I was reading the rationale behind the Summer Of Football selections this morning, when it struck me how tipsters who specialise in the same sport can adopt such different strategies to help them in the creation of their edge.

Matt of Football Elite pays very little, if any, attention to team news. This contrasts starkly to James of the Summer Of Football service, who regularly mentions the impact team news has on his thinking, and who in some leagues has decided to only issue a tip if the team news can be considered a significant influence on the possible outcome of the match.

Matt's logic is that within the major European leagues, where even the smaller clubs have fairly sizeable squads from which to choose their starting eleven, a team missing a player or three is inconsequential. Matt's belief is that long term form provides a far stronger indicator to the outcome of a match than the effect of injuries and suspensions. It should be noted that Summer Of Football frequently plays within smaller leagues - the Brazilian second division for example - and I can see immediately that a team missing a couple of influential players could be placed at a considerable disadvantage, putting together a team as they are, from a smaller and weaker squad.

It is clear that there is no right or wrong approach to the issue of team news when identifying selections. Both Football Elite and Summer Of Football are successful at what they do. As is Skeeve who does analyse player availability and The Football Analyst who comes about as far away as it is possible to get from looking at team news by using ratings and algorithms, pure and simple.

What point am I trying to make? That's a fine question and one to which I'm not sure I have an answer. I just found it interesting, that's all. Perhaps I need to get out more.


Tuesday's Betting

Was better on Monday when there were no bets. Poor day, yesterday.

Northern Monkey
Just one losing bet for Wayne.
Staked 1pt, -1pt

Form Lab Lite
A couple of doubles on the World Cup Qualifiers (by the way, how boring were they!?! The sooner we all get back to proper, club football, the better!) but neither proved successful.
Staked 2pts, -2pts

Service X
A winner! Hurrah! One bet, one winner.
Staked 2pts, +1.064pts


Month to date figures...

Racing
Northern Monkey: Staked 13.75pts, -5.468pts, roi -39.77%
The Sportsman Racing: Staked 1pt, -0.083pts, roi -8.33%
Winning Racing Tips: Staked 2.9pts, +2.135pts, roi 73.62%
Total roi 5.49%

Sports
Football Elite: Staked 1pt, +/- (+/-£), roi 0%, ROC 0%
Summer Of Football: Staked 11pts, +4.072pts, roi 37.01%, ROC 16.28%
Skeeve (Asians): Staked 13pts, -5.445pts, roi -41.88%
Skeeve (Doubles): Staked 5pts, +8.785pts, roi 175.71%
Skeeve (Shortlist): Staked 6pts, -4.565pts, roi -76.08%
Skeeve Total: Staked 24pts, -1.224pts, roi -5.1%, ROC -1.53%
The Sportsman: Staked 0.5pts, +0.063pts, roi 12.6%, ROC 1.05%
Form Lab Lite: Staked 14pts, +0.512pts, roi 3.65%, ROC 1.02%
Sportyy: Staked 6.5pts, -2.232pts, roi -34.33%, ROC -2.79%
Service X: Staked 85pts, -11.397pts, roi -13.4%, ROC -11.39%
Total roi 5.7%

Grand Total roi 5.67%


See you tomorrow.