Every now and again I come across comments that make me smile.
“You don’t really make your money from betting, you make it from selling software.”
I’ve seen versions of that statement for years. It doesn’t bother me, but it does make me realise that a lot of people simply don’t know my story. That’s understandable because most people only see a small part of what I do.
So I thought I’d explain it.
It started with a dream, not a business
When I first discovered Betfair over 26 years ago, I wasn’t looking for a software business; I wasn’t looking to become an educator.
I had one overwhelming ambition.
I wanted to see whether it was possible to become exceptionally successful through betting.
Like many people, I’d read books about legendary gamblers, successful investors and market traders. I was fascinated by the idea that somebody could consistently beat a market through skill rather than luck. When Betfair appeared, it felt like the perfect opportunity to explore that idea. It became an obsession.
Not because I wanted money, although that was obviously important, but because I wanted to answer the question:
“Can this actually be done?”
Everything that followed grew from that curiosity.
I thought people would be fascinated
If I’m honest, I imagined that if I managed to succeed, people would find the journey extraordinary.
I thought there would be huge interest in somebody building a career around exchange betting. Perhaps I’d become well known for it. That never really happened. And that’s perfectly OK.
I’ve long since accepted that the achievement itself is more important than whether anybody notices it. The satisfaction comes from doing something that very few people believed was possible and on a scale that people would find impossible.
Bet Angel was never the plan
One of the biggest misconceptions is that Bet Angel was the business plan all along. It wasn’t.
In fact, when I started there wasn’t even a Betfair API. I actually used other people’s software. The problem was simple. Their software couldn’t do what I needed it to do.
As I became more sophisticated in the way I approached markets, I needed tools that simply didn’t exist. The software available wasn’t designed for the sort of trading I wanted to do.
So Bet Angel was created for one reason. To help me become a better trader.
It wasn’t created because I spotted a commercial opportunity.
It was created because I couldn’t find the tools I needed.
The numbers tell their own story
People are naturally sceptical. I understand that.
If somebody claims they’ve built a career from betting, your first instinct is probably to wonder where the money really comes from. But the reality is remarkably straightforward.
In the last year, 26 years after I started, I’ve earned more from betting, trading and investing than from anything else.
Take Royal Ascot last week as an example.
The amount I earned from betting and trading during that single meeting exceeded the entire turnover of the Bet Angel software business over the same period. It may seem odd, but it’s true. I always carefully document my activity, it helps me know what I’ve done right or wrong and improve on that. But it always helps me shine a light on facts like that too.
To be fair that’s not unusual during major festivals such as Royal Ascot or Cheltenham. Quiet weeks are obviously different, but over the long term the pattern has remained remarkably consistent. If you understand that every day I wake up and try to do the best that I can in the markets, then that’s much easier to understand.
The lesson in there? Businesses can be complicated and costly, but if you’re actively betting or trading, you just need a PC and a piece of software!
The strongest evidence came ten years ago
Perhaps the biggest piece of evidence of this is something people skip over. Over ten years ago I deliberately re-structured Bet Angel and took a minority stake. So that while I was the founder, I was no longer a majority stakeholder.
The reason was that I wanted the software business to continue with or without me. So I created a structure to do that. It was clear to me fairly early on that the software business wasn’t going to be unbelievably massive, so there’s no point in constraining myself to just that.
If the software business had always been my primary objective, stepping back from it would have made very little sense. Instead, it allowed it to flourish independently.
I’m still chasing improvement
One assumption people often make is that markets were easy in the early days and that the best opportunities have disappeared.
Markets certainly evolve, but there are still many billions being traded on Betfair, Betdaq, and other exchanges every year.
My aim has always been: can I get an any percentage, even a tiny percentage, out of a large amount of turnover? That’s been the key to what I’ve done over the last 26 years. There’s still an awful lot of turnover out there.
In many ways, I believe I’m doing some of the best work of my career today. Not because the markets are easier.
Because my understanding is deeper than it’s ever been.
I’m still learning. Still researching. Still finding new edges.
That process never stops.
Curiosity has always been the real business
Looking back over the last 26 years, I’ve realised something.
People often think my business is software. Or education. Or YouTube. Those are simply ways of sharing what I’ve learned.
The real business has always been curiosity. Trying to understand markets a little better today than I did yesterday. Trying to improve my decision making. Trying to solve problems that nobody else has solved.
That’s what led to Bet Angel.
That’s what led to everything else I’ve done.
And after all these years, that’s still what gets me out of bed every morning.