Bettor Days

Getting married as an adult is expensive, but no complaints. After a fortnight of haemorrhaging money in all directions, normal life resumes today, and I'm hoping to recover the money spent before too long.

For the record, the ceremony was dry and sunny, and was followed by a reception in Lynmouth, coincidentally the same village that both sets of grandparents also honeymooned in many years ago. My parents only thought to mention this interesting tidbit to me on Saturday!

Anyway, after a few days in the beautiful Lynmouth area, we visited Clovelly, Port Isaac, Bodmin, Looe, Brixham, Dartmoor, Dartmouth Castle, Exeter Cathedral, Cheddar Gorge, Colchester Castle, St. Paul's Cathedral, (and other assorted City of London churches) and Hever Castle, as well as meeting up with old friends. A very enjoyable few days, and betting wasn't missed at all. Mrs Cassini had family over from the US and sometimes there are more important things in life than betting. So I'm told.

But life goes on, and I did manage to find time to finish reading "The Smart Money" by Michael Konik. It's an enjoyable read, but I was hoping for more of an insight into how the selections were made rather than just reading about how the bets were placed. It's encouraging to those of us who believe the sports betting markets can be beaten that behind the scenes in the book, there are a computer or two processing data and generating 'lines' which are often close to that of the the bookies, but not always.

There are also the occasional lines that ring true - this one for example:

It's a good day to be a sports bettor. And I'm learning to appreciate the fleeting triumphs, because depressing days of equal magnitude will surely follow. Up, down, profit, loss - it's all about grinding out an edge. As long as I'm in action, the short-term thrills and chills shouldn't really matter - but if you're human, they do.

I did also catch some of the football this weekend, albeit with no financial interest. I'm giving the Elo ratings this month to settle down, but my value selection for relegation mentioned a few posts ago, Wigan Athletic at 3.2, got off to the worst (or best) imaginable start and are now at 2.25 for the drop. Blackpool meanwhile, move out to 1.4 from a low of 1.23, something of an over-reaction to my mind.

In golf, now six new major winners in the last seven events, something that has never happened before. Laying the third round leader (Nick Watney) would again have paid dividends, but I didn't get a chance to check the price.

The regular baseball season looks to be one of the closest in years with the leaders in five of the six divisions less than four games ahead of the second placed team.