Betting Blogs

Life as a professional gambler

The Slippery Toad has been looking for inspiration and has found it in a couple of books he managed to read on a recent holiday - one of which was about professional punter Dave Nevison.

The  Nevison book covers the ups and downs of the life of a pro punter. From the big wins and losses to the effect the gambling lifestyle can have on someone's personal life. Anyway, The Slippery Toad's blog entry is basically a mini review of the book that might be of interest. Seems like there's some sound betting advice mixed in with some interesting tales!

Talking of advice The Betfair Trader has offered up a trading tip that should help bulge your betting bank in the long term. As he admits it's hardly rocket science - even a bit "snidey" in his own words -  but the piece is well argued and illustrated with some recent examples of where you could have made money by implementing the idea.

Someone looking for advice - or at least comments - is the blogger behind Don't Give Up Your Day Job. He traded his way to a whopping 68% return from a £100 starting bank in last night's Manchester United v Sporting Lisbon match. Unfortunately it was all paper traded as he was using the Champions League game to show a friend how to trade! Anyway, he's posted up his paper trading history from the game and would welcome any comments on his approach.

Elsewhere Mark Iverson seems a little disappointed with an increase of 8% on his betting bank during November. We're sure many would settle for it! But it is down on Mark's recent monthly results and he takes a look at a his sports trading calendar and points out it was always going to be a quiet month. Importantly he's pleased that he kept his discipline and didn't turn to less familiar sports for the sake of some trading action. Sensible stuff.

Finally Brian Coplin over at Life of Brian has outlined some of the changes he will be making to one of his websites shortly. All sounds very interesting and we're sure a searchable database of racing results as well as stats on upcoming races will prove popular.

Don't fall in love (with your trades)

Excellent advice over at Richard Wildman's blog about not getting married to your position. It's a basic trading principle to accept when you've got something wrong and cut your losses.

Unfortunately Richard himself fell victim to the mistake and chastises himself as a "newbie" for it. A bit harsh! Getting married to your positions can happen to anyone - even successful traders - as The Betfair Trader showed over the weekend. Richard's piece is well worth a read. Short but food for thought.

Equally as interesting is the entry on Make it Pay and its observation that the life of a punter is a strange one. Where else asks the author do you have to learn how to lose before you win? The question is borne out of the frustration of a losing day.

And there certainly seem to be a fair few of those around. After a few weeks without making a blog entry the Call of the Wildcat is back to report on a nightmare November. While after a hefty loss over the weekend The Betfair Loser has come up with a few new ideas to go forward with.

It's not all doom and gloom in betting blog land though. Congratulations are due to JP over at JP's Betting Blog who has just passed through the £5,000 profit mark.

While Jon over at TalkBet appears to have had something of an epiphany. His eureka moment involves the inrunning football markets where after year's of trading on them it seems he's finally found an edge he believes could improve his profit.

Err, wouldn't mind sharing it with the rest of us would you?!

How the BUG was squatted

Hold on to your hats and keep your reading glasses to the ready. Seems John over at The Gambler is going for some kind of most blog entries in a week world record!

What's more, he seems to have found a way to glue his tounge in his cheek while still supping a keg of his favourite ale. Multi-tasking showoff! It's all entertaining stuff though and the piece that really caught our eyes though was this gem about the history of the Betfair User Group. (BUG)

For those who weren't around, or don't remember, the idea was to get a group of Betfair users together to represent the views of all the betting exchanges' customers. Fight for our rights, as it were. Although it never really got off the ground this is a quick potted history of what happened from someone involved. And also gives a trip down memory lane for those who remember some of the old Betfair forum legends.

One of those John met with during the BUG days was Betfair co-founder Andrew "Bert" Black. It's no secret that Bert runs his own blog, the cunningly surreptitious Bert's Blog. Not suprisingly Bert doesn't get too much time to update his blog but has found a few minutes to get a few things of his chest about the Steve Mclaren / England situation. Equally unsurprising is that John "World record attempt" Gambler also has. Interesting stuff.

Also interesting was Peter Webb's appearance on the Man of Mystery's WUBT radio show. The podcast is available in the radio show's archive. Peter is a successful trader, the guy behind the Bet Angel trading software and well informed on all things Betfair. Well worth a listen even if a slight time delay on Skype makes it a little hard to hear in places.

Finally on our round up of the betting blog world The Betfair Trader is thankful for Thanksgiving after a nice win on some holiday NFL games and we've added a link to a new blog we've come across called The Nervous Trader. Check it out here.

A bad day for bloggers

Not much around in the way of new posts in betting blog land. No doubt something to do with sorrows being drowned last night following England's ignoble failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

Unfortunately where there is news it all seems to be as bad as that concerning England. David Allen over at WizardGold has done 75% of his bank chasing a loss. His worst trading day ever and a "complete balls up" in his own words. Sounds like the loss was compounded by his trialling some new free trading software that he was still getting to grips with.

It's much the same story for Ray over at The Sports Trader except this time it's failing to cut a loss that caused the problem. In fact, turning a winning day into a losing day.

Meanwhile the blogger behind Ante Post Sports Trading has put his hands up! Not only did his publicized England not to concede a goal tip fall somewhat short of collecting but he's honest enough to reveal that every other personal bet he had last night lost too. Still, his earlier Champions League tips are still sitting pretty and his lay of the draw in the 1st test between India and Pakistan is currently sitting in profit.

Finally Excite over at Traderizm is updating his blog again after returning from a short holiday to Berlin. And just so it isn't all doom and gloom today he's back to winning ways too!

Knuckle down for some hard work

You see it on the Betfair forums all the time. New users full of enthusiasm expectantly asking for the key to untold Betfair riches. Of course, there is no one size fits all path to Millionaire's Row. Success requires hard work - a point made well by Mark Iverson in his latest blog entry.

Following a successful but tiring weekend's trading he asks why people think trading is easy before pointing out a few realities. Like it isn't. It requires dedication, hard work and discipline. An interesting piece, thought provoking and well worth a read.

Someone putting in the hard work and reaping the rewards is Dip over at Find Free Lay. Filing his blog entry from his mobile on his sick bed might be dedication beyond the call of duty!! But the message of how to increase your profit is sound. Good traders are always willing to learn, try new ideas and refine their strategies. Looks like Dip has read The Betfair Trader's recent money management post and picked up on a new idea that he's now using to improve his profits.

Someone reviewing their own bankroll strategy is Gareth over at Small Time Sports Trading who had a disasterous weekend. He admits he was being too aggressive with his staking in order to build a bigger bankroll and got caught out resulting in him losing over 85% of his month's profit to date. Not good. But Gareth has a winning trading history since starting his blog and will no doubt bounce back. Good luck sir!

Finally betting blog land has thrown up a couple of well researched tips for tonight's Euro 2008 qualifiers. Cloning Arteta has a pick on the Germany game while Ante Post Sports Trading has one on the England match.

The show must go on

Bad news from the Man of Mystery who has decided to stop doing his live radio shows. Shame as they were a great listen and seemed to have a growing live audience. It seems power cuts in Malta and sound issues were behind the decision. On the plus side he will still be doing twice weekly podcasts and perhaps hopefully one day will revert to the live shows again.

Unfortunately bad news seems to be a theme around the betting blogosphere at the moment. The Betfair Loser has reminded himself of the pitfalls of breaking his newly installed money management rules with a loss. While John over at The Gambler can't seem to kick his cold. And while he's being coy about the figures also appears to have had a big loss or two and has taken the sensible option to have a day or two away from trading.

Still, it's not all glass half empty. There is some good news around. Patience has finally paid off over at the Make it Pay blog where after what seemed like an eternity waiting for the author to select a bet he finally found something worth getting on and cleaned up with a £400 win. Another reminder that patience pays!

And it's also good to see the One Percent blog back. Seems the author got a promotion at work so has been a bit too busy to trade these last couple of weeks. But was back in the game at the weekend and managed to turn a nice profit.

Discipline discipline discipline

Loss of discipline is a common punter's lament the world over and this time it's the author of the Don't Give Up Your Job ruing a lapse.

His slip in discipline cost him his daily target but not too much and he still managed to turn a profit for the day. Yet another reminder however of how discipline is one of the key requirements to being a long term consistent winner.

Talking of consistent winner's we're sure it'll be well worth tuning in to listen to Peter Webb on the Man of Mystery's RonBot Radio show shortly. He'll be live 30 minutes before the first race today. Peter is the guy behind the Bet Angel software and will also be discussing his own trading as well as revelaing more details about the introduction of Betfair SPs. Miss the show and you can catch it in this archive.

Elsewhere now that the tennis season is over The Betfair Loser is looking for new sports to trade as has his sights set on rugby union. He explains why here and discusses his first attempt at trading the sport. Finally, for anyone looking for some football bets this weekend Trade on Sports has a Euro 2008 qualifiers preview.

The new Betfair SPs

It's been rumoured for a while and now it's confirmed - Betfair will be offering its own racing starting prices in the near future.

The first solid details of the Betfair SPs emerged during a meeting at Betfair on Wednesday evening. Among those at the meeting was Peter Webb, the guy behind the Bet Angel trading software, and he's sent a detailed email about them to his newsletter subscribers. In a nutshell the price will be set based on market activity a short while before the off and Betfair punters will be able to get on by leaving an SP order earlier in the day rather than having to be at their computers as the race starts. Which just about makes it the biggest change to Betfair since the exchange launched in 2000.

Anyway, Peter Webb will be live on the Man of Mystery's WUBT Ron Bot Radio show 30 minutes before the first race tomorrow to discuss more details of what was revealed at the meeting - and, of course, talk about Bet Angel. Should be a cracking show!

Which is all music to the ears of Brian Coplin over at The Life of Brian who is already pouring over everything to try to find an edge to make a profit from the new system and thinks he may have found one already.

Looking around the rest of the betting blogosphere there's some interesting pieces worth checking out. The Betfair Loser finds himself a little shocked when, on asking where all the money comes from, realises quite how much some people must be losing on exchanges to keep the winners in profit.  Peter Nordsted over at Trade on Sports discusses his first ever attempt to trade a cricket match. He lost on the 4th ODI between India and Pakistan but feels he's already learned some valuable cricket trading lessons.

Meanwhile Richard Wildman has finished his long-promised ebook on building your own betting / trading software / bot. We've not seen a copy but it sounds interesting enough and will no doubt catch the attention of many. While the newly launched AntePosting blog has a couple of well argued Champions League tips.

Finally congratulations to Ray over at The Sports Trader who sneaks into his most recent post the fact that yesterday his blog celebrated its 1st anniversary. Happy Birthday!

Evil striped blazers and their market manipulation machinations

We won't mention any names but the usual suspects who feel it a weekly duty to bemoan the style of the Betfair interface have been at it again - and this time the Man of Mystery has bitten.

The line of attack this time was how the nasty striped blazer traders "manipulate" the market to move prices so that those wanting to get their zillions on at value prices from mug layers can't. So unfair. Anyway, the debate raged on the Betfair forum with the Man of Mystery making some interesting points amid the general misinformation and he discusses some of it on his blog.

Which all seems as good a time as ever to mention that today's guest on the Man of Mystery's WUBT RonBot Radio show is "Ronnie", the creator of Ron Bot - a bot that automatically lays horses when set criteria are met. The show goes out live at 12:35 GMT today and will be archived here after.

Elsewhere in betting blog land it's good to see Mark Iverson is back from his holiday, refreshed and blogging again. And even better that the result of recent tests on the baby he and Nicola are expecting have finally given them some good news. Seems we could also have the next Roman Abramovich on our hands too as it turns out Mark is one of the stakeholders in Ebbsfleet United!

Heading off on holiday is the Slippery Toad. Seems he's had a bit of a run in trading the antepost racing markets and is off on a break to Lanzarote to soak up some sun and consider trading some slower moving markets. Another blogger whose dipped his toes into racing trading is Gareth at Small Time Sports Trading whose been getting involved to overcome the great daytime sport drout!

Finally for today we've added a new blog anteposting to the blogroll on the right. If you run a sports betting blog and want us to link to you just leave a comment below.

The pitfalls of democrazy

So if you're a football fan no doubt you've heard all about fan's community site MyFootballClub taking over non-league Ebbsfleet United. It certainly hasn't escaped the attention of Cloning Arteta which has a nice piece discussing the merits, or otherwise, of the move - and also includes a 20/1 tip. Best hurry though because although the price is still available the next best is 9/1. Get on before that football trader gets to work!

John The Gambler has started his own version of the Racing Post's Ten to Follow competition. All entries welcomed on his blog. It's a little simpler than the original in that you pick just 10 horses for the whole National Hunt season making it a lot easier to enter. There's kudos and bragging rights at stake for the winner - and John might even throw in a prize of his own!

Ray The Sports Trader has a warning on how greed got the better of him while trading a football match and caused him a loss. The cautionary piece shows how even long term consistent winners can make basic mistakes and is worth the read just to remind every trader what not to do the next time they face the same situation.

Which is something Dip over at the Find Free Lay blog has been thinking about. There's some interesting ideas in his piece about stop gambling and start trading and it's well worth a look. Talking of interesing ideas The Betfair Loser has also had his thinking cap on and has gone all philosophical. Let him explain to you how less equals more! Elsewhere if you're considering a bet on the forthcoming test matches you could do worse than check out the Trade on Sports blog's test match previews.

Finally a big thankyou to Man of Mystery, Small Time Sports Trading, The Betfair Loser and The Betfair Trader who have all linked to this blog over the last couple of days.