How Good Is Your Betting System?

This is my third post regarding the eight tools that a professional sports investor requires in his sports investing toolbox.

The third tool is SYSTEMS, by systems I do not mean the type of betting system that you see advertised promising  to make you a fortune in next to no time.(Most systems for sale are useless but there are some that I believe are genuinely profitable).

By systems I mean the approach that you go about your day to day betting activity.

When I first started out on my sports investing journey, my approach (and I suspect most newbie’s approaches) was along the lines of the following, or something similar:

Selection process

Get the daily paper (in my case the Daily Mirror) check to see what horse I fancied or football team I fancied. My choices were normally made based on either the expert analysis of my mates!!! Or the briefest of information in the paper, such as tipsters, Price, Brief scan at the form etc.  Once the selection or selections were made I would probably have a small fun accumulator bet as well.

Putting the bets on

Go to the nearest bookies or if a computer was handy bet on my favourite bookmakers site

Money Management

I would then see what money I had available and then make my bets.

Analysis of results

If my selections won I would believe it was completely down to my skill!

If my selection lost it was never my fault, it was always someone or something else’s  such as my mates  giving me bad advice, or the paper for not having all the information, or the team for not trying, or the race for being fixed, or ……. . (By now you get the drift)

I had this uncanny (but not unique I suspect) skill for remembering my winners and completely forgetting my losers.

So the above was my system of sports investing. Guess what the results of that system of betting were?  Yeah your right I consistently lost (whether I admitted it or not).

Now let’s compare that to the professional sports investors approach (I won’t say mine at the moment because have a long way to go still).

Selection Process

Selections will be based on in-depth analysis of the types of markets, trends, stats or proven tipping services etc.  Once sure that the selection has a theoretical edge the process would be repeated to see if any more selections are available.

Putting the bets on

Log on to the internet and search for the best prices for the selections or selections with as many bookmakers as possible before putting the bet on.

Money Management

Bet the optimum proportion of the betting bank based on the mathematics of probability, the study of previous results and the sports investors’ basic aversion to risk.

Analysis of Results

Record as much information as possible, whether the selection won or lost. Evaluate what could be done differently next time to improve the results.

Well there you have it, two different systems of betting.

At the moment my systems of betting are nearer to a professional sports investor than a newbie but I still have a long way to go.

One last question I have for you is:

Where does your system of betting sit in comparison to a newbie or professional sports investor?(I believe that the more truthful you are the more you will gain from your answer.)

I hope you enjoyed this post.

As usual please feel free to comment.

Wishing you good luck

Mark