Diary of a professional punter

[bobby1]

Cheers fellas. Got some good reading material methinks.

Whilst we're all here, what was it (those of you who did it seriously) that you all bet on?

Feel free to give a life story, I'm intrigued!

Edit: Sorry for thread hijacking redarmi...

I bet on the same as Keith....basically everything, actually ironically tennis I have very little interest in but I would bet on it if I got a good card regularly but I never have really, but my main profits come from American football, football and racing.  Done this on and off for about 12 years but had some fairly lengthy periods in employment in that period working for bookies but punting full time for last five years or so but sometimes got a salry because was punting for someone else as well as myself....its all in the first few pages of diary actually.  Dont worry about the derail....is good to have a bit of life in diary again and great to have so many nowledgable people around to debate with.

Will re-read the thread in that case.

Find the bit about betting on football interesting as I met a professional punter on a football website who ironically advocated completely staying away from betting on football. I'm sure titbeam could confirm this. Difficult to question him as he made a bucket load of money betting on tennis and US sports (and was willing to prove it by posting P+L's).

Would it be far to say he was quite clueless when it comes to football betting as you both seem to do it? The very basic way in which I understood his logic was that there were too many variables and that he didn't like the fact there was 3 outcomes as opposed to the normal two with US sports. I might be doing him a disservice here as it's been a while so I might be misremembering his reasoning, but he definitely didn't think betting on football was a profitable idea.

these days he is abs right  

90 minutes and associated markets that is.

[The Camel]

Yeah you also have to make assumption it is him betting or MB which is normally the case for a big move but it could be a big, breaking injury or something which is a disaster.

I'm sure there must be a site which tracks movements in price of teams in the hours preceeding kick off.

I would think in their last 15 matches Liverpool have gone off shorter than the opening show about 13 times.

Other teams habitually backed: Peterborough, Everton, Fulham (at home especially), Reading and Millwall.

My guess is they all perform well in one key stat the models value very highly, whether it be possession %, shots on target, completed passes or whatever.

[The Camel]

Cheers fellas. Got some good reading material methinks.

Whilst we're all here, what was it (those of you who did it seriously) that you all bet on?

Feel free to give a life story, I'm intrigued!

Edit: Sorry for thread hijacking redarmi...

I bet on the same as Keith....basically everything, actually ironically tennis I have very little interest in but I would bet on it if I got a good card regularly but I never have really, but my main profits come from American football, football and racing.  Done this on and off for about 12 years but had some fairly lengthy periods in employment in that period working for bookies but punting full time for last five years or so but sometimes got a salry because was punting for someone else as well as myself....its all in the first few pages of diary actually.  Dont worry about the derail....is good to have a bit of life in diary again and great to have so many nowledgable people around to debate with.

Will re-read the thread in that case.

Find the bit about betting on football interesting as I met a professional punter on a football website who ironically advocated completely staying away from betting on football. I'm sure titbeam could confirm this. Difficult to question him as he made a bucket load of money betting on tennis and US sports (and was willing to prove it by posting P+L's).

Would it be far to say he was quite clueless when it comes to football betting as you both seem to do it? The very basic way in which I understood his logic was that there were too many variables and that he didn't like the fact there was 3 outcomes as opposed to the normal two with US sports. I might be doing him a disservice here as it's been a while so I might be misremembering his reasoning, but he definitely didn't think betting on football was a profitable idea.

these days he is abs right  

90 minutes and associated markets that is.

Ages ago, on here, I started a thread "Betting against the tide" or some such bullshit.

The theory behind it still holds very true though.

Wait for a significant market move in a big football match, and unless there's a major fact which has come to light to explain the move, bet the other side.

Definitely the best system, unless you can do a Blatchly and predict the initial move 100% of the time.

[bobby1]

There are a couple of huge punters who completely dominate the market and they make their bets based on computer models.

If I have an opinion on a team which differs to their model, I punt them (almost blindly) after they have moved the markets.

For example this season their model has overrated Liverpool massively.. I have opposed them almsot every week since about match 6 because they have been overbet.

This is interesting.  I was once told by a decent source that a shrewd punter (northern ex sheff dogs bookie) bet against the move whenever TB bet and was making 1% a year.  I was initially surprised but having met some of the bookies out in Asia and heard the reverential tones they talk about Tony in I wouldn't be surprised if they move too far.  A lot of them honestly believe he fixes matches or is some kind of witch doctor!!!! Most also follow him blind at any price which adds to the movement.

Nigel T I think that must be.. He was (wrongly) accused of being involved in one of the very early race fixing scams that went to court but I think the truth of it was he was the guy laying bets on the ones that were trying. He knew these were super warm (was cleared of any wrongdoing) and decided to just bet em himself, it looked bad when they cops came knocking as he was the one that had the most on in a lot of suspect races..

[The Camel]

There are a couple of huge punters who completely dominate the market and they make their bets based on computer models.

If I have an opinion on a team which differs to their model, I punt them (almost blindly) after they have moved the markets.

For example this season their model has overrated Liverpool massively.. I have opposed them almsot every week since about match 6 because they have been overbet.

This is interesting.  I was once told by a decent source that a shrewd punter (northern ex sheff dogs bookie) bet against the move whenever TB bet and was making 1% a year.  I was initially surprised but having met some of the bookies out in Asia and heard the reverential tones they talk about Tony in I wouldn't be surprised if they move too far.  A lot of them honestly believe he fixes matches or is some kind of witch doctor!!!! Most also follow him blind at any price which adds to the movement.

Nigel T I think that must be.. He was (wrongly) accused of being involved in one of the very early race fixing scams that went to court but I think the truth of it was he was the guy laying bets on the ones that were trying. He knew these were super warm (was cleared of any wrongdoing) and decided to just bet em himself, it looked bad when they cops came knocking as he was the one that had the most on in a lot of suspect races..

Haven't heard the name Nigel T come up for a long time.

Is he a friend of yours Phil?

What's he up to these days?

[bobby1]

He isn't a friend as such, more of someone I got to know from the dog track and his betting in the shops. V nice guy, very sharp too.

I once offered to lay him some bets on the footy as it made sense for me to find out what he liked, with a view to maybe piggy backing them. The first bet he asked for was about 20 times bigger than I wanted so that didn't work out very well.

I think there were a couple of bookies thrown off the Sheffield dog track for a couple of knock out jobs when Sheff became a BAGS meeting. You could suddenly get a lot more money on the races from there in the shops. I can't remember for sure if he was one of them but I think he may have been.

[The Camel]

He isn't a friend as such, more of someone I got to know from the dog track and his betting in the shops. V nice guy, very sharp too.

I once offered to lay him some bets on the footy as it made sense for me to find out what he liked, with a view to maybe piggy backing them. The first bet he asked for was about 20 times bigger than I wanted so that didn't work out very well.

Ha. The exact same thing happened to me on the NFL this season.

I offered to take someone bets because I wanted to know what he was backing.

First phonecall "80k Denver -3, 60k Under 47 pts in the Washington game, 50k teaser Chic +13 and St Louis +17.. " etc etc

He wanted about half a million in action. I was hoping he'd want 10k lol.

[The Camel]

I didn't stop him in mid stream though, that would have been rude wouldn't it?

So I got one week's ful card before I said it was too big by a factor of about 50.

He went 7-1, which was nice

[bobby1]

He isn't a friend as such, more of someone I got to know from the dog track and his betting in the shops. V nice guy, very sharp too.

I once offered to lay him some bets on the footy as it made sense for me to find out what he liked, with a view to maybe piggy backing them. The first bet he asked for was about 20 times bigger than I wanted so that didn't work out very well.

Ha. The exact same thing happened to me on the NFL this season.

I offered to take someone bets because I wanted to know what he was backing.

First phonecall "80k Denver -3, 60k Under 47 pts in the Washington game, 50k teaser Chic +13 and St Louis +17.. " etc etc

He wanted about half a million in action. I was hoping he'd want 10k lol.

lol, that's brilliant. How did he take the knock back?

[LeKnave]

He isn't a friend as such, more of someone I got to know from the dog track and his betting in the shops. V nice guy, very sharp too.

I once offered to lay him some bets on the footy as it made sense for me to find out what he liked, with a view to maybe piggy backing them. The first bet he asked for was about 20 times bigger than I wanted so that didn't work out very well.

Ha. The exact same thing happened to me on the NFL this season.

I offered to take someone bets because I wanted to know what he was backing.

First phonecall "80k Denver -3, 60k Under 47 pts in the Washington game, 50k teaser Chic +13 and St Louis +17.. " etc etc

He wanted about half a million in action. I was hoping he'd want 10k lol.

class

[The Camel]

He isn't a friend as such, more of someone I got to know from the dog track and his betting in the shops. V nice guy, very sharp too.

I once offered to lay him some bets on the footy as it made sense for me to find out what he liked, with a view to maybe piggy backing them. The first bet he asked for was about 20 times bigger than I wanted so that didn't work out very well.

Ha. The exact same thing happened to me on the NFL this season.

I offered to take someone bets because I wanted to know what he was backing.

First phonecall "80k Denver -3, 60k Under 47 pts in the Washington game, 50k teaser Chic +13 and St Louis +17.. " etc etc

He wanted about half a million in action. I was hoping he'd want 10k lol.

lol, that's brilliant. How did he take the knock back?

Sighed and then laughed a bit.

I sent him half a case of champagne for all the winners.

It didn't help, I didn't get his card again unfortunately.

[Dubai]

Who is it? I will lay them, he might not get paid tho

[The Camel]

Who is it? I will lay them, he might not get paid tho

I assume he was moving money for Billy Walters.

He was a medium sized winner when I worked at Blue Sq but his bets had moved for 800 to 80k in 10 years lol.

[redarmi]

Yeah it was Nigel T I was talking about.  I haven't heard anything about him for ages either actually.  That doping case always brings back funny memories for me.  At around that time I had started working for VC and their offices in London got raided in connection with that and all the faces involved had accounts or we bet with them.  I remember my mother being quite disturbed that this great new job I had got that was supposedly with the "Gentleman Bookie" and it was this prestigious firm that operated out of a Georgian terrace in Marylebone and whose clients included people like Edward St George and Middle Eastern royalty was now being exposed as a tacky mob that were into all kinds of dodgy stuff  and it reinforced all of her misgivings about me deciding to make a career out of the gambling game instead of politics and public affairs as I had initially intended.  My old man, on the other hand, was delighted and thought it was superb that his son was going to be on the inside track to all these massive gambles and this proved it all.  Of course the reality was nobody at VC had the first idea about these dopings but every punter involved had accunts with us and we had followed the sharp money as we always did but we had no idea why it was sharp so we ended up with lumps on these bent horseraces.

[tikay]

He isn't a friend as such, more of someone I got to know from the dog track and his betting in the shops. V nice guy, very sharp too.

I once offered to lay him some bets on the footy as it made sense for me to find out what he liked, with a view to maybe piggy backing them. The first bet he asked for was about 20 times bigger than I wanted so that didn't work out very well.

I think there were a couple of bookies thrown off the Sheffield dog track for a couple of knock out jobs when Sheff became a BAGS meeting. You could suddenly get a lot more money on the races from there in the shops. I can't remember for sure if he was one of them but I think he may have been.

More stories like that from you boys, please, incredible stuff, & riveting reading from us mere mortals. Lol @ "knock out jobs", too.