Not much going on.

Right then. A quick round up of the weekend's betting tonight and then the plan is tomorrow to explore the subject raised by Shane in the 'Comments' section last week; how to choose a service for the portfolio.

Weekend's Betting

I'm currently going through one of those oh-so-familiar periods of treading water. Over a period of time, I've realised that this state of stasis is very much the norm. It seems that to a large extent, months are either made or broken by two or three days betting. A great weekend can lead to a good month. A bad weekend to a poor month. To date, we're still waiting for one or t'other to heavily influence August's output. Certainly after the weekend just gone, we're still waiting for those definitive couple of days.

Baby steps forward for Northern Monkey who up until Friday was suffering a poor week. A couple of placed efforts and a winner (Prodigality - Brighton - 4/1) produced a small profit after deductions were made for a loser on Friday. Saturday was a good day with two winners from three (Highland Colori - Newmarket - 4/1 and Postscript - Haydock - 7/1), but then no returns from two bets on Sunday.

Continuing to frustrate is On The Nose. Last week saw another nice priced winner found but what follows are a couple of steps backwards, a pattern that is becoming frustratingly familiar. However, it is very easy to forget that last month was a good one and this month to date is far from disastrous and beyond redemption. It's not, and a decent second half to August could see the second consecutive good month posted. I know The Judge is feeling a little more confident now that the weather and subsequent ground conditions have settled a little. Reasons for optimism, despite Friday and Saturday providing just the one horse placed from seven tips.

Very quiet weekend from The Market Examiner. Just two bets from Friday, neither of which were winners.

Finally on the racing front, just the one selection over the weekend from The Sportsman Racing, a loser.

So the racing continues to disappoint. On a portfolio basis, returns from the nags have been seriously underwhelming since the start of the year. No reason to react too drastically yet though. Let's see what happens between now and the end of December.


On to football/sports betting.

I will never get bored of reporting great weekends for tipping services. Yep, Summer Of Football have done it again! Six winning bets from seven since Friday makes for good tipping! Look, we all know that this run can't go on for ever. Trouble is, when a bad weekend does inevitably come along, it's going to hurt. You can get dangerously used to a service doing really well!

Form Lab Lite epitomise what is happening to the portfolio as a whole at the moment. A couple of winners here, a couple of losers there, and all in all it feels like it is wading through treacle. Still, no real damage done and in the grander scheme of things, there's a lot worse places to be. I guess the likes of Form Lab Lite and Sportyy are likely to come under a bit more pressure to perform consistently, simply due to the fact that they are more expensive to subscribe to than many. I'm not saying that this should be the case, but subconsciously at least, let's face it, it is a sentiment hard to avoid.

Talking of Sportyy, just the one bet over the weekend, and a nice winner at that (1.31/1).

Similarly, just one bet from The Sportsman, but unfortunately, an unsuccessful one.

It's been overdue, but a mediocre weekend for Service X. A bit like Summer Of Football, you got the feeling it had to happen. Having said that, it could have been a lot worse.

Month to date...

Racing
Northern Monkey: Staked 24pts, -8.918pts, roi -37.15%
On The Nose: Staked 21.75pts, -6.025pts, roi -27.7%
The Sportsman Racing: Staked 1pt, -1pt, roi -100%
Winning Racing Tips: Staked 3.4pts, -1.441pts, roi -42.4%
The Market Examiner: Staked 12pts, -5.8pts, roi -48.33%
Total roi -39.88%

Sports
Summer Of Football: Staked 13pts, +6.204pts, roi 47.72%, ROC 31.02%
The Sportsman: Staked 0.3pts, -0.013pts, roi -4.33%, ROC -0.21%
Form Lab Lite: Staked 14.5pts, -1.145pts, roi -7.89%, ROC -7.89%
Sportyy: Staked 10.5pts, +6.63pts, roi 63.14%, ROC 8.28%
Service X: Staked 119pts, +5.797pts, roi 4.87%, ROC 5.79%
Total roi 15.75%

Grand Total roi -1.32%


Finally, more so than the Community Shield, the release of the Football Elite antepost bets makes you realise just how imminent is the start of the new football season. Some very interesting selections this year and I thought the rationale highly original in it's thinking and backed up with a sound logic based on the stats examined. Got to admit, I've a wee tingle about it all now. The Olympics have been and gone. Bring on the footie!