Houston. Unfortunately he lost in a final set tie breaker. I hate waking up to bad news !
There are three more baseball games tonight and also a basketball bet.

So a poor day was made a profitable one by two bets which I got from Packed Pockets. I found the site via JPs blog a couple of days ago but hadnt followed any selections. JP is following at £20 a point so I thought I would start today and what a lucky start for me. Both bets won with the first runner at 40/1 bringing me £1000 and the second at 4/1 giving me another £240.
So a massive thank you and a donation will be forthcoming.
For the National tomorrow I have had a tenner on Arbor Supreme, King Johns Castle, Character Building and Ollie Magern.
Good luck to all these brave nags and I hope they all return safely.

Small Losses.

2010-04-08T21:58:00.010+01:00

No luck today with the horses as Bet Cat gave me Stan in the 4.20 and South Of The Border in the 5.30 and as normal I put them in an e/w double. So £120 loss there.

I picked six horses with two coming second, Stormhoek in the 3.00 and Johns Gift in the 3.35. A pretty amazing couple of races with both having the leading horse run out at the final fence. Both traded at 1.01 and both ducked out. There was talk off somebody shining something in the horses eyes as they neared the final fence and the TV put out the theory that maybe the ground workers who were standing by the final fence were catching the horses eyes because they were wearing fluorescent jackets. Another unsolved mystery in the sporting world...

My other four horses were two each in the 4.20 Safari Journey and Pepsyrock which came fifth costing me as i got it at 16/1 and in the 5.55 Callerlilly and Captain Beckett.

The day was only a slight loser as the basketball bet came in and so did four baseball bets in a row. Great to see Fulham qualify tonight in the Europa Cup beating the current German Champions Wolfsburg, that after dealing with Juventus and last years champions Shakhtar Donetsk. An amazing run of form with who I believe to be the best manager in the league. So nice to have an understated, civilised and astute man in charge. Next time he gives an interview listen to the difference between him and the rantings of Ferguson, Wenger ,Benitez and Mourinho who will always complain about some decision or other costing them matches. Shame Mr Hodgson is not in charge of England , but then again I am sure even he cant perform miracles.....

The Right Direction.

2010-04-07T21:54:00.006+01:00

I have carried on with my positive start to April which now sees a profit of about £1100.

Yesterday there was one bet from Bet Cat which was £20 e/w on Skys The Limit in the 3.35. I didnt see the race but it didnt place so a small loss there. I picked out three myself with two Naughty Diesel in the 2.15, and Mirza in the 2.55 not placing. The winner of the 2.55 race went of at 814/1 on betfair and got matched for over £500 at 999/1 . Thats the first time I have seen so much money matched at that price in a horse race on betfair. Somebody had it away and somebody else was feeling suicidal I imagine. My third runner Scarlet Rocks in the 2.20 got second at 18/1 after trading at 10/1 on in running. Poor old Davie Probert had a couple like that yesterday. Mind you I really rate him as a jockey and will look to back some of his mounts at high prices in the future.

Overnight I had my b bet in the basketball which was a winner, though I was a bit fortunate as I backed the wrong handicap. The email said -6.5 but mid way through placing the bet Paddy Power changed it to -7.5 and I didnt notice until it was too late. Luckily the Spurs won by 9.
I am still to hit a losing sequence with this and even if I hit it now it would only wipe out 50% of my profits. I gather it is 80 winners now and only 2 losers. The same cannot be said about the baseball bets that got under way a couple of days ago with 6 losers and only 3 winners, so as it stand I have a loss of £34 so far. The games seem to be coming thick and fast with another two tonight and also another basketball bet.

Today there was no bet from Bet Cat and I picked three. I had two runners in the 16+ handicap in Ireland with Blackson Zulu which I got at 33/1 coming unlucky fifth and the other Benalma at 14/1 coming ninth. Now I didnt see the race but the only reason I picked Blackson Zulu was there seemed to be some funny prices being offered on betfair for this horse which were way out of line with the bookies prices. At one stage I layed it in the place market for 4.0 which was half of what I was getting from the bookie. This is quite rare in Irish races where there is not the liquidity of the English races and also normally fairly big gaps in the markets. Somebody wnated to get a price of 3/1 for this nag to place, it didnt make sense to me. I shall try to watch this race on the repeats to see how this horse ran nad will mark it down and wait for it to reappear.

My only other bet was a winner!! His Majesty Mr Moore won the 2.30 and I managed to get his ride at 12/1. I had to get on this after passing up the opportunity on Saturday when he rode a 20/1 winner in the big race, I am still kicking myself about that one.

Aintree starts tomorrow with some great racing over the next three days. I already have a couple of bets on for Thursday and also one for the national. I will have one more in the National on Saturday but that will be my lot as it is a lottery. Its best to watch and enjoy than get too heavily involved there.

Just a quick word about the football which has been great the last few nights. Man Utd scored within the first couple of minutes home and away and still got turned over and as for Barca what fantastic football they have continued to play. When Arsenal had the ball they hunted in packs, with always three players surrounding any Arsenal player who had possession but then seemed to break forward with extra men. I am sure they had about 15 players ! It also showed its not all just about "sexy" football but constantly working hard to get the ball back. I cant wait for Saturday night when the two giants meet in La Liga.

Onwards.

2010-04-05T19:31:00.007+01:00

Some days theres just to much action ! Today we had eight race meetings but from all of this I managed to pick just five bets. The first race for me was another 16+ handicap where I had Master Nimbus at 20/1 and Sendali at 8/1. The first horse led for a long way but drifted back to finish tenth. The opposite happened with Sendali as he looked under the pump with about three furlongs left but showed a lot of grit to keep staying on and then after passing the leading horse he held on for victory.
I had two more in the 2.50 at Fairyhouse but didnt get the luck after firstly backing Cayo Levantado at 8/1 he steamed in to be the 11/4 favourite at the off but ran like a 100/1 shot finishing well down the field. My other horse Ninety Two Team lost fourth by a neck!
My only other bet was E Major at 12/1 in the 3.15. I didnt see the race as I was cutting my lawn in the lovely spring sun but this one got second.Bet Cat had just the one bet called A New Story in the Irish Grand National. Again I didnt see the race but it got fourth so paid me out at 22/1, giving another £112 profit.

No football bets today and last nights basketball bet from SBP was a loser so will roll into bet b.
SBP has also started with his baseball service which consists of straight bets and no a,b,c style staking . Today has four selections and I will play these at £50 each.

Easters Efforts.

2010-04-04T20:29:00.009+01:00

Back to the betting world after a nice few relaxing days. With no horse racing on Friday I just had the one bet on Roddick to beat Nadal, which he did eventually.

Yesterday had the first bet in the new Sports Betting Professor sequence which was a winner.

I layed the draw in the Man Utd/Chelsea match as from memory I found that not too many of these games are drawn. I didnt watch the match but saw the highlights, dont care about either team just enjoy the moaning that always goes on around these types of matches.

In the horse racing Bet Cat had a double bet and as normal I put them in an e/w double. The first horse Chernik didnt really get going but the second horse Kay Gee Be managed to get third so making a small loss of £50 in total. I didnt pick any horses myself which is surprising for a Saturday but I couldnt find any value.

Today was much busier with some nice cards for me to go at. I had five e/w bets with three not placing, a second in the shape of Stevie Mac in the 1.55 at Fairyhouse at 9/1 and a winner with Skyfire in the 3.20 at 11/1. With my newly opened account I am getting BOG with the lovely Stan James. Praise the lord....

To add to my tally I backed Highland Warrior in the place market of Betfair at 19.5 for the 2.50 at Musselburgh and it got second which was a great result. Below is my Betfair p/l since the 1st.

Tonight there has been another successful SBF pick but sadly I missed the email, though another has arrived with another pick for overnight.

The Football system with the same type of bets as SBP hasnt faired as well with C bets coming in Spain tonight and also three other leagues which are French, English Championship and Scottish Premier. I think this is going to struggle to be profitable but will obviously give it time. Mind you as I write the C bet in Spain is winning as Athletico Madrid are now 2-0 ahead.

Finally great to see Andy Roddick win the Miami 1000 tonight what a great couple of weeks hes had after reaching the final in Indian Wells last week as well. The level of performance he put in keeps all the other players in the shade and if unlike last year he can keep fit then I expect a big performance at Wimbledon. Maybe he can go one better this year ....

Money For Old Rope.

2010-04-01T14:12:00.004+01:00

Nice to see Ladbrokes with a new man in charge! Tumbling profits mean a change of guard.
Lets hope he goes as well....I think most of their profit comes from Fruit Machines now days, though I havent been in a betting shop for a few years.

"New Ladbrokes chief Richard Glynn handed £12m wager on doubling shares"

The new chief executive of Ladbrokes has been handed a free bet potentially worth almost £12m if he doubles the bookmaker's share price over five years.

Richard Glynn, the current chairman of spread-betting company Sporting Index, will receive about 4m Ladbrokes shares under a one-off incentive scheme when he starts his new job on April 22.
The award will have no value unless Mr Glynn, 45, succeeds in pushing the shares up to £2 – effectively adding £400m to the company's market value. At that level 1m shares would vest.

Only if the shares hit 297p would all 4m shares vest, making Mr Glynn £11.9m, and adding £1.3bn to Ladbrokes' market worth. To pocket the full award, Mr Glynn also has to hold at least 1m Ladbrokes shares over the period. The shares closed 2.2 higher at 158.3p last night.
Mr Glynn, who will receive a basic salary of £580,000, emerged in recent weeks as the frontrunner to succeed Chris Bell, the current chief executive. Mr Bell, who has spent 20 years at the bookie, quit in January – though he is staying on until the early summer to oversee the handover.
His departure was partly influenced by some investor unrest – particularly following Ladbrokes' heavily-discounted £275m rights issue last October. Aggrieved shareholders are thought to have included Irish billionaire Dermot Desmond and JP Morgan Asset Management.
Peter Erskine, Ladbrokes chairman, said he sounded out some investors before announcing Mr Glynn's appointment.
Mr Erskine said his decision was influenced by the fact that Mr Glynn "hits the ground very quickly" on e-gaming – considered one of Ladbrokes' weaker areas – and by his "passion" for the role.
"He's always wanted this job. I think he will bring pride back into the business," Mr Erskine said, playing down concerns that Mr Glynn lacked public company experience.
Mr Erskine said he was "open-minded" over how Mr Glynn grows the business, adding: "If it's a deal so be it but I would prefer if we could get our own business right."
Ladbrokes is also compensating Mr Glynn for relinquishing some private interests with a further 1.177m shares, worth £1.75m, that he must hold for three years.
Mr Glynn said the company had "significant opportunities in a rapidly changing marketplace".
Some analysts expressed doubts. James Hollins at Daniel Stewart, said: "We regard the appointment as underwhelming. We do not believe that he has exemplary experience of either retail bookmaking or of diverse online betting and gaming."
He also questioned the "ongoing commitment" of e-gaming chief John O'Reilly, retail head Richard Ames and finance director Brian Wallace after being "overlooked for the top job".

Only one bet for me today a loser in the 5.30 on Goscar Rock e/w. Nothing from Bet Cat but overnight the b bet won in the basketball netting me £80, nice going guys!

Month End.

2010-03-31T22:45:00.006+01:00

So another month draws to a close and time for a tally up. Firstly today I had just the one bet. I backed Ring For Time in the morning at 6/1 and it drifted but still managed to win at 8/1. Luckily I have a new Stan James account so I got paid out at BOG unlike my own account!

Bet Cat had one bet as well £25 e/w, forgive me I have forgotten the nags name but it was 33/1 and came way down the field.

I had a few lays on the horses and the tennis winnings came from laying Federer to win 2-0 in sets , he lost in three. He really doesnt seem to perform in the masters tournaments but saves his energies for the slams.

Overnight the "a" bet lost in the basketball and i have already placed my "b" bet. Now there is a game straight after which qualifies but I will be asleep by then so if the b bet loses I will just have to write of the sequence as I am not getting up in the middle of the night to find out what happened !

The month panned out with losses of £305 for PP and £36 for Equine Investments. Bet Cat had £1100 profit and my own bets were £1260 profit. My own trading profit was £372 and finally the Basketball system had no losing sequence and made £ 300.

Update.

2010-03-30T22:20:00.004+01:00

Been busy last few days in London so only had one horse bet which was a loser. Had two basketball bets with the first a loser and the b bet winning last night.
I have another basketball bet for tonight and also had a £50 win by laying Man Utd when they were 1-0 up.

Hope tomorrow to get back into it.

Falling Down.

2010-03-29T01:15:00.006+01:00

I remember a film called "Falling Down" with Michael Douglas. He went on a bit of a rampage after getting to the end of his tether and I had that feeling this past weekend.

It all started with listening to Gordon Brown, Saturday morning on Sky News promising what sounded like the earth with pledges and promises galore. De ja Vu?

The first thing to check Saturday morning was the C bet from Sports Betting Professor . This came in so still no losing sequence for me yet.From then on things didnt go to plan. Bet Cat had two bets and as normal I put them in an e/w double. The first horse ran a great race and nearly got up on the line but was second at 20/1, the second horse came nowhere. During the week Bet Cat also sent an ante post for the Lincoln which was called Huzzah. Unfortunately it didnt really get going and finished down the field.

My own bets were criminal and ended up losing £300. What really put me in a bad mood was an SP Bet I had on Betfair. The horse typically won and the SP was 5.0. Funnily enough I had put in as my minimum odds 5.0, but somehow my bet wasnt matched costing me £250. I rang Betfair but as usual came up against the same waffle and excuses , but what can you do? Yes the SP was 5.0 but there wasnt enough money in the market for your bet to get matched I was told, even though it was a Saturday afternoon which really surprised me. So was the SP 5.0 then? Send your answers on a postcard.....

The Football system had a poor weekend with about seven losers and only two winners ! There are a couple of C bets coming this week.

Sunday morning bought another winning basketball bet.

Checking the race cards I couldnt believe the amount of 16+ runner handicaps and in total I had my busiest betting day this year with me backing 15 horses.

Amazingly( or maybe not) I backed loser after loser with the biggest gutter being Regenaration which Jamie Spencer rode in the 3.00 at Doncaster. I got this at 11/1 in the morning and it went of at 3/1 and never ran any kind of race. With so much money coming for it I hoped the gamble would be landed.
Then in Ireland in the 5.10 my horse came fourth only for me to find out that a nag got withdrawn just before the off so only 15 runners competed so no place money for me.
So it was all down to my last race the 5.40, and finally I hit the jackpot again getting not just first but second as well . This helped put a big dent in my losses for the day. This time the lower priced horse won.
So after a long weekend the last race got me back a nice bit of money.

With the tennis my own tissue gave me four bets on Friday that I classed as value and all four won. Unfortunately on Saturday I had three bets and they all lost ! Still slightly up and will continue my quest....

Master Eddy Rules !!

2010-03-26T21:13:00.007Z

A positive day for me. Bet Cat had one bet an each way shot with Noble Aran at 14/1 in the 2.55. It travelled fantastically well and looked to be in with a chance but suddenly a few fences from home went out like a light. Now this race was a 16 runner + handicap so as well as this bet I picked two for myself. When there is a horse with my namesake such as Master Eddy running I had to have a look at the form and decided to get on at 16/1. My other bet was Regal Approach at 7/1.

As you can imagine it was great to see Master Eddy hold on for victory with Regal Approach coming home third so a nice touch was landed . This race won me about £500.

My only other bet was Supreme Plan in the 1.50 which I got at 22/1 e/w and unluckily it came home fourth ! I had a few small bets on Betfair all in running as the horses today were all winning from the front at Lingfield.

The first football bet of the weekend was Breda in the Dutch league and as I type they have won 3-0.

In the Basketball I have placed the final bet in the sequence and will find out in the morning if I have been successful.

Finally in the tennis i have decided to approach it a bit like the horses and make a tissue of what I think the players prices should be before looking at Betfair or the bookies sites. Now if the price is 20% better or worse than my homemade tissue I will either back or lay the selection. As the saying goes the proof will be in the pudding as to whether I can make profitable choices. To act as a buffer I will also try to trade these matches to reduce liabilities and then decide if this helps or hinders my figures.

Concise Cochise.

2010-03-25T22:53:00.008Z

Overnight the B bet in the basketball system lost costing me £88. We now roll onto the third and final selection in the sequence which I gather will come tomorrow.

Bet Cat had one selection in the 4.10 Isabelonabicycle which I had £50 on at 11/2. Unfortunately it was never really going that well and finished down the field.

I picked out seven horses with the highlight for me being in another over 16 runner handicap. As mentioned before I like to pick two horses in these types of races and for the third time in three months I managed to get the first and second. I shall maybe start having little reverse forecasts on these. Anyway it was the 4.45 in Ireland where I got Cochise at average odds of 15/1 and Bold Present at 8/1. Luckily for me the higher priced nag won ! Predateur was a faller two out unluckily for me when nailed on for second place in the 4.45, and the others were Bere Davis in the 3.15, Shades Of Grey in the 6.50 and Le Platino in the 2.40.
My only other placed horse was 18 Carat in the 2.10 which I got at various prices from 16/1 to 10/1.

That was it for me today and a small profit was made. The tennis in Miami is now in full swing but I am waiting until the televised stuff starts on Saturday to get involved there, in the meantime I have had £10 at 50 on Tsonga and the same amount on Wawrinka at 250. Hopefully they will both go deep in the draw.

Bad Day For Sport.

2010-03-24T18:17:00.003Z

Pretty even last couple of days for me. Yesterday I had three bets with one Heez A Cracker getting placed at 16/1 in the 3.05. Bet Cat didnt have a bet but Richard very kindly sent me an in running trade.It went of at 14 on Betfair and looked to be in trouble but got a second wind and hit my lay at 5.9, then the cheeky nag went onto to win as well ! It was Zafrangar in the 4.50. This made me about £100.

The overnight basketball bet lost so the next one will be a b bet. The Football system had two bets the first a winner on Notts Forest but the second bet on St Johnstone in the Scottish Prem ended in a draw.

Today I picked three horses with two unplaced but the third bolted up at 9/2. I managed to get 7/1 earlier in the day.No football bets tonight but the bet b on the basketball has been placed.

After the Italian football match at the weekend we had a couple of more farces today. At the mens tennis in Miami there was one match that wasnt right. Rochus v Koellerer where bookies stopped taking bets on the 2-1 in sets win for Koellerer. Rochus won the first set but the odds were not correct considering he was a set up and money kept coming in for Koellerer and he was in the position of being the odds on favourite even though he was losing. I backed him at 1.56 even though he was a set down and it was level in the second set. Instead of moaning about it thought I would have a bit of it myself ! As you can guess he won in three sets.

This afternoon was the turn of horse racing to make an ass of itself . A horse called Nevertika which was heavily backed all day and opened up at 3/1 proceeded to bolt and run a whole circuit of the course before being pulled up. The odds on betfair went from 4 to 12 but instead of withdrawing the horse the trainer decided to run it. Any punter on this horse was done for and it ended up being pulled up when tailed off after about five fences.

Mondays Mutterings.

2010-03-22T17:57:00.008Z

Overnight the Basketball bet came in to clear the previous loss, so another £80 profit there. It should have been the third and final bet of the sequence but for me it was the second one as I missed the earlier losing bet.
After last weeks great horse racing, today I was struggling to get involved with the nags. I had three e/w bets with two seconds giving me a slight profit and a dabble on Betfair as well. In the end I decided to watch the 20/20 cricket on ITV which was really entertaining.
I have been receiving emails from a website concerning tennis betting and I wondered if anyone else has? I replied asking for proof of the bets but have received no reply and it seems very dodgy. Here is the website in case anyone that reads this knows of them:

http://www.winintennisbetting.com/

Concerning this type of thing can you believe that Pyschic Soccer made £12k from the promotion of their system ! They wanted 200 people to each pay a non refundable £60 and they managed to get it done! The system that they had was dumped half way through because it made losses and even with the new laying off idea it only made a 10% profit in two months. From reading the promotional blurb they were gonna double your bank every month with this system that has been tested over many years, you gotta hand it to them though. Again I have sent him about seven emails and not had one reply with the last one asking why he has removed the chat room from their website. I think I know the reason why....

If you ever want to check on web sites use this address. It gives an idea of how long they have been running.

http://web.archive.org/collections/web.html