The betting week following Cheltenham is always likely to be a bit of anti-climax, I guess. But boy, was last week dull!?!
Saturday’s racing kinda set the tone. There really was very little to get excited about with ITV Racing coming live from Kelso. No disrespect to the Scottish Borders course. It’s lovely, quaint even, but it’s not Cheltenham, is it?
As for my tipsters, it felt like many were feeling a post-Cheltenham hangover with action pretty thin on the ground. Looking at the results over the week – an overall marginal loss – I wish I’d taken a week’s holiday.
Elsewhere, and we’ve seen yet another bookmaker’s UK operation go caput. Following hot on the heels of BetBright, 188Bet announced this week that they were withdrawing from the UK market, citing ultra-competitive market conditions. You know, it’s almost as if restricting punters to pennies, making silly new customer offers and generally trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator in terms of betting savvy is an unsustainable business model. I wonder what would happen if these books actually traded in the way a “bookmaker” should, ie. by using skill and letting weight of money dictate price movements? Couldn’t do any worse, eh?
And finally, if I may promote a podcast I listened to this week? I’d recommend subscribing to the ‘Luck on Sunday’ podcast that is the pod form of Racing TV’s Nick Luck hosted weekly programme, and then sitting back with a cuppa or a glass of something stronger to listen to the Barney Curley interview. Highly entertaining.
Portfolio performance from Monday 18th to Sunday 24th March
‘Main’ portfolio: ROI -1.45%, ROC -0.12%.
‘Starter’ (Football Lay Profits, The Accountant, Racing Service 2, Northern Monkey): ROI -25.77%, ROC -2.25%.
‘Broxchange’ (Football Lay Profits, The Accountant, Golf Insider): ROI -33.03%, ROC -1.65%.
Individual Service Performance
The Accountant: Staked 11pts, -2.428pts
Racing Service 1: Staked 4pts, +2.3pts.
Football Lay Profits: Staked n/a pts, n/a pts.
Golf Insider: Staked 18pts, -18pts.
MVS (Lite): Staked 12pts, +5.491pts.
Northern Monkey: Staked 5pts, -0.583pts.
Football Service 2: Staked 5pts, +0.82pts.
Racing Service 2: Staked 1.5pts, -1.5pts.
Racing Service 3: Staked 11.5pts, -3.75pts.
