Right Folks, Today We'll Be Learning How Vital It Is To...
Hello and welcome!
After yesterday's off-topic post, it's back to gambling matters.
For us to make money on the side from this game, we need to make changes from former habits. Unfortunately, it's not now as it was before. The days when you could back hole-in-ones for a PGA tour at 100/1 are over. Bookmakers are growing ever the wiser and each year value becomes harder to find as Ladbrokes, Coral and co. develop their expertise in all betting markets. To compensate for this us gamblers have to pay more attention to detail in an attempt to compensate for the bookmakers' ever increasing edge. There are several measures we can all take. Some of you may be practicing some of these methods already, others of you may have heard these methods previously and, for some, these may be fresh concepts. Over the coming weeks I'll be discussing each method individually. The first installment starts today.
I can't stress enough how important record keeping is. Detailed information of previous bets can be invaluable when you have a good number to reflect on.
Primarily, record keeping will reveal the facts. Are you making a profit? What's your return on investment? How much are you losing?
You may be a punter who specialises with horses. If you use a particular system, you can analyse past results and find you are losing money in certain situations. It may be that you back unfancied horses and find your bets are unprofitable when the ground is firm, probably because favourites tend to perform worse of soft ground. Even if you don't have a system and use 'method' selections, record keeping could show you that you're particularly good at picking winners in class 1 or class 2 races and you may decide to raise your stakes in those races. Conversely, you may notice you're particularly bad at picking winners at Epsom, so bad you'd be better off stopping when races are at that track (or paper testing, to see if the poor form lasts, anyway). If you're particularly clever and your selections have been very unprofitable, you could even use this information to lay your selections.
In short, record keeping is critical to maximise profits. It will point out your weak areas and highlight your stong points. It is this information that will help earn you more money or, at the very least, save you from losing as much of your hard-earned as you otherwise would. Yes, it will takea little time and effort, but the benefits can be monumental. Furthermore, with Microsoft Excel, it's never been easier to keep records and let the computer do all the difficult maths for you. There really is no excuse.
Below I've made 10 suggestions on possible details we can include in record keeping spreadsheets. Hopefully, they help to get you started if you haven't already...
1 - Date
2 - Bookmaker name
3 - Bookmaker odds
4 - Average odds
5 - Subject (the horse, football team, golfer, ect. you are betting on)
6 - Backing or Laying
7 - ROI
8 - Profit/Loss
9 - Commission (if necessary - should vbe deducted from profits, too)
10 - Betting Stake Amount
Have a good one,
Josh.