2023! How on earth has that happened? Only seems a couple of years ago that the world was about to come to a grinding halt and then burst out in flames as IT systems everywhere were going to simply give up as soon as the clocks struck 00:00.01 to bring in Year 2000. That was a nervy second, I can tell you. Kids – ask your parents…”the millenium bug”…
Happy New Year to you all!
So what is 2023 going to bring betting-wise then? I have some plans, and I’ve got to admit to being both anxious and excited by them in equal measure. This kinda feels like embarking on the next stage of my betting journey. The last stage has stretched over a few years, but having almost reached the end of having access to any online betting accounts (I say almost, because one still stubbornly remains), it’s adapt or die. And having learnt from the example set by the Dodo, I’m determined to adapt. I ain’t no flightless bird!
As I was more than just hinting at in the Bet Diary posts published just prior to Christmas, a lot more – in fact almost all – of my betting is soon to be done using cash, in shops. It’s a bit of a bind. I can’t say the prospect of driving out and about across the towns of North Cheshire and South Manchester in the cold, wet and dark each evening after a day of work is one that particularly thrills me. But hey, if that’s what it takes. I’m not yet at the stage of employing runners to do the dirty work, although ultimately that’s the plan. Until then though, I’m going to have to do the grunt work myself.
So what am I going to be betting on?
- Golf. Enjoyed a tremendous year following Weekly Golf Value through 2022, and towards the end there I had just started to leave WGV bets I couldn’t get on and using the Bookie Bashing golf tracker to complement those I could get on. I’m aiming for 12.5%+ field coverage across each tournament, and for as long as I can with the one remaining online account I have, I’ll stay as true as I can to the WGV advice. Once that account goes however, then it’ll be the Tracker all the way.
- Horses. The Lucky 15 strategy was my outstanding contributor to profit last year, posting some ridiculously good figures. My worry here is that I’ve yet to hit a big win at the shops. All so far have been achieved online, with two bookmakers who tend to offer either consistently better odds or extra places which the Horse Racing Tracker allows leads us to taking advantage of. I’ve no doubt wins at the offices will arrive, but likely not with the same frequency. I expect my losing runs to grow a little and ROI to dip. I’m also a little concerned about keeping volume up too. There’s a lot to concentrate on here!
- Football Coupons. Trebles the way forward, but hopefully it should be relatively straightforward to keep the volume of bets. I’ll write more on this topic next week, as there are still a few things I’m not entirely comfortable with, although I’m not running at a bad level of profit since I started.
- Value bets. Usually deriving from Boosts and to be taken advantage of either in shop or on the Exchanges where arbers may be looking to lay off their bets for their guaranteed margins and happy to take what is a value price from my side.
- DD/HH – Double Delight/Hat Trick Heaven at BetFred. Again, using the data available as a Bookie Basher member, Will be staking £x to win £y.
- NFL: the strategy utilising the half time markets. Not a high volume approach but there’s a proven edge there and why not look to take advantage wherever possible? It would be rude not to.
- Combo bets: the occasional “muggy” looking RequestABet/#YourOdds/PickYourPunt genre of bet with my one online account. How long can I keep it open for? I’m expecting it to be closed tomorrow, but I’ve been saying that since August.
And there we have it. That’s the plan for 2023. It’s new (for me). It’s with a sense of trepidation I embark upon this adventure, and that’s not just because it’s dark early and at one bookies I visit I’d be targeted for a mugging if anyone thought I had 50p in my pocket.
I’ll not post results today as have only been back at it three days, but suffice to say my first Lucky 15 of the year netted 10 points profit but I’ve not won a penny since, and the less said about the Footie Coupons these last couple of days the better. All told, I’m break even, but I’ll post proper performance figures from next week’s post.
Join me then.
