Good Housekeeping

I hope people will agree that the discussion and debate around the Secret Betting Club this week has been worthwhile (if not, too bad!), and I had intended to wrap up the subject tonight. However, there will be a small delay before a line can be drawn underneath this topic. The reason is that in yesterday's comments section, Stephen left what amounted to a fairly strong criticism of the way that the SBC handled the launch of their MGB football service at the beginning of this season. I left my thoughts as regards some of the issues raised by Stephen in last night's post, but I wanted the debate to be opened up further, and in the interests of fairness afford the SBC the right of reply. I approached the SBC to ask if they would like to respond, and yes they would. This will be coming next week, so we will revisit the theme then.

Instead tonight, I will go through the "housekeeping" issues I mentioned yesterday.

I spoke earlier in the week of doing some analysis of each of the services in my portfolio, as I am wont to do when things are not progressing as I would wish. I broke down the three, six, and twelve month performance figures for each service. Unfortunately, it was the straw that broke the Sports Investor back.

If ever you want an example of someone making a pig's ear of something, my management of the removal of Sports Investor from the portfolio sets a standard that is exceptionally difficult to beat. Having decided to do this at the beginning of the month, I then had a change of heart, thinking that a more appropriate time to judge would be at the end of the season. So, after missing a couple of winning bets, I reinstated it, only to back a couple of inevitable losers (plus one winner). Perhaps my reinstatement was a symptom of my tendency to always want to give a service the benefit of the doubt, but looking at those periodic figures, I realised that my confidence was shot. To be showing a deficit in each of the 3/6/12 month time periods shows an acutely consistent loss of form. Really, there is only one decision I can make now.

There are however, knock on effects. I don't want my turnover on football betting to decrease too much, but at the same time, I don't think that now is the time to join a new football tipping service. So, someone somewhere has to take a bit more of the load. And Skeeve, is from this point, going to be carrying a little more of my money. Why Skeeve? Well, it boils down to the fact that I was willingly understaking a little as the service was new to me this season, so there is more room than with other services to increase the weighting on Skeeve without unbalancing the overall portfolio staking. It's a fairly significant increase...£15 to £25/point, making the average stake on a bet £100 instead of £60.

The other service to be effected, albeit indirectly, is The Sportsman. If you remember in the monthly review for February, I mentioned that I was chronically understaking this service but I had concerns over whether or not I'd be able to get the requisite money on some of the selections should I raise the bar. Well, there is only one way to find out, and this seems to be as good a time as any to do so. Increased staking will pick up some of what had previously been used on Sports Investor, and it gives me from now until the end of the season to see if I can continue with the service next season. I hope it all works out, because although returns have not exactly been spectacular so far since last summer, I do like the feel of the service. £200/point to £400/point, which should bring me up to the staking levels this service really needs to bring in worthwhile returns.

I hope this post has given a bit of an insight into some of the ongoing decisions that need to be made when running a portfolio.

Today's Action

Another disappointing day on the nags today. PJA show no sign of reversing their poor form. Five bets today, no winners and just the one placed. They really are on a shocking run, but they have done the same before and turned it around. Fingers crossed they do so again, but I could do with it being sooner rather than later. Chasemaster's only selection couldn't land the spoils and ProBandit's one each way bet placed and so stakes were returned.

PJA NH: Staked 3.5pts, -2.838pts.
ProBandit: Staked 1pt, -/+.
Chasemaster: Staked 0.5pts, -0.5pts.
Financial loss on the racing of £80.75.

Friday 11th March: Staked £140, -£80.75.
Week to date: Staked £1,489, -£157.81.
Month to date: Staked £5,157, +£71.48, roi 1.38%.


Just as a footnote, I was seriously impressed by an email received from Chasemaster today, which told members not to expect much, if any action from them at Cheltenham next week. It's not their area of speciality you see. They are strong in the Class 3 to 5 chases, which of course are held predominately at the smaller tracks. Now I love Cheltenham, and am looking forward to it immensely (only four more sleeps now!), but I would much prefer services on whose advice I am risking hard earned cash stick to their niche.