Feeling Lucky

Another day, and another profit. I'm feeling quite optimistic at this very early stage, and I feel that I am somewhat riding on a crest of a wave. However, I am not under any illusion that I will be in for a crash landing soon, and I just hope the way I have set up my betting bank will be able to cope. After reading all the other blogs and internet forums, it is likely that there will be some sort of correction sooner rather than later. However, for now I will enjoy the feeling of being in profit.

These are the bets I had today, with the profit and loss figures:

Liverpool: £8 @ 1.80 +£6.40

Josear: £4 @ 21.00 -£4

Pendragon: £2 @ 12.00 +£22

Esteem Machine £4 @ 6.00 -£4

Queen Poline £6 @ 5.00 +£14.40

King Olav: £2 @ 5.50 +£9

Ryde Back: £6 @ 3.50 -£6

Bobby Gee £3 @ 9.50 -£3

Gunslinger £4 @ 15.00 +£3.60

Total Profit for the day was +£38.40. My betting bank is currently standing at £647.24. I started off with £500 on 09/02/10. So far this month, I have placed stakes to the total of £716.80 over 133 bets. There have been 50 winners (this includes horses that were placed as well) and I have made a profit of £147.24. This is a ROI of 20.54% (I think). I am very happy with this figure. At the start I was aiming for 10% but I'll settle for this :)

Much Better Day

I have been using the Oddsportal website to find the best odds on my football bets. However, I was looking at the Value Bets section of the website and was quite intrigued. I have read many blogs, websites and articles and they always seem to go on about value betting, value prices and how in the long run this is the only way to make betting pay. Now this is what Odds Portal have on their website regarding their Value Bets section:

Value bets listed above provide tips on matches that you can bet on with mathematical advantage. Our value bets are calculated from bookmaker's market difference in comparison to its competing companies. Betting with value included in the bets should lead to long-term profits. The "Odds" column indicates biggest betting odds available, while "Value" calculates mathematical profit you can take advantage of. The "Prob." column explains the likelihood of winning the bet.

I had a look at two highlighted advices, which were these two:

Draw No Bet Outcome Bookmaker Odds Value Prob.

24 Feb Tottenham - Bolton 2 Victor Chandler 9.00 1.34 12.92%

1X2 Outcome Bookmaker Odds Value Prob.

24 Feb USA - Switzerland 2 Bet Chronicle 15.50 1.34 7.64%

After thinking about the value betting scenario, and also that it seems like the hard work is already done by the site and the other bookmakers, I thought I will give it a go, and see what happens. If i'm honest I don't really understand the value figure, but i'm guessing if I keep backing at odds that are better than what they should be, then I should make a profit in the long tern. I will only be staking £1 on these bets. I will see after a month or so, if there is any mileage in it or not. If anyone has any views or does something similar, then I would love to hear from you.

These are the bets that I had today, and have been settled so far:

Trabolgan: £8 @ 3.50 -£8

Marodima: £4 @ 8.50 +£30

No Wonga: £6 @ 3.75 -£6

Chief Dan George: £3 @ 8.00 +£21

Five Out Of Five: £3 @ 15.00 -£3

Chief Dan George £6 @ 8.50 +£27

Le Seychellois £3 @ 16.00 -£3

Braunschweig v Burghausen Draw £4 @ 4.15 -£4

Total for the Day: +£54

Football Let Down

Today could have been a very good day, but the end of the day shows a slight loss! I had a small win bet on Quousko De L'isop at Southwell. It ran a very good race with virtually making all, almost unchallenged and making me a profit on the day's racing with my only horse racing bet. However, fast forward a few hours to the evening football, and it all turned sour! I had 5 football bets, all the selections were at home, and only one of them managed to win. Anyway, here is what I bet on today:

Quousko De L'isop: £4 @ 7.00 +£24.00

Charlton Win v Brighton: £8 @ 1.74 -£8.00

Norwich Win v Southend: £8 @ 1.42 +£3.36

Walsall Win v Yeovil: £8 @ 2.22 -£8.00

Aldershot Win v Dagenham £8 @ 2.38 -£8.00

Rochdale Win v Bradford £8 @ 1.60 -£8.00

Total for the day: -£4.64

Introduction to My Betting Blog

Over the past year or so, I have started reading up on betting, especially on horses and football. I have never really gambled on this, apart from my £2 a week lottery ticket. I still haven't won a tenner on that yet! I've been visiting online forums, blogs and reading a variety of newsletters, and the Racing Post online, and finally decided to take the plunge earlier this month.

I saved up a relatively small amount of £500 and have decided that this will be my betting bank. In addition, I will be using a variety of sources to get my betting advice from. This will include both free and paid sources. The free sources include Racing Post, At The Races, Timeform, Sportinglife and Betting Zone.

My main concern is the betting bank and staking. I've been thinking of this, and whilst I don't expect to make thousands, I want to use the bank fully. I want to turn over at least £500 every month and if I can get about a 10% return on this, then I will be very happy. This means that I will be placing a lot of bets, but I will make sure that no bet is over a maximum 5% of the betting bank.

Since the beginning of February, I have staked £594.80 with a return of £656.28. Therefore making a profit of £61.48 so far for the month. From now on, I will also include my bets, odds taken and profit and loss figures over the course of the week

I really want to give this blogging thing a good go. I have read blogs where it seems like it helps. I am not trying to blow my own trumpet as people on other blog gamble enormous money like £100-£300 per bet! I am only trying to show my story - what happens or where I will end up, I don't know! I really hope some of you will join me, offer any advice and maybe meet some like minded people along the way.