Different bookmakers and a plea for help.

Just a couple of things today.

Firstly, I noticed for the first time the other day, a bookmaker called Wilson Bet advertise in the Racing Post. They do online betting and offer Best Odds Guaranteed so I've already decided to open an account with them and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, does anybody have any experience of them?

I'm always very wary of bookmakers that aren't one of the "established" names in the industry. I keep balances in each account to a practical minimum, even with the likes of William Hill and BetFred - I don't want to be stung by a bookmaker going bankrupt which it seems some of the smaller ones do with a fair level of regularity. My attention was brought recently to Best Bet bookmakers, a Lancashire based firm that ran telephone debit and credit accounts. They have just gone Bump but fortunately customers have been bailed out by the well-known Star Sports who have taken on the accounts of Best Bet's (ex)clients. It was because I was made aware of Best Bet's plight by someone I know who had money lodged in an account with them, that a piece in the Racing Post caught my eye. In it, Star Sports were described as representing a "White Knight" for punters as they had acquired a number of bookmaking operations who were finding it difficult to keep their heads above water, thus ensuring that customers of the stricken firms didn't need to write off any money they were owed or had deposited. It just goes to show that in the age of bookmaker restrictions that we all face, it is sensible practice to explore other avenues of opportunity provided by new or less well known bookmaking firms, but is also sensible to act prudently with these companies in terms of trusting them with our funds.


The other thing I want to mention today is blogs. There are some excellently written, insightful and fascinating blogs out there, but I'm not at all confident that they're all listed on this page. In fact I am sure they are not. Therefore, I'm putting out a plea for help. I'm going to be tidying up the blog roll on here, and this seems a good opportunity to list some new ones that you can perhaps recommend. Whether it be a blog concentrating on following tipsters like this one, or trading, or that gives out their own selections or anything else relating to betting, please let me know which you think are worth a read. What I can then do is make sure I add them and draw everybody's attention to them.

Wednesday 20th March
Another quiet day showing a small loss overall.

Again there was no joy for Northern Monkey (0/1), nor for On The Nose (0/1). The one each way Winning Racing Tips bet successfully hit the frame.

Northern Monkey: Staked 1.5pts, -1.5pts.
On The Nose: Staked 0.5pts, -0.5pts.
Winning Racing Tips: Staked 0.6pts, +0.171pts.


Right, I'm off to go and watch the school production of Wind In The Willows. My lad has a duet to sing. How do you reckon 10 year olds cope with being heckled?