Yesterday (Tuesday) was a busy old day for eSoccer Edge.  The amount I staked was significantly up compared to most other days, and although it felt like the number of bets coming through was a lot, it was more the amount being staked.  Picks are assigned a recommended stake of one, two or three points, and I recently started to follow the proscribed staking system and dropped my previously adopted level staking approach.

There aren’t (relatively speaking) many bets afforded the full three-point stake, and the majority carry just the one.  But yesterday, I seemed to have more two and three-point bets than I’d had come through previously, and fortunately a fair old proportion of them were winning bets.  The result was my best single day of profit with the service yet, and it is forging ahead as this month’s top performer, just as it was last.  The ROC figures achieved to date have been nothing short of phenomenal.

I told this to a non-gambling mate of mine yesterday evening, and she could not believe I could make money from backing electronic footballers being controlled by gamers!

One thing I have noticed though, as eSoccer Edge enjoys a fantastic month overall, is that the lines disappear far more quickly then they did.  Yesterday I had to be actually sitting at my laptop to get the bets on, and even then I missed a few.  I’m guessing folk who have cashed in so far are raising stakes.  It’s a pattern I’ve seen many, many times over the years with other successful services.  Don’t get me wrong…I’m not saying it’s now impossible to get the prices/lines.  It really isn’t, and tbh even when you miss the odd bet you know there’s another along in the not too distant.  It’s just interesting to see things evolve and is an example of a time when you might need to adapt as you go.

Those of you who read last week’s posts will know I’ve revisited Tilt The Odds.  And with impeccable timing the weekend saw a very nice winning Double land to get things off to a good (re)start.  I only stopped with the service due to time constraints and my betting ‘partner’ being similarly time challenged.  That issue isn’t over yet, but has eased a little…enough to be able to get some bets on each day, if not yet as many as I would like.  The idea is to build things up further in terms of turnover as I can.

And finally for today, a good couple of good days for The Value Machine Exchange Profit has pushed it into profit for the month.

April 2025 (stakes normalised)…

Bookie Bashing Golf Tracker/WGV: Staked 815pts, +137.91pts, ROI 16.92%, ROC 9.19%

eSoccer Edge: Staked 5,895pts, +481.05pts, ROI 8.16%, ROC 32.07%

The Value Machine: Staked 1,548pts, +70.96pts, ROI 4.58%, ROC 4.73%

Tilt The Odds: Staked 184.6pts, +99.9pts, ROI 54.11%, ROC 6.66%.

Trial Service: Staked 795.5pts, -4.39pts, ROI -0.55%, ROC -0.29%.

WinnerOdds Football: Staked 2,439pts, -123.63pts, ROI -5.06%, ROC -8.24%

TOTAL: Staked 11,724.1pts, +661.8pts, ROI 5.64%, ROC 7.35%

I’ve felt for a little while that I’ve needed a bit of a shake up, a new lick of paint to change things up a bit.  An exercise in getting back to basics in an attempt to rediscover a level of equilibrium.

I also think that I may have tried a little bit too hard to try to avoid bookmaker account restrictions and that has perhaps informed my betting a little bit too much.  Instead, I’ve thought for a time now that actually, it might be preferable to go as hard and fast as possible to squeeze as much juice out of an account as possible and then deal with the problem of restrictions when the time comes.

That doesn’t mean eyewatering stakes.  Other than golf, I believe that my general policy to bet often and little is a good one.  High turnover, smaller bets.  It was listening to the latest SBC Podcast with Kieran Ward that firmed up my belief that you can make good money and (hopefully) stay under bookmaker radars for a fair amount of time by keeping stakes fairly low level, but betting many times.

Time is still the enemy.  If I had more time, I could make more money.  But I don’t, and so I have to compromise.

Anyway, the long and short of it is, is that I’m going to a. reintroduce a service I’ve previously trialled – Tilt The Odds, and b. introduce a new service that I’m currently trialling.  I’m not going to reveal which this is as yet as I’m currently in the midst of writing a review that will be published to SBC members in the not too distant future.  Suffice to say, it involves betting on football, and I can control when I bet.  I’m hoping that by dedicating half an hour each day to putting bets down, I can get turnover to a pretty high level, but that stakes going on each bet be relatively small.  In other words, it can tick an awful lot of the boxes I want to see ticked.

I may have a decision to make too around whether or not to continue with one service I’ve been using, but I’m putting that off until the end of the month.

Right, have a great Easter weekend, and I’ll be back with the latest figures on Monday.

I took a couple of days away from betting over the weekend.  Initially because I had my first cricket match of the season – a pre-season friendly match played in warm sunshine?  What is that all about?!? – and with this year definitely being my last as a player, I’ve decided I’m not going to take time away from enjoying myself by worrying about getting bets on.  And then yesterday, I took some time out to think of the way forward, to take stock as it were, and re-focus.

Truth be told, I’ve not been totally happy with what I’ve been doing recently.  I’ve felt for a while I’ve started to overcomplicate things a bit with staking, have been acutely aware of what resources I’m NOT utilizing, my personal time organisation, and a few other small things too.  The time had come for a bit of a re-boot.  I decided I needed to turn myself off and then on again, much like your ageing PC when it freezes.

So, time to get back to basics, and perhaps utilize opportunities in a way that looks to squeeze the max out of available resources (ie. bookmaker accounts) instead of worrying too much about those resources being taken away.  A shift in mentality required here.  A bolder approach that means crossing bridges when coming to them, as opposed to trying always to plot a route that means never coming to a bridge.

What does this all mean in effect?

That, my friends, I am going to keep to this week’s Post no.2 – which I’ll write on Friday.

In the meantime, what’s been going down?

Well, we had The Masters of course, and what a finish to that we saw!  Got to admit I went to bed when Rory played an unbelievable shot to within a few short feet of the pin on the 17th, thinking that had sealed for it.  Woke up this morning to find that he had indeed won, abut only after a play-off after missing a short putt to win at the last.  Top level, exciting sport.

The tournament provided a nice profit too, with two full return placed golfers supported – Patrick Read with stakes split at 50/1 and 80/1, And Sung Jae Im at 125/1.  These returns mean that Weekly Golf Value is leading the way in terms of profit made this month to date, running at 60%+ ROI despite not actually having a winner.

Close up in second place is eSoccer Edge and profit continues to accumulate.  From the live bet tracker, it looks like I missed a good day on Saturday, but the beauty of the service is that there are always plenty of bets coming.

Not much else to report, to be honest, so I’ll leave you with the figures.

See you Friday.

April 2025 (stakes normalised)…

Bookie Bashing Golf Tracker/WGV: Staked 461pts, +278.11pts, ROI 60.3%, ROC 18.5%

eSoccer Edge: Staked 2,715pts, +213.55pts, ROI 7.8%, ROC 14.2%

The Value Machine: Staked 980pts, -154.41pts, ROI -15.7%, ROC -10.2%

WinnerOdds Football: Staked 1,570pts, -10.9pts, ROI -0.7%, ROC -0.7%

TOTAL: Staked 5,773pts, +326.35pts, ROI 5.65%, ROC 5.43%

After a decent Saturday I was flying, and then a poor Sunday clipped the old wings a little.  When all has been totted up though, it’s not been a bad start to the new month.

It could easily have been a really strong start had 10/1 shot Bryson DeChambeau not thrown away his overnight lead going into the final round of the latest LIV tournament.  I’m a little surprised I backed him, truth be told.  The price was fairly skinny (although value is value, be that in short or long prices) and I very rarely back golfers sub-20/1.  You may also remember that I’d intended to steer clear of LIV this year, and up to this week, had remained steadfast in that approach.  Truth is, I had very little time last Wednesday, wasn’t able to use the Tracker, and so simply followed the Weekly Golf Value tips as presented to me.

As it happens, DeChambeau managed to place plus another 33/1 shot in LIV (plus three in the PGA event) so a near 40% return on investment on the golfing week is not to be sniffed at.  I was just hoping (obviously) for a winner going into the final day that would have really pushed the month forward.  It wasn’t to be, and despite the profit, I couldn’t help be just a little sore at Dean Burmester, ensconced in second place, taking 9 at the par 4 last hole to finish completely out of the frame!  Burk.

The Masters this week coming, I believe.  How exciting!

eSoccer Edge’s first week as a paid for service got off to a strong start.  A losing day yesterday pegged my figures back a touch, but only to an ROI within the range of expected norm.  I’m currently utilizing a flat level staking approach which I know is highly likely to be sub-optimal.  The service’s own graded 1-3 point staking system I’m confident will produce a higher ROI over time, and I hope at some point to use it myself, but just at present I’m keeping stakes deliberately lower in the interests of account preservation.  I’m hoping, praying, sacrificing anything I can catch, in the hope that backing odds on shots at a stake level that shouldn’t in itself alert the trading teams will mean I can carry on along this line for a good period of time.  I guess we’ll see.

New month, same old for WinnerOdds Football (good Saturday, poor Sunday) and The Value Machine Exchange Profit in getting ahead and then being pulled back.  I feel I need to see both make something of a surge forward, sooner rather than later.

April 2025 (stakes normalised)…

Bookie Bashing Golf Tracker/WGV: Staked 254pts, +100.11pts, ROI 39.4%, ROC 5%

eSoccer Edge: Staked 1,450pts, +91.27pts, ROI 6.3%, ROC 4.9%

The Value Machine: Staked 510pts, +1.84pts, ROI 0.4%, ROC 0.1%

WinnerOdds Football: Staked 730pts, +28pts, ROI 3.8%, ROC 1.5%

TOTAL: Staked 2,944pts, +221.22pts, ROI 7.5%, ROC 2.9%

I’ve brought all the figures up to date for March and when all has been sorted, it’s effectively been a break even month, the profit and loss line marginally but barely finishing in the red.

I have had a LOT worse months.  And very likely will this year, but I’ve got to be honest with you.  I’ve found March really painful and a hell of a slog.  Not sure why, tbh.  The shocking Saturday I had halfway through really knocked me back, possibly because it was so unexpected and so out of the blue.  I literally had the second deepest drawdown – in purely monetary terms – hit in less than 24 hours from a service I’ve been following for not far short of a year.  To exacerbate the situation, the third deepest had hit just two weeks before.

I watched a docu-film on Netflix called The Twister: Caught In The Storm the other day.  A huge tornado hit a small town in Missouri in 2011, wreaking absolute havoc.  That Saturday felt like the betting equivalent!

When I looked at my overall figures for WinnerOdds Football, I have to admit to having wobbled a little.  2,500 picks for an ROI of a little less than 1.5% ROI?  But then, after reflection, it was really three mediocre months for me, and that’s not enough to ditch a service that I still very much believe in in terms of its ability to make its members money.

Bottom line: WO Football does need to start producing the goods for me, but I need to stay patient and persevere for now.  Just keep putting the bets down and let nature take its course, for now at least.

Elsewhere, and I mentioned last week I’d committed to the new eSoccer Edge service and this is the one that produced some profit for me in March, following up on an amazing February.  It’s still very early days, but signing up when you’re paying for it from profit made during a free trial is a nice position to be in.  I am lessening the bank from 100 points to 80 (I feel that even that may be too cautious, but I’d rather gradually get braver than go in too deep too fast and have to pull back, if you know what I mean), and have increased stake per point by 25%.

Despite having a winner, I was frustrated by my golf betting through March, mainly because if I could just have found a little value somewhere I can place a bet on Weekly Golf Value winner Viktor Hovland the week before last, it would have been a fantastic month.  As it was, I lost money.  No-one’s fault.  One of those things.  But doesn’t stop it from being frustrating, does it?!

And finally The Value Machine Exchange Profits.  If you’re a Smart Betting Club member you may well have read the recently published review of this service (if not, why not?).  I’ve not yet had the best of fortune with it and the past three months have all told underperformed what came before.  As things stand, it feels like investing here is a little akin to buying a good stock at a low point where there’s value to be had.  I’ve upped my stake a little from this month.  Let’s see what happens.

So yes, March is a month I’m pleased to be seeing the back of.  The first day of April gave the new month a solid start.  Let’s hope it’s a sign of better things to come and we can finally get 2025 going.  So far there’s been a lot of input, for very little indeed by way of output.

March 2025 (stakes normalised):

Bookie Bashing Golf Tracker/WGV: Staked 948pts, -130.37pts, ROI -13.75%, ROC -6.51%

eSoccer Edge: Staked 5,480pts, +241.25pts, ROI 4.4%, ROC 12.06%

The Value Machine: Staked 1,680pts, -24.11pts, ROI -1.43%, ROC -1.6%

WinnerOdds Football: Staked 7,148pts, -104pts, ROI -1.45%, ROC -5.2%

TOTAL: Staked 15,268pts, -66.23pts, ROI -0.43%, ROC -0.82%