Reply With QuoteI think Dazzler runs a casino or something
Anyone here like a good flutter every now and then, or take it more seriously? Anyone gamble professionally? Any horror stories, or tales ending in pots of gold? Let's here them..
I've always likes a bet here or there, purely on football, nothing else. Recently however I've started to take it more seriously and the net effect this year is I'm currently earning far more than I do in my 9 to 5. I used to concentrate on accumulators but was haemorraging money hand over fist. The frustrating thing about that tactic was I was picking a crazy number of winners but picking the odd loser was knocking out the accumulator and returns were few and far between. I decided to change tact and focus on single, doubles and at a push triples (any league in any country, don't care) placing much higher stakes with the end result being alarmingly different. Yes there are a few big loses here and there but the winnings are able to absorb that quite easily. I've built a fairly strict set of rules set to minimise risk and so far it's working quite well. The use of the cash out feature is the ultimate get out of jail free card and is central to my whole tactic.
I doubt I'll give up my day job, and all betting will disappear in the summer once the footie seasons are over, but for now it's both fun and rewarding.
Any others on the forum?
I think Dazzler runs a casino or something
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Horses and dogs only. Mainly dogs these days as I have shares in a couple.
Never much more than £20 a time, once or twice a week.
Many years ago won around £2000 for a £1 stake.
I used to keep a record. Overall it seemed to vary from about £500 down to £500 up.
Love it.
I'm quite a serious gambler
Horses
Jumps preferred but now the flat season is here.... Dabble
I concentrate on single bets
A double at a push
Bookies love multiple bets
My gf works for the very best owners and trainers in the country
She earns s serious fortune for what she does plus bits of info here and there
I take it as a serious hobby
Many years ago, again, I lived opposite Ian Balding's farrier.
And two chaps up the road worked for Henrietta Knight.
Originally Posted by Sweepinghand
The best inside information very very rarely reaches the ears of Joe Public, on the odd occasion that it does, usually some individual has his ass fired! Racing is not run for the benefit of the punter in the street and never has been. I ran betting shops for a major firm in my youf, I had a great education in gambling watching others lose their money.
I used to dabble on the odd footy bet, but I gave up and closed my accounts a few months back.
I scored a nice little bet (Real Madrid to beat Liverpool 3-0 with Ronaldo first goal) £100 at 45/1, so I thought I'd quit whilst ahead rather than give it all back in dribs and drabs.
Can't say I'll never place another bet, but it's nice to know I'm well ahead at this stage.
A friend loses an absolute fortune every week on horses, and has done for the decade I've known him. It's money his family cannot afford to lose, nut he keeps going.
While not asking you to divulge your methods, how does not having an in-depth knowledge of the subject matter being bet on not hinder your chances of winning?
I'm assuming you don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of every league in every country--if you do I apologise :)
Whilst obvioisly not speaking for the OP ,I can comment in relation to a friend of mine who regularly bets on football from all sorts of foreign leagues. He doesn't have an encyclopaedic knowledge but maintains an overall general idea of the 'top' leagues in several countries. The bookies in general don't really have much idea about these leagues and so the odds available are generally fairly generous...hence you can usually have a few bets at nice prices and make a few quid.
Bookmakers build betting shops for people to lose money in, Casinos are built for people to lose money but with a better ambiance. Fixed odds betting terminals should be banned, they have added massively to Gamcare's workload.
I play Poker fairly seriously, but of course that isn't gambling ;)
I always take advantage of the bet365 inplay offer. It's not really gambling though because you can't lose money. Only win. A nice £60 on Tuesday.
I put a tenner on Rocky Creek in the. National and asked the bookie to pay the betting tax on the stake. You will surmise that I am not a regular......
IMHO successful gambling is about identifying opportunities that give you an edge, that takes study, dedication and application. With the correct approach you CAN make money but in the long haul gambling profits are made by those who have the application, the logic and the patience. Bookmakers profits come from the vast majority who do not, or cannot meet such criteria.
Two masters of the art for me are the late Phil Bull and the quite incredible Barney Curley.
Last edited by KavKav; 16th April 2015 at 19:35.
Mine is a stats based approach, and team/players stats are readily available for most, if not all leagues in the world (even some of the development leagues and under 20's and on). I focus on some of the key stats, shots conceded (in and out of the box), shot taken and % on target, possession etc. I look at form, both home/away and generally, position in league etc. There are others but I won't bore you. You hear people talk about odds having value but I largely ignore the odds, if I think a game will win I don't care what the odds are, just means some wins are bigger than others. There are obviously unexpected events that can throw all this out the window, red cards for example, but these are unavoidable.
Interesting. I use Betfair to supplement income primarily on in play football matches. I also worked out a way to predict what would happen to the odds of a favourite in a horse race based on what happens to the favourite in the preceding race in around 85% of cases which enabled me to either lay or back the favourite and then trade out before the race started for some green. Issue was horseracing happens during the hours I need to be in the office so I had to curtail it and go back to the football which is more educated gambling than trading.
How does that work then?
I'm not a regular gambler but curious to how the industry works.
I bet £10 on the national, won £5 back and managed to get back to £10 on football bets, until a 90min Russian goal out me back down to 0. High roller I know!So now my betting account is 0 until the next year's national.
I can't image how it must feel to lose big money, it pissed me off losing a tenner.
Every now and then 365 put an offer up that entitles you to risk free inplay bet on a specific football match. On Tuesday it was the Athletico/Real champions league game. You can bet up to £50 stake.
Based on £50 stake
First thing to do is deposit £100. Then place a bet of £50 before kick off on both teams to win. It's in the double chance menu. On Tuesday I think the odds were 7/20, around £65 pounds return. Then as soon as the game kicks off place £50 on the draw. The odds were 11/5 so £160 return. Then do nothing until the final whistle.
If a team had won your first bet would have paid out and bet365 would have returned your risk free inplay bet as cash to your account. £15 up, withdraw £115.
If the game had finished as a draw, which it did. Your first bet would have obviously lost but your inplay would have won. £160 returned. £60 profit.
You have to back the draw in play because the odds are greater. They must have put the offer up ten times this season.
Last edited by Andyp1973; 16th April 2015 at 19:58.
A chap I know quite well plays for a living. He is still a young chap and has career earnings of $2m+. In 2012 he was ranked 7th in the world. Unfortunately, his degenerate sports betting habits made him busto, tragic really! Having £25k losing days in the local bookies was unsustainable.
I like to play occasionally, and have a flutter on football or the odd nag, but purely recreational.
The last time Barney Curley had a four horse coupe I was using a tipping service and they new of two of them. 95/1 double was a nice little touch.
Thanks Andy, understood.
I like poker, with friends, and occasionally in Casinos
Or you can go for a bigger win risk free - place your £50 on at least 1 goal (usually safe but can cover by backing 0-0 with another bookmaker for about £5 which I thankfully did Tuesday!) then go for a correct score in play, you won't get them all but managed to get the Arsenal - Liverpool and Stoke - Chelsea results before Christmas and cashed out Man Utd - Liverpool for a decent profit.
I very much enjoy an evening in a casino with a few friends despite being extremely risk-averse. With drinks and other 'comps' included whilst at the tables, by gambling sensibly and knowing when to quit it costs no more than a night out in a bar and it has always been a good laugh with plenty of banter.
I go to a couple of horse race meetings every year and I`ll bet £50-£60 in total. I class it as a day out and I don`t mind the cost; it's also a nostalgia trip because my late father was into the horses and took me to lots of meetings as a youngster.
Apart from the exception I`ve referred to, I never gamble and I`m pretty much against it because I`ve seen the harm it can cause. It's an addiction, and sadly it's become far too easy to place bets on all manner of things. We've gone from one extreme to the other; gambling was strictly regulated for years but with the advent of internet betting we've now got a free for all. Many of the people who gamble are the ones who can ill-afford to lose money; to some it's an act of desperation and the only way they can see to make money.
Whilst I fondly remember the happy days at race meetings with my dad, I also remember the dark days when he lost more than he could afford to at the local bookies. I remember the arguments his gambling caused and the years we didn`t take holidays because the horses hadn`t run fast enough.
Gambling's a mug's game; my dad said that many times but it didn`t stop him. It is a mug's game and there's only one winner in the long run.
If the OP's genuinely making money on a consistent basis, good luck to him....he'll need it eventually.
Paul
I used to bet on anything and everything and also played the fruit machines.
I've had some bloody good days (Good days are how I funded the wifes engagement ring and the deposit and rent for my first house) have had loads of bad days when I'd keep trying to get back to even for the day and end up losing more and more.
I don't play the fruit machines any more, I hardly bet I've a couple of online accounts but have set spending limits I stick to things I know now in the main, there was a time I'd bet on anything it's how I got in to baseball, occasionally I will play around with the horses but keep the bets small. I can still make a few quid on football without to much effort.
I thought for a while I would be better off doing that, although it was Poker in my case. After building up a 100 quid stake into a number of paid-for Vegas trips and spending cash a-plenty I wondered why I was sticking at the office job.
The answer is twofold; firstly no-one wins forever, or they can't handle the emotional impact of the inevitable huge swings, and secondly I've never ever met a full time gambler/poker player who is genuinely happy. They're just not. Sports gamblers are even worse - the thought of a weekend away from the Sky sports ticker brings them out in a cold sweat and they start to resent any intrusion into their constant information stream - wife, kids, sick parents....
That may sound a little preachy - it's not meant to be. I occasionally gamble and still play poker every so often, but for more modest stakes. As the tag line goes, when it stops being fun it's time to stop.
I'm too much of a tight arse to hand over any of my money unless I get something tangible in return. Having said that we do the National Lottery by Direct Debit but that's it. A friend of ours lost his wife and job due to his gambling, but he never saw it as being problem. It's a bit like booze; most people can control, rationalise and moderate it but for a few it will take over their life and be pretty destructive.
Yes, yes, formerly sort of, Oh yes.
I played poker at not quite nosebleed levels but pretty high. I also have a bet on the football, these days a tenner here and there but for a while it was three figures every Saturday, sometimes a grand spread about between different shops with some very nice wins thrown in with some pretty deep losses. Mainly bet trebles and quads on the football and it served me quite well - these 15-team accumulators that guys retire off are a mugs bet, may as well play the lottery.
Never been into betting horses or dogs, although I do think the dogs is a belting night out if you treat it as a laugh and don't expect to win.
The thing that crushed me were those fixed odds machines in the bookies. Absolutely idiotic, but I've turned a fiver into £500 maybe a couple of times and done the opposite more times than I could count. Awful things, I was only in my mid 20's but I almost lost my life to those - I had a long spell of depression and I quit gambling in every shape and form, it's only the last couple of years that I've allowed myself to have a flutter again but steer well clear of those things. I don't get the urge to play them at all these days, but I've a couple of mates who are in the same boat I was in 7 or 8 years ago and pump all their wages in them.
Playing live is a different animal altogether, I went to Vegas as part of our Honeymoon in 2011 and gambled about $500 the whole time I was there - I'd have dusted that in about an hour on a FOBT in the bookies. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I just enjoyed the games rather than being fixated on 'beating the house', I wish I knew what it was about the video terminals which prove so addictive.
Anyway, pots of gold? Biggest footie win was around £1500, biggest poker win from a tourney was around £18k. I did better than even on both in the long term, though not enough that I could have made a living at it.
Horror stories? I could have bought my house outright for what I spent in FOBT's between being about 25 and 27. Six figures.
Here's a quick pot of gold/horror story.
In Vegas we were playing a "Wheel of Fortune" community slot machine with 5 seats. It had 5 reels, and if you get W H E E L on consecutive reels you get a spin of the big cash wheel, with amounts from 50 credits to 20,000 credits.
It was 40 credits/cents a spin (one credit is 1 cent), but you can chose to play a 2x or 3x multiplier, either doubling or tripling your stake, so spin a maximum of $1.20 which would triple your win on the prize board.
I was playing the $1.20 stake on my own, but when my wife finally came to meet me we decided to take a seat each and drop to the 2x multiplier $0.80 spin.
Three or four spins later I lit up the big Wheel of Fortune feature, span the wheel and won....20,000 credits! That translated to $400 which was a nice little tickle and took us for a fantastic meal later, but the floor manager came over to see what all the cheering was about and his face dropped - turns out if you hit the 20k credits playing maximum stake, it's a million bucks.
Spot on that is, I was out for the Derby on Sunday with a lad who still bets quite big on the footie.
It was a really exciting game (even if the wrong team won) but he spent almost the whole 90 minutes looking at his phone for in-play bets and all that guff. Even after the game - which made him a substantial amount of money, he had a chunk on 4-2 at 80/1 - he was still on his phone trawling for foreign games, upcoming matches and even different sports. When you've never set foot in America but you're gambling on college basketball games by teams you've never heard of, you have a problem.
I enjoy low stakes blackjack and roulette in casinos occasionally. I take however much cash I am happy to pay for a night out and (usually) lose that.
I enjoy playing poker and enjoy the odd poker night with mates and am our company poker champion two years running. Once I got a bit cocky in Vegas and used my roulette winnings to buy in to a poker game, I got my pants pulled down in no time.
Online gambling sites are a big no-no for me as I have an addictive personality and these would cripple me. I walk to the bookies to put my annual Grand National punt rather than open an online account with a free bet.
I've seen too many friends and read too many stories about the money lost and lives ruined to gambling that I stay away. I don't want to run the risk of that happening to me. Most of the people I know that gamble are poor.
Just revisiting this thread but wanted to outline that the Profit Accumulator system, as long as your maths is reasonable, is an excellent risk free way of making up to a couple of Grand extra a month for not much work. I have no affiliation other than I use the system but wanted to outline it as a genuine, non gambling system that basically leverages the free bets and promotions offered by bookies/casinos etc to make money.
Worth googing reviews if you are interested
Last edited by ryanb741; 18th July 2015 at 05:19.
Looks interesting
Problem with this is that if the bookies cotton on to what you are doing they can cancel your bets and keep your money.
This is a possibility yes however what you can do is try and take bets that are likely to lose with the bookies and win on the exchanges, and also do some 'mug bets'. Betting on Arsenal vs Liverpool = no problem. Betting on Mexican 3rd Division Baseball at 3am = eyes raised :)
Never noticed this thread before.
I used to like a dabble years ago in my youth but haven't had a bet for donkeys years although my youngest is a keen poker player.
I do know a chap who lives up the road who bets on the net all day and makes a living wage from it.
I was round his house one day and he wanted to show me how he did it, whereupon he placed bets on unknown Korean football games, golf etc and by jiggling the bets around and watching two screens he won a few pounds in a matter of minutes while I watched.
He does OK at it but it seemed interminably boring to me.
Cheers,
Neil.
I've been involved quite heavily for the past 10-12 years and have also had shares in race horses as well.
Always avoided it previously having seen grandfathers' do the family pot down the bookies but since getting involved i try to filter out some of the mug bets and do ok; although hardly had a bet since Aintree as been too busy with a proper job. tend to stick to the better quality racing (class3 and above) and football, with the latter often being a few doubles and trebles but not daft huge accas.
Biggest thrill was landing a proper gamble as an owner, although was still only small fry compared to some you read about. Didn't waste the winnings, went out and bought another horse! But he has since won at Aintree during the festival so it was well worth buying. There is a real thrill/buzz when owning a winner, whether it be at a shitty all weather course or at the top tracks.
I also never play on a machine or cartoon race, anything that i know is rigged from the outset i leave alone. Ok the house and the bookies build in an overound to everything but at least that still gives you a chance.
Having said all that i couldn't have picked a winner whilst at Newbury on Saturday if my life depended on it! Will try again next week at Goodwood, which is a lovely track and a great day out.
Tried this yesterday just as a free member, did the Coral and Betfred bets, up £38.47 today.
Seems like an appropriate way for a Maths teacher to occupy himself for 7 weeks...
No idea about the number of gamblers - but lots of chancers
Mugs games - I am sure some people win, but I have never seen a poor bookie, which suggests that lots of people lose.
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
I've been told I have to be a premium member as have accounts with all bookmakers....
Looks good though
I've done this for three days now, being near my computer between 1pm and 6pm fitting in house jobs/tip runs/even gardening :( in between the bets.
I've done all the easily accessible joining bonuses (about 20 different betting websites!), if I were to continue it's bigger bucks and rolling the money over several times before being able to withdraw. Much harder work for less gain so I'm calling it quits.
That said I've balanced the books at £278 profit. No where near the levels suggested but when they start talking about five £10 bets, losing 50p on each one just to get a free £10 bet which you'll make £8 (so £3 overall) it's getting a bit silly to continue and I don't see the long game once the join up bonuses are shot.
Good for a laugh though and some extra beer money in the short term!
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