I started trading on Betfair back in January. Through that month I made over £300 profit and thing were going brilliantly. In February I lost a bit on a Man Utd game but was still in profit overall for the year. Since then I have made and lost small amounts, but have constantly making small profit overall. However its just too awkward to trade games when you haven't got them in front of you - and seeing as I haven't got Sky Sports this is most games!
I also realised that I wasn't enjoying watching football anymore - if I was trading on it I was always keeping an eye on the odds rather than the game, and if I wasn't trading and there was an early goal then I was annoyed that I missed an oppurtunity to make a profit.
So I've decided to stop this whole thing (or put it on hold until I get round to buying Sky Sports at least!). I've had 2 and a half months of ups and downs, but at the end of the day I've come out with a profit so there have been more ups than downs.
If anyone wants to read a similar blog, or is thinking about actually trading on Betfair take a look at Mark's blog here. He's the guy who showed me how Betfair works in the first place and is a lot more professional in his approach to it than I have been!
Good luck to anyone who does trade on Betfair - I've shown that money can be made from it but its just not for me anymore. I've just withdrawn my funds from my account and I'm sure I'll find a way to waste the money I've made soon! My account is still open on there so never say never - keep your eyes peeled and I might be back writing this blog in the future.
Sunday 18 March 2007
Wednesday 14 March 2007
Back on track
P/L since last blog: £18.46
Monthly P/L: £3.68
I'm back in profit for the month after last weeks terrible run of Champions league games. It should be much bigger but for a screw up on yesterdays cricket world cup opener between West Indies and Pakistan. I'd watched England's two warm up matches to get a feel for how the games would pan out and I was fairly confident of securing a tidy profit over the course of the tournament. But I took my eye off the ball yesterday and was made to pay big time for my over expectancy of what Pakistan's middle order could do. With Yousuf, Inzamam and Akmal losing their wickets in the space of 20 runs I was staring a big loss in the face. I took it in the knowledge that there are going to be plenty more games for me to make it back on over the next month and a half.
I made a small profit on today's Kenya - Canada match and it could've been a bit more but I played it safe after yesterdays match.
My next port of call was deciding on a football match to trade. I only fancied doing one and it was a choice between Man City - Chelsea, Aston Villa - Arsenal and Tottenham - Braga. Because of all the press speculation about Stuart Pearce's job at Man City I could see him getting a good performance from his players in response so decided to give that one a miss. I decided to avoid the Arsenal match too because I find Aston Villa a bit too unpredictable under Martin O'Neill. So I decided to trade the Tottenham game.
After 24 minutes of Tottenham dominance Huddlestone scored an own goal and I was kicking myself for trading the game, especially with both Chelsea and Arsenal being 1-0 up already. However I kept the faith and soon they were back on level terms and then Berbatov added his second to put them in the lead. I got out of my initial trades at half time for a profit. However Tottenham were really looking good so I put some more money on the overs/unders which had done well for me last week, expecting Tottenham to get a couple more in the second half. When Braga scored again it was a shock but good for me, as Tottenham pushed for a winner and soon got it securing me a profit of over £70 for the game.
I'm happy with today's results, but disappointed with yesterday. The Ireland - Zimbabwe match tomorrow in the cricket could prove to be interesting so I might have a look at that if I get the chance. Hopefully I will have learnt from my mistakes and be able to secure a nice profit from it.
Monthly P/L: £3.68
I'm back in profit for the month after last weeks terrible run of Champions league games. It should be much bigger but for a screw up on yesterdays cricket world cup opener between West Indies and Pakistan. I'd watched England's two warm up matches to get a feel for how the games would pan out and I was fairly confident of securing a tidy profit over the course of the tournament. But I took my eye off the ball yesterday and was made to pay big time for my over expectancy of what Pakistan's middle order could do. With Yousuf, Inzamam and Akmal losing their wickets in the space of 20 runs I was staring a big loss in the face. I took it in the knowledge that there are going to be plenty more games for me to make it back on over the next month and a half.
I made a small profit on today's Kenya - Canada match and it could've been a bit more but I played it safe after yesterdays match.
My next port of call was deciding on a football match to trade. I only fancied doing one and it was a choice between Man City - Chelsea, Aston Villa - Arsenal and Tottenham - Braga. Because of all the press speculation about Stuart Pearce's job at Man City I could see him getting a good performance from his players in response so decided to give that one a miss. I decided to avoid the Arsenal match too because I find Aston Villa a bit too unpredictable under Martin O'Neill. So I decided to trade the Tottenham game.
After 24 minutes of Tottenham dominance Huddlestone scored an own goal and I was kicking myself for trading the game, especially with both Chelsea and Arsenal being 1-0 up already. However I kept the faith and soon they were back on level terms and then Berbatov added his second to put them in the lead. I got out of my initial trades at half time for a profit. However Tottenham were really looking good so I put some more money on the overs/unders which had done well for me last week, expecting Tottenham to get a couple more in the second half. When Braga scored again it was a shock but good for me, as Tottenham pushed for a winner and soon got it securing me a profit of over £70 for the game.
I'm happy with today's results, but disappointed with yesterday. The Ireland - Zimbabwe match tomorrow in the cricket could prove to be interesting so I might have a look at that if I get the chance. Hopefully I will have learnt from my mistakes and be able to secure a nice profit from it.
Monday 12 March 2007
A down and up week
P/L since last blog: £38.16
Monthly P/L: £14.78
I haven't had a lot of time to update the blog recently for various reasons but it has been quite a busy week trading. It began with the Champions League games on Tuesday and Wednesday - I had planned on only doing one each night but on both occasions decided to trade two - Liverpool v Barcelona, Chelsea v Porto, Man Utd v Lille, and AC Milan v Celtic. Anyway I soon regretted that as I lost money on all of them to set myself up for a big loss.
After that I decided to sit out Thursdays Newcastle game and was soon kicking myself as they took a 3-0 lead within the half hour. I traded a bit towards the end of the game getting in and out for a small profit and then repeated the tactic for the late Tottenham game. This worked a treat and I made back £25 - bearing in mind this was the first time I had actually done 'in-play' trading rather than just laying the draw I was quite happy.
Saturday bought the Six Nations and normally I would have left this alone, but decided to have a look and trade small stakes, which again worked very well. I made another decent profit on the Wales and Ireland games. Man Utd - Middlesbrough made me more profit on Saturday evening, but this was reduced by the Chelsea - Tottenham match on Sunday.
So, had I left the Champions League alone I would've been looking at a profit of over £50 for the week, but at the same time if I had left it alone I probably wouldn't have touched the rugby.
I don't have a brilliant knowledge of rugby tactics but by trading small, low risk stakes I was able to make a nice profit from it and this might provide me with another source of trading in future as the odds tend to fluctuate more often than in football, allowing me to get out of any difficulties I may find myslef in!
Next Saturdays off limits for trading because its St Patricks day and the day England reclaim the Six Nations (can never be too optimistic!) so its a day on the Guinness and away from trading. I might have a dabble on the midweek football and hopefully put myself back in the green for the month.
Monthly P/L: £14.78
I haven't had a lot of time to update the blog recently for various reasons but it has been quite a busy week trading. It began with the Champions League games on Tuesday and Wednesday - I had planned on only doing one each night but on both occasions decided to trade two - Liverpool v Barcelona, Chelsea v Porto, Man Utd v Lille, and AC Milan v Celtic. Anyway I soon regretted that as I lost money on all of them to set myself up for a big loss.
After that I decided to sit out Thursdays Newcastle game and was soon kicking myself as they took a 3-0 lead within the half hour. I traded a bit towards the end of the game getting in and out for a small profit and then repeated the tactic for the late Tottenham game. This worked a treat and I made back £25 - bearing in mind this was the first time I had actually done 'in-play' trading rather than just laying the draw I was quite happy.
Saturday bought the Six Nations and normally I would have left this alone, but decided to have a look and trade small stakes, which again worked very well. I made another decent profit on the Wales and Ireland games. Man Utd - Middlesbrough made me more profit on Saturday evening, but this was reduced by the Chelsea - Tottenham match on Sunday.
So, had I left the Champions League alone I would've been looking at a profit of over £50 for the week, but at the same time if I had left it alone I probably wouldn't have touched the rugby.
I don't have a brilliant knowledge of rugby tactics but by trading small, low risk stakes I was able to make a nice profit from it and this might provide me with another source of trading in future as the odds tend to fluctuate more often than in football, allowing me to get out of any difficulties I may find myslef in!
Next Saturdays off limits for trading because its St Patricks day and the day England reclaim the Six Nations (can never be too optimistic!) so its a day on the Guinness and away from trading. I might have a dabble on the midweek football and hopefully put myself back in the green for the month.
Monday 5 March 2007
Slowly but surely...
P/L since last blog: £3.78
Monthly P/L: £23.38
Well a profit is better than a loss I suppose. I was in two minds whether to trade tonights Championship game between Preston and Southampton but decided to go for it about a minute after kick off. Preston were favourites before the game and I was hoping for an early goal from them to leave with a profit. However the weather at Deepdale was awful which made play difficult and Preston were never really in it during the first half with Southampton making (and missing) a host of chances. However on the stroke of half time Preston took the lead against the run of play. Because Southampton had dominated and were looking strong the odds didn't go up on the draw as much as I'd have liked, but I wasn't going to hang around and risk a profit no matter how small as Southampton seemed like the much stronger team. I got out during half time for the small profit and was proved right when Southampton soon equalised in the second half. Preston went on to win comfortably but by that time I had switched off my laptop and left with the win.
Champions league tomorrow and Wednesday so I'm hoping to trade the Chelsea - Porto game tomorrow and AC Milan - Celtic on Wednesday both of which were draws from the first leg so hopefully the home team will be looking to close out the game early in both cases.
Monthly P/L: £23.38
Well a profit is better than a loss I suppose. I was in two minds whether to trade tonights Championship game between Preston and Southampton but decided to go for it about a minute after kick off. Preston were favourites before the game and I was hoping for an early goal from them to leave with a profit. However the weather at Deepdale was awful which made play difficult and Preston were never really in it during the first half with Southampton making (and missing) a host of chances. However on the stroke of half time Preston took the lead against the run of play. Because Southampton had dominated and were looking strong the odds didn't go up on the draw as much as I'd have liked, but I wasn't going to hang around and risk a profit no matter how small as Southampton seemed like the much stronger team. I got out during half time for the small profit and was proved right when Southampton soon equalised in the second half. Preston went on to win comfortably but by that time I had switched off my laptop and left with the win.
Champions league tomorrow and Wednesday so I'm hoping to trade the Chelsea - Porto game tomorrow and AC Milan - Celtic on Wednesday both of which were draws from the first leg so hopefully the home team will be looking to close out the game early in both cases.
Saturday 3 March 2007
March Targets
P/L since last blog: £19.60
Monthly P/L: £19.60
After a disastrous month in February I was hoping for a good start to March to get me back on track. I watched the early Liverpool - Man Utd game in the pub and so didn't trade on it. I was still out during the afternoon so missed out on the main bulk of Premiership action. I was back in time for the Portsmouth - Chelsea match and traded it. I didn't have too long to wait before I was in profit with Drogba scoring just after the half hour mark. Despite the temptation to hang about for a Chelsea second I've learnt my lesson from last month and took my winnings straight away. The final whistle has just gone, and I could have hung about for the second goal and a bigger profit, but I'm happy with the profit and would rather make smaller profits regularly than lose a lot in search of the big win.
I've set myself a target for this month to get my profit for the year back to where it was before the Man Utd - Reading match (which was £338.85), meaning that my target for March is a profit of £215.96. This is doable but it will mean trading more games than I did in February (only traded 7 games during the whole month), and being more careful than I have been. I'm going to Barcelona for the Andorra - England match later this month so that will rule out trading on the group of mid-week internationals, but there are internationals the weekend before as well as a number of televised FA Cup games and Champions League matches coming up, the first of which is this week, so keep an eye open for more updates soon.
Monthly P/L: £19.60
After a disastrous month in February I was hoping for a good start to March to get me back on track. I watched the early Liverpool - Man Utd game in the pub and so didn't trade on it. I was still out during the afternoon so missed out on the main bulk of Premiership action. I was back in time for the Portsmouth - Chelsea match and traded it. I didn't have too long to wait before I was in profit with Drogba scoring just after the half hour mark. Despite the temptation to hang about for a Chelsea second I've learnt my lesson from last month and took my winnings straight away. The final whistle has just gone, and I could have hung about for the second goal and a bigger profit, but I'm happy with the profit and would rather make smaller profits regularly than lose a lot in search of the big win.
I've set myself a target for this month to get my profit for the year back to where it was before the Man Utd - Reading match (which was £338.85), meaning that my target for March is a profit of £215.96. This is doable but it will mean trading more games than I did in February (only traded 7 games during the whole month), and being more careful than I have been. I'm going to Barcelona for the Andorra - England match later this month so that will rule out trading on the group of mid-week internationals, but there are internationals the weekend before as well as a number of televised FA Cup games and Champions League matches coming up, the first of which is this week, so keep an eye open for more updates soon.
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