The longest-serving tipster services in the portfolio are Football Elite and Winning Racing Tips. These were the first services I ever subscribed to, and there they both are, still fundamentally important to my betting success. Keystones, if you like.
The thing about WRT is that it is about as solid as they come. The strategy never varies; losing and winning runs come and go with absolutely no discernible difference to the approach taken by Paul, the service operator, to finding winners. WRT is the tipping service equivalent to that pair of older, but incredibly comfy pair of jogging pants that you stick on when you get home from a hard day at the office and all you want to do is veg out in front of the footie on the telly. They're always there. You always get what you see. They never let you down. That's WRT - solid, reliable, successful at what it does...a heck of a combination for a tipping service as far as I'm concerned.
But then along comes a day like Saturday. Saturday presented an opportunity for Paul to display just how astute a tipster he is. His selection in the St.Leger was, by his own admission speculative, but the speculation was very strongly backed up by a cold, hard logic that left no doubt that prior to the race we were onto a live contender. You know there's nothing unspectacular about 33/1 winners!
Northern Monkey
A decent day on Friday as a very nice winner was found (Cape Classic - Doncaster - 9/1) but unfortunately the profits were given back on a blank Saturday.
Staked 5pts, -0.031pts
The Sportsman Racing
Lovely bet on Friday - the only one over the weekend - (Buckstay - Wolverhampton - 7/2). Always nice to see a drift (from 5/2 this time) and a win. I know he divides opinion, but for what it's worth, I think Jamie Spencer is one of, if not the, most talented flat jockeys we have in this country. I know he looks a right dope when he sits behind a wall of horses, doesn't find the gaps and finishes a fast closing second, but he is capable of giving some incredibly good rides. This was one of them, I thought.
Staked 0.5pts, +1.75pts
Winning Racing Tips
Encke - Doncaster - 33/1 and Encke - Doncaster - 14/1 in the w/o favourite market. Say no more.
Staked 1.4pts, +4.808pts
Summer Of Football
I read today that SOF hasn't had a losing weekend since the start of July. That's not a bad record of consistency!
Staked 7pts, +1.792pts
Service X
Got into it's stride on Saturday with six winners from seven bets. Not quite such a high strike rate on the Sunday, but enough to add a touch of profit to Saturday's significant gains.
Staked 49pts, +14.624pts
Form Lab Lite
Can't quite negotiate a way out of the doldrums. Win a few, lose a few, and all in, we're standing still. All part of the game of course.
Staked 7pts, -1.138pts
Sportyy
Success over in Spain on the football over the weekend with a winning double, a void bet, and a single winner. More than compensated for the loss suffered on the tennis on Friday.
Staked 9pts, +1.491pts
The FootbalL Analyst (7/22)
Ah, welcome back, my old friend 7-22! Where've you been keeping?
Two away bets (DNB), one winning and one losing.
Staked 1pt, +0.19pts
Football Elite
Two bets this weekend and so far the DNB approach to betting is certainly smoothing out the ride. I know over time it will erode a little off the roi, but personally, I prefer a more gentle ride and am happy to make the sacrifice. One winner, the other drew (which makes is three bets this season now where instead of losing money, we've got our stake back).
Staked 2pts, +0.7pts
Skeeve (Asians)
Struggling a little in this early season period. Things will all turn around, I've no doubt of that. Just the one winner from four on Saturday.
Staked 11pts, -7.36pts
Skeeve (Doubles)
On the other hand, the old doubles are producing the goods, and some. Incredible long-term record and this season hasn't been slow in producing good profits either. One from two successful on Saturday.
Staked 10pts, +2.726pts
Skeeve (Shortlist)
Not much to say. Three bets and three losers. Not yet to take off this season but at the longer odds, the strike rate will always be lower than the 'Official' selections.
Staked 3pts, -3pts
The Sportsman
Just the one bet and a comfortable winner in League 2 on Saturday.
Staked 0.15pts, +0.115pts
Month to date figures...
Racing
Northern Monkey: Staked 23pts, -0.624pts, roi -2.71%
The Sportsman Racing: Staked 2pts, +1.166pts, roi 58.33%
Winning Racing Tips: Staked 4.7pts, +8.794pts, roi 187.11%
Total roi 72.77%
Sports
Football Elite: Staked 3pts, +0.7pts, roi 23.33%, ROC 2.8%
The Football Analyst: Staked 1pt, +0.19pts, roi 19%, ROC 0.95%
Summer Of Football: Staked 22pts, +6.542pts, roi 29.73%, ROC 26.16%
Skeeve (Asians): Staked 24pts, -12.805pts, roi -53.35%
Skeeve (Doubles): Staked 15pts, +11.512pts, roi 76.74%
Skeeve (Shortlist): Staked 9pts, -7.565pts, roi -84.05%
Skeeve Total: Staked 48pts, -8.858pts, roi -18.45%, ROC -11.07%
The Sportsman: Staked 0.65pts, +0.178pts, roi 27.38%, ROC 2.96%
Form Lab Lite: Staked 22pts, +0.354pts, roi 1.6%, ROC 0.7%
Sportyy: Staked 15pts, -0.24pts, roi -1.6%, ROC -0.3%
Service X: Staked 148pts, +8.545pts, roi 5.77%, ROC 8.54%
Total roi 9.03%
Grand Total roi 17.49%
So, all in all, a damn fine weekend. The football was break even on Saturday, but performed strongly yesterday. Furthermore, after a very difficult first six months to the year, it's great to see the racing side of the portfolio producing the goods. Long may that continue.
Right then. Now we're up to date, I'll concentrate more on the Asian bookie situation tomorrow.
Until then.
Hi Rowan,
ReplyDeleteThis little digest of words is an extension of the transformation of personal punter to portfolio investor to your good self! As you may recall I emailed you a couple of weeks back about general start up question, who to subscribe and the general trial and error process one has to gone through.
Thanks to reading your comments I have joined up with "The Summer of Football service which fits well with my betting activities.
This kind of leads me into the main subject matter "Does betting solely on tipster services help remove the emotional personal side of betting that can deflate so many when it doesn't go well? Yes, there will be losing runs whether you use them or not, but if you know you are buying an edge long term following them, does this automatically make us more likely to follow a better disciplined approach? It is with regret that I hold my hand up and say that I have been in a "betting black hole" of 4 months losses, perhaps my personal selections aren't good enough long term and you should just pay for the best and stake accordingly?
Surely it can't be a simple A+B+C approach, hire the A-team and off you go? Could you possibly write a topic of "Tipsters v Personal Edge" who wins out long term.
Cheers Shane
Hi Shane,
DeleteGood to hear from you again. :)
Good question(s)! Certainly questions that deserve proper attention being paid to them by way of a full post or three.
I shall give it all some thought and then see what we can do next week on the main blog. Not sure that I'm in the best position to summarise on who wins out between "Tipsters vs Personal Edge", simply because I've never established an edge for myself. That doesn't stop me from having opinions though, and that's what this blog is all about.
So, give me until next week and we can start addressing these issues properly.
Thanks for posting - well thought out discussions are what makes this blog what it is.
Cheers now,
Rowan
PS. Sorry for not getting back to your comment until today - yesterday was a nightmare!