Losing runs and how it affects the tipster.

I'm going to cheat tonight, and simply point you in the direction of a blog post that I found interesting. It is written by James who runs the Summer Of Football service, and addresses the subject of how a tipster copes with a losing run.

You can read it here: www.summeroffootball.com/blog.html

There is a natural inclination for subscribers to attach blame to a tipster, holding him responsible for the losses accrued when things go wrong. I have never read a comment left on a forum or on a blog that amounts to, "Oh blimey, that XYZ service is doing crap. I feel really sorry for the geezer who runs it because he obviously puts a lot of hard work and effort into running his service, and up until this point he's been really profitable etc. etc.".

Nope. The tipster is always "crap", or "has lost the plot", or worse. I've mentioned it before, but I know that some tipsters have received dog's abuse from members when enduring a losing run. What gets me though is that surely the abusive subscriber must see that sending a torrent of criticism the way of the person they pay money to for expert advice is completely counterproductive. The last thing a tipster losing confidence requires are members on his or her back and telling anyone who will listen how shit that tipster is!

James doesn't actually say explicitly in his blog that in the past it was abuse from his subscriber base that led to sleepless nights and worry over his tipping form. But at the very best, such abuse can't have helped James' mental state, can it? I did note from the blog that James now feels completely different when facing the prospect of reversing his current poor form than he did when a far less experienced tipster attempting to reverse a downward trend. There's a valuable lesson in there for us punters looking to get together a reliable portfolio. Experience is key, I reckon.


On a related note, I was interested to see Paul Ruffy's response to some criticism he was receiving in the SBC forum from followers of his recently launched Winning Racing Systems. Coming under particular fire was the Favourites system which I myself follow. Paul made an excellent point - that if the system experiences a 30 point drawdown and thus sees it's bank disappear, then he will hold his hands up and say he got it wrong. I don't think any reasonably minded tipster would disagree with the principle that if the recommended bank is blown, then there can be no complaints when subscribers desert the service. I don't know for sure, but I would think that if James suffers a 25 point drawdown, he will feel the same, as would Skeeve, as would The Football Analyst, as would any other tipster. I think.

Yesterday's Betting

Another winner for The Market Examiner (What's Up Woody - Carlisle - 5/1) who appear to have come off their autumn break in the mood to make some profit. Nothing really worth commenting about elsewhere.

On The Nose: Staked 1pt, -1pt.
The Market Examiner: Staked 1pt, +5pts.
The Sportsman Racing: Staked 0.5pts, -0.5pts.

On The Oche: Staked 1.75pts, -0.405pts.