Who watched the Champions’ League final?  It wasn’t a bad game, truth be told.  Certainly not as bad as the agenda that BT Sport followed throughout in the match being “underwhelming”.  I thought it was played by two very good football teams who both defended fairly well and played with intensity and at a great pace.  You don’t need lots of goals to make a good footie match.  The irony of the constant moaning from “Fletch”, Steve McManaman and others is that it was they who contributed more to what might have been a poor viewing experience, not the match itself.

What did make for good viewing last week was the culmination of the Northern Trust Open Golf championship over in the States, where Golf Insider picked the 20/1 winner.  The irony though is that despite not finding the winner in the same tournament, PGA Profit actually provided more profit in monetary terms by finding three selections that finished placed or in the Top 20.  Funny old game at times, isn’t it?  Anyway, good to see PGA Profit move into the black for the month.

The best performer of the week was Precision Value, which continued to show strong consistency to build on the heroics of last week. I wonder if the settled weather (which now, sadly, appears to have ended) and subsequent reliable going conditions have contributed to this strong performance.  By their nature, the Precision Value selections are likely on the whole to have the superior recent form, hence their being at the, or close to, the head of the market.  That form is likely to be more reliably accurate when the ground is good or good to firm for an extended period of time.  Makes sense to me.

Bet Alchemist kept things ticking over by picking up another couple of points of profit, and is very quietly going about making August a pretty decent month.

There’s not a lot to go at for Scottish Football Income Booster with only the Scottish Premier League currently in action, but all they can do is find value where it lies.  One bet, one winner this week.

There was talk part way through the week from Racing Intelligence, of a potentially record breaking month, such was the strong form they were showing.  Sadly it seems that this may be a gentle case of hubris as the betting Gods frowned upon such talk and punished us with what can only be described as a rotten weekend.  The man in the hot seat there is taking a short break this week – hopefully he’ll find time to sacrifice a goat or something* to appease said Gods and get back on the winning trail quick!

(*Please note no animals were harmed in the writing of this post, and the author is highly respectful and indeed, slightly fearful of all goats, the cloven-footed beasts that they are.)

Finally, more disappointing times for Racing Service 1.  Just as they looked to be launching something of a recovery, a poor week knocks them back.  Not only were the previous week’s profits returned, but then some more on top.  Let’s hope a recovery that can be sustained starts this week coming.

Portfolio performance for August (to the 23rd)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 35pts, +21.561pts

Racing Service 1 (200): Staked 61pts, -5.5pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 59pts, +17.458pts

PGA Profit (500): Staked 131pts, +3.24pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 69pts, +33.08pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 259pts, +27.127pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 13pts, -5.702pts.

Racing Service 2 (50): n/a

Total for August: ROI 17%, ROC 6.88%

A much, much better week this week.  I’d almost forgotten what it was like to enjoy a rush of winning bets and to see the profits rolling in.  A fine weekly performance, primarily down to fine form demonstrated by both Precision Value and Racing Intelligence.

Others chipped in too, with five of the seven tipsters generating a profit, and one of those to not do so – Scottish Football Income Booster – losing only a couple of quid.

The hyperactive Racing Intelligence was the star, with what felt like a particularly busy week throwing up a series of good priced winners.  As usual, I struggled to secure advised prices, but nonetheless the results and performance were strong. Monday kicked up winners at 8/1 and 13/2, which se the tone for much of the rest of the week.  Further winners on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday racked up the profit.

Precision Value also turned the heat up to produce some red hot form with at least one winner every day of the week.  Tuesday saw us pick up three times, Wednesday hot two from two, another two winners on Thursday and Friday…it felt like shelling peas!

Elsewhere on the nags Bet Alchemist picked the winner of the Great St Wilfred Handicap, one of Ripon’s biggest races of the year.  Lovely course, Ripon – up in the North Yorkshire countryside just north of the Yorkshire Dales, I can heartily recommend a visit once folk can return to watching live sport.  Loads of great B&Bs in the area, top pubs with amazing food and ale…top notch!

Anyway, I digress.

The two golf services found players that placed in the weekend’s tournaments and we could easily have found a winner.  Interesting to see from PGA Profit that he feels the value in the Top 10/20 markets may be drying up some – “stagnant” was the word used in context – with the emphasis perhaps now moving towards the each way/outright markets in which the service has excelled over the past years.  In contrast, Golf Insider is still providing Top 20 market exchange odds without officially advising bets placed within this market.  I presume this is also with an eye on the future, so it will be interesting to see what transpires.

Finally, the only bum note on the week was sounded by Racing Service 1, although the loss wasn’t a large one.

Portfolio performance for August (to the 16th)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 21pts, +18.674pts

Racing Service 1 (200): Staked 28pts, +10.45pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 41pts, +2.958pts

PGA Profit (500): Staked 108pts, -33.26pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 46pts, +17.5pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 168pts, +38.677pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 12pts, -7.005pts.

Racing Service 2 (50): n/a

Total for August: ROI 21.02%, ROC 5.58%

So July was poor.  Has August brought about an improvement?

Not really, no.  No big losses and the first week and a bit has essentially broken even, but with only two of the seven tipsters turning a profit I think it’s fair to say that portfolio performance as a whole is still stuttering somewhat.  It’s as if my betting is still trying to shake off the effects of lockdown and still has some cobwebs to brush away.  I was hopeful that August, often seen as being a time for consistent going across the nation’s racecourses and therefore more consistent performance for racing experts, would get off to a bang to make up for July’s disappointments, but we’re still waiting for that explosion to happen.

There were signs at the back end of last month that Bet Alchemist were beginning to turn things around and so it proved, with a particularly good Sunday last (three winners from three at odds of 7/1, 11/2 and 11/2).  Substantial profit there, which pleasingly after their ongoing travails, has been backed up by Racing Service 1.  Let’s hope the latter can really kick on now after finding a couple of decent winners.

It was the first post-lockdown Golf Classic last week over in the US, but alas no winner.  Golf Insider has picked up a few placed returns over the past couple of tournaments to find itself more or less coming out level, but PGA Profit is still finding winning bets fairly hard to come by.  Patience required as ever, when it comes to golf betting.

The return of the Scottish Premiership football has seen Scottish Football Income Booster looking to get going again, although one tip saw the relevant match postponed when Aberdeen players apparently saw fit to go down the boozer and subsequently saw a number of their players test positive.  Makes a bit of a difference for a “non-runner” bet than the ground being too soft!  Perhaps it’s more a case of some brains being too soft!

And finally not much to report by way of progress at the moment from Racing Intelligence.  A winner or two, some losers…just waiting for that explosion I was talking about.

Portfolio performance for August (to the 10th)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 14pts, +14.737pts

Racing Service 1 (200): Staked 17pts, +14.85pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 26pts, -1.042pts

PGA Profit (500): Staked 93pts, -39.26pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 23pts, -6.5pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 83pts, -8.685pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 7pts, -7pts.

Racing Service 2 (50): n/a

Total for August: ROI -0.5%, ROC -0.07%

Not a great month by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, it takes no imagination at all to sum up July’s performance – distinctly mediocre!

Turnover has been relatively low, with nothing (naturally) from winter racing specialist Racing Service 2, and no football north of the border for Scottish Football Income Booster to get stuck into.  The Scottish Premier League did get going on Saturday however, so we should see some bets coming through during August.

Of the six services that did advise bets, only two provided a profit.  The ROI for July ended at -6.61%, the ROC at -3.26%.  Not great, clearly.

There was plenty of high class racing for Bet Alchemist to get stuck into last week with festivals at Galway in Ireland and the Glorious Goodwood meeting here in England.  Not sure how ‘glorious’ Goodwood can be with no spectators, although the beautiful location remained the same of course.  Bet Alchemist did manage to claw back some of the month’s previous losses with one 11/1 winner notable, and in the end July’s deficit wasn’t too bad.

Not the case for Racing Service 1, whose misery continued last week.  Viewed as a separate entity in itself, a disastrous month should be seen in perspective.  They happen.  But RS1 has been struggling for a while now and whilst the difficulties facing tipsters on an ongoing basis were highlighted in last week’s Bet Diary post, there is always concern when it is made apparent that there has been a slight shift or coming away from the original strategy that has made a tipster successful in the past.  I’m not going to draw any conclusions just yet, but it’s fair to say the pressure is on.

The one success story of July was the massive winner and subsequent profit put up by Golf Insider.  A good job we hit that, as without it the month would have been absolutely dire!  Ifs and buts…suffice to say that GI wins ‘Tipster of the Month’.

Note that the performance of the two golf services, Golf Insider and PGA Profit, last week will count under August’s figures as the result wasn’t apparent until Sunday 2nd, despite the tips being issued during the last week of July.  Sadly, PGA Profit couldn’t match Golf Insider’s monthly performance this time, but its time will come, I’m sure.

It has been heartening to see two weeks of Precision Value hitting some semblance of good form and whittling away at the not insubstantial losses accrued during the first half of July.  Although it couldn’t quite break back to the right side of the profit and loss line, losses were small and fingers crossed the solid form will continue to ensure August sees a return to the good times.

Finally, we have Racing Intelligence, which provided a decent profit.  I’m unable to secure official prices for most of the bets that come through, but I set an unofficial target for the service of a 10% ROI over time.  I appreciate the prices move quickly, and don’t set out to meet the official figures – I see this more as a strong service from which I ought to be able to profit.  So, I suspect my month’s figures may well be short of the official, but an ROI of 10.14% this month means I’m happy enough.

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 68pts, -8.913pts

Racing Service 1 (200): Staked 73pts, -41.125pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 46.5pts, +66.5pts

PGA Profit (500): Staked 126pts, -114.25pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 98pts, -5.585pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 309pts, +31.345pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): n/a

Racing Service 2 (50): n/a

Total for July: ROI -6.61%, ROC -3.26%

Finally, I’m aware a couple of people have emailed in and left comments after last week’s post.  I’ll address these next week.  See you then.