My question to you today is, how much winning are you really making from gambling? (And please be brutally honest with yourself when answering that question!)
I hope you are winning! If that’s fine with you, as surely that’s the goal for most people, but even if you’re a rare winning player, are you winning as much as you could? However, if you’re not a winner, don’t worry, you’re not alone. In fact, you are in very good company, as a staggering 98% of players lose money in the long run.
So assuming you’re not winning, do you know why?
Well, I’m going to venture a guess that the reasons go something like this;
a) Betting on the wrong types of races,
b) Blindly backing the favorites (especially shot odds)
c) No sense of money management,
d) Undisciplined approach
e) Chasing losses
f) Maintain a player mentality.
However, if 98% of people are losing money, then the top 2% must be winning, so who are these elite 2% and what do they do differently than the majority?
Well, the elite 2% are the pros and semi-pros like me and we approach betting like a business. The betting industry likes to call us ‘pro gamers’ but let’s make one thing absolutely clear here, one thing we are NOT gamers and this description couldn’t be further from the truth: we don’t gamble for fun. or for the sake or the thrill of it. We gamble for one reason only: TO MAKE PROFITS!
I’ve said this many times before and I’m going to say it again: ‘Gambling is a business and gambling is for idiots’. So let me try to explain the difference between betting and betting.
As I have already said, I am a professional and as such I am in the betting business for one reason only: to ensure a slow and steady return over the long term. To achieve this result professional betting has to be BORING and MUNDANE, from a psychological point of view the result of a single race becomes almost irrelevant to me as in the long run I know I will make a profit from my betting strategies.
The goal of running any business is to make a profit and to achieve this result I need the following three elements to work in my favor:
a) A betting bank,
b) A stakeout plan
c) A betting strategy that will generate profits in the long run.
The betting bank must be large enough relative to my bet size to withstand the inevitable losing streaks. It is also important that, psychologically, the bets are within my betting comfort zone, which means that my pulse never races before or after a bet.
The moment your pulse begins to race should immediately alert you to the fact that you have stopped betting and are betting instead, something went wrong with your strategy and you have become uncomfortable with your bet size or have lost the bet. confidence in your choice. betting strategy The inevitable result of this will be a breakdown of discipline and the desire to start chasing your losses, which is something I NEVER do. When I have a bad day, my attitude is always the same ‘cest la vie’, there will always be another day.
I have many diverse and varied betting strategies within my betting portfolio, but for the purposes of this exercise, let me use my ‘Hughie’ Place betting strategy as an example of the above philosophy in action.
‘Hughie’ Place Betting Strategy
Here are Hughie’s results for the six months to June 1, 2009. (You could use any 6-month period from the last 9 years, in fact some earlier half-year numbers would show higher gains. But these are the latest numbers and They emphasize the points I’m trying to make.
Results are based on a £400 stake bank and the stakes used are as follows: £2, £4, £8 and £12
Oct 1 +77.63
November 1 +129.90
December 1 + 14.34
Jan 1 +179.83
February 1 +116.37
Tue 1 +169.58
April 1 – 3.62
May 1 + 13.81
June 1+77.78
The first thing you’ll notice is the relatively small and “boring” size of the bets I’m using relative to the size of the bet bank. By staking such a small percentage of the betting bank on the ‘Hughies’ all stress is instantly removed as the bank is never in danger of going bust and the size of the bet is always within my betting comfort zone . Some of my members stake the ‘Hughies’ at much larger stakes, however if the stakes are doubled or tripled then so must the bank.
As you can see, you could comfortably follow this particular betting strategy with the recommended bets and at betfair sp safe in the knowledge that winning, losing or drawing over a long term period of say 6 months, you would profit comfortably. You don’t need to see any races biting their nails praying that a particular horse will hold a spot, because you’d be sure the strategy works and one or two horses that don’t get placed wouldn’t make a difference in skill. of the strategy to generate long-term profit.
I keep using the phrase ‘long term’ because it is essential that you understand that this long term approach is needed to be successful with any betting strategy. Just take another look at the ‘Hughie’ results above and you’ll clearly see that the months of March and April were not good months for the ‘Hughies’. At the time, I remember regularly saying in my daily column that it was probably due to the transition period of changing codes from ‘jumps’ to ‘flats’. To me though, that is just an integral part of any strategy – we will have these bumps but we will come out unscathed as all that matters is maintaining a long-term strategy. The plan works, as it doesn’t require you to lose faith or panic. That said, any member who joined in March or April and followed my advice to focus on the ‘Hughies’ would have been pretty bummed out by the end of April, as they would find the ‘Hughies’ to be a bad bet. However, any member who joined last December was on a terrific run and would have had a totally different opinion of both place betting and me.
I think this point clearly demonstrates the importance of having a long-term view of any betting strategy (12 months minimum I would say)
Anyway, this example of making sure, slow, steady, boring but steady profits month after month is just one aspect of a strategic and professional betting approach and hopefully demonstrates the difference between the thrill of the game, which It’s for thrill seekers and the boredom of gambling that is my business.