28th Dec, trading in the stadium

Forest 2 - 0 Coventry

Backed Forest £80 @ 1.63

Coventry may have won their last 3 games but c'mon, they were against Peterborough, Plymouth and Doncaster. And the Doncaster game they fluked it, so I was pretty confident Forest would turn them over. Turned out that Coventry put up quite a fight traded out after the 1st goal for a £22 profit. Win.

Posh 4 - 4 Cardiff

Backed Cardiff £40 @ 2.28

Cardiff were obviously going to thrash the hapless Posh and I traded out after the 1st Cardiff goal. I was kicking myself at halftime as they were 4-nil up and it probably traded at 1.01 after goal 3. Ah...I would have got a lot more if I'd have waited. Unbelievable that Posh then scored 4 themselves in the 2nd half - but that's the kind of mental sh*t Posh get up to. Traded out for £25 profit. Win


Wolves 0 - 3 Man City

Backed Man City £70 @ 1.88

Just because I'm still sick of McCarthy...and the usual 'new manager bounce' from Mancini. Traded out after the 2nd goal @ 1.03 for a £55 profit.

What a great day! My mate Dave asked me if watching the numbers distracted from the whole matchday experience, no way man, I was like a pig in muck!

27th Dec - clawing it back....

Hibs v Rangers

OK whilst Hibs aren't that far away from Rangers points-wise, I was confident Rangers would turn them over after watching that Demarcus Beasley goal the other day. Anway, I backed Rangers £35 @ 1.98 - Win.

Manchester Utd v Hull

Bah - the previous game had left me tantalisingly close to the £400 mark so I traded a few ticks on this game and took an 80p profit. Win.

Feyoooonnoooord v AZ Alkmar

Put a fiver on under 2.5 goals for about 15 ticks in the 2nd half. Why? Because that 85p was enough to take me over £400 - that's why!

Go ahead....make my day.

The sporting fixtures tonight were a casualty to the freezing weather, not just here in the UK but all across Europe. Heck, even the Darts got affected with one of the players walking 3 miles to get to Ally Pally.

So with the hotly anticipated clash of Bournemouth v Notts County postponed, I had to scratch around for something else. In the French 2nd Division it was Metz v Caen - after some careful deliberation I decided to lay Caen @ 4. At which point the market went suspended as this fixture was also postponed! Darn it - I'd checked the webcams around Metz and it was a lovely dusting of snow, so I thought it might be a under 2.5 goals opportunity as well. Typical Metz - crying off when it gets a little chilly.

OK - what else is there. Ah! Heracles v Go Ahead Eagles in the Dutch Eerste Divisie which had already started, had a goal and TWO sendings off. The Eagles were 1-0 up but still at 2.08, so stuck a £50 with a view to scalping a few ticks. Anyway, I let it slide for a while then the betfair "ding!" went off - they'd scored a 2nd and the odd's plummetted. Traded out for nice £50 profit (up yours Chelsea).

Although Betfair are still holding on to my postponed money.....

Bate boys

Everton v BATE Borisov

Seeing as they've already qualified, Moyes decieded to put the kids out - fair enough, not the same as what McCarthy had done! I had already backed Everton to the tune of ~£40 @ 1.86 which had come in during the day. When the team was announced though, the odds drifted and I didn't like the look of the youth squad Everton were putting out.
So I traded out for a £1.17 loss and backed BATE £15 @ 3.6, just enough to take me over the magic £400 mark. Even if I lost, the Celtic result would mean I'm up for the night, so jobs a good 'un.

Anyway, BATE fielded their full strength squad which included a few internationals - obviously they didn't want to be shown up by the kids. They pretty much dominated from start to (nearly) finish and it's funny how you notice the pro-English club bias by the commentators when you have money on the opposition.

God, I do find watching Everton boring at the best of times and this match dragged like a sleigh (hey it snowed today!). BATE got the goal they'd been threatening all game in the 75th minute, so I traded out for a healthy profit. I'll have no problem sleeping after that yawnfest.

Addendum: When BATE saw that team, it must've fired them up not to get turned over. I've played cricket against teams that have sported precocious 12 year olds and women, and it made me soooo not to want to get beat. Obviously, 9 times out of 10, we do.

Spurs v Man City

I had backed the over 2.5 goals and I was sat here thinking of how I could write my next blog post, trying to put the positive spin on losing 50 quid. Ouch.....

It was deep in injury time with Spurs 2-0 up, they were fannying around by the corner flag running the clock down. Which is fair enough, that's what you should do. Then Kranjcar nips between a couple of defenders, makes a bee line for the goal and megs Shay Given in the 93rd minute!

Oh crap, this is too stressful. Anyway +£38.

P.S. Well done Burnley getting a draw against Arsenal. Are you watching McCarthy?

Tuesday night Prem action

Birmingham 2 - 1 Blackburn
Backed under 2.5 goals - lost on this one obviously!

Bolton 3 - 1 West Ham
Backed the over 2.5 goals but nothing happend in this game for quite a while, so I then backed the draw. At which point Bolton scored then WHam equalised. Traded out of both markets for smallish profit (~£6). If I'd have waited a little longer I would have got my >2.5 goals. West Ham are looking very vulnerable these days and 6 goals in 2 games from a Gary Megson side, I must be on drugs?!

Man Utd 3 - 0 Wolves
Didn't enter this market as the match odds were too skinny and I wasn't going to put any large bets on after last night.

Sunderland 0 - 2 Villa
Went with £25 on Villa and traded out after 2nd goal for +£50. Nice. Villa starting to show their top 4 credentials and oozing confidence after the win at Old Trafford - Milner could be a super star for us at the World Cup!

Conclusion : Tonight was a decent night, total profit of ~£32. Not sure if I should just pick one game and go with that or spread it around a bit. If I don't lump large amounts on it gives me enough to play with in the bank so I can try other markets, in order to react to changes.
Broke the £300 barrier (again)...this time I want to stay above it!

93 minutes and 11 seconds!!!!!!!

OK the idea to back WBA early paid off as their best player (Boozakky - prob not spelt that right...) didn't make it. So WBA started off at 1.54 so I could have layed off for a ~£7 profit before the ball was kicked. That doesn't sound like me though...

Unbelievably, QPR played really well - taking a 2 goal lead. Holy crap. So my mistake was to overcommit to the tune of £100. Again, this is probably down to overconfidence and greed (typical) on my part. What to do? I could let the game play out and very probably take the £100 loss or put another £50 on the draw. I did the latter after the 1st West Brom goal - I had a feeling they could reign it back. DeMatteo made some really good attacking sub's so I was confident.

When that equaliser went in, in the 94th minute - I did the baggy boing boing. That was the hardest £17.50 I've earnt in a long time.

Poor strategy from me.....gotta learn some lessons from that.

Cruel on QPR, fantastic for WBA even if they were expected to win but some really top notch goalkeeping on show tonight - reminds me of myself (cough)....

Liverpool v Arsenal >2.5goals market

Everyone remebers the last time they met, goalfest. The only downer is that Rafa sees fit to only start one striker. Arsenal start 3!
Anyway, after the 2nd goes in I trade out for £40 profit - shame as no more than five minutes later Arsenal score again and I would have got £100. Oh well, a profits a profit and the amount of time I've let money ride only for no goals to come.

+£43 to me.

9th Dec - Dinamo Kiev v Barcelona

Nice game this and shows off the Betfair model for being the most flexable.

As Barca went 1-0 down their odds went out, so I backed them. Messi won the game late on with a pearling free kick +£25 to me.

8th Dec Champs League night

Chelsea v APOEL - scalped >2.5 goals for +£30

Wolfsburg v Man Utd / Match Odds - Traded for a few quid up

I wonder how many people got burned on the Chelsea result thought?!

Watford v QPR / Over/Under 2.5 goals

Bit of a funny one this. I'd already identified this as a possible winner but 1/2 way through the 1st half it was looking dire. My Betfair buddy Mets emailed me asking about the game wanting to know if he should also get on the >2.5 goals market. I said Nah as it wasn't looking good. 5 mins later and it was 1-1!!! Oooops sorry mate. Anyway, final score was 3-1 and the QPR players had nice scrap in the changing rooms afterwards - ah lovely!

6th Dec - Football Bets

Everton v Tottenham / Match Odds - Backed Spurs and traded out when they were 2-0 up! Everton then scored 2 and the match was drawn. Good job I traded out as that netted me +£53!

Scunthorpe v Coventry / Over/Under 2.5 goals , quick trade +£12

Fulham v Sunderland / Match Odds - +£10

5th Dec - Supplimental Football bets

Lumped on Man Utd as West Ham are poor this year. Traded out @ 1.03 with +£38.

Real Madrid v Almeria / Over/Under 2.5 goals - Traded for +£10.

Deportivo v Barcelona Match odds - Traded for +£8

All in all a bloody good day!

Leicester get torn a new one, I'm in the £££ !!!

After last weeks demolition of Doncaster I backed Forest again as I thought the'd edge it against the Foxes. 5-1 I was not expecting but what a fantastic performance from the boys in the Garibaldi!!!
Interesting market as it was stated as being 'unmanaged'. So it doesn't go suspended when there's a penalty or goal scored - the odds just look after themselves. This seems a lot better - why even bother with 'managed'. Just let the market look after itself! I mean, it's not done any harm with the banking industry.....oh....
Anyway +£56, traded out at 1.01

Fulham v CSKA Sofia

Europa League fun and games. Traded on unders / overs for a few quid, nothing much.

GB / Leic 3rd Dec / 15:35 To Be Placed

Quinte Du Chatelet - Thommo recommend it on TalkSport so I had a look at it. Decieded to go with the each-way bet as I'm not a massive horse racing fan.

Because I was at work I wanted a way to listen to the race - iPhone to the rescue. Downloaded a radio app (WunderRadio) which can pick up Timeform and job's a good 'un. Horse featured in the top 3 - +£10

Man City vs Arsenal >2.5 goals

I wasn't watching this one and I decided to let the money ride on this and not trade out. Turned out I was lucky as Weiss scored the 3rd with pretty much the least kick of the match.

Both teams have been free scoring lately so I thought it might have been a bit more of a goal fest. +£25 to me...

Man Utd v Spurs - possible upset?

Man Utd to put out a 2nd string XI, this is Spurs chance to lay down a marker and get into a Cup semi-final. Odds on Spurs were an eye watering 8.0.

Turned out they just rolled over and had their bellies tickled by Man U, lost £10.

Sat / Sun 29th Football bets

Made £10 on the Liverpool v Everton game backing Liverpool, traded out at 1.01.

Made another £15 on Arsenal v Chelsea >2.5goals market after trading out on the 2nd goal.

Backed Barca to beat Real and traded out after the 1st goal - made another £teen's amount.

The idea is not to be greedy and get out when you have greened up. So far so good.