Anyone Bet Professionally?

[Haynesey]

Just ran across a "betfair trading" blog and looks like there is some people making serious money. And was wondering if anyone has traded or even punted professionally?

[Knup]

Hey Haynesey... I've never considered myself a professional bettor but I definitely wager on about anything and everything sporting related. I spent a few years studying the art of arbitrage betting as well and tried making some money off of sure bets. With a very large bankroll that could be profitable but I never could quite keep on top of that. Betfair isn't something I've ever done being in the US. But it does intrigue me.

[chaumi]

I'm a horse racing fan and use Betfair regularly. Not professional (still have a day job) but doing well enough to consider full time at some point in future. Mortgage paid off by the horses.

You can get stunning odds on Betfair. As an example there was a 100-1 SP winner at Southwell around 6 weeks ago...I bet at 320-1, 240-1 on Betfair to collect £2.5 k from a tenner. Last week i picked up 40-1 on a 33-1 SP winner, and previous week 106-1 on a 66-1 shot.

It takes a lot of experience ( and a lot of learning from losers) to get to the point where you can be backing winners like that. It also requires an acceptance that you're going to regularly back losers, and to build that into the equations for long term profit.

With plenty of time ( and a lot of knowledge and experience) I do think it's possible to do well from trading in running. In the above long priced 100-1winner example above, there was a point a furlong out where mine was a length or two in front of the odds on favourite with nothing else in it. I could have traded off there and guaranteed a profit if the favourite had got there.

Pretty much like poker, a lot rides on maximising your winnings and minimising losses.The trick of course is knowing which one you're on to with any specific bet....and it's easy to lose a big bankroll when you hit a long losing un.

[Haynesey]

Impressive Chaumi!

I've won some decent money through trading, but I think most of it was luck rather then skill.

Have you got an suggestions regarding testing a football system?

Haynesey

[chaumi]

Around ten years ago I backordered 2 years worth of Racing and Football Outlook. They had a writer called Kevin Pullein (just searched him and looks like he now writes for the Racing Post) who seemed to be the top man on football systems/statistics. He used to score each match to nominate the most likely result. He has a football betting book out, might be worth a look. Just Google his name, it's one of the returns on first page. Think I'll order it.

In those days you could only place single match bets (win, lose, or draw) on a couple of high profile games each Saturday.

I tried to see if there were any patterns in his forecasts that would give a good statistical return, but because you could only bet in multiples it fell apart. Generally if you try multiples there's always going to be at least one that goes the opposite/wrong way to take the bet down.

Not looked into it since, but nowadays there are a whole host of single markets where there may well be good potential for long term profit. I suspect that the Betfair markets may well give odds variations good enough to make an overall profit with some clever betting.

Personally I'd probably stick with win, lose, or draw on single matches. I may well look into it again.

Here's a little story about luck which shows how it can turn either way on a knife edge.....

Around 4 years ago I had a £10 ew treble running. The first 2 went in at 8-1 and 40-1. You don't want to know how much was going on the last one at that point...I'd taken 33-1 in the morning.

The horse was Circuit Dancer. Around a furlong out it's 2 lengths down and beat. The horse leading was Dazzling Bay, which for no obvious reason (and this is very rare in a flat race) swerved violently in the last furlong. Mine got up to win by a few inches. The difference between a lot and a little

Of course, luck does go the opposite way, and I have a few tales of that too

[Jeremy]

I thought about going pro as a sports bettor last weekend. However inside of 12 hours all my hopes and dreams of that career were shattered.

In all seriousness though I think the odds of making a good stable income as a sports bettor probably carries the same odds as making a living a professional online poker player.

Bottom line is for each you would need a tremendous bankroll to handle the swings. And since it takes money to make money, if you have a tremendous roll, it might make more sense to get on the business side versus the gambling side. Just my 2 cents.

[chaumi]

Bottom line is for each you would need a tremendous bankroll to handle the swings. And since it takes money to make money, if you have a tremendous roll, it might make more sense to get on the business side versus the gambling side. Just my 2 cents.[/QUOTE]

Spot on with the bankroll. I'll speak from a horses perpective, but applies to all. If you have a good understanding of your markets or betting targets, you're going to make winning bets or winning trades. Guaranteed.

But you're also guaranteed to hit losses.

Betfair does give you the opportunity to act as a bookie, and lay horses ( or anything) to lose. Again from a horse racing perpective, i can guarantee I'm going to back losers so should in theory be able to make money with this - there are many races where there are exceptional sets of reasons why the favourite can't win (normally indicated by patterns you can see in a specific horses racing history).

By acting as the bookie though your potential losses are much higher if you get it wrong. Personally i suspect i wouldn't enjoy it...same as I don't enjoy it when I have £100+ on to win even if it is ultimately a winning bet.

A perfect extra example of why bankroll is so important. Had a stupid bet today on a 4-5 favourite, £150 win. Went clear and got caught by the outsider of 4 after the last. I could have given up, but with a big enough bankroll could shrug and keep going. Backed an old donkey at 26-1 on Betfair about half an hour ago, just a tenner, and in it went, money recovered with small profit on the day.

I think in this gambling game you've got to be able to shrug and say never mind, and that's the whole basis of responsible gaming. if it hurts (you or anyone around you), don't do it.

[Haynesey]

Hey Chaumi,

You thought about starting a tipping service?

Seems like you know your stuff.

[chaumi]

You can see I love it. Could talk for hours on the subject.

Actually yes, I registered a domain last week specifically for it. Intention is to run as a blog...but I need to get my poker and casino sites in good order first, working hard on them... and then have to learn how to get a blog running. Always beaten me technically before, but i know it's supposed to be simple. Will crack it this time.

Thanks for suggestion.

[xYassassinYx]

You can see I love it. Could talk for hours on the subject.

Actually yes, I registered a domain last week specifically for it. Intention is to run as a blog...but I need to get my poker and casino sites in good order first, working hard on them... and then have to learn how to get a blog running. Always beaten me technically before, but i know it's supposed to be simple. Will crack it this time.

Thanks for suggestion.

If you install Wordpress you can't go wrong mate it makes life so easy and you can have both blog and static pages.

If you run into any problems just post here and I'm sure everyone will be happy to help you sort things