“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Sun Tzu
Last week I spoke about the mini interrogation by my wife about my plans to leave the world of real work and employment and how I was going to make this work. This time round I will share a little about my approach and my plan for the year ahead, in the hope it might give you some inspiration for your own betting portfolio.
There are different approaches to this and no doubt, experienced professionals tend to specialise in one particular area. Our very own Bet Chat experts are proof of that and I hope one day to follow in their vastly experienced footsteps.
At the moment though, until I get to that level with my trading, I have a few other income streams that will get me through the year. I’m sure some of you reading might be sceptical about why I would share this with you if it was so profitable…
Well, firstly, it doesn’t impact negatively on me if you also choose to do these strategies, as they are already known to many people. Secondly, I have shared just enough that can get you started but they all require the hours to be put in and aren’t a magic money tree. Thirdly, I believe in karma and have benefited from lots of free advice given over the internet and this is my way of sharing something back.
So, here’s my list!
1) US Horse Racing – This is by far my most profitable strategy and it’s been profitable for over a year now. Put simply, it’s a method of backing horses that are about to shorten in American horse races. Huge edges (20%+ ROI long term) can be found over the bookmakers if your trigger finger is fast enough.
Of course, it’s not without its risks. Be prepared for your accounts to be closed fairly quickly if you do this often enough, so you should also be prepared to charm your friends and make some new ones who are happy to let you run riot with their bookie accounts.
Top Tip: You can try this for yourself by having a look at some US races on oddschecker and watch how the prices move. See how the price moves at one bookmaker before the rest of them update their prices. If you get in fast enough, there are opportunities for great value. You can even underlay some of these on the exchange to lock in some guaranteed profits.
2) Matched Betting and Casino offers – I’d already exhausted most of my own casino and matched bet offers some time ago but again, through the help of my friends, I’ve been doing the offers all over again and giving them a share of any profits I make. With a bit of time and not a huge amount of effort, you can churn through enough of these in a month to make a very tidy second income with the added bonus that eventually you could hit a huge win on one of the slots.
Top Tip: Don’t just sign up to every site for the maximum bonus amount. Some of them aren’t worth it. Use a matched betting website to get offers and instructions and work through them. Pick your choice of slot machine carefully, as they aren’t all made equal. To save time, download an ‘autoclicker’ for your computer so you can spin through the night to save you having to sit through all the wagering.
3) Value Betting Software – There are a few tools available online that I use to place value bets. These clever pieces of kit will scour the betting markets for bets that are posted up in error by the bookies or have just been too slow to bring in line with the rest of the market. If you back these bets hundreds or thousands of times, you will make a nice tidy profit. Just be prepared that you could go on a losing run at first due to variance.
Top Tip: If you are already signed up to a matched betting service, the bet match finder might throw up these opportunities as arbitrage options. Instead of arbing them, you can just back them and long term they should be in profit.
4) Bots – In my opinion, bots are the future of profitable sports betting and a constant pain in the backside for bookmakers. The best thing about bots is that they automate some of the processes for you, so you can sit back and watch the profits roll in. What’s the catch? Well, the bots aren’t cheap and you might need a little bit of computer knowledge to get them up and running. And of course, eventually you’ll get restricted.
Top Tip: Find a developer on a freelancer website such as upwork or freelancer.com who can build the bot you are looking for. You might find they have built what you are looking for already. Also, when running the bot, switch it off from time to time. I’m yet to meet a human being who doesn’t need to eat or go to the toilet and can bet for 23 hours a day. If we know this, the bookies will too!
5) Passive Income Streams – You might notice an automation theme cropping up here. I think it’s the smart thing to do if your time is precious as you want to be able to maximise each minute of it.
I’m a member of Adam Gibb’s Football Index Investor service and for me, it’s great. I spend a little time reading over his weekly updates and follow his selection advice and it’s been working a treat so far. That’s not to say you can’t delve fully into it either, as many members are very active and Adam is always on hand to answer questions. I hope to be more involved in future months too. Our very own horse racing guru, Mel Gee, is a member too, which shows there are some very smart investors in the group.
I also have a pot invested in an automated forex trading platform. It ticks away nicely in the background making money on cash that would otherwise be sitting in a bank account doing nothing (and actually depreciating if you take interest and inflation into account).
Top Tips: Take some time to research passive investment opportunities for yourself and what will work for you. Don’t worry if you don’t have much to put in at first, the idea is that they will grow over time exponentially and reinvest in the future.
6) Betfair Trading – You will notice that trading comes bottom of my list. Why? It’s not that I don’t enjoy it but in my opinion it is the toughest of these strategies to be consistent in. I’m not the world’s worst trader but I’m not particular consistent with my profits either. Part of my journey this year is to improve my own trading and devote some time each week to doing that.
My focus this year will be to be more selective on my football trading, improve my cricket and tennis and learn how to trade horses in-running. In the coming months I’ll also be checking out Alex Ong’s Football Trading service and letting you know how I get on.
Top Tip: If you are interested in learning to become a trader, try and paper trade for a while first and start off on small stakes. If you can’t win consistently on small stakes, then you won’t be able to succeed on bigger stakes.
So, these are my top strategies that I’ll be using this year. What about you? How are you dividing your betting portfolio for the rest of 2020?
If you’d like to get in touch you can reach me via clients@thebetchat.com.
