Next week I’m away down to Devon for the family’s traditional Christmas holiday.  There have been times over the past months when I’ve wondered if it’s going to be possible, but I live in a Tier 2, Devon is Tier 2, and we’re keeping within our normal family bubble so it all looks like it should be ok.

The only issue is going to be fighting putting on even more Christmas “padding”, as it looks as if I’m going to eat even more than the usual seasonal excess.  If you can’t go into a pub for a pint without eating a “substantial meal”, heaven help me!  What’s worse is my eldest has recently turned 18, so no doubt the call of the local with it’s real local ale, roaring fire and old oak beams will be more alluring than ever.  Oh well, after the year we’ve all had, if we can’t treat ourselves a little this Christmas, when can we?

Generally speaking I tend not to bet too much over the holiday period.  Racing closes down for a couple of days before Christmas anyway, and getting a proper break from it all is something I find very refreshing.  No doubt I’ll be following Racing Service 1 in on Boxing Day.  It wouldn’t feel like Boxing Day if I didn’t and getting the bets on takes no more than a couple of minutes, but other than that I’ll have a rest and take the opportunity to recharge the old batteries.

Last week showed another overall profit, and the ROI for the month to date remains around a healthy 11-12%, although there were no fireworks similar to those we saw from RS1 the previous weekend.  Precision Value fared the best, bringing in consistent profit through the week.

Other than that and it was all a little mundane.  Good to see Racing Intelligence hit a winner and surely it’s only a matter of time before negative variance slams into reverse and we see a return to the good times  One thing is for sure, this is a service that can win points at a rapid rate when in form so it might not take too long to claw back the losses from this current drawdown.

A nod to Scottish Football Income Booster, who enjoyed another decent weekend.  It really is beginning to find some consistency over the past two or three weeks and hopefully this signals a sustained period of good form.  It must have been a really difficult year for footie tipsters.  Impossible to accurately assess the impact on form that having no crowd, an overly busy fixture list (which is just about to get crazy-buzy) leading to increased muscle injures to the players, the refereeing body changing the handball rule that saw an unprecedented number of penalties being awarded post-lockdown (some of which were, to any sane person, worse than ridiculous) and the incessant nonsense of VAR and the impact that has….blimey, that’s a lot of variables to try to get your head around when looking for value in the markets! Gives me a headache just thinking about it.

So, all that remains for me to say for now, is have a wonderful Christmas.  Stay healthy, and here’s to a much better 2021 for everyone.  It’s been a heck of a year.

Portfolio performance for December (to 13th)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 22pts, -6.975pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 29pts, +2.75pts

Northern Monkey (100): Staked 14pts, -5.875pts.

PGA Profit (500): Staked 25.5pts, -13.77pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 46pts, +11.838pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 25pts, -5.95pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 22pts, +6.909pts

Racing Service 1 (50): Staked 6.5pts, +9.75pts.

Total for December: ROI 11.75%, ROC 2%

There are times when I am stupid.  Not necessarily in what I do, but how I think (although if you ask my wife she’d probably tell you a fair bit of what I do is fairly daft).  Last week was a case in point.

Whenever a tipster is on a bad run, or if I’m enduring a bad spell with a number of tipsters underperforming, I always get overly optimistic when a new month starts.  I tell myself over and over that it doesn’t work like that.  That form doesn’t suddenly improve just because it’s the 1st of December now, and that November is behind us.  And then for some unknown reason, I’m mildly surprised and disappointed when double digit winners don’t go flying in left, right and centre.

Take Racing Intelligence.  They endured a difficult November and we’ve experienced something of a drawdown.  Why did I, even slightly, think that because we have a new month, that they would immediately start clawing those losses back and show a complete turnaround in fortunes?  It doesn’t work like that, does it?  Any idiot can see that.  And yet here I am, being dopey, and feeling like a parent who has been slightly disappointed and let down by their child’s behaviour in a restaurant.  A feeling of, how could you?

Makes no sense, does it?

Anyway, turning towards the more positive, and last weekend saw Racing Service 1 really get it’s season underway with an 8/1 winner on Friday and a 22/1 winner (yes, 22/1, although I should have got 25s but that’s another story) on Saturday.  So in a week in which Bet Alchemist, PGA Profits, and Racing Intelligence all ended with losses, whilst Golf Insider ended level and Precision Value only a small profit, I’ve somehow ended the week up at an ROI of over 11%.  Offer me 11% over a year and I’d snap your hand off!  So why am I feeling gloomy?

Finally, an honourable mention to Scottish Football Income Booster, who came good this week.  Not spectacularly so, but that’s two profitable weekends in a row now, so perhaps we’re seeing something of a return to form.

Return to form.  Seems to be a theme for the week.

Portfolio performance for December (to 6th)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 13pts, -8.55pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 18pts, 0pts

Northern Monkey (100): Staked 7.75pts, +0.8pts.

PGA Profit (500): Staked 17.5pts, -17.5pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 21pts, +1.375pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 16pts, -13.45pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 12pts, +3.65pts

Racing Service 1 (50): Staked 3.5pts, +10.75pts.

Total for December: ROI 11.86%, ROC 1.09%

Well that dragged.  November seemed to go on forever. Perhaps it was the gloomier, colder weather.  Perhaps it was the lockdown.  Perhaps it is because I follow Racing Intelligence, which had a month to forget.  Either way, it’s over now and we have Christmas to look forward to, a vaccine, and perhaps the first real light at the end of the Covid tunnel.  Here’s hoping so.

Let’s start the round-up of the month with the best performer, and as the title of this post will have told you, that’s Northern Monkey.  It’s re-entry into the portfolio was well timed, and it was like saying hello to an old friend you haven’t seen for ages.  Well done, Wayne old chap.  Keep it up – there’s a good fellow. 🙂

In second place, timing it’s run as well as one of it’s winning tips storming up the Cheltenham hill, was Racing Service 1, who had winners at 11/1 and 10/1 on Saturday.  It’s been a difficult first month of the new season for RS1, coming to terms with a new bet release time, an altered way of doing write-ups, and Exchange price crashes.  As ever though, A. seems to have got on top of things, made a couple of tweaks, and I’m as pleased for him for Saturday’s results as I am for myself.

Then we have Golf Insider, and his 500/1 winner this month will live long in the memory.  I’m pretty sure that’s the longest price I’ve collected from ever.  The New Year will see me adopt a different, level stakes approach, as was recommended in the SBC review.

Precision Value managed to tip four horses to finish second from five bets on Monday, and by doing so downgraded what looked like being a great month to a merely decent one.  I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was kinda hoping the fifth tip would finish 2nd too, through some sort of weird masochistic desire.  It didn’t – it came nowhere.

On a similar theme, Bet Alchemist gave back a few points over the weekend to take the gloss off what in the end was a solid enough month.

The three services to end in the red were Scottish Football Income Booster, PGA Profit, and Racing Intelligence.  I have to say I was hoping for a lot more from SFIB, which traditionally excels at the start of the season.  With lower league Scottish football resuming this month, I was optimistic.  Hopefully, those expected profits will materialize in December instead.

As for Racing Intelligence, what is there to say other than it was a rotten month, best forgotten.  Let’s see what it can do to turn things around.

Now, I’m off to get a haircut…

Portfolio performance for November

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 39pts, +5.737pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 55pts, +45.837pts

Northern Monkey (100): Staked 44.5pts, +20.26pts.

PGA Profit (500): Staked 62pts, -28pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 99pts, +13.041pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 258.5pts, -58.341pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 25pts, -2.641pts

Racing Service 1 (50): Staked 14pts, +5.758pts.

Total for November: ROI 5.29%, ROC 2.51%

If you haven’t read this article yet, written by the SBC’s own Head Honcho (his official title, you understand), then you really must.  It’s essential reading.

When links to the article were sent out on social media, I was amused at a tweet from SBC Hall of Fame tennis tipster Nishi Kori, who stated (confessed?) that his record run of consecutive losers reached 16:

“even though you know this can happen, you know the variance, bla bla bla… the truth is that, after 16 consecutive losses, is not easy not becoming depressed.”

And that made me think.  The maths and probabilities of losing runs is relatively easy to get a grip on (read the article – it explains).  But what I personally struggle to get my head around is how a professional tipster, who charges subscription fees, can carry on looking for value in the betting markets without deviating from his or her methods.  You will know how mentally challenging it can be at times, just following tipsters.  But coming under ever increasing pressure as losers mount up, not from just yourself but from a following that has handed over money for the benefit of your expertise, keeping a clear head and a focus without succumbing to negativity must be immensely difficult.  Hats off to those that do it.

Short termism is such a danger when we’re betting, but it struck me this week that it isn’t just in gambling that it has an effect.  How many times do we feel that a football manager, who has demonstrated an ability to eke out considerable improvement in what had previously been a rabble of a team, get the sack at the first sign of a bump in the road?  In Jurgen Klopp’s first season as manager at Liverpool, he won only 13 of 30 games and Liverpool finished 8th.  Liverpool stuck with him, and now look what’s happened (much as it pains me to say!).  The benefits to Liverpool’s focus on the long-term and their confidence that in the German they’d got the right man in should inform other Clubs of the folly of getting rid of managers at the first sign of trouble.  It’s the same with us and tipsters.  Let’s have belief in our decision making process when we choose which tipsters to invest in, and only look to act if we see some underlying alteration to methods or approach when a sticky spell hits.

Nope, short termism should be treated by us bettors as the most deadly of the deadly betting sins, and something to avoid at all costs.  If we kept chopping and changing tipsters on the same sort of whim that sees Fantasy Football Managers buying last week’s top points scorer, whilst discarding the top points scorer from the week before that but who had blanked last week, we’d never make any money. (Please note, that is never me.  Never.  Honestly, never, never, never…but I might just bring Vardy back in this week after selling him last week).  

There are many more examples from other areas of life, but I imagine you don’t need me to spell any more out to you.  You get the point I’m making, I’m sure.  So next time we suffer a losing run, we’re going to laugh in it’s face.  We’re going to show we won’t be bullied into making bad decisions, and we’re going to stay calm and patient.

Now, if Vardy doesn’t get a hat trick at the weekend, I’m finished with him.  Finished I tell you.  I’ll be so, so mad, and he’ll be sold, and he’ll be ignored for ever and ever.  Well, until the next time he scores, anyway…

Portfolio performance for November (to the 22nd)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 28pts, +9.587pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 48.5pts, +52.837pts

Northern Monkey (100): Staked 34.25pts, +23.167pts.

PGA Profit (500): Staked 62pts, -28pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 72pts, +1.791pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 215pts, -35.341pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 19pts, -3.281pts

Racing Service 1 (50): Staked 11.5pts, -3.742pts.

Total for November: ROI 4.7%, ROC 1.77%

Sadly this week’s wasn’t as lucrative as last week’s, and a smallish loss was the end result.  Not to worry too much, though.  We’re still very nicely ahead for the month with five services in profit and three showing a loss.  The ROI for the month is still in double figures, but it would be really nice to kick on now and make November a lucrative month.

As was the case last week, Northern Monkey was the best performer, although returns were nothing like as spectacular.  Again it was the Saturday that produced the highest returns although the number of bets was significantly down from the weekend before.

Precision Value kinda summed up the week and the ‘one step backward, one step forward to end up where you were’ feel to the whole portfolio.  Friday and Saturday saw PV issue 10 bets.  All six bets on Friday went down, losing six points, whilst three winners from four on Saturday returned 6.58 points.  So all in all, 0.58 points up. I suppose the way to think about this is that the profit equated to an ROI of just short of 5%, which isn’t at all bad.  But on a day to day basis, it feels like wading through mud.

I have a confession to make in that I completely omitted to place Golf Insider’s first round leader bets at the US Masters.  No excuse, really.  I saw the email come through but I was busy doing something else entirely, and I just completely forgot to go back to them.  Not sure I’ve ever done anything like that before.  Hope I’m not losing my marbles!

The Masters proved to be somewhat anti-climactic, which is the theme of the week, it seems.  With Dustin Johnson just proving way too good for the rest of the field to compete, I was reduced to hoping for placed finishes, which doesn’t exactly make for exciting television viewing.  Both Golf Insider and PGA Profit managed to get a player into the frame, although for the latter the spoils had to be shared due to a tie for the last ‘place’ position.

Mediocre weeks for Racing Intelligence and Bet Alchemist without much damage being done, and the same can be said for Racing Service 2 who finally managed to get off the mark for the season with a winner on Sunday.  Should have been another on Saturday only for our horse to come down at the second last when looking all over the most likely winner.  RS2 really has had very little luck this season so far.  Apparently six of the 20 RS2 bets issued have gone odds-on in running.  To only get one winner from that lot is tough.  Still, it shows there’s nothing wrong with A.’s form reading and over time the winners will come.  Perhaps the winner on Sunday, which got up by a nose, signals the change in fortune needed.  Let’s hope so.

Portfolio performance for November (to 15th)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 22pts, +2.325pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 32pts, +28.8pts

Northern Monkey (100): Staked 24.5pts, +30.297pts.

PGA Profit (500): Staked 45pts, -37pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 51pts, +10.166pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 151pts, -10.816pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 9pts, +0.599pts

Racing Service 2 (50): Staked 9pts, -5.75pts.

Total for November: ROI 11.06%, ROC 2.94%

After a disappointing October which ended in a loss, the general sense of frustration and gloominess that comes from re-entering lockdown here in the UK and concern that the powers that be are going to cancel Christmas (!), it was lovely to be able to savour a really good week’s betting.

Five of the eight tipsters delivered a winning week, and two of them excelled.

I have to start this week’s round up with a hearty congratulations to Northern Monkey, who enjoyed a spectacular Saturday, knocking in winners here, there and everywhere.  From Yorkshire, to Ireland and on to the good old U. S. of A., Wayne went all international in his quest for winners.  It was at Doncaster that the big winner came though, with On To Victory landing odds of 10/1 and with that one also being doubled up with another winner at Wincanton, it was happy days.  Overall NMP notched up over 30 points of profit on the day.  Welcome back!

The victory for On To Victory was especially sweet as it had also been tipped up by Bet Alchemist, alongside another 14/1 winner and suddenly things were going dizzily well.  Sitting at home (once you’ve walked the mutt, where else can you go in lockdown?) watching it all unfold of the telly, I had to treat myself to an extra Hobnob with my cuppa.  Yes folks, I was that excited!

With Precision finding a pretty regular stream of winners through the week, it was only really Racing Service 2 which has disappointed, but I’ve no doubt that situation will turn around sooner or later.  Talking of RS2, Andrew from the service took the remarkable step of asking if some members wouldn’t mind leaving the service (with a refund, naturally) as he was so concerned at they way prices were being affected by what appeared to be people loading up on the selections.  That this must have cost him a fair chunk of money, I think speaks volumes for his resolve to protect his longer-term members and their interests.  A truly selfless act.  It’s a cheap gag but if he doesn’t start picking some winners soon mind you, he might not have needed to ask! (Sorry, Andrew! 🙂 ).

Anyway, the good news didn’t finish there, with Golf Insider warming up nicely for this week’s US Masters (in November – could this year get any weirder!?!) by picking out a 30/1 winner on the European Tour.

So all told, a rather good week and suddenly the grind of October seems a dim and distant memory.

Portfolio performance for November (to 8th)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 14pts, +4.625pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 11pts, +22.425pts

Northern Monkey (100): Staked 14pts, +27.283pts.

PGA Profit (500): Staked 21pts, -21pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 26pts, +7.833pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 72pts, -2.575pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 9pts, +0.599pts

Racing Service 2 (50): Staked 5pts, -5pts.

Total for November: ROI 25.53%, ROC 4.14%

So how does this work, then?  In a month in which I back winners at 250/1 and 100/1, I end up losing (even if only by a couple of quid)!!!

It really can be weird at times, this betting game.  I’m telling you, 2020 is one weird year.  It’s weird living through a pandemic.  It’s weird being in lockdown, unable to sit at the same table as your mate in the pub.  It’s weird kids being taught over a video link.  It’s weird watching top-flight football with no-one in the stands.  It’s weird having to cover half your face when you go into a shop.  It’s weird that Mike Dean gave a penalty AGAINST Manchester United at Old Trafford.  It’s weird that Royal Ascot had no royalty, that the filming of the latest series of Line Of Duty had to stop halfway through (dammit!), and that Donald Trump (at time of typing) still has a chance of remaining as the leader of the Free World despite everything.

But nothing – nothing I tell you – is as weird as backing two triple digit winners in a month and still ending up with a loss!

Seven tipsters advised bets this month (Racing Service 2 only just, to be fair) and only two of them managed a profit.  No prizes for guessing the two were the golf tipsters who clearly each had a stormer.  The racing though, has in contrast been very tough going.  Is it the changing going conditions?  I don’t think so.  I just think it’s one of those spells when things don’t quite fall for you.  I swear I’ve had more than a fair share of second placed finishes recently.

We shall plough on though.  Each of the services have always bounced back from bad runs in the past and at this stage, there’s no reason to believe they won’t do so again.  This month (November) we add Northern Monkey back into the roster too.

As for Scottish Football Income Booster, well now all the leagues have resumed, and with the early weeks traditionally a strong period, I’m hoping for much better this month.  Let’s see what transpires.

Portfolio performance for October 

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 48pts, -10.664pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 52.5pts, +106pts

PGA Profit (500): Staked 52pts, +93pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 88pts, -23.22pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 371pts, -57.15pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 31pts, -6.736pts

Racing Service 2 (50): Staked 3.5pts, -3.5pts.

Total for October: ROI -0.02%, ROC -0.01%

It’s October.  The time of year when the non-summer jumps horses are gearing up for the new National Hunt season and the flat horses, used to sunshine and warmth are beginning to “go in their coat”.  I’m not too sure what that phrase means, to be honest with you.  I just hear it said a lot on the TV when describing horses who are clearly getting themselves ready for a rest over the colder months or before they retire from the racetrack and get sent off to stud.  Whatever, the point is that the weather is changing and with it, so is the ground.

I’ve never really subscribed to the theory that making money from betting on horses is always much trickier in October and March, when the two racing seasons – flat and jumps – are either starting up or coming to an end.  I can see that this time of year can often mean changing going conditions, and I do truly believe that periods of good profits often coincide with periods of consistent ground, whether that be on the firm or soft side of good.  But historically, I’ve had some cracking March and Aprils, as I have September/Octobers.  I’ve also had some rotten ones.  In short, I see no discernible pattern.

One thing is for sure though, is that my racing services are really struggling at the moment.  After showing some hints of spluttering back into some form a week or so ago, Precision Value has regressed again.  I don’t think it’s anything too sinister.  It feels, although I could be wrong, that it’s suffered from an untimely bout of seconditis, an illness that scientists are yet to find a cure or vaccine for.  I suppose currently, they have other, more pressing vaccine-oriented priorities.

Bet Alchemist is best described as turgid so far this month, although it is not posting disastrous figures.  As for Racing Intelligence, well, things can only get better from the last two or three weeks, I guess.  From sailing along without a care in the world, suddenly we’re looking down the barrel of a losing month, and a pretty significant one at that.  The one thing I know about this service though, is that the going can go from one extreme to the other in a blink of an eye.

Sadly this week, things haven’t been saved by the golf.  Those two – Golf Insider and PGA Profit – need to sort themselves out.  It’s all very well picking out triple digit winners, but I want them every week, goddammit!  Pull your fingers out, fellas!

Portfolio performance for October (to the 25th)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 39pts, -5.538pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 52.5pts, +106pts

PGA Profit (500): Staked 52pts, +93pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 71pts, -22.25pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 306pts, -28.9pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 23pts, -3.479pts

Racing Service 2 (50): n/a

Total for October: ROI 3.83%, ROC 1.45%

Yep, you read that right.  Just a week after I prescribed, if not caution, an awareness that golf betting often means enduring lean spells, and contrasted the travails of PGA Profit to the 250/1 winning tipster Golf Insider, we only go and see PGA Profit knock in their own triple digit winner on Sunday evening.

I couldn’t quite believe it when I checked the results on Monday morning.  I don’t think I’ve ever had anything that compares to a 250/1 shot land one week and a 100/1 the next.  I remember doubling my stake in error on a 40/1 shot on Betfair  and seeing the nag storm home in front some years ago, and I remember doing something similar when trying to get a couple of non-league footie bets on with my mobile whilst sitting in a restaurant one Saturday lunchtime, which meant a nice bonus.  But this?  This is something else.

The thing is, I’m still using bookmaker accounts for the majority of my golf bets, and there’s no hint of not being able to get on.  That might be about to change of course, but I’m not convinced it will.  The prices have been easy to get for the most part too, and I do know that if using the exchanges, even after an initial drop in the available price when the bets come out, they often drift back out again as the market grows in liquidity.  There’s a lot to like about golf betting, although I freely admit that’s easy to say after the fortnight I’ve just had.

Back to the horses and things are proving a bit trickier there, with both Precision Value and Racing Intelligence struggling.  Having said that, the former knocked in four from four last Friday and netting 14 points of profit by doing so, perhaps signalling a return to form.  Racing Intelligence accumulates points of profit for fun when doing well, and loses them for not so much fun when not.  I find the pace of this service pretty frenetic – I don’t usually feel like it treads water much but instead sways from one extreme to the other. I’m sure that’s nonsense, but that’s how it feels.  Bet Alchemist had a weekend to forget too, finding the card at Ascot on Champions’ Day more than a little tricky to negotiate.

Finally, I’ve decided upon my replacement for Racing Service 1 and will introduce it to the Bet Diary from the 1st November.  I’m a bit OCD about that sort of thing – I don’t like starting something new mid-month.  I have this stupid feeling that it skews the month’s results, which I know is nonsense, but still.

Portfolio performance for October (to the 18th)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 28pts, -1.288pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 36.5pts, +123pts

PGA Profit (500): Staked 38pts, +101pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 47pts, -9.25pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 219pts, -21.875pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 18pts, -2.49pts

Racing Service 2 (50): n/a

Total for October: ROI 16.14%, ROC 4.38%

I can only apologize for the above.  If ever there was a contrived headline, that has got to be it.  “Pristine Profit”!?!  What was I thinking?

I think the best thing to do is to move on quickly.

There is no doubt at all about the highlight of the past week.  Martin Laird winning a three-way play-off over on the US PGA Tour for Golf Insider, was the perfect play-off performance that produced a…great return.  Backed at 250/1, Laird bagged 132 points for GI members who will have tackled the challenges of the typical Monday morning with a spring in their step and a glint in their eye.  Who says you should treat winning and losing with the same casual insouciance?  Bugger that. You don’t get 250/1 winners every day.

There’s an awful lot going for using golf as your medium for beating the bookmaker.  There seems too, to be more choice than ever before in terms of services to follow.  With fewer issues over odds availability than with many horse racing tipsters, the ease with which you might reasonably expect to be able to utilize the betting exchanges, and the lower chance of being hit by bookmaker restrictions if not, golf betting could be the future.

As you will know if you read this Diary last week, I’m looking for a new service to follow following the removal of Racing Service 1 from the portfolio and another golf service as a replacement has to be a consideration.  What might stop me is that having three golf betting tipsters in a portfolio of eight feels like it might be one too many for me just at this moment.  My other golfing expert – PGA Profit – is currently having a leaner time of things and we have to just accept that when it comes to betting on golf, we simply must be prepared for periods of drawdown.  It’s a natural consequence of betting at higher prices.

Balance in a portfolio of tipsters is an important factor, and as such I’m going to go with a more “solid” option, which I’ll reveal next week.  In the meantime, here are the figures for this month to date…

Portfolio performance for October (to the 11th)

Bet Alchemist (100 point bank): Staked 18pts, +7.212pts

Golf Insider (400): Staked 19pts, +132pts

PGA Profit (500): Staked 29pts, -12pts

Precision Value (200): Staked 25pts, -10.75pts

Racing Intelligence (200): Staked 143pts, +28.45pts

Scottish Football Income Booster (100): Staked 7pts, -3.982pts

Racing Service 2 (50): n/a

Total for October: ROI 35.7%, ROC 6.09%