Little Christmas

Almost back to normal now, with Serie A's Epihany Holiday matches this afternoon marking the end of an irregular period. Although there are a few selections to come from today's matches, the results from Friday through last night have been updated, and the latest FTL table is broken down below.

The big winners this weekend were Football Investor (+8.14) followed by TFA_Raz (+6.11) points. Both climbed six places in the table, and moving up six places and both also had Hamilton Academical's win at St Johnstone, but this was received after the deadline. TFA Draws also missed a winner by being tardy, and Skeeve was also hurt by the holiday schedule.

The table toppers, those up by 10 points or more, and it's impressive that there are 13, are:

Leader Fairfranco put his poor run of form from December and New Year's day behind him with a return to form and picking up up 3.23 points to extend his lead while Football Elite enjoyed a good weekend making 2.60 points. The XX Unders had just one selection, a winner which added 0.58 points to the pot, but the corresponding XX Draw selection lost and thus has the unenviable distinction of being the only entrant in this section of the table to lose this weekend. With only La Liga in action from the top leagues, it wasn't surprising that many took the weekend off.

Other than Football Investor mentioned earlier, the winners here were BettingTools.co.uk, Rubicon (+0.59) and Talkies Tips (+0.37). The middle order of the table looks like this:

Drawmaster lost two points, while OverGoalify and TFA Draws dropped one point each, although the latter was a bit unfortunate with a disqualified winner arriving after the midnight deadline. Skeeve was also idle so far as the FTL was concerned, but his excuse was a good one. Being the consummate professional that he is, he wanted to wait until after the deadline as:

it would be extremely irresponsible to send them before the transfer window opens

Skeeve's famed attention to detail paid dividends for his subscribers, as both Forest Green Rovers (-0.75) v Welling (1.72) and Bristol Rovers (-0.5) @ Nuneaton (1.62) won, and a couple of "outsider mentions" also did well with Aldershot - TELFORD (6.34) winning at Aldershot. Alfreton (6.28) 'only' drew with Torquay United but it was a great start to Skeeve's season, even if his FTL liability increased by £100. As a result of the recent changes to the UK gambling law, and the subsequent loss of some long-standing members, Skeeve now has some availability for his service this season, and as one of the FTL Bounty Boys, mention my name and he'll discount your fees by a whopping 20%. Many more weekend like this one, and you'll have made back the rest of it! 

Now to the bottom of the table, and those down by 10 points or more:

Sjosta was the big winner here, garnering 3.82 points, while Mortimer's 23 selections made him 0.85 points. Three entrants lost points - Cassini Value started with two losers in Spain before the third one (Cordoba) won at 2.62 to limit the damage to 0.38 points. TFA Euro Draws continued to struggle dropping two points while @ValueBankFooty lost all eight selections. 

Overall the FTL made 14.50 points, while the Draw Portfolio is up just 1.89 points now - ROI 0.27%.

A couple of non-FT related matters, and one is that JP of JP's Betting Blog fame is back after 19 months away and added to the blogroll, as is Football Formbook who some of you may remember picked up the wooden spoon in the 2012-13 version of the FTL. A quick look at recent entries shows some high praise for two more of the Bounty Boys:

On to Football Investor and I am running out of superlatives for how he is doing - December was tremendous - January has started in the same way with some excellent results today! I stake £100 on Combo and Top Flight Euro selections. There was 5 selections today which produced 4 winners at odds of (1.9, 3.2, 7!! and 3.4). The Almeria win was especially pleasing and far from the first time he has produced a huge winner in the Spanish league. Overall a cracking day - only just beaten by The Football Analyst! (+£1,035)

With Football Elite up over 20 points in the FTL, and the others a little unfortunate to be in mid-table, I have a feeling a Bounty Boys portfolio might reap dividends in the second half of the season.