**WARNING: THIS POST MAY INCLUDE SENTENCES SOME READERS MAY FIND UPSETTING**

You might have to bear with me a little on this one.  What I’m about to type does eventually tie in to betting, you’ll see…

So there I was, playing in a T20 Cup cricket match against local rivals Alderley Edge.  I’m fielding at what, for those of you of a cricketing bent, will know as short extra cover.  Because it’s T20, we’re playing with a hard, lacquered pink ball.

The batsman wellies it.  In a heroic attempt at a stop, I throw myself full length to my right and manage to get a hand to the ball.  Dumb.  As I stand up, I see blood; quite a lot of it, coming from my hand.

Well that’s not going to stop me (although it did, shortly), I’m thinking.  Calling for a tissue or something to put around my hand, I wipe the red stuff away and bowl the next over.  Got to admit, it is bleeding quite a lot.  At the end of the over, a teammate and Paramedic comes over to have a look, tells me I’m a “wally” (insert stronger word) and that I need to go to hospital.

So I do.  Nurse looks at it, cleans it out, and tells me I may need surgery!  As it turns out I don’t, stitches will do the trick.  No anaesthetic because of where the cut is, and all they could offer was gas and air.  No chance of that, I’m not bloody pregnant!

Anyway, grit the old teeth as she’s sewing my hand up, and rewarded when she tells me I’m a model patient (which appeals to my ego as she’s quite attractive)!  Ego melts into embarrassment when near the end of the stitching I nearly faint and have to lie down on the examination couch for five minutes.  The attractive Nurse looks disappointed…not the model patient after all, just another wimp.

So what has this all got to do with betting?  Well, nothing in a direct sense, but in an indirect sense, it’s had a real knock on effect.

Since the injury I’ve been able to type, albeit with some discomfort, but I’ve not been able to write.  The cut is exactly where the pen rests and with the hand bandaged up anyway, I can’t even hold the pen, never mind use it.

Trouble is, I STILL (and this is where some readers may get upset -I did warn you at the top!) write down all of my results.  Each and every one of them.  It’s how I keep my records.

There, I’ve said it.  Yep, that’s right.  I still use a pen and paper to record my betting results.

I know, I know.  You think less of me, but this is my ‘coming out’ moment.  I need understanding and patience.  I need support.  (Actually, I think I need my head examined, but there we go).

After the initial feelings of guilt I had about this sensitive issue, I’ve reached a point where I thought, ‘Sod it’.  You know what – writing down my results works for me.  So I’m going to ask you a question now.  What do you use to record YOUR betting results?  You do record them, don’t you?

DON’T YOU???

Please tell me you do.  I really don’t care if you use the most amazing spreadsheet, pen and paper, or papyrus and the blood of a snake…you must record your results.  It’s imperative, and I still talk to a lot of people who don’t (hence this post).

And I’ll leave you with this thought…  I’ve not been able to record my results for a week, not efficiently anyway.  A week, and already I’m feeling out of control and out of my comfort zone because I don’t know where I am.  I’ve an idea obviously, but not knowing specifically is something I really don’t like.  The reason I don’t like it is because I know how important it is to know exactly where you stand, all the time.

Right – stitches out today and records brought up to date tomorrow, I hope.

May was a funny old month.  Bank growth of 6.64% and an ROI of 12.4% means it was a good month, and yet five of the nine services to offer bets ended with a loss; four of those five endured what can only be described as a pretty torrid time of it.

So the feel as I was going through May day by day was that things were a struggle, that losses were steadily mounting up, and yet we end with a double digit ROI!  Of course this is all thanks to the MVS (Lite) service and the derivative Fake Mug Bets Club.  That one day when the stars aligned and we had multiple winners from FMBC, all put in multiple bets as well as singles, meant the pay day was huge and the pay month decent!

What I want to see now are the other services, that have underperformed, start to deliver some consistent returns.  The weather has been set fair for a few weeks now, the flat season is no longer in it’s infancy and the form has settle down – these are ideal conditions for horse racing tipsters to be profiteering.  It’s no good making allowances for poor performance in November and March when the weather is unsettled, going conditions unpredictable, and question marks hang over the fitness of the horses, if when conditions are right we don’t have higher expectations.

So, we know that the Fake Mug Bets Club really produced the goods in May, and by default then we can expect MVS (Lite) to have a pretty decent month too, and so it did.  I remember last summer was a real purple patch for MVS (Lite) – let’s hope this is the start of another golden period (a goldurple patch perhaps, or a purpleden period)!

As for the negatives, well it really has been a month to forget for Racing Service C which found winners very hard to locate.  Jason James struggled too and Racing Service B will be glad to see the back of it too.

Onwards and upwards, Chaps!

AH Betting: Staked 32pts, -5.15pts, ROI -16.12%, ROC -8.59%.

Fake Mug Bets Club: Staked 156pts, +315.714pts, ROI 202.38%, ROC 78.92%.

Football Service 1: Staked 8pts, +3.711pts, ROI 46.38%, ROC 7.42%.

Jason James: Staked 141.5pts, -27.38pts, ROI -19.34%, ROC -13.69%.

MVS (Lite): Staked 71pts, +32.583pts, ROI 45.89%, ROC 36.2%.

Northern Monkey: Staked 70.875pts, -4.217pts, ROI -5.95%, ROC -5.27%.

Pilelist Racing: Staked 69.483pts, +3.2pts, ROI 4.6%, ROC 4.26%.

Racing Service A: n/a

Racing Service B: Staked 113.25pts, -28.25pts, ROI -24.94%, ROC -11.62%.

Racing Service C: Staked 48pts, -20.512pts, ROI -42.73%, ROC -20.51%.

Total: ROI 12.4%, ROC 6.64%.

irst of all, if this is your first visit to the Bet Diary after reading the 2017/18 Report, welcome on board.  Good to see you. 🙂

You know even old fuddy duddies like me can get into ‘new’ technology.  It was only last week that I resolved never to buy a cd again after I discovered the Deezer app and realised that for a small monthly fee I could download and play any music I wanted to at any time.  I could listen in the car, at home connected to the ‘stereo’ (doesn’t that sound an old-fashioned word now?) via WiFi, wherever.  It’s transformed my musical life, and I do like a new album.

And I know this isn’t really anything new as they’ve been going for some years now, but I’ve started getting into Podcasts in a big way.  Getting a hairy beast (the dog, not the wife) has pushed me in this direction; take the dog for a long walk every day, stick my earphones in and listen to the ‘Cricket Analyst’ podcast or any one of a number of Arsenal related pods.  It’s all good.

And then Wayne of Northern Monkey released a short podcast in which he looked at this year’s Derby and it got me thinking.  Why don’t more tipsters exploit this medium?  I think it would be a great way for a tipster to engage with their customer-base.  They could do as Wayne did and concentrate on giving their views on certain big races, or if say, Racing Service B did a pre-Cheltenham podcast I’d regard it as essential listening.

I know our very own Pete here at the SBC has done a number of podcasts, but really the betting world as a whole seems sadly lacking in this area.  If anyone knows of any that are worth listening to, stick it in the Comments section – it would be good to find them.  In the meantime, one for tipsters to ponder perhaps.

Betting Performance

After the recent Fake Mug Bets fireworks, all has been a little more sedate across this past week, with nothing of real note happening.  Here are the figures for the month to date:

AH Betting: Staked 32pts, -3.15pts.

Football Service 1: Staked 8pts, +3.711pts.

Jason James: Staked 136.5pts, -30.38pts.

MVS (Lite): Staked 67pts, +31.083pts.

Fake Mug Bets: Staked 151pts, +315.21pts.

Northern Monkey: Staked 69.37pts, -3.99pts.

Pilelist Racing: Staked 59.15pts, +7.98pts.

Racing Service A: n/a

Racing Service B: Staked 104.25pts, -33.25pts.

Racing Service C: Staked 48pts, -20.512pts.