Betfair trading - The Melbourne Cup
In the early days of my Betfair trading career, I got interested in the ‘Race that stops a nation’ and learned that it did stop the nation; they have a national holiday in the Australian state of Victoria.
My interest developed until successfully Betfair trading the Melbourne Cup became a key career objective.
The start, Intrigue and disappointment
I pretty much ignored all overseas racing. So, the early part of my career was focusing on UK events and nearby sports. I hadn’t considered doing anything else as my hands were full.
My mission was to push the boundaries of what was possible so, inevitably, I turned my attention to any market that had good turnover. Intrigued by all the fuss surrounding the Melbourne Cup, I woke at 4 a.m. one dark winter Tuesday to see what all the fuss was about. Apart from a lack of sleep, nothing happened, and I returned to bed disappointed.
Back then, I had converted half the garage in my old house into an office that I could work from. So I slept on the floor that night to not disturb the rest of the family. Back then, five of us lived in a three-bedroom house, and when my twins arrived in the world, there was no room left for me in the house.
The following year, I tried again and did a bit better, but not much. My wife thought I was mad getting up at 4 a.m. to watch a bit of racing.
Gaining traction, in traction
Slowly but surely, I understood all the dynamics of Australian racing and built my results on the Melbourne Cup. I still hadn’t done much on other Australian racing; however, a fluke changed everything.
I was at the Gym one evening when I badly injured my arm and back. That night my arm had really started to swell up and was really uncomfortable.
Unable to sleep and using one arm, I pondered what I could do at 3 am in the morning. I walked around a bit but eventually sat down to look at the Australian markets and started trading them.
I’ve been doing them ever since!
Cracking the Melbourne Cup
Back to the big race itself. From year three things started to move in the right direction and I built year after year on my knowledge and understanding.
In 2008 I had my first three-figure result but little did I imagine that in five years, I would net ten times that result. But it’s a race I will trade each year now. So, I look forward to giving it a go each year.
I go to great lengths now to ensure I’m as prepared as possible, so I’m optimistic about what I can pull out of the big race now. It’s a long way from freezing nights on the garage floor.
I expect the Melbourne Cup to match around $5m this year. Convert to your local currency to see what that means. If you look in terms of GBP vs AUD it averages around £3.5m. I’d imagine it will do a similar amount this year.
Hilariously, when I was goggling for some research, the top results for the MC were Fashion, Trophy and Drunk!
Good luck if you are doing anything on the big race!