It's been a while

It has certainly been a while since my last post. Maybe not in terms of chronology, but certainly in terms of sporting events. The Euros seems like months ago now, and Wimbledon came and went before anyone had any time to digest the woes of British sportsmen. On we march to the Olympics, and I am refusing to bow down to the typical British pessimism (despite the Summer's weather being the worst on record, significant security concerns, and David Beckham has been scandalously left out of the 'Team GB' squad ) and fully believe that our wonderful country can pull it off and do us all proud. One thing I would say is that the Scots should consider their bid for independence, I'd like to see them be any way involved in any Olympic Games in the next 1000 years if it wasn't for their trusty neighbours. Of course, should the whole thing be a disaster, their bid will be stronger than ever.

Enough sporting politics, onto the betting. I did promise a P+L of my Euros experience and I shall fulfill this as always. I have a few observations from my betting during the tournament however, and despite turning a good profit, I am not really satisfied with how it went. My largest source of income during the tourny was matched betting, and whilst there is nothing really wrong with that for it is a great way to earn free money and any person ignoring such opportunities is an obvious mug, I'm never really satisfied for it to be my main source of profit. Quite simply because it isn't real trading. The general theme was my matched betting paid for frivolous losses elsewhere in the tournament, which isn't necessarily how I would like to run things. But I cannot moan too much, I did still make a profit and I did make some good choices throughout. My outright winners market trades were a particular disaster as I have alluded to in previous posts, as backing France, Holland and Germany didn't pay very well surprisingly. The difference between doing it in a tournament and in, say, the Premier League, was that I was essentially backing them to win one or two games, and may as well have taken the match odds, whereas in the PL I would back over a specific period. Maybe it was a way for me to trick myself into thinking I wasn't a mug by betting on the Germans to beat Greece at odds of 1.3 or so, because that's essentially what I was actually doing, just in a different market. The France bet was slightly different because I hoped they would top their group with sexy football and drop to around 6.5ish, but it wasn't to be. Knockout football is quick and ruthless, and I need to remember that before backing wildly in Europe next season. On the other hand, my trades in other outright markets, such as bottom of the group and straight forecasts went very well, with no losses. Nothing really to note for the in-play betting, it was disappointing as a whole but I only made a minuscule loss overall. As for my discipline, I think it was good. I made the odd mistake here and there but overall I don't think discipline was the reason for big losses, just poor planning/decisions. It was my first major tournament after all, so I think i'll cut myself some slack.
Here are the results: 

• Outright winners market trades: -£45
• Ante post bets with bookies: -£8
• Other outright market trades: +£30.17
• In-play trading: -£0.51
• Matched betting: +£108.22

Total: +£84.89

I say this at about the same time every year, but I wish I knew how to trade tennis properly! I can see the potential for good profit there with the markets flipping how they do, but I really don't think I have the time to dedicate enough of myself to fully understanding it and taking a good profit. It would probably involve giving up trading on football if I did, which is stupid. If it ain't broke don't fix it and all that. In the coming weeks I will be coming at you with my preview of the upcoming season, detailing how I intend to attack the markets in the opening months. Only one month and two days to go now, better get researching.

Enjoy your evening.