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How Often Do You Bet?

walsworth

walsworth

Journeyman
Joined
Jul 19, 2006
Messages
1,826
Location
North Herts
Just being nosey and wondering if anybody is like me and has a dabble every day. There are occasional days when the Weather means that I cannot see a bet but they are very rare.

My bets are to modest stakes and I just about break even over time but with peaks and troughs. Strangely enough although I prefer flat meetings to jumps, I seem to do better during the Winter.

My selection method centres on the top dozen or so trainers and I rarely stray far from the first three in the betting. I do not bet if I don't consider the price to be value and I am wary of horses ridden by claimers.
 
It shouldn't be any secret on here that I don't even look at midweek racing outside the festivals or occasional noteworthy race, or that I tend to concentrate on the valuable weekend races plus the festivals.

Why make life difficult for yourself?

If you have a knack for finding the needle that is the trier in the haystack of non-triers in any given midweek race than I salute you.

I turn 70 later this year and am gradually becoming more selective een about the weekend [televised] races that I look at. The natural progression is that I will eventually just pack it in as I find more meaningful things to occupy whatever time I may have left shuffling this mortal coil.
 
Haven’t been betting much recently. Used to have WHill racing radio on every day ( especially during the pandemic when racing started again as it kept me sane) and I top up my account by a few pounds every so often and have 3 pence ew bets all the time. Having to top up more than I used to as I don’t really study the racing as much. I do rather miss going to the bookies to put my bets on and I put a lot more thought into it back then.
 
Must admit that I miss going to the bookies as it was only a stone’s throw from the pub, quite a social gathering really. I tend not to frequent anywhere that people gather now as I have to be careful not to pick up any infection.
 
I look at the racecards every day, but I don't go looking for bets, I wait for the good value bets to jump out of the screen and find me.

A 5/1 winner on a wet Wednesday evening at Kempton Park is worth more than a 9/2 winner at the Cheltenham Festival or Royal Ascot, so I look at all the racing, Flat and Jumps, and sometimes overseas (outside the UK and Ireland) but, without wanting to get too much into the specific components (ever evolving anyway to stay ahead of the market) of my modus operandi, I specialise.

I don't NEED to bet and there's always another race and another day.
 
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I enjoy my L15's on a Saturday, a few quid each way on the big handicap of the day and a dabble on a Sunday. The only time I would bet during the week would be at the festivals or bigger meetings like Chester, York, Newmarket etc.
Pre Covid I would have gone into the bookies each evening after work and would have done a bet for the evening meetings in the summer but never bothered going back after Covid restrictions were lifted.
 
More often than I used to; but I’m a sucker for my apps. Only piddly bets, but more of them. I have more money these days, and I am nowhere near ever betting more than I can afford to lose.

I will set aside £500 exclusively for Cheltenham.
 
Bet on my trackers (unless odds on) whenever they occur, look every day and fun bet if anything jumps out. Value to me comes with the winner not the price and I often chase “worse value” by adding as price shortens.
 
Like others mostly confined to weekends and the festivals but look most days to see if something interests me. Rarely look at Class 4 or below and mostly NH
Small stakes only as I’ve always found the pain of losing £50 (say) outweighs the joy of winning the same
 
Interesting replies, thank you.
Would seem as though I'm in the minority here by betting every day.

Horseracebase flags up my long list of selections under the trainers and then I copy them into an Excel sheet which applies criteria such as, going, number of runners, price etc. The final decision is up to me and I keep away from horses ridden by claimers or amateurs.
 
We have a tipster competition based on our 'Jolly Boys at Cheltenham' group. Essentially runs from October to the Imperial Hurdle and involves virtual bets on races on terrestrial TV. It means that I look through the weekend races and potentially have a competition bet on 2 or 3 races which is all the excitement that I need. Very occasionally, my research or something posted on here leads me to a real bet but otherwise I stick to any free bets that bookies offer.

I may have a couple of bets when I go racing but no longer feel the need to have a bet in every race.

As a by the by, I get annoyed when I see bookies offering something along the lines of, "bet up to £10 on x and get a free bet". In my view, that is not a free bet because you've had to pay up to £10 to get it.
 
archie said:
As a by the by, I get annoyed when I see bookies offering something along the lines of, "bet up to £10 on x and get a free bet". In my view, that is not a free bet because you've had to pay up to £10 to get it.
Click to expand...
Totally agree archie but it's surprising how many don't realise it.
 
I bet most days but using a separate account for my every day betting. I use it for any bet s between 5 pounds and 20 pounds to pass the time and keep my eye in...my p/l last year was a loss of 28pounds 57 pence which I regard as very cheap entertainment.

This has nothing to do with my main accounts which are totally separate
 
I consciously changed my approach to betting this year -so far I've only had 8 bets.Basically I only want to bet where I think I have an advantage.
At my betfair peak I had a betting volume of €1.2 million in a year -that figure snowballed from a big priced HdB winner at Dundalk on Breeders Cup night-With nail was his name.Later that night I place laid Mastercraftsman for an absolute lump.How Murtagh didn't win on him I will never know.Keeping him out of the First 3 was a work of art.
Anyway Betfair has been on a steep decline for years -it is OK for the occasional bet but I wouldn't deposit a lump sum to play for the weekend.
I watch as much racing as possible but I would have no difficulty going 6 or 7 weeks without a bet but I always like to have at least one strong long term opinion.
 
Ian_Davies said:
I look at the racecards every day, but I don't go looking for bets, I wait for the good value bets to jump out of the screen and find me.

A 5/1 winner on a wet Wednesday evening at Kempton Park is worth more than a 9/2 winner at the Cheltenham Festival or Royal Ascot, so I look at all the racing, Flat and Jumps, and sometimes overseas (outside the UK and Ireland) but, without wanting to get too much into the specific components (ever evolving anyway to stay ahead of the market) of my modus operandi, I specialise.

I don't NEED to bet and there's always another race and another day.
Click to expand...
Tell us about Salsabil -Ian.
 
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