So let me get this out of the way right at the start of this post:
I am a grumpy old git.
It is in this context that I ask you for your stance on Trick and Treating. Good, harmless fun, or something more sinister with young ne’erdowells extorting you for goodies on the unspoken but heavily hinted threat that should you dare to say ‘Trick’, you’ll likely wake up the next morning to find your car doused in white gloss paint?
Look, I’ve really no issue with young children – say up to the age of 11 – getting dressed up, she as a Wicked Witch of the West, he as Bruno Fernandes (is there a more unlikeable footballer in the modern game? A 2023 version of a mix of John Terry and Teddy Sheringham…ugh!), and accompanied by a responsible adult, knocking on a few doors and politely trying, and failing, to look terrifying. I mean, they’re easy to avoid. I just don’t answer the door.
But where I draw the line is what you might describe as “youths” ganging up to look genuinely quite scary. Not in a ghostie and ghoulish sort of way, but in a “give me a fiver or I’ll mug you and nick your ‘phone off you”, sort of way.
There were loads of the latter types out as I did my bookmaker rounds on Tuesday night. In what is probably the least salubrious of the areas I visit, the William Hill had locked the door. “Like that is it?”, I said as I walked through, once they’d checked me out for any signs of me carrying a Magnum 45 and had let me in.
“Oh, aye”, they said. “Halloween innit, mate. Get kids opening the door and throwing in fireworks. Happens all the time”.
It didn’t take quite as long as usual to fill in my couple of football coupons. God knows who I backed, I just wanted out. “Ha, kids, eh?”, I said, with that sort of sarcastic tone that suggests a touch of irony.
“Yeaaaah”, came the reply. And I genuinely think he was thinking of these delinquents who looked like Siouxie Sioux but without the sense of style, with genuine fondness, and that throwing in a bunch of rockets into a small shop and legging it was something to put down to kids being kids and was all good, healthy jolly japes. It was alright for him, he was sat behind a screen!
Those two Football Coupons provided nothing by way of return, and to be honest this has been the one strategy to struggle over the past week or so.
I mentioned yesterday that Erling Haaland had come up trumps in the Manchester derby on Sunday for a Double Delight, and there was a single goal scoring winner earlier in the week too so a great week for the DD/HH strategy.
A real star for the past few weeks though, has been Touchdown Profit. This is never going to be the busiest of services, and a couple of weeks ago just one bet was put up with Matt informing members he had no wish to force things and he was being selective for a reason. That single bet won, and the following week saw more action and more winners. It is ticking along very, very nicely indeed, and Matt has been in fine form since the NFL season started. No doubt I’ve put the kiss of death on things, but we’re currently on an 11-2 run, which is seriously impressive.
I’ve finished my “trial” run of AI Football and have now dedicated a proper bank to it. To be honest, it’s gone through a bit of a sticky patch but there are signs of a return to form which are encouraging. I have to admit I can’t get the prices on every bet, but I can on a heck of a lot more than I can’t. I’ll be setting the stake amount on a daily basis (read more about this here) and will be ploughing all profit back in in an exercise to see how fast the bank grows.
As referred to in Monday’s post the Booking Bashing Golf Tracker and offshoot Weekly Golf Value are really hitting their straps and after a first part of the year that was a little bleak, suddenly the figures look much more like it. Although still betting win-only on the Exchanges on the WGV picks, it’s so nice to be able to get each way money down at advantageous bookmaker place terms again.
The Lucky 15s from the Bookie Bashing Racing Tracker have thrown up some decent profit and I came within a literal short head last week of having three winners on the same slip and a hefty return. When the first two to run from another slip on Saturday won at 22/1 and 11/1 I couldn’t help but get a little excited, but alas the other two ran like doped up hairy goats. Actually, the way one of them drifted on the Exchanges in the run up to the off, perhaps it had been doped, but let’s try to avoid paranoia, shall we?
And finally, the recent performance of the Value Bets gleaned from the Bookie Bashing Bet Tracker has been not a lot short of miraculous. The last week has seen me place 19 such bets, with 10 winning and a consequent 63.9% ROI and 12.6% bank growth. That rate of return ain’t going to last, I can tell you.
So all in all, it’s been a good last week or so, with the weekend just gone treating me especially kindly. Fingers crossed for a repeat this weekend coming.
Right, that’s all from me this week. Nothing doing tomorrow as going to get pissed down the pub have one or two shandys with the missus, and a take out. Sounds like heaven.
Betting 2023-24
AI Football: Staked 395pts, +85.05pts, ROI: 21.53%, ROC: 8.5%
Bookie Bashing Football Coupons: Staked 2,992.50pts, +310.58pts, ROI: 10.37%, ROC 20.7%
Bookie Bashing Golf Tracker/Weekly Golf Value: Staked 5,984pts, +836.4pts, ROI: 13.97%, ROC: 27.88%
Bookie Bashing Racing Tracker (Lucky 15s): Staked 6,150pts, +810.62pts, ROI: 13.18%, ROC: 54.04%.
Bookie Bashing Value Bets Tracker: Staked 2,731pts, +399.21pts, ROI: 14.61%, ROC: 19.96%
DD/HH: Staked 1,201.5pts, +324.50pts, ROI: 27%, ROC: 32.4%..
NFL strategy: Staked 647pts, +34.06pts, ROI: 5.26%, ROC: 3.4%
Sys Analyst: Staked 5,002.2pts, -113.99pts, ROI:-2.27%, ROC: -5.69%
Touchdown Profit: Staked 480pts, +173.25pts, ROI: 36.09%, ROC: 17.32%
TOTAL ROI: 11.17%
