Sunday 8 January 2012

Fair Game?

Soccer Dude from A Football Trader's path blog takes me to task for my treatment of the NBA, Football and Golf tips blog. Leaving aside the fact that he himself doesn't feel that this blog is worthy if inclusion on his blog roll, his comment in full was this:

Bit disappointed in this entry, and the other two entries, attacking fgtips.blogspot.com. Okay, there's little doubt that it's poor and not well thought-out, but you sniggering over the details of the blogger's delusions and misinformation has the slight feel of bullying about it.

You have a well-established and well-read blog. You are obviously intelligent, eloquent and provide detailed, in-depth entries on a range of different betting/trading related subjects. Compare this with the fgtips who is, shall we say, more laconic, and you can quickly appear to be taking up the role of a thuggish tormenter. Reading most of your other entries, I realise you're not like that. But, in my opinion, these kind of entries do you a disservice as they should be beneath you.

It's the easiest thing in the world to criticise and takes little skill to do so. I'm sure you could pop across to my blog and tear it to pieces in ten seconds flat. No problem. But is this really what your readers are looking for from you? Is this how you have steadily built up a readership? I doubt it. The blog you are attacking is a very easy target indeed, but low-hanging fruit is not always tasty.

And you also seem to have had some influence. Pop over to Geoff's blog at fulltimebettingblog.com and you'll see he's joined in the attacking too.

Please continue your blogging. It's largely enjoyable to read, as I trust it's enjoyable to write. Be positive on subjects or be negative - I'm not suggesting you administer self-censorship in any way - but perhaps it would be good to determine, before you publish, whether an entry is truly worthy of the excellent blog that you've spent so long building up.
The prosecution rests, and very well written it was too, but for the defence, a few comments. This blog came to my attention, because the author sought its inclusion on my blog roll. Essentially I was invited in - I didn't just happen to stumble across it and start critiquing it. I like to have my blog roll comprised of blogs that have something to offer, that are interesting. Pure P&L blogs do not meet this criteria for example, but FGTips blog was added because it was new, and I agree with giving these things a chance. 

However, when I started looking at it, with its poorly written posts, lame tips, nonsensical staking suggestions, calling bets trades when they are not, no mention of value or why the tip was considered value, I posted a couple of comments over on his blog suggesting first of all that he include prices in his tips, something he wasn't doing at first, and then a second comment, behind someone else, suggesting in a very positive supportive way, that he learn about value and that blindly backing 1.1x selections with 'small stakes' didn't make sense and would not be profitable long-term.

But my comments and the other were removed, so any readers of his blog do not get the chance to see that there is another way of looking at things. Removing constructive comments, and reporting that a group of selections were a success when they clearly weren't, those are the two things that make me feel justified in writing here about it. Four selections at 1.27, 1.1, 1.26 and 1.14, with the first three winning and the fourth selection losing is a loss. To start the next post with
After our success on the NBA 2 nights ago (winning 3 out of 4 games)
is just downright dishonest. There was no success, only a big failure. Anyone claiming otherwise is at best a fool, at worst a blatant liar. Which is the case here? If he's a fool, then he should not be posting these tips and possibly encouraging others to lose money, and if he's a blatant liar, then what are his motives for such deceit?

You might also compare my treatment of this blog with the A Gambler's Life For Me blog which started up recently. Here the author took on board at least some of my comments, whereas our new friend deletes helpful suggestions and fails to learn. He's putting his selections into the public domain, asking for attention to them, and I think it's quite valid to point out any problems such as distortions of the truth that might mislead the more gullible of readers out there. Today's selection is from the NBA where the Los Angles Lakers are picked at 1.31 to beat the Memphis Grizzlies. They are currently available at 1.32, so perhaps his tips are impacting prices already! The author writes today:
I don't appreciate the comments left by Cassini and Fulltimebettingblog. I totally understand they can write whatever they want on their blogs, but I'd appreciate it if they let mine be and didn't criticise the games I suggest. Maybe I sense a tang of jealousy.
A tang of jealousy? I think the author means 'pang' of jealousy. Combined with his twisted definition of the word 'success', it rather shows that his knowledge of English is as poor as his understanding of value and mathematics. 0.27 + 0.1 + 0.26 - 1 <> Success.

This blog is overwhelmingly positive, and will continue to be so. What some may see as bullying, I see more as playing the role of a superhero, dedicated to protecting the gullible betting public from wrong, misleading and disingenuous information.

7 comments:

James said...

Can I get your thoughts on this, after seeing Chelsea had Portsmouth today and realizing they would likely progress I back Chelsea to win the cup at 7.6, they won their match and their odds on winning the cup dropped to 5.5. I can trade out now for a nice green.

Can this type of tournament betting/trading be considered successful long term?

Rudy said...

Well put Cassini. If someone starts out a blog and wants to be taken seriously then they should be open to constructive criticism, which from what I have read, is what you tried to give. I think you handled the matter in the right manner (and I am sure you were in no doubt of that). Keep it up!

Golf and Football Tips said...

The LA Lakers are 1.3 now, less than when my tip went out at 1.31. Have faith in FGtips =)

Anonymous said...

Indeed you do criticise other peoples blogs. I have read your blog for a while now, it happens to be an inspiration for me to try and crack this betting lark ;).

I was expecting some comments when I first started out my blog, but I knew from the word go that whatever you said would be helpfull to me if I listened. Hence I was ready to receive an ego bruising.

I decided that any comments on my blog would be approved no matter what, as I want to show people that I'm willing to listen and learn from any comments. There's no point allowing people to comment and then deleting it if you don't agree.

Must say my heart jumped into my throat when I first read my blogs name in the post, untill I saw the rest. If anything just the mention of my blog in your post would generate readers.

Keep it up.

TFM said...

I agree with the post by Soccer Dude. I have been an avid reader of Green All Over for some time and I agree that the blogs in your roll are of a very high quality because I actually utilise yours as a sort of "portal" to the others every day. What you have been engaging in is distasteful and I think it's soured the content of Green All Over over the last number of days. If he's going to post crap tips and flawed logic, let him do it. You surely have better things to worry about. Ridiculing his grasp of the English language is not only insulting and uncomfortable (to at least this reader, but irrelevant as I fail to see the relationship between grammar proficiency and trading success (not that he is successful). Stick to what your good at Cassini: writing informative blog posts. If his tips are unprofitable the blog will cease to exist. Simple as.

Golf and Football Tips said...

Crap tips????? FGtips had a 100% success rate over the weekend, 3 correct predictions out of 3, check it out http://fgtips.blogspot.com/ more to come next week ;-)

www.fulltimebettingblog.com said...

Felt compelled to leave a quick comment too. "Bullying"? FFS! Its the internet not a school playground.

To say I've joined in the attacking when what I actually posted was "but I really hope the person writing the blog isn’t backing their massive odds on selections with big money." seems a bit over the top.

The comment about "feeling compelled to join in" suggests that I've read the post on here and decided to have a pop- untrue. I left a comment on the NBA tips blog querying the win/losses which was deleted as well. More worryingly it implies that I would read and agree with anything that Cassini states on his blog!

If you are referring to the title "moron alert" then that was about the guy who was having a pop at me on a private forum when he knew I wasn't about. It wasn't a reference to NBA Tips.

Anyway its all a good debate- lesson learnt though- if someone wants to give out shockingly bad advice and then give misinformation about the results then we should let them.