I thought that Northern Monkey’s review of March, which was sent out to members a couple of weeks ago (obviously!), made for fascinating reading.

The official record for the service at the Cheltenham Festival was a loss of -3.88 points, but I felt that Wayne was being extremely hard on himself recording these figures.  My Northern Monkey Cheltenham gave me a profit of just over 7 points!

I was fortunate to miss a couple of antepost bets that turned out to be losers but what really helped me was by being careful as to where I struck my bets.  For day to day betting, I don’t necessarily take the best odds on offer in the market.  I always try to ensure I take the prices that I know Wayne will use for his official records as a minimum – ie. the lowest quoted price in the email, but taking standout prices is, I have learnt, one of the fast routes to account closures.

When it comes to antepost betting however, I will always take the best price and/or terms available.  No Runner No Bet (NRNB) terms are a punting Godsend and I will always choose a bookmaker offering this concession over one that is not.  This saved me at least a couple of points at Cheltenham on horses that Wayne recorded as losers because he hadn’t specifically advised his members to take the NRNB terms.

My rationale for taking standout prices and the best available terms when betting antepost is that this form of betting carries plenty of dangers as it is, so squeezing the very last drop of value out of every single bet placed is common sense as far as I am concerned.  You’d also like to think that as you can really only bet antepost on the biggest races, liquidity is always going to be strong and therefore betting patterns are likely to come under less scrutiny from the bookmaking bean counters.  I have no idea if this is the case, but there’s a logic to the theory, eh?

Wayne has indicated that he may not go in quite so heavy with the antepost bets next season, but I’ll be following any he does advise in with a strong level of confidence, despite the fact that the latest batch of antepost bets – for the Grand National at Aintree and across various races across the All Weather Championship card at Lingfield on Good Friday – failing to pay off.  Ultimately, antepost betting represents a chance to lock in some exceptional value, albeit with risks attached.  And we know that if we can do that consistently, we’re going to make money.

Betting from Saturday April 1st to Saturday April 15th

In short, it’s been a horrible start to the month.  Only three of the eight services in the portfolio have produced any sort of profit, and only one – Racing Service A – providing a significant level in straight cash terms.

Talking of Racing Service A, the end of term report was sent out to members last week, and very interesting reading it made too.  It’s not been a vintage season for the service, but as ever, A. is thinking of ways he can improve the experience for those following, with an emphasis on being able to get on at decent prices.  I’ll go into it in a bit more detail next time, but in the meantime the Racing Service A season signed off with a fine 25/1 winner on the first day of the Aintree meeting which was a most welcome winner bearing in mind how things are going elsewhere.

By far the highest turnover in April to date has come from Northern Monkey, and unfortunately so has by far the biggest level of loss.  Let’s hope normal service is resumed.

After last month’s heroics, Pinpoint Golf has yet to get it together in April, with The Masters providing no return at all from the week’s bets.

Chasemaster has been on a shocking run of form, but hopefully a decent winner late last week signify an imminent return to form, and it’s a similar story with Racing Service B.

Let’s see what this week brings.

Chasemaster: Staked 16.5pts, -8.7pts.

Jason James: Staked 61.5pts, +4.25pts.

Morning Value Service (Lite): Staked 26pts, -2.66pts.

Northern Monkey: Staked 49.5pts, -19.34pts.

Racing Service A: Staked 8pts, +3.25pts.

Racing Service B: Staked 42.5pts, -11.7pts.

Football Service 1: Staked 8pts, +1.43pts.

Pinpoint Golf: Staked 42pts, -25.5pts.

Total for April: ROI -20.36%, ROC -5.33%.

Without a doubt the last couple of months have proven to be tricky ones for the racing tipsters in the portfolio.  Perhaps the most likely reason for the collective to find consistency of performance so hard to come by is the winter weather ensuring that at many racecourses the ground has become desperate.  Now that Spring is in the process of being sprung, the ground is beginning to dry out and hopefully we’ll see the racing services come into their own.

To be fair, of the six racing tipsters followed, four provided a profit, but with the exception of Racing Service A the level of profit was pretty low.  Throw into the mix a truly horrible month for Jason James Quantum Racing and suddenly the racing part of the portfolio has really struggled.

The value of diversification

No doubt you’ve read elsewhere the importance of ensuring that any investment portfolio carries a certain level of diversification.  A suite of betting services is no different, and how well that point was illustrated through March.

Whilst the horse racing tipsters struggled, Pinpoint Golf had an absolute stormer.  The profits generated by this service alone meant that March as a whole provided a good level of bank growth.  Of course there will be times when all sports bet on will lose through a month, just as there will be times when all produce a strong profit, but by introducing a level of diversification into the portfolio we are giving ourselves the best chance of avoiding such sharp ups and downs.

March’s Figures

 The total figures for March’s betting are: ROI 13.12%, ROC 6.6%

As mentioned, Pinpoint Golf excelled through March.  Two big winners in one week generated a huge profit and the weeks around this added to the bank too.  The level of bank growth has been massive and whilst all feels good right now, I am mentally bracing myself for what are sure to be more barren times ahead.  Simply, this rate of return cannot be maintained – there has to be a correction.  Let’s see what April brings.  Of course, The Masters is just around the corner.  It would add to the excitement watching the final round next Sunday evening if we have one or two in contention.  ROI 86.4%, ROC 67.5% (2017: ROI 34.58%, ROC 72.09%).

The one horse racing service to excel through March was Racing Service A, whose season has now come to an end.  It will tip through the three days of the Aintree Festival next week, and I always add the performance there to the official figures, so we’re not quite done with RSA just yet.  The 2016/17 season certainly hasn’t been a vintage one compared to those that came before, and it will be interesting when the tipster releases his end of term report.  I know he is already planning ahead for how exactly he is going to approach the 2017/18 season, and this I’m sure will make for interesting reading.  ROI 45.91%, ROC 9.12% (2017: ROI 23.75%, ROC 11.37%).

It feels like the Football Service 1 season has been a quiet one through 2016/17.  I need to check my bet number and compare it to the turnover generated over previous systems before I say that this is definitely the case.  March wasn’t a bad month at all, although the relatively low number of picks means that it is always going to be difficult to generate too much by way of bank growth.  ROI 10.73%, ROC 3.22% (2017: ROI 16.9%, ROC 10.48%).

Despite some decent enough winners, Northern Monkey didn’t quite catch the breaks over the Cheltenham Festival.  Having built up an impressive antepost portfolio, and having secured long odds on one or two horses that went off at very short odds on the day, it could so easily have delivered much larger profits than it did.  ROI 2.88%, ROC 3% (2017: ROI 8.04%, ROC 18.77%).

I was ultimately left a little disappointed with Morning Value LITE this month.  At one point it looked as if March was going to be extremely rewarding, but a poor last week put paid to that.  Still, it’s rolling along to a decent ROI through 2017 so far, so no real complaints.  ROI 4.55%, ROC 2.45% (2017: ROI 10.3%, ROC 13.91%).

The main man at Chasemaster went off on his jollies to Madeira last week.  Let’s hope the sun and warmth have a rejuvenating effect as 2017 hasn’t yet delivered the goods.  I’m sure it will, and a bit of profit through March will hopefully be a precursor to a strong run of form.  ROI 9.95%, ROC 1.99% (2017: ROI -14.27%, ROC -10.7%).

It looked as if Racing Service B’s month was going to prove an expensive one, and then he pulled out three winners from four bets out of his magic bag of tricks on the 31st at odds of 4/1, 5/1 and 8/1 to help turn things around.  The month still ended in the red, but to a much lesser extent than had looked likely.  ROI -9.95%, ROC 3.9% (2017: ROI 0.78%, ROC 0.99%).

And finally, it was, as previously mentioned, a month to forget for Jason James.  There are times when things can get a little demoralizing for a tipster, and I would suggest this might be one such for followers of this service.  At the end of last month, 2017 had already offered up bank growth of over a third.  At the end of this month, it’s back down to less than 5%.  ROI -49.83%, ROC -30.52% (2017: ROI 2.47%, ROC 4.63%).

Figures for 2017 to date: ROI 11.3%, ROC 15.19%.