Very Lucky!

Never mix alcohol and Betfair! I did tonight but luckily, I came out on top.

I've had a bottle of wine tonight and for some reason, I opened up my Bet Trader Pro software, and looked at the US racing. The race I opened had about a minute to go, but US races can sometimes run up to 10 minutes early. I layed the favourite, hoping to back higher, when suddenly the market shot down and then , in an instant, suspended!

I waited an anxious 10 minutes to await my fate. Luckily I won £4.37, which increased my bank by 21.6%. Phew!!!


My next target is a more soberly 74p.

Good feeling.

It's not often I have a feel-good moment when trading but I had one tonight. I usually manage to place a back bet on the unders market, seconds before a goal is scored but tonight the opposite happened.

I took a risk on the under 2.5 goals market. After the second goal was scored in the Hull v Sheffield Utd cup game, the odds shot up. I was already showing a loss so I backed @ 4.7 and waited for the odds to come down.

I hung on from the 32nd minute until around the 53rd minute, when I greened up for a net profit of 69p. Minutes later a third goal was scored. Loved it!

A quick dabble on the 3.5 and 4.5 goals markets netted me a total of £1.23, an increase of 6.47%.


My next target is 61p or higher.

Small loss.

Tonight I decided to trade on the Middlesborough v West ham game on the under 2.5 goals market.

My timing, as usual was perfect - I backed unders about 10 seconds before a goal was scored! An early goal (5 mins) made the odds shoot up. I took advantage of this and in the frenzy after the goal, I backed high and managed to lay a lot lower, reducing what would have been a £4 odd loss down to around £2.00. I then decided to pinch another couple of ticks to reduce it even more.

Guess what happened! Backed, got matched, GOAL!

Again, the odds shot up and I backed again, knowing another goal would mean losing 3/4 of my bank. I waited until half time (25ish minutes!!!) until I hedged for a guaranteed loss of £2.56.

The game ended 2-0. Typical.

If I had left it alone, I would have won about £40. BUT another goal would have almost wiped me out. Better safe than sorry I suppose.

This means my bank is down to £19.02, therefore my next target is 57p.

Back in business

First of all, I would like to thank those people wished me luck after I was foolish enough to lose almost my entire bank about 3 weeks ago. Thankyou.

I decided to wait till payday until I started trading again, for a few reasons. First, it gave me a break from betfair and a chance to sort out how I would trade in the future and secondly, to prove to myself that I'm not an addict. I was on betfair nearly everyday, trading on the horses/football etc, and it can be very addictive.

Thankfully, I won't be needing to go to Gamblers Anonymous, but it does make you think sometimes!

Anyway, back to tonight. I had 17p left in my betfair account, so I deposited £19.83 to make it up to a round £20.

I decided to trade on the Inter Milan v Man United match on the under/overs markets. It turned out to be a good decision as the game ended 0-0.

I made a profit of £1.58, which is an increase of 7.9%. Below is my screenshot.


My bank now stands at £21.58. I am aiming to increase my bank by 3% or higher, everytime I trade so therefore, my next target is 65p.

Wiped Out!

Tonight my bank was wiped out. I have a total of 17p left.


This was caused by bad decisions, bad timing and greed.

I'm going to give trading a rest for a week or two.

Bounced back

Yesterday, my betfair balance took a bit of a battering. I had decided that tonight, I would be very cautious with my bets, particularly the size of my stakes. I traded the Ajax v Heracles match using £15 stakes. All was going well until I was caught out by a 12th minute goal just before my lay bet got matched.

As you may know, after a goal is scored and the match un-suspends, the odds can jump up and down quite erratically. I managed to take advantage of this by backing high and laying quite a few ticks lower using £30 stakes. I felt confident enough to use this size stake as I knew the market would settle down after a minute or so. I just hoped there wasn't another goal straight away.

After a second goal was scored after 30 minutes, I did the same again, backing for £30 @ 17.5 and getting my lay bet matched about a minute later @ 15.0.

I managed to reduce my £2.50 loss to £1.35 on the under 2.5 goals market. Knowing that another goal would close the market, I moved onto the under 4.5 goals market.

Again, I used the period after a goal to take advantage of the price swings and, together with a bit of luck, I ended up making £11.73. Taking away my loss from the 2.5 goals market meant my profit for today was £10.38, or a increase of 20.43%. Very pleased!

This is my betfair P&L.


I'm back above the £60 mark again, so my 3% target for next time is £1.84.

This just shows that a bad loss isn't the end of the world. You just have to take it on the chin and realise that you will have losing days. As long as you protect your bank and reduce your losses, the winning days will wipe out the loss and have you back in profit.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Early goals...GRRRRR!!!

I didn't trade yesterday, and with the race meetings off and a lot of the football postponed too, I was going to give it a miss tonight too. I should have done!

I picked out 3 matches tonight to trade the under 2.5 goals markets.

In the first one, Kaiserslauten v Mainz, I was caught out by a 6th minute goal. I hedged to equalise my loss to £7 on either result.

In the second match, Boulogne v Montpellier, a 3rd minute goal had me in the red for £19.

Surely I'd have better luck in the third game??? Not much better

A 6th minute goal in the Mantova v Livorno came, luckily after I had hedged for a 37p profit.

I was looking at a loss of over £25 and had to do something to reduce it. I ended up scalping my £7 loss on the Kaiserslauten game and reduced it to £5.74.

I also traded on the under 3.5 and 4.5 goals markets, reducing my loss even further.

Altogether, my loss for tonight was £13.73, which was a 21.27% loss. Ouch!

Looking on the bright side, it could have been a lot worse, and I thought I handled the early goals well. I could have panicked and made rash decisions but I kept my cool and took the losses. I then traded carefully to reduce my loss from a possible 38.72% of my bank to a more manageable loss of just over 21%.

Below is my betfair P&L screenshot.


The lesson I learned today is, I have been using too big a percentage of my bank to trade with. It worked for a bit and meant I needed less ticks to acheive my target for the day, but an early goal put me well in the red.

My betfair bank now stands at £50.82, so my next 3% target is £1.52.

Another Milestone

Tonight I broke the £60 barrier. OK, I only needed to win £1.17 to do that but I only made the £50 mark 2 days ago. I'm really getting into the under/over market.

My profit today came from the Man U v Everton game. I traded both the under 2.5 and 3.5 goals markets using £50 stakes. I'm definitely feeling more confident in using such a large percentage of my bank.

I ended up with a profit of £5.36 from this game.

I also read about a hot tip too. On the Racing Traders forum, someone posted that in the Ajax v Heerenveen game, the odds for 0-0 was unusually high - 27.0 in fact.

I thought this was a good price to back and lay off later so I risked £1 of my winnings and backed it.

Around 20 minutes later, I layed 0-0 for £1.38 @ 19.5 to guarantee me a profit of 36p after commission in that game. There was no score until the 59th minute and I believe the odds went as low as 3.6 !!!!

My total profit for the 30th was £5.72, which was a 9.72 % increase.

Below is my betfair screenshot for yesterday (30th Jan).


This brings my betfair bank to £64.55, therefore my 3% target for next time is £1.93.