Professional Gambler

Just thought I'd let you guys know about an old friend I bumped into at a Christmas 'do' - I hadn't seen him for over 5 years.

Turns out his sole income is from gambling (or investing - as he preferred to call it) on betfair.

He got sick and tired of working for a living, mainly he hated seeing half his salary whipped away in tax to fund hairbrained schemes (anyway that's another story!)

He'd tried various betting systems, while he was working, with varying success - like most of us here, I would assume. He then realised that any of his systems that produced an over 50% win rate could be turned into a profitable income.

He paper trades for ages on various systems - like us! - before commiting money and then -

He does the following:-

1. Have a large enough bank to allow 5% of it to be used for bets.
2. Stick with the system through thick and thin and don't 'bottle out' - be disciplined.
3. Keep records

I tried to get some idea of what he was betting on and his answer was simple - "Never stake more money than you can actually win"

He did also say that he uses 2 systems at the same time and always bets using a system and never bets on tips or whims.

Thinking about what he said, I took him to mean - never back at odds-on?

Looking back at various systems I've tried over the years and I guess he's right. All of the backing systems I've used where the odds are less than 2 have failed over time.

I like this forum because of the betting discipline it encourages, particularly the 'keeping records' bit!

Anyway, hope you weren't too bored reading this waffle!

Bill

All sounds like great advice to me Bill.

I have one such high strike rate system runnning in my thread at the mo, my naps. Some of them do go a little short in price though.

scruffula wrote:All sounds like great advice to me Bill.

I have one such high strike rate system runnning in my thread at the mo, my naps. Some of them do go a little short in price though.

I suspect, the way he was talking, he uses a recoup losses type staking plan, so he's never in a position where he loses more than he can actually win.

He did say that bookies rely on punters giving up when the stakes start to rise - I take it that's why he said 'don't bottle out'!

Bill

Interesting read , it boils down to " disaplin "

I also know a guy very well that specialises on the All Weather schene and lives from the profits ..

" DISAPLIN is the only way to long term sucsess !

Thought I would move this topic into the main forum, because the story shows that a living can be earned from betting if you have discipline, and by that I mean ( and I have mentioned this before) sticking to one or two systems through thick n thin. I would love to see replies and ideas put to this topic and one day we might wake up and smell the coffee! All too often we might follow a thread because it is having a good run and it is in profit, but then the bad run turns up and after a few losers you tend to drop it (and so does the poster of the topic) but we can all paper trade without losing a penny so why don’t we keep it up even when the system is say 20 points down, it could be on it’s turning point and due to go back on a very profitable winning streak! Once the up and downs have show themselves and we get a better idea of what to expect, then we can stop paper trading and start using real money!

Showing a profit and loss on your threads (as I always ask you to do) will help spot the long term systems that make an overall profit, that much easier.

Thanks for bringing this topic up Bill, it once again shows us working together for the same thing, “beating the bookies”

I'm guilty of starting threads and basically giving up on various systems I've tried.

I've just scrapped the dutching thread I started because it was effectively betting at odds less than 1/2 and my friends advice was not to bet at odds-on, and that thread was starting to lose ground quite quickly.

I do think that there does come a point in some systems where it's better to cut your losses.

I do intend to stick with my 2 remaining threads until the end of February and then see where they stand.

Bill

I wouldn't mind knowing from you chaps about starting a thread and start to post your MOST profitable system out of how many you use.

You do not have to say how it works or anything but what a thread that would be, making interesting reading and be the envy of other forums.
As a rule a good staking system AND discipline is always required if you want to take betting seriously.

So if you do, then why not start the thread and lets see how much profits we could make just by posting our best performing threads under 1 heading. Lets put it to the test and see what potential damage we could do together.

Any feedback welcome and thanks Bill for starting this thread

Thanks Brian for highlighting this subject.

I'd like to let you all in on some more info that I've got out of my friend. (It's cost me a few drinks!)

He NEVER lays bets on betfair - except he sometimes trades out, he NEVER backs under 2.1 (that's because of betfair's commission) and he NEVER bets on horse races.

He uses betfair because of the better odds avaiable.

His main bets are on tennis, snooker, baseball and basketball. He actually reckons that the vast majority of his profits come from baseball and tennis (in that order). Anyone know anything about baseball?? ot tennis??

Now, given that he never backs below 2.1, he appears to only back the outsider of 2.

I have no idea what his actual system is but he is making an excellent tax-free living out of it and spends most of the year in southern Spain still placing his bets.

He has a contact over there who only bets on horse races and owns 3 villas - so my mates' methods are not the only way to beat the bookies!

Bill

Bill any mate of yours is a mate of mine sounds like it is something to follow thanks for posting this information and please do keep doing so. As I said before if we all work together and stay together we will crack this!

Brian wrote:Bill any mate of yours is a mate of mine sounds like it is something to follow thanks for posting this information and please do keep doing so. As I said before if we all work together and stay together we will crack this!

Very true Brian!

Looking through the threads that are regularly posted, there does appear to be a winning theme.

If we could just come up with one system fits all!!

Bill

Further info, if anyone is interested.

I received an email from my mate that gave a list of all his bets so far on the masters snooker - it was actually a cut and paste of his betfair snooker account.

Seems he has a different betfair account for each sport ( didn't know you could do that!)

It showed that he had won on EVERY match.

His secret?

Every bet was on the handicap (+/- 1.5 frames). He was backing the 'outsider' in the handicap, that's the player who was being given +1.5 frames.

I won't tell you what his stakes were, just lets say they were rather large!!

He added a note that he did this in every one of his chosen sports.

So now we know.

Bill


PS Can we arrange a few of us to monitor this method on different sports?

This message has been posted on all threads so that no one will miss it.
The forum has moved today to my own domain, please follow us and keep up your support.

You will be able to start your own threads and also if you wish copy n paste your systems from here into the new forum as I have done or start afresh it is totally up to you.

If you have any problems please email or PM me from here.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the new forum at

http://brianbinns.com/SportingTips/index.php

Thanks for keeping up the good work, I will also email all members with the link to the forum

Brian