It’s very easy to be philosophical when you miss bets that go on to lose.  It’s not so easy when you miss bets that go on to win.  It is the latter category that has been the source of some frustration for me this week.

The Poacher is clearly a service in tip top form, and I’m doing very well with it.  But, for reasons of being out and about and therefore missing three bets that were all winners, I’m not doing as well as I could.  I tell myself that this will even itself out over time when the bets I’m unable to place end up as losers and this is true, no doubt.  Does that help ease the frustration?  Not really.

What am I going to do to ensure I don’t miss bets moving forward?  I think the only thing I can do is either get the kids to walk the dog or walk the dog somewhere where I can at least get 4G on the mobile.  Either that or I’m not so strict on the odds I take on each bet.  To this point. I’ve simply put in a request for the advised price if I find when I get to the laptop to strike the bet, I’ve missed the price.  A couple of these requests have been matched prior to kick off, and three haven’t, ie. the three missed bets.  I would anticipate as I get used to the service and the odds movement patterns, etc., missing bets will happen with less frequency.  All part of the learning process when following a service for the first time.

Elsewhere and Sports Service 1 has had its first bet.  I’ve decided I’m going level stakes with this one, hence the different point bank size in the figures below.

Sports Service 1 (40pts): Staked 1pt, -1pt, roi -100%, roc -2.5%, High 0pts, CDD: -1pt, Max DD: -1pt.

Sports Service 2 (30): n/a

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 3pts, -1pts, roi -33.33%, roc -1%, High: 0pts, CDD: -1pts, Max DD: -2pts.

The Poacher (40): Staked 17pts, +7.042pts, roi 41.42%, roc 17.6%, High: 7.042pts, CDD: 0pts, Max DD: -2pts

Sports Portfolio: ROI 25.59%, ROC 3.66%.

*ROI – Return On investment, ROC – Return On Capital (ie. bank growth), CDD – Current Drawdown, Max DD – Maximum Drawdown

I don’t mind admitting, I hate winter.  Once Christmas has been and gone, I just find winter dull.  Grey skies, cold, dark most of the time.  Perhaps it feels a little more acute this year, what with lockdown and everything, but spring and some warmth can’t come soon enough.  It’s one of the reasons, other than the amazing sport on offer, I so love Cheltenham.  At least you know that not long after the winner of the Gold Cup is crowned, the daffodils will be out and there’s summer to look forward to.  At the moment, as I look out of the window at the dreary remnants of snow on the ground as it’s being gnawed at and slowly disintegrated by the cold and persistent drizzle, summer feels a long way off.

And that mood seems to be embodied in the way the racing is going at the moment, which is pretty darned poorly.  If you look at the figures below, there’s nothing unusual or anything causing real concern.  No huge downturn reaching the stage of being worrying.  But each day feels rather like the one previous in that I just don’t quite believe like we’re going to get a good day.  It feels more like we’re just drifting in the doldrums, waiting for the wind to pick up again, fill the sails and push us forward.  Don’t get me wrong, I know that wind will come.  I’d just rather it arrive sooner rather than later.

Perhaps the stark contrast being provided by the giddy excitement we’re getting from the golf makes this sense of drift more acute.  Perhaps I should, in the face of the fact that these past couple of weeks is nothing at all out of the ordinary as far as betting on racing is concerned and is just one of those rather dull spells we inevitably have to go through, I should just stop moaning and pull myself together!

To be fair, Racing Service 1 did have a decent win on Saturday, but a paucity of opportunities has meant bets have been hard to find and what the win did was bring the service right back to zero for the month.

So to sum up then, nothing to get excited about, and we press on…

Bet Alchemist (100pts):Staked 12pts, -3.975pts, roi -33.12%, roc -3.97%, High: 1.15pts, CDD: -5.125pts, Max DD: -5.125pts.

Northern Monkey Punter (100): Staked 27.95pts, -11.861pts, roi -42.43%, roc -11.86%, High: 1.687pts, CDD: -13.548pts, Max DD: -13.548pts

Precision Value (200):  Staked 40pts, -9.652pts, roi -24.13%, roc -4.82%, High: 1.792pts, CDD: -11.444pts, Max DD: -12.742pts.

Racing Service 1 (50): Staked 2.5pts, 0pts, roi 0%, roc 0%, High: 0pts, CDD: 0pts, Max DD: -1.5pts.

Racing Portfolio: ROI -31.81%, ROC -5.16%.

*ROI – Return On investment, ROC – Return On Capital (ie. bank growth), CDD – Current Drawdown, Max DD – Maximum Drawdown

OK, so look.  This isn’t supposed to happen.  It’s got to the stage where I’m finding this a little disturbing, truth be told.

Betting on golf….supposed to be loads of losing weeks and months, right?  Big odds means big drawdowns, right?  Weeks between winners – got to concentrate on the long term, right?

Yeah, right.  It’s winners, baby!  Winners, winners, chicken dinners.  Getting wins in the golf is shelling peas, mate.

Seriously, I do feel just slightly unnerved.  Weekly Gold Golf Value has done it again.  Three weeks, three wins (although I wasn’t on the first of them).  This one at 12/1, but the most heavily staked of those given.  It’s insane and honestly, in all my time in betting following tipsters, I fail to remember there ever being such a run.  Not to the extent where a service has literally more than doubles its bank in such a ridiculously short space of time.   But you know what this means, don’t you?  Yup, it means there’s going to come a time when we see a reversion to the mean, and that is going to involve losers.  There’s got to come a time, as things are evened up somewhat, when a dog runs onto the green to swallow the ball just  before it drops into the 18th hole to give our guy the tournament win at 100/1.  You just know it’s going to happen.  But when?  That’s the thing, and that’s what is unnerving me.  I don’t like it when things go too well.  Well, I do, but you know what I mean…

In the meantime, all I can do is doff the old cap in WGV’s direction and hope that when it undergoes its “correction”, PGA Profit will kick into winning action to keep the overall profit line moving in the right direction.  Blank this week too, for Golf Insider.

Talking of GI, members received an interesting document on staking strategies this week.  Following an audit of the numbers and an evaluation of several approaches to staking, the conclusion was reached that level staking was the most efficient.  I find that interesting because it goes a little against the grain when it comes to tipsters.  You may notice in SBC reviews there is always a comparison provided between a tipster’s performance to advised and to level staking, with kudos attached to those who accentuate their edge via efficient staking.  Golf Insider and Weekly Golf Value – same sport, one level staking, the other variable staking.  I guess it takes all sorts to crack the betting nut.

(PS. A huge apology to PGA Profit.  I’ve been made aware that an email was sent on Sunday with an in-play bet on Patrick Cantlay at 28/1, each way.  Somehow – by dint of being a complete plonker! – I have somehow managed to delete it without reading and therefore missed out on the place return when Cantlay finished 2nd)

Golf Insider (200pts): Staked 19pts, +0.95pts, roi 5%, roc 0.47%, High 14.95pts, CDD: -14.05pts, Max DD: -14.05pts

 PGA Profit (500): Staked 65pts, -65pts, roi -100%, roc -13%, High 0pts, DD: -65pts, Max CDD: -65pts

 Weekly Golf Value (1,000): 440pts, +984.60pts, roi 223.77%, roc 98.46%, High 984.60pts, CDD: 0pts, Max DD: 0pts.

Golf portfolio: ROI 129.22%, ROC 28.64%.

*ROI – Return On investment, ROC – Return On Capital (ie. bank growth), CDD – Current Drawdown, Max DD – Maximum Drawdown

With no darts tournaments and boxing being affected by the pandemic, it’s been a very quiet start to 2021 for sports (non-football) betting.  There’s not yet been an Sports Service 1 or Sports Service 2 bet to report on as yet, although that is about to change for the latter service.  So other than to say that Scottish Football Income Booster drew a blank last weekend, but The Poacher has got off to a very promising start, I’ll leave the reporting of results for when there’s been a bit more action.  You can read the figures at the bottom of this post.

Instead this week, I’m going to comment on a couple of thoughts I had when reading the review of 2020 sent out by Sports Service 2 (SS2).

The first thing that struck me was the role that luck had to play in what was an underwhelming year for SS2 (official figures read 3.2 points profit at an ROI of 2.1%).  Luck, variance, call it what you will, but it’s fair to say SS2 didn’t have either on its side.  There were 20 missed darts to give the selection the match in the recent World Championships.  A 2/1 shot backed 1 point win had six match darts and failed to land the spoils – a big swing when you consider you’re staking only 150 points in a year, there or thereabouts.  And the trouble with darts, on many occasions these guys are probably missing the target by the width of a mosquito’s eyelashes.  But as the old adage goes, a miss really is as good as a mile, and so rest the fortunes of the gambler.

Now over time – and it can be a considerable length of time – those darts that landed the wrong side of the wire more times than you’d think possible, will land on the right side.  When this happens, profits will roll in at a rate that you will/should realize as unsustainable and the short-term ROI will, in relative terms, go through the roof.  The skill of the bettor is in not only knowing this, but also being able to accept the variance – both negative and positive – for what it is, and carry on regardless, changing nothing.  The Good Lord Himself Dennis Bergkamp only knows how many times I had to go through this experience myself to learn this lesson, and how many times I cocked up in the process of learning it.

The other thing I realized when I read the email was the extent to which sport has been impacted, and subsequently betting on it too, by the pandemic.  I don’t know about you, but since March and through the various lockdowns, I’ve found myself living day to day.  I guess it’s a coping mechanism, but I reckon I won’t be alone in adopting it if it is.  Possibly it’s the thought of the long term effects of Corona on society, never mind sport, and the insecurities and concerns it brings to such fundamental aspects of life such as the health of loved ones and job security, but to me taking things day by day makes sense.  Anyway, I digress a little – the point I’m clumsily making is that neither sportsmen and women, nor the tipsters themselves, are immune from this impact, and then there’s the actual, tangible impact on the sport and how that might affect betting on it.  In his email, R. (SS2) pointed out that due to cancellations, only four of 13 Euro Tour events went ahead through 2020.  All of the World Series events bit the dust, and there was no BDO World Championship or World Masters.  In total, we lost 17 tournaments, meaning 17 fewer tournaments to find value bets within – so bet numbers were limited which in turn, to my eyes, has the effect of making the potential impact of negative variance more acute.

So, what I’m trying to say here is that if any tipster is to be allowed a year which underwhelms, then 2020 was it.  Let’s just hope with the effect of mass vaccination, 2021 will prove to be a little less challenging…for everyone, on all counts.

SPORTS PORTFOLIO

Sports Service 1 (100 points): n/a

Sports Service 2 (30pts): n/a

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 2pts, -2pts, roi -100%, roc -2%, High: 0pts, CDD: -2pts, Max DD: -2pts.

The Poacher (40): Staked 12pts, +2.838pts, roi 23.65%, roc 7.09%, High: 4.776pts, CDD: -1.938pts, Max DD: -1.938pts

Sports Portfolio: ROI 15.92%, ROC 1.27%.

*ROI – Return On investment, ROC – Return On Capital (ie. bank growth), CDD – Current Drawdown, Max DD – Maximum Drawdown

Short post today as to be honest, there’s not a great deal to remark upon.  No big wins.  No real excitement.  Just one of those periods when not a lot seems to happen other than a steady drip of small losses each day.

It does feel like the quality of racing is really pretty poor at the moment.  When I see National Hunt Flat race meetings at Lingfield, and observations from the likes of Wayne at Northern Monkey that a day’s racing is “utter garbage”, and the next day “slightly better, but still garbage”, then I think we know where we are.  This is the very depth of winter.  It’s cold, wet, and miserable.  If I was a horse, not sure I’d want to go out into the elements to do my thing.  Would you?

Bet Alchemist (100pts): Staked 7pts, -0.85pts, roi -12.14%, roc -0.85%, High: 1.15pts, CDD: -2pts, Max DD: -2pts.

Northern Monkey (100): Staked 10.5pts, -6.092pts, roi -58.01%, roc -6.09%, High: 1.687pts, CDD: -7.77pts, Max DD: -7.77pts

Precision Value (200):  Staked 16pts, -7.288pts, roi -45.55%, roc -3.64%, High: 1.792pts, CDD: -9.08pts, Max DD: -10pts.

Racing Service 1 (50): Staked 1.5pts, -1.5pts, roi -100%, roc -3%, High: 0pts, CDD: -1.5pts, Max DD: -1.5pts.

Racing Portfolio: ROI -47.67%, ROC -3.39%.

*ROI – Return On investment, ROC – Return On Capital (ie. bank growth), CDD – Current Drawdown, Max DD – Maximum Drawdown

There are three things that make me grumpy – lack of sleep, being hungry, and Arsenal losing.  Arsenal didn’t play yesterday, we had a lovely Sunday roast at home, but that lack of sleep thing.  It’s got me this morning.  You see, the problem is, my internal clock doesn’t need much to knock if off sync.  If I go to bed at roughly the same time, read for half an hour or so, and then lights out…I’m generally fine.  Knock that routine out though, and that’s me done for the night.  It’ll be the wee small hours before I finally doze off.

Last night I made the fatal error of switching over to the golf, instead of going to bed after the City/Palace game on the telly.  One of Weekly Golf Value’s men, Kevin Na (60/1) was within a couple of shots of the lead.  I’ll just watch this hole, I thought.  Two hours later, bedtime long gone, and I’m still watching.  Hence, this morning, I’m grumpy.

Imagine how grumpy I would have been had not Kevin Na gone on to win!?!  Got to admit, the winnings have taken the edge off my grumpiness.  But I need to learn a lesson here.  If I’m going to stay up watching golf on a Sunday evening, Mondays are going to be a nightmare for the rest of the household.  Heaven help them.

I can’t do it.  I really can’t.  So, I’m resolving myself to NOT switch over “just to see how it’s going”, each Sunday evening.  Not until next week, anyway.

On a serious note, what a start to 2021 it’s been for WGV.  Two winners from two tournaments.  Trouble was of course, I wasn’t on last week’s winner (I was through Golf Insider, but not WGV).  The figures are just daft – the ROC for Weekly Golf Value wouldn’t be that far off 100%, just two tournaments in.  That the win strike rate for this service lies somewhere between 1 and 2% tells us in pretty stark terms that we need to enjoy this little spell whilst it’s here, because who knows when the next win will come.  And that’s golf betting in a nutshell.  So I’m steeling myself, knowing full well that this can’t continue.  Can it?

Golf Insider (200pts): Staked 10pts, +9.95pts, roi 99.5%, roc 4.98%, CDD -5.05pts, Max DD -5.05pts.

PGA Profit (500): Staked 48pts, -48pts, roi -100%, roc -9.6%, CDD -48pts, Max DD -48pts.

Weekly Golf Value (1,000): Staked 126pts, +543.6pts, roi 431.42%, roc 54.36%, CDD: 0pts, Max DD: 0pts.

Golf portfolio: ROI 182.84%, ROC 16.57%.

*ROI – Return On investment, ROC – Return On Capital (ie. bank growth), CDD – Current Drawdown, Max DD – Maximum Drawdown

We’ve seen over the past couple of days that we’ve increased our golf betting exposure and tailored the racing services to suit.  Now we look at other sports and tipsters to bet on.

Starting with football, and there’s no need to change anything when it comes to Scottish Football Income Booster.  It’s perfectly possible to use the exchanges on a regular basis, and it’s low workload.  Although results through the early part of this rather strange season were a little underwhelming, there have been recent signs of a pick up in form, and as things gradually return to some sort of normality in the football world over the months ahead (hopefully, fingers crossed, etc.), I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see this service excel.

The second footie tipster I’m following is SBC Premium service The Poacher.  Having built up a live proofed record by offering the picks for free, The Poacher has just turned pro’ and is now operating a paid subscription service administered by the SBC.  This has become a proven and tested path to professional tipping for a number of tipsters and the set up makes sense.  Let the SBC do their thing when it comes to the mechanics, let the tipster concentrate on tipping.

The proofed record to date shows an ROI of 3.99%.  Doesn’t sound a lot, but when we consider that we’re betting in very liquid and efficient markets, utilizing Asian Handicaps and goal lines, a 4% ROI is not to be sniffed at.  Getting on should provide no problem, and importantly, we’re concentrating on Exchange use for the bets.  A decent turnover without placing countless bets per day, it ticks all the boxes for me.

Boxing is a new sport for me to bet on.  I’ve been following the progress of Sports Service 1 for some time, feeling that long term, here is a tipster with a demonstrable edge in a sport that would provide my betting with real diversification, which is never a bad thing.  In the overall scheme of things, I’m hoping this, and old darting favourite Sports Service 2, will balance out (in terms of diversification) my doubling down on golf.  High strike rate/short odds in two different sports to balance out the low strike rate/long odds associated with golf.  That’s the theory anyway.

SS2 is a service I’m very familiar with and it must now be one of the longest running services monitored by the SBC.  There’s a lot to be said for tipsters who have survived and flourished for so long.  Back in the day, when SS2 was relatively new, the bookies were not as clued up when it came to pricing up the markets and SS2 made hay.  Naturally, as interest in and the popularity of darts as a sport grew, largely as a result of Sky’s marketing, the bookies got their act together and suddenly finding value became a trickier proposition.  SS2 adapted though, and although there have been times when that adaptation process seemed to have a direct impact on its bottom line performance, ultimately it would always bounce back and press on successfully.

So there we have it.  First results reported on next week.  Until then, stay safe.

It’s Tuesday, so it must be a Bet Diary post concentrating on horse racing.  I’m not yet clear as to whether doing three posts a week is going to help me remember where I am in the week (which is not so easy during lockdown, as all the days seem to merge into each other) or mean I don’t know if I’m coming or going!  Probably the latter.

I only started betting on the horses again yesterday.  With the freeze that hit large parts of the UK last week, causing a number of meetings to be cancelled, the racing on offer was pretty poor fare.  Add to this the fact I spent much of last week musing over which services to follow this year, and I was quite happy just to let things pass me by.  Subsequently I have no results to report, but I can use this post to outline my decision making process when it came to selecting who to follow this year.

In a nutshell, there are four boxes I identified as wanting to be ticked when it came to my betting on the nags.  They are:

1. Ease of achieving the advised odds (or at least coming very close to matching them most of the time);
2. The ability to use the Exchanges – not exclusively, but regularly/frequently;
3. Protection of bookmaker accounts; and
4. Workload.

Clearly Points 2 and 3 are not mutually exclusive and one leads in to the other.  The more bets I can place at Betfair or Smarkets, the fewer I have to burden my bookie accounts with.  My policy on this is that should I get a price which is acceptable to me on the exchanges, even if a bookie is offering a higher price, I’ll take it on the exchange.

Let me give an example.  Say I have a Precision Value bet advised at 7/2 (4.5 in decimal odds).  Smarkets is offering 4.6, Bet365 is offering 4/1 (or 5.0).  I’ll take the Smarkets price.

Yes, I’m doing myself out of a not insubstantial level of potential profit (or value, if you prefer) on that individual bet, but my service is telling me 4.5 is a value price.  Taking 4.6 and paying 2% commission on any winnings, the actual price I’m taking is 4.528, ie. a value price.  Meantime, I’m reducing the stress on my Bet365 account.  My logic/hope, is that over time, I’ll make more by maximizing the lifespan of my bookmaker accounts by using them only when it is clearly advantageous to do so, by which I mean if I take the Exchange price, I’m not taking a value price whilst I am if I use the bookmaker.  Make sense?

Workload is a very important factor to take account of, too.  I’ve become a lot more chilled over time about missing bets.  It’s not ideal, but you know what?  Life is too short, and I’ve reached a point where I want to avoid my betting meaning I can’t get on with the rest of life.  If I miss a price because I’m out walking the dog?  So be it.  There will be plenty more bets on the way.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll do my best to get on as many bets as I possibly can.  All I’m saying is I’m not going to sweat it if I miss a few, which I inevitably will.

How does the portfolio line up then?  You won’t see much real change, to be honest…

1. Northern Monkey.
2. Racing Service 1.
3. Bet Alchemist.
4. Precision Value.

I agonized over Bet Alchemist.  2020 was a losing year.  They happen, and BA have had one before, from which they bounced back strongly.  In the end, the fact that prices are largely achievable, and only big races/meetings are targeted (making the bets as bookie-friendly as they can be) swung it for me.  They deserve a chance to put 2020 right, through 2021.

There we have it.  First set of results in next Tuesday’s post.  Back tomorrow with a look at the ‘Other Sports’ portfolio, which unlike racing, sees new services engaged.  Exciting times.

I mentioned last week there would be some changes made to the Bet Diary, and I meant that in terms of both the services followed and how I report on ongoing performance.

The plan is to split the Bet Diary into three posts each week whenever possible, which ought to be most of the time.  The first, published each Monday, will concentrate on a mini-portfolio of golf tipsters, the second on Tuesdays reporting back on the racing specialists’ performance, and the third on Wednesdays covering what might be called a ‘Football/Other Sports’ section.

Readers of the Bet Diary through 2020 will know that I’ve been following two SBC Premium golfing services, PGA Profit and Golf Insider.  For 2021 I am going to add a third and by doing so, in what is a deliberate move, increase my exposure to golf as a betting medium.  Why?  Well, in a nutshell because prices tend to hold up very well, bookmakers appear more tolerant to their customers betting on golf tournaments, the markets are liquid, and there are a good number of times when even better prices than those quoted are to be found on the exchanges.

There are, as ever, swings to the roundabouts. The reasons for betting more on golf are clear.  But…and it is a big ‘but’…psychologically, betting on golf can really test the mettle of the individual’s mental strength and resolve.  Backing at big prices, which is the norm when it comes to golf betting, leads to longer losing runs and lengthier, more extended periods of drawdown than you might reasonably expect to experience betting on football, tennis, or even horse racing.  Hand on heart, I’m not the sort of person who ‘accepts’ losing particularly well.  Experience over the years has served to improve my mentality hugely, but I’ve had to work at it.  And I mean really work.  As a newbie to betting many years ago, following the wrong services led me to drop tipsters who really shouldn’t have been dropped, and these tended to be those who specialised in finding value at the longer prices in the market.  I’m not nearly so bad now, but still, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel  just a touch of trepidation now following three services that fit the low strike rate/big odds profile.

Now, without further ado, let me introduce my third service to this section, another SBC Premium offering – Weekly Golf Value.  You can read all about it and how it works here: https://smartbettingclub.com/weekly-golf-value/.  Perhaps the most important point to note at this stage is that this is a service for which bookmaker accounts are essential.  It finds value in both the win and place part of the each way bet, and for the place part it is often targeting those bookmakers who have extended their place terms to the Top 6 or 8 (or even more on occasions).

One other thing to note, and a change from the way I have followed Golf Insider to this point.  Moving forward I will be using level stakes.  I’ll go into some detail on this in next week’s post, but for now suffice to say that historically, betting to level stakes has increased the levels of GI profitability.

What can we expect from this golf portfolio, then?  I’m imagining a number of losing weeks and months interspersed by surges in profit as a big win is landed.  I’m hopeful that the each way part of many of the bets will serve to smooth things a little, but I’m braced for a few (large) bumps along the way in what should be a very interesting ride.

2021 performance (to date)

With no tournament scheduled for the European Tour, it was all focus on the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii for the first week’s golfing action.  And what a start it was for Golf Insider, who picked out tournament winner Harris English (30/1).  I didn’t stay up to watch all the excitement unfold – it was getting late and I need my beauty sleep – so to find out that this morning that Harris won in a play off brightened up what was a pretty wet and dreary Monday morning.  Good grief, I was even nice to the kids over breakfast!  There was also a small return on Justin Thomas (7/1) who finished in the places.

No such luck for PGA Profit and a blank week there.

Finally, just to show that not everything runs smoothly, I have to tell you that I didn’t sign up to Weekly Golf Value until today (Monday).  Who do I see was tipped up for the first PGA comp of 2021?  Yup, you guessed it – Harris English at 30/1!  Ouch.

Golf Insider (200pts): Staked 4pts, +13.2pts, roi 330%, roc 6.6%, CDD 0pts, Max DD 0pts.

PGA Profit (500): Staked 17pts, -17pts, roi -100%, roc -3.4%, CDD -17pts, Max DD -17pts.

Weekly Golf Value (1,000): n/a

Golf portfolio: ROI 59.25%, ROC 1.06%.

*ROI – Return On investment, ROC – Return On Capital (ie. bank growth), CDD – Current Drawdown, Max DD – Maximum Drawdown

The title says it all.  I really hope you have had a bit of a break over the holiday period and were able to chill a little and take a breather from what feels like incessant bad news.

I have to admit, down in Devon I almost forgot about Covid for a week.  Sure, it wasn’t quite the same in a couple of the pubs, with tables being spread far and wide for social distancing and in one, sheets of plastic between tables too.  But all in all, by the sea and away from it all, it was pretty easy to make something of a mental shift.  It made me realise just how all-pervading concerns and anxieties connected to the pandemic had become ingrained in day to day life.  The health of family and friends, concerns over kids’ education, worries over job security…to so many I reckon these have become such a part of every day living that it’s almost as if you lose awareness of the strain it all puts on mental health.  A week away – and I know how lucky I was to be able to do that with what has happened here in the UK since – just allowed that pressure that had built up to be released.  And that includes around betting, too.  A week out allows you to take stock and plan ahead, and that, I feel, is something that is very easy to miss doing when involved in the day to day.

Yep, I reckon just taking a week out from time to time (when possible) is such an important aspect to betting successfully.  I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but seriously, just taking some time to switch off from as much as possible is incredibly therapeutic.  I’ve not struck a bet since I posted the last BD post, just prior to Christmas.  As a result, I’m now really eager to get going again, and am looking forward to what comes next.

On that note, there are going to be some changes.  I’m still just mulling these over, but by next week I’ll be clear and will reveal all.  It feels I’m ready to freshen things up, and I’m going to go with that particular flow.  Early thoughts are that I’m going to split the portfolio up into three categories – ‘Racing’, ‘Golf’, and ‘Football/Sports’.  I’ll report on each weekly, but maybe on different days, and although I’ll still post a monthly review we’ll track the figures continually with an ongoing ‘Year to Date’ performance recorded.  We’ll be able to compare each mini-portfolio, explore the challenges we come across and the solutions we find.  Should be fun.

Until then, please stay safe and healthy.  Without going all political (this isn’t the place), the one thing I do agree 100% with the government on is that Hands-Face-Space mantra.  Let’s look after each other by doing what we need to be doing, folks, and get through this nonsense.

See you next week.