My question today is, how much profit are you really making from gambling? (And be brutally honest with yourself when answering that question!)
I hope you are winning! If you are well done to yourself, as surely that is the goal for most people, but even if you are a rare winning player, are you winning as much as you could? However, if you are not a winner, don’t worry because you are not alone. In fact, you are in very good company, as a staggering 98% of players lose money in the long run.
Assuming you’re not winning, do you know why?
Well, I’m going to risk guessing that the reasons are something like this;
a) Betting on the wrong types of races,
b) Blindly support favorites (especially shooting odds)
c) No sense of money management,
d) Unruly approach
e) Chasing losses
f) Maintain a ‘gamer mentality’.
However, if 98% of people are losing money, it stands to reason that 2% must be gaining, then who are these elite 2% and what do they do differently from the majority?
Well, the elite 2% are professionals and semi-professionals like me and we approach betting like a business. The betting industry likes to call us ‘professional players’, but let’s make one thing absolutely clear here, one thing that we are NOT players and this description could not be further from the truth: we do not bet for fun or for good or good. thrill of it. We bet for one reason and one reason only: TO MAKE A PROFIT!
I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again: “Gambling is business and gambling is for idiots.” Let me try to explain the difference between betting and gambling.
As I have already said, I am a professional and as such I am in the betting business for one reason only: to ensure a slow and steady profitability in the long run. To achieve this result, betting professionally has to be BORING and WORLDWIDE, from a psychological point of view the result of a single race becomes almost irrelevant to me, since in the long term I know that I will take advantage of my betting strategies.
The goal of running any business is to make a profit and to achieve this result I need the following three elements to work in my favor:
a) A betting bank,
b) A stakeout plan
c) A betting strategy that will generate long-term profits.
The bet bank must be large enough in relation to my bet size to support the inevitable losing runs. It is also important that, from a psychological point of view, betting is well within my betting comfort zone, which means that my pulse never races before or after a bet.
The moment your pulse starts to race it should immediately alert you to the fact that you have stopped betting and are betting, something went wrong with your strategy, and you have become uncomfortable with your bet size or have lost confidence in your choice. . betting strategy. The inevitable result of this will be a break in discipline and a desire to start chasing your losses, which is something I NEVER do. When I have a bad day then my attitude is always the same ‘cest la vie’, there will always be another day.
I have many diverse and varied betting strategies within my betting portfolio, but for the purposes of this exercise, let me use my ‘Hughie’ place betting strategy as an example of the above philosophy in action.
‘Hughie’ place betting strategy
Here are Hughie’s results for the six months through June 1, 2009. (You could use any 6-month period from the last 9 years, in fact some earlier semi-annual figures would show higher gains. But these are the latest figures and it emphasizes the points that I am trying to make.
The results are based on a £ 400 bet bank and the bets used are the following £ 2, £ 4, £ 8 and £ 12
October 1 + 77.63
November 1 +129.90
December 1 + 14.34
Jan 1 +179.83
February 1 +116.37
March 1 +169.58
April 1 – 3.62
May 1 + 13.81
June 1 + 77.78
The first thing you will notice is the relatively small and ‘boring’ size of the bets that I am using in relation to the size of the betting bank. By betting such a small percentage of the betting bank on the ‘Hughies’ all stress is instantly eliminated as the bank is never in danger of going broke and the bet size is always within my betting comfort zone . Some of my members bet the ‘Hughies’ at much larger bets, however if the bets are doubled or tripled the bank must do so as well.
As you can see, you can comfortably follow this particular betting strategy with recommended bets and on betfair sp with the security of knowing that if you win, lose or draw over a long-term period of say 6 months, you will make a profit. comfortably. You wouldn’t need to watch any race biting your nails praying for a particular horse to hold on to a spot, because you’d be sure the strategy works and that one or two horses that don’t stand wouldn’t make a jot of difference in the ability of the race. strategy to generate long-term profits.
I keep using the phrase ‘long term’ because it is essential that you understand that this long term approach is needed to be successful with any betting strategy. Just take another look at the previous ‘Hughie’ results and you will clearly see that the months of March and April were not good months for the ‘Hughies’. At the time, I remember regularly saying in my daily column that it was probably due to the transition period of changing the codes from the ‘hops’ to the ‘flats’. For me, while that’s just an integral part of any strategy, we will have these potholes but come out unscathed as all that matters is maintaining a long-term strategy. The plan works, as it doesn’t require you to lose faith or panic. That said, any member who joined in March or April and took my advice to focus on the ‘Hughies’ would have been quite bummed by the end of April as they would find the ‘Hughies’ a bad bet. However, any member who joined last December had an excellent career and would have had a totally different opinion of both the ‘place bets’ and me.
I think this point clearly demonstrates the importance of having a long-term view of any betting strategy (12 months minimum, I would say).
Anyway, this example of how safe, slow, steady, boring but consistent winnings are generated month after month after month is just one aspect of a strategic and professional betting approach and hopefully demonstrates the difference between the excitement of the gambling which is for thrill seekers and the boredom of gambling which is my business.
