Accumulator 4

I will do one of these per week - in future for the weekend football and with a minimum of a potential £300 win. I don't expect anything from them, but you never know, one day one might come in. In my experience, one team will always let you down.

Betting At Bookmakers

One thing I've not done in recent years is place bets at high street bookmakers. This is for a reason, as we all know, you can't profit long-term at the likes of Ladbrokes, William Hill or Coral. They will take your money in the end. In the last week, I did however, place a £5 accumulator at Ladbrokes, as I always used to enjoy doing this at the weekend or for midweek football. I used the money I've made from Betfair in the last month so it felt like a no pressure/free bet, so to speak.

I also had £4 on the Irish Lottery and £4 on the New York Lottery for 2 consecutive weeks. I believe that if you are going to gamble, then you might as well make it an accumulator with the possibility of a big win as one day you might get lucky. There are stories of people winning big as a few weeks ago when someone won £141,750.000 on a £50 accumulator betting online at William Hill. My acca never won btw - but it wasn't too far off. I got 3 of the 5 balls on the Irish lottery on Wednesday 23rd, but because you have to get all 5 (it's an accumulator), I get nothing for it.

 

 

Stop The FOBTs

30 Day Update

It's getting a bit like Groundhog Day now, but I might as well keep the updates coming. Like I say, the same old story - using a small bank size and it's having an impact on how well I could do. The rest of this year is pretty much damage limitation now or trying to get a big enough bank size ready for the start of next year because getting over 1k is not going to come the easy way. I think March is the last time my Betfair account saw that much which is quite disappointing, considering how well I did in 2010, but you live and learn by your mistakes.


One bit of luck I did have was, I saw one of those 'one off' £5 free promotions Victor Chandler sometimes offer, so I did what I don't usually do and stray away from Betfair. So I opened an account, got the free £5 bet and placed a 7 match accumulator not really expecting anything to happen. Well it just so happens it won (£68.80) thanks to Aguero's last minute goal for Man City against Villarreal. Nothing to write home about, but it came in handy. I withdrew it all straight away of course and called it a day on Victor Chandler.

I don't use normal online bookmakers such as William Hill, Ladbrokes or Victor Chandler as I feel there is only one place your money will go more often than not, and that's to the bookmaker itself. The odds they all offer are very poor compared to a betting exchange such as Betfair - where you are betting against other people, and your chances of making it pay long term is actually possible because of having the option to 'trade out' of your bet.

My plan now is to somehow acquire the bank size I need, and once I do, trade as I did last year. Whether that happens in the next week, or the next few months, I'm not sure, but the sooner the better. Ready for next year is probably realistic at this stage, but you never know.

18th Sept-18th Oct 2011: (including the Victor Chandler win)


Australian wallet:


Total P&L: +£127.42

Roland Garros Latter Stages

I have to confess I was one of those tricked into thinking Andy Murray was injured during his match with Viktor Troicki, especially after Troicki went 5-0 up in the first set. After that it was all change; Murray somehow found his way, winning 4 consecutive games before finally losing the set 6-4. So they stand at 2-2 with the decider today - god knows who will win this. The market favours Murray @ 1.38 purely based on ranking and the fact that Troicki isn't the most trustworthy player when in this position. The way this has gone anything can happen.

Anyway, the woman's quarter-finals start today and I think an upset isn't out of the question in the Pavlyuchenkova v Schiavone match. I've seen quite a few of Schiavone's matches during the run-up to the French Open and she wasn’t at her best, and despite raising her game during the last few rounds, it wouldn't surprise me to see Pavlyuchenkova win this one. I'm hoping she does anyway. I think Schiavone and Kuznetsova are decent lays in the outright. I'm liking the look of Azarenka this year, although her match with Na Li is a tough one. The winner of the French will come from Azarenka/Na and the Petkovic/Sharapova matches in my opinion so the 'New Winner' Market on Betfair is worth getting involved in @ 1.33-1.4. If I had the bank I need and was happy to tie money up, I would be betting a significant amount on this market as there will be trading opportunities available. I do not think Schiavone or Kuznetsova will win it, and they are the only 2 previous winners of the event.

I won't predict the men’s, as like most, I think the winner will come from either Nadal or Djokovic. If Djokovic is finally going to lose, the chances are it will be on this surface to Nadal and they're due to meet in the final if both make it that far.

Update Wed 8th June: I retract the comment above about Andy Murray not being injured. I never saw his match with Berrer, where he twisted his ankle and never knew the extent, so apologise for that. Thanks.

Update

Last 30 Days: 3rd April - 3rd May 2011.


Australian Wallet:


-£83.52

Last 3 Months Profit & Loss

I've been putting this off for a long time, but it's best to keep things honest and show a true reflection of how bad things got. Bear in mind none of the big losses have been recently. Most of the damage was done during the Aussie Open Tennis and the Super Bowl back in late January/early February which was documented on here. I won't dwell on those mistakes, but I got a bit greedy and was aware of the risks I was taking at the time. Unfortunately I never prepared myself for the problems this would cause in the following months, but that's done now. I'm now at the stage where I have to basically start again and build from scratch. It's been a good week, so hopefully things start going in the right direction from now on.

Jan 14th-April 14th 2011.


Aus wallet:


-£3,800.51

Any constructive opinions or comments are welcome.

Betfair Down Again

It's been almost 4 hours since the site went down. It's never been down this long since I started using it, so that's a record. They couldn't have timed it any worse actually, with all this sport on. The weekend is their most profitable time as well. I'm not blaming anyone, but I know there are many who have been affected by this financially, with no option to trade-out of bets they made earlier in the day. This could potentially cost someone thousands and is one of the possible pitfalls of doing this full-time. Thankfully I have not been affected, although I feel as if I've missed out on a few decent money-making opportunities, especially on the Rugby League (Super League) game between Castleford and Catalans. I was hoping to get involved in that one. Betfair offer a great service and a great product, but it's not been their best month. Especially with the site going down so frequently.


There are other alternatives, although not as good as Betfair. Betdaq for example is another betting exchange along the same lines as Betfair, only with less liquidity and less markets. It's only a back-up in my view and that's all. Although if there was a lot more money in the markets, it might be a different story.

The Last Few Months

2011 has started off quite well and has helped me overcome a disappointing 3 months at the back end of last year on Betfair. Since the 1st Jan 2011, I've somehow managed to make £2,986.71 in total which has more than helped things. I now have the bank size required to make this work, as opposed to taking more risks with certain bets in order to try and boost my starting bank.

Jan 1st-6th 2011:


Australian wallet:


October through to December was pretty much a disaster from a trading point of view. Very few things went right and I was forever making silly gambles in order to try and reach a workable bank size, which resulted in the inevitable. Ever since I came back from the US Open in New York in fact. That's why you see some terrible losses below, especially on the NFL. I'm now past that and feel I have the bank size required to make this work. My 3 month total currently stands at £2,772.64 which as I said above - is only there because of a very good last week.

October 6th 2010 - Jan 6th 2011:


Australian wallet:

January Update 1st-2nd

Total P&L: +£1,026.24

Tennessee v North Carolina - NCAA College Football

Complete carnage in this game with odds of 1.01 done on Tennessee. Betfair suspended the market on a Tennessee win, not knowing a play was being reviewed at the end of the game, only for it to be overturned, which lead to NC getting the field goal they needed to tie the game. North Carolina then went on to win the game in overtime.

December Update 1st-30th

I finished the month in profit, but was not as good as it might have been. Mainly due to taking a few more risks towards the end of the month (instead of laying the bets off) to boost my bank size in order to make things easier. Looking back, this was a mistake and was not how I won consistently from February to September this year. It was a good year overall on Betfair, it just didn't end as well it might have done. Hopefully 2011 is a good year.

December 1st-30th 2010:


Australian wallet:


Total Profit & Loss: +£736.53

Happy new year all.

December Update 1st-21st

1st-21st December 2010:


Total P&L: +£520.33

December Update

This is probably the best way for me to keep updating it in future. It's been a really good December so far - just in time for Xmas.

1st-13th December 2010.


+£1,842.63

December's Profit & Loss

It's been an ok December so far, thanks to the UK Championship Snooker. I look forward to Snooker tournaments on TV as I always seem to make quite a bit of money on 'Frame betting'. It's one of my best markets. It's just a shame there are so few tournaments throughout the year. Right now I am watching the Indianapolis Colts @ Tennessee Titans on Sky Sports. I fancy Manning and the Colts to bounce back from Sunday's loss to the Dallas Cowboys, so I have had quite a big bet on them - with the aim to trade-out at around 1.2.



I will do a more comprehensive update in the week sometime.

1st-9th December 2010

+£709.94

Profit & Loss - The Last 7 Days

It's been a very bad week. Definitely my most difficult week this year. On the plus side, I know exactly where I went wrong, so all I can do is learn from these mistakes in future.

27th Sept - 4th October 2010


-£1,997.33

Profit & Loss - The Last 3 Months

31st May - 1st September 2010



+£9,824.72 between both wallets - which works out at £3,274.90 per month. Not what I had hoped for, but will hopefully get a lot better long-term.

Visit: www.premiertipster.com

US Open Tennis

I watched the start of the US Open yesterday. The pick of the first round has to be Paul-Henri Mathieu's win against Hewitt. I don't think I've ever seen him play as well actually. I've already had a good start, but it's always like this in the early rounds where the matches are predictable if you are careful. I had a decent treble on Oudin, Cilic and Schiavone @ evens as well.

I have tickets for Arthur Ashe Stadium on the 7th and I'm undecided whether I will go to the semi-finals on the 11th. While I'm there, I'm also going to watch the NY Yankees play Baltimore Orioles on the 8th and Thierry Henry's new team New York Red Bulls who play Colorado Rapids on the 10th. That means no Betfair due to it not being allowed in the US. I could do with the break I think.

I've been a bit more careful this last week after the losses I had last week and it's gone quite well. This is how it stands now (23rd-31st) + £1,310.50. I'll update things later after today's play.

7 Day Update

I've put-off updating this over the last few days as I've tried to concentrate on getting my Betfair situation back on track, which has hit a wall in the last week or so. To keep things consistent though, I will still continue to post updates on here. Just to show that it's not all about the wins. It's been a bad week overall. I was probably due one.

I got my Betfair bank size to around £14k 2 weeks ago and now it stands at £8k (with various withdrawals) so I am back in the process of rebuilding again and trying to reach small targets.


I'm going to the US Open Tennis in New York on the 7th September until 12th thanks to winning on Betfair, so seeing as you can't use Betfair in the US, it's the ideal chance to use it as a break.

-£3,842.77

Visit: www.premiertipster.com

7 Day Update

August 7th-14th 2010:




+£4,272.78

6 Month Update

Today I asked Betfair if they could email me a 6 month profit and loss summary from my account. I was quite happy with the results overall, although I guessed it was somewhere around this mark. Also, my turnover on Betfair (bets made) during this time is not far from £1.5 million at £1,417,486. Sounds more than it actually is though, as anyone who uses Betfair will know.

February 2nd 2010 - 3rd August 2010: +£18,637


My strongest market has been Football by a long way making +£10,614, which is more than I thought, and Rugby League (NRL & Super League) my second making +£4,176, with my only real negative coming from MLB losing -£3,088, so I think it's best if I avoid that sport from today.