Plodding on

P/L since last update: +£226.96
Month to date P/L: +£270.32

It's been very much a rollercoaster since my first "new" post. I think at my worst point I was down around 200 on the month so it has been a lot of hard work, late nights and good fortune since to turn it around.



I use two laptops, BOTH of which were out of commission all over the weekend. I did little to nothing over those days except for phone losing bets through. At one point I lost 5 bets in a row despite backing nothing over 3/1 and actually a couple of odds-on shots too! That was when I fell to the lowest point of the month so far.

I did have some fun and games phoning bets through though. I had a modest lay of Selby against Ricky Walden in the Masters Snooker at the start of the match but at 5-5 in a best of 11 I thought it would be wise to just either level up the profit or get my liability back to zero. I rang up Betfair and was put on hold listening to some Australian telling me how I could back in-play. Ironic really as that was the exact thing I was trying to do. I am not exaggarating when I say I was on the phone for 3 minutes and did not speak to an operator. By this time the frame had long since started so I hung up and hoped for the best. As Sod's law would have it, Selby won.

I got my laptop back on Monday and have been trading pretty much flat out since. It's a busy time, what with the Masters all day and Tennis in Australia all night!

An interesting position popped up for me last night in the Federer v Verdasco match. I laid Federer @ 1.07 pretty early on in the match. Verdasco managed to get it back to 1-1. Now Federer was trading @ 1.33/34. I'm still unsure as to whether I did the right thing here in letting the trade run a little longer. Not long later he was 1.19 and I cut there for zero liability leaving me a little money to play with later on. He did go out as far as 1.6x later on which led me to believe I may have done the worst possible thing. I am working on how I would play this next time this situation arises.

On the wedding front, my fiancee and her mother seem to have everything under control! Just looks like all I have to do is turn up! In the meantime, feet up, relax and watch some snooker and tennis :)

Starting everything afresh

Month to date P/L: +£43.37


Happy new year to you all and hope you all had a good Christmas. You may have noticed that all the old posts here have been removed. This is because I'm looking to start over again. Call it a new years resolution if you like.

I started the new year off in Dublin where I got engaged. We are looking to get married in November so in true Betfair Trader fashion I will be using this blog to record profit (or loss) that will be saved for my wedding (or not!).

So, the first week of the new year is complete and there have been many trading opportunities. Unfortunately I had a bit of a nightmare over the last two days and that put a real dent into what was looking like an exceptional beginning. I had a big chunk on Gulbis to beat Mathieu in Brisbane yesterday and he got absolutely battered. Looked a good price to me at the time! Also done a chunk on Webster to beat Walton today in the darts. He played like a tosser and lost 4-0. I wouldn't have minded so much but that was my bet of the day!

As you will see from the Profit/Loss shots below I had an absolute nightmare in the Wildcard games this weekend, showing profit on only the first match of the four. The Championship League snooker which is showing on BF Live Video has been somewhat of a saving grace.

The two shots are from the two different wallets, Main and Australian:


I am still using BF at the moment. There is a reason for this that I'd rather not go into on the blog, at least at present. I did try Betdaq for a while but found the liquidity still a little low so I decided to find another way, which I did. I feel like I should boycott BF and I think eventually I will but not just yet ;)

Well, this post is not really well structured or well thought out but it's a start! I will attempt to update about 4/5 times a month hopefully right up until the wedding. Whatever you do, be lucky!

Monthly Results

Keep track of how I'm doing here...

This page will be updated at the end of each month

January 2009:

Glossary

Don't understand what I'm saying...this list could help. If you would like a definition of a word, leave a comment and I'll add the definition as soon as possible.

Back - To bet on a selection to win.

Lay - To lay a bet is to back something not to happen. For example to lay Manchester United to win their match is to back them NOT to win. If you were to lay them, you would win your bet if they either lost or drew their match.

Odds-On - Means that the odds are less than even money. Even money is represented by 2.0 in decimal form, i.e. for every pound you back you will get two in return, including your stake. Anything lower than 2.0 is considered odds-on.

Tick - A tick is the smallest movement of a price either way. For example, if a price were to move from 1.11 to 1.12 it has moved out one tick. If a price were to move from 2.34 to 2.26 it has come in 8 ticks.

Hedge - This is a term you will here from every trader. To hedge is to ensure equal profit regardless of the result by backing the other outcomes.

Handicap - Means that one team receives a “virtual head start”, effectively leading the game by an amount before the game starts. For example Team A (-11.5pts) v Team B (+11.5pts). Effectively Team B will start the match 11.5-0 up. If Team A wins by more than 11.5 pts they
win with the handicap if they don't Team B is the winner with the handicap.

Match Odds - A Match Odds market is where to bet on the result of a given match.

Delays - In some in-play markets, time-delays are used to ensure that people are given an opportunity to cancel unmatched bets when a major event happens, such as a goal being scored. This delay is also designed to protect users in the event of broadcast signal delay.