hello & welcome to my blog
do you want to improve your betting? if so, then you are in the right place
Like many, my introduction to horse racing was the Grand National and being allowed to select a horse to put 50p each way on as a kid. From those beginnings it grew into my passion to where I now bet full time on horse racing.
Through the blog I’ll be showing you how you can make your betting more profitable.
I hope you enjoy following my betting journey, here is my story………
Where it all started
From those early days, the pursuit of predicting and profiting from the outcome of horses running across a field began!! A trivial matter, but for me it’s about trying to solve the ultimate puzzle.
I went down all the conventional routes that a novice punter follows. I subscribed to form experts and tipsters, met with some success but ultimately didn’t win in the long term. I studied and started to work on my own methods. Learning what strategies and behaviours worked in betting and what didn’t. I refined my approach to the point where it started to come together and I started to become profitable.
Working in the bookmaking industry
Through these times I had a career. I spent 20 years working in the bookmaking industry for a major high street operator. Initially joining as an excuse to get paid and be able to watch racing every day, things progressed and I did well. Over my 20 years the retail bookmaking industry changed dramatically. When I first started it was all about horse and dog racing with football about to boom. I had some great times and met some amazing people.
The launch of the betting exchanges
Betting exchanges changed everything. I remember coming out of Cannon Street station in central London on the day Betfair launched their marketing campaign. “Death to the bookmaker” was their slogan, their promo teams dressed in coffin outfits on the streets of the City. I’d not heard of Betfair till that point, and had no idea their model would revamp the industry. Steadily all the bigger players disappeared from the high street, migrating to Betfair. Why wouldn’t you, I did soon.
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Rather than compete for this custom, the bookmakers promoted the cash cow that was FOBT’S. It was all about getting the customers who remained to churn their money through FOBT’s.
Time to move on
FOBT’s are not a subject that I want to get into, other than to say that in my view it was the right decision to enforce the recent stakes reduction. I’ve had too many discussions with players who could not see they couldn’t beat a 2.7% overround. The machines aren’t fixed, it’s basic maths that you will never win. Technology advances meant online books were in rapid growth. Retail customers were targeted and incentivised to sign up and as a workplace it became a sales environment.
My time was up, it was no longer for me.
I wanted better than working hard for someone else. So in 2017 I decided to leave the industry and set out on my own backing horses. Today as I write this I’m still pursuing the dream.
Why start a Betting blog?
Firstly, I’ve learnt over the years that betting is hard. If I can help others become more profitable, then great.
For anyone who’s ever had a serious go at betting I won’t need to explain the pitfalls. Stop reading now if you think that betting is easy. Losing streaks are inevitable, I strike more losing bets than winning ones, losing days are common, losing weeks happen as do losing months and years. There’s a whole article I’ll write on why not setting yourself targets and making each individual bet on its own merit is healthy for your long term profitability.
I’ve found when searching for online resources and reading that there is a real mix of quality available. There’s some great sites, but they are outweighed by the explosion of social media tipsters. I believe there’s space for more quality contributors.
I wanted to help myself. In the past I’ve penned previews on some of the principal meetings for a small group of family/friends. I found that writing down my thoughts clarified my own thinking and improved my decision making. In writing this blog I hope to improve myself in these areas.
I enjoy writing, albeit I don’t think I am particularly proficient. Writing this blog gives me a good opportunity to try out some new ideas. There have been times in the past few years where I’ve come close to searching the job boards. So, when thinking about the prospect of writing a CV it occurred to me that a blog, ‘this blog’ could be the best CV I could ever write. What a great way to promote yourself?
I have the time, one of the real benefits of what I do. Primarily I focus on flat racing. In the winter months when there’s little quality racing outside of the weekends and the major festivals, then I have time on my hands.
Finally, the chance to explore some opportunities, learn some new skills and to diversify and supplement my income. I’ve never built a website before, I’ve got this far and am learning along the way. I need to understand SEO marketing. Are there affiliate opportunities? What other opportunities may present themselves?
What's next?
At this stage I have ideas of how I hope to see this blog progress, but for now I have no idea if anyone will be even remotely interested in reading it. If I dare to dream, I hope to connect with like minded people, write content that people will want to read and that will help them, learn new skills (how to build and promote an online blog as a starter) and to ultimately open up further opportunities.
I hope you enjoy and get something out of my blog, thanks for reading this far.
If you want to get in touch you can find me on Twitter or contact me directly at Bet4bettor@gmail.com
2 comments
Starting a betting blog can be a great money generating asset, really great and informative article you have shared here.
Thanks for the comments Joshua, appreciated