All Mine

Trading Football Markets adds a point to the debate on full-time / part-time trading which is that:

You get to watch incredible amounts of your favourite sport – Yes you do and you learn so much from doing so too. However, being a trader means learning how to be critical, analytical and totally grounded. You cannot become emotionally involved. Ultimately, you may find your passion for a sport wanes.

There's certainly an element of truth to that. I still enjoy my sport, but it's hard to stop your mind from thinking about how the odds might be reacting. When I was at the Golden State Warriors v Sacramento Kings game with my son earlier this month, we started playing Fantasy Betfair where we would make up the prices and take ridiculously large fantasy bets off each other. I think the final tally was about £100,000 to me, although my son insists he layed-off at 1.01 and that I owe him. Betfair certainly makes you look at sports in a different way.

Hickb40 wrote a comment on my last post saying

Another interesting post. I agree that choosing to trade/bet full time would not lead to better results for most people and there's just no need really especially when you work an office job or where you can often work from home. The compulsory task of work helps me by making me take an enforced break, otherwise I'd probably spend even more time on blogs like this!

I think I read that you started off with a similar amount of cash to Odwyer? I'm curious as to how you made your bank grow initially. Did you ride your luck like he's trying to do. because seeing a lot of your recent picks on here that whilst may be value they are not going to turn a bank of £100 into that of tens of thousands. Apologies if this has been covered before.

I don't see what's so wrong with spending time on blogs like this - at least you're learning new things all the time! As for my early days on Betfair, I have written on this before but for those who don't want to read 1,029 older posts the short version is that I opened my account with £98.5 and had some early success turning that into four figures all too easily. Fortunately for me, my luck then ran out, and that four figures dwindled to a low one Saturday of £21.40. Had I busted, I would most likely have called it a day and moved onto to another venture, but I decide to scale back, play with small (£2 or so) bets, and try to find an edge. I actually got almost as big a kick from winning small amounts from a small bank as I do from winning larger amounts from a larger bank. It's the challenge rather than the money I guess. Anyway, that £21.40 was enough, and to this day I have never made a second deposit into my account. You do not need big money to make bigger money as O'Dwyer seems to think. You need patience (discipline) and an edge. I suspect that O'Dwyer has neither, and he would be better served by finding an edge playing with small stakes than imagining that a big bank is all he needs. To become a millionaire, do you need to start with £100,000? OK, so it helps, but the truth is that with time and discipline, that goal is not beyond the reach of many of us. So a million might not be what it once was, but it's a start!

Over at 500 to 5000, some poor decisions (over staking on gambles) have led to the author taking a break. There seems to be a tendency that, upon discovering Betfair, people want to run rather than walk. It all seems so easy, but the reality is that being successful is not simply a matter of learning how to back and lay and waiting for the money to roll in. It is a cut-throat game, where your opinion (and your money) are up against an opposite opinion and experience is a very useful asset in this game. Think of it as a cash minefield. If you run and hit a mine, pick yourself up, dust yourself down, take a look around and walk on with some caution. Don't keep running and crying because you keep hitting more mines.