Taking a break from it all
Well, I guess that’s Christmas over for another year. Got to say, I enjoyed mine. As I’d previously mentioned in these pages, I went away for the duration of the festivities, down to deepest, darkest Devon. A lovely little place on the coast, lovely pub, great food and ale. As a direct result, I’ve returned (two days ago) 100% refreshed and highly motivated to get the next betting year going.
If you run a portfolio of betting tipsters, you’ll know how much hard work goes into it on a daily basis, and I can’t recommend strongly enough getting away from it all every now and then. But I do mean getting away from it! Just putting the odd bet on here and there, dipping your toes into the betting waters…this is what I used to do whenever I went on holiday. I was always really worried that I might miss some tipster or other bagging their yearly profit in the few days I was away, tipping winner after winner at double figure prices. Well, you know what? It never worked like that, and I learnt that the benefits of having a complete break from things was by far a better way to go.
It is a common misconception held by those that don’t really understand what running a betting portfolio involves, that it’s dead easy. Get some tips through, place your bets, count the winnings (or losses). But as we know, things are not that easy – a long way from it in fact. Securing the best odds possible is absolutely essential, but doing so with the planning and forethought necessary to keep bookmaker accounts viable for as long as possible means this is in itself a far from straightforward task.
Then there’s the losing runs to cope with. There are more losing days than winning ones, and the way the brain is wired means that the negative mental impact on most individuals is felt far more by the downs than the “ups” we feel after we’ve won. This is a subject I intend to write more on in the near future, but for now, suffice to say that the mental toll betting every day can inflict is considerable.
All of this is why, having not placed a bet for nearly three weeks, I feel beautifully refreshed and raring to go again.
Getting ready for 2017
Just because I didn’t place a bet however, doesn’t mean to say I didn’t spend some time thinking about the way to best attack 2017’s betting. I needed to be brutally honest with myself, aware that one of my faults is perhaps to sometimes persevere with something too long as opposed to facing up to the fact that for whatever reason, it wasn’t working for me.
Two examples of this relates to two of the football betting services I’ve been following. Both excellent services, but try as I might, I was consistently missing out on acceptable odds. I’ve absolutely no doubt these services will work for some, but at the times I’m able to put bets on (or more significantly, the times I can’t), neither service was working for me. I’ve also stopped placing the MVS (Doubles) bets, but am certainly persevering with the MVS (Lite) singles.
The other thing I’ve done is open new accounts at some of the best known bookmakers, ready for the New Year. I wonder how long BOG will last? I’ll be sorely disappointed if I can’t make it last some considerable time. I know what to do to keep under the radar for as long as possible and I see extending the life of my accounts as a personal challenge.
Other than that, it’s business as usual.
And so just one day’s betting to report upon; that of Sunday 1st January, 2017…
Reading yesterday’s update email from Jason James, it was interesting to see that I’d missed a large part of what has been a bad run for him in December (I’ve not checked other tipster’s results – no doubt I’ve missed profits elsewhere to compensate!?!). Yesterday however, he showed more spark than the London New Year fireworks, and by doing so, immediately wiped out his recent losses and then some. Five horses were tipped, four of them won. Two of them were doubled up and carrying a 2 point stake (Superb Story – Musselburgh – 2/1 and Shearian – Southwell – 3/1), a bet which in itself produced 22 points profit. To add to that were a lovely winner at Catterick (Snowed In – 7/1 but Rule 4 deduction applicable) and again at Musselburgh (Cold March – 6/1). That’s the tipping equivalent of Olivier Giroud’s goal yesterday, and what a way to get 2017 up and running!
No joy elsewhere, sadly. Just a couple of placed horses from each way bets.
Chasemaster: Staked 1pt, -1pt.
Jason James: Staked 6.5pts, +34.925pts.
MVS (Lite): Staked 1pt, -1pt.
Northern Monkey: Staked 3.5pts, -1.5pts.
Racing Service A: Staked 0.5pts, -0.5pts.
Racing Service B: Staked 8pts, -5.4pts.
January’s performance to date: ROI 67.6%, ROC 1.23%.
Can’t imagine that ROI figure will stay that high for too long, more’s the pity! 🙂
Until next time…
