Tag: featured
The numbers behind Royal Ascot
And so here we are, another year, another Ascot. For me, another declined invitation to attend. While that pains me, in another couple of years it won’t be a problem. But for the moment, I’d still rather be on this side of the desk during one of the busiest weeks of the year.
Wall to wall, quality racing, from now till Saturday, I’m in trading heaven! Let’s see how it all adds up.
Last year Royal Ascot had matched bet turnover at …
US Open Golf – The cut(ish)
Day two at the US Open ended up turning into Day 1.5 when play was suspended because of light at about 20:30 local time with 68 players still to complete round two. So we have have not quite reached the cut. For anybody in before the off, it’s probably worth tidying up now if you are doing other stuff this afternoon. Or else you can keep things going till the last possible moment until the actual cut.
A much more …
A week in the life…
I penned a post earlier in the week about a day in the life. It was a bit off the cuff and I was surprised to get some feedback on it, blogging can be a lonely pastime, so thanks for your messages! Getting some feedback had prompted me to talk about a week in my life.
Seasonal variation
First thing to note is that my week changes throughout the year. I’m guided by the sporting calendar. In the summer this …
AEGON vs. AEGON
Just watching the action at Queens club at the moment and thought I scout around for any characteristics I could find.
I recently ranked all tournaments by volatility, amongst other things, and noticed something curious about the AEGON grass court championships.
If you look at last year at Queens the data seems to indicate that there were no matches that swung from 1.01 to a loss. Now it’s not impossible that I have missed the odd match, so please correct …
Understanding UK Horse Racing
Most people understand most sports on the exchanges, but for some the terminology and structure behind racing can be a bit of a mystery. It took me some time fully graps what racing was all about and I’m no expert, but it helped how I trade the market. People attending my course will know I talk about it a fair bit. So I’ve invited forum racing favourite ‘JollyGreen’ to give you some broader background to racing. Here is the first a …
Spot the ‘greensider’ competition
Nipped up the road to Wentworth last Sunday for the BMW PGA Championships.
I reckon you have your next golf star laid out in front of you in the form of Matteo Manassero. Only 20, he is playing beyond his years already and I reckon he could have an impact in a major sooner rather than later. He has four tour wins now and he is already being backed in for both Open championships. One to watch.
I went …
It’s no wonder gambling has an image problem!
Here is my own personal take on the Elliot Short story and his subsequent jail sentence.
If there is one thing that frustrates me about what I am currently doing, its the image the betting industry has. This leads people to have deep seated issues with anybody who has anything to do with it. It’s almost as bad as the banking industry! Quite clearly it’s a gambling industry issue and one that’s driven by things like the Elliot Short case, …
Creating a ‘fat finger’ rule with Bet Angel automation
I slipped this video into the section on automation last weekend, but I reckon a few people would have missed it; because I didn’t specifically highlight it.
This video demonstrates how to create a rule using Guardian automation to capture favourable odds that can be created when the market goes a bit ‘loopy’. It’s a rule that can run in the background automatically regardless of what you are doing in your main trading interface.
We have a thread on the …
The longest running Betfair market ever
News that Sir Alex Ferguson is about to retire has re-ignited interest in the long forgotten ‘Next Man Utd manager market’.
This is a market that must hold the record for the longest ever market on Betfair. Some must be glad it is coming to a close! According to the start date on Betfair, the market first opened on 17th September 2001! I realised it had been up there for some time, but that date even surprised me.
Since the …
How much is Gareth Bale worth?
Quite a lot I would reckon. So the inevitable summer debate will be will who will Spurs sell him to?
Never quite seems to work out though does it? I don’t know how many star players I have seen sold, only to see them not fit into their new set up. But there is one thing that is in no doubt, just how much Gareth Bale is worth for Spurs not just in monetary terms, but on the pitch.
If …
My Sports trading journey – Part four
After a pause, continuation of the series for the Easter holiday: -
Links to Part one, Part two & part three
The leap into the unknown
So I was in my early 30’s, had a desire to work for myself, but was in a well paid job and travelling all over the place; which I quite enjoyed. Some things had always niggled me though.
If you work for somebody else, you feel you never truly control your own destiny. …
Warming up
That’s me, not the weather. Though it is a sunny day outside, so I would imagine that will give a range of sports a decent chance of going ahead this weekend.
Now we are in the, alleged, spring of the northern hemisphere I’ve started looking at events that I will trade in the coming months. This involves brushing up my research data on them to make sure I am prepared. When the evening racing starts I’ll be trading all the …
Caviar, served on a plate
Tomorrow sees the return of Black Caviar to the racing track.
She will be running in the Group 1 William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley tonight / tomorrow morning depending on your location on the planet.
Nice little quote from the Adelaide now: -
“”If anybody has backed Black Caviar every start they are obviously a long, long way in front,” TAB’s Matt Jenkins said. “If they had the foresight to put $100 on Black Caviar at her first …
Visualising sports trading data
You may have noticed my regular theme of visualising data. Why do I do this?
The reason is simple, it’s easy to pick up patterns when you are looking at them visually. If you have to plough through billions of rows of spreadsheets, pivot tables or outputs from a database, you may find some of the more obvious patterns may elude you due to number blindness. Visualise it and it often leaps right out at you.
Bet Angel contains a …
My Sports trading journey – Part three
Betting exchanges arrive on the scene
I placed my first bet on a betting exchange on June 5th 2000. It was a bet on the FTSE close market, which I won. It took until 11th June before I did my first sports bet which was on Tiger Woods US Open win market. Both these were on Flutter, being a slacker, I didn’t join Betfair till the 18th June.
My …
Clever ways to trade and visualise football data
Market data can be boring in it’s flat form format. By re-interpreting this data you can not only get a bit of depth in a market but perhaps see things you haven’t seen before. I tend to visualise data, because this allows you to look at the data in a much more intuitive manner and this means you can spot opportunties easier as it significantly aids your reading of a market.
In the embedded video we use the multi market …
Darwin would have been proud
I try and actively monitor everything I am doing in the market, often this can pay dividends in unusual ways.
As a general approach I would recommend storing as much information about what you do as possible, even if you don’t need it right now. I’ve collected loads of data recently from Wimbledon and Euro 2012 but I have no practical purpose for it at the moment. At some point in the future I may revisit it, or find a …
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