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.