I'm not quite sure why I split opinion as much as I do but I think it's linked to the fact that I'm a pretty intelligent guy (when I want to be!) and this seems to wind people up I suspect.
Of course, my history is now tarnished with the fact I launched a racing service with a few members off the back of a blog, produced some amazing results during the summer of 2009, grew the service rapidly, hit a bad patch, received endless abuse, stopped the service, gave everyone their money back and moved on from that venture with a clear conscious.
If there was any doubt that I did something wrong, then surely it would be negated by the fact that around 30 subscribers who were members of the service stayed in the forum when the service closed and pay to maintain the upkeep of the forum out of their own pockets. Hence, if I had acted wrongly in any way, I can't imagine this would be the case!
Anyway, over the last few months and as more people have cottoned on to the fact I've been doing something with the football , I've obviously had lots of comments on the blog saying stuff like "when is the tipster service starting G?", "how long before this crashes and burns like TFA?", "Will you give refunds if this goes tits up like TFA did?" blah, blah, blah, blah.
Clearly, there is a lot of bad feeling towards me from people who joined TFA somewhere towards the end and were rightly annoyed when I stopped the service suddenly. The fact some had lost money meant that it was never a good situation for me and stopping a service when things are going badly will always irritate some people as they'll have no opportunity to recoup the recent losses.
I'll never hide from the fact my results with TFA were poor (only achieved an 11% return since it's inception) but as I know only too well, you are only as good as your last few months and mine's were awful!
Having run a tipster service before, I know the stick that goes with it at times and I laugh at some of the comments posted on here after bad days etc. but at the end of the day, the blog is free and I do all this work off my own back with no payment from anyone. Hence, I don't post any rubbish comments as they would detract from the blog and what it is about.
Rowan from TPI pointed out a few comments posted on another blog about me and being honest, it does surprise me a little that people have this strong a feeling towards me from what happened with the racing site. I apologised at the time for stopping the site and not feeling like I could go on but clearly, people have a vendetta against me for what happened.
Some people have asked on here and via email about my plans for next season and I know the guys in the TFA forum are wondering what I'm going to do too. At the moment, I'm not sure and I don't really fancy going down some sort of subscription route as I can do without the endless abuse that comes with it.
Although I've never been a member of another football tipster site, I know of one guy that has produced 4 season's remarkable results and this season, the results have been a little below par. If there was someone that should be immune to criticism, it should be him! Unfortunately, I was saddened to read on the SBC forum that he has been receiving criticism and it does make you wonder how many brain cells some of his members have. I appreciate some might have joined at a peak and would be well down but surely, you judge a service on the long-term and methodology and whether you believe he has an edge. You don't judge someone on a season's results (or even less) when they have 4 season's results before that show a significant edge!
Reading the comments on the other blog this morning, the comments I regularly receive on here and seeing the reaction to another service having a bad spell, it does beg the question why I should continue with the blog or even consider doing something next season outside of my TFA forum as I really don't need the hassle. I'll not make any rash decisions but I do wonder why I would bother with it!
Anyway, another good midweek with the selections. 6 selections, 4 wins, a draw and a loser. The loser was a bit unlucky too as Macclesfield were 2-1 up with 5 minutes left and lost 3-2! A profit of 3.36pts from 6 games.
The systems did a bit better overall though (makes a change this month!) as they were really keen on Accrington and it was nice to see them win very easily. The record of home bets on the more selective systems is quite frightening at times.
Anyway, an overall profit of 10.49pts to round off the month. I'll be back with a monthly review either tonight or tomorrow, so keep an eye out for it.
Hi Graeme
ReplyDeleteNo matter what any of us do there will always be someone that does not approve/agree with us.
When a political party wins the a general election there will usually be nearly half of the voters that did not vote for them, their reasons ranging from apathy to downright loathing.
So my advice to you would be to stick at it read the comments on your own blog, delete the abusive ones and don't bother what other people are writing.
In other words focus on helping the people that take a genuine interest in what you are doing.
Only my thoughts but I am sure that it is only a minority of people who want to criticise you.
Keep up the good work
Mark
Hi Mark.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment and support.
Agree with what you are saying and hopefully I'll not let things like this affect me. Thankfully, I don't have to make any judgement calls with the football as it is all driven from Excel models and statistics, so I can't get affected by external influences when selecting the bets.
Does make me laugh though that I'm getting stick for having a 'free' blog where I post my bets that are making good profits. I'd hate to think what would happen if I wasn't winning.....
Cheers,
Graeme
Hi Graeme
ReplyDeleteI only came across your blog last week, and don't know anything about your history. I find your blog well written and quite thoughtful. I've even followed some of your selections, and have finished the week up! I hope you don't let some negative postings from a few thoughtless people stop you from carrying on your blog
All the best
Paul
Hi greame,
ReplyDeleteHope you are keeping well I followed your racing blog for a good while before being one of the early members with you at TFA,until only leaving the forum last summer as whilst I enjoyed reading the forum I never had the time to contribute to much.What I would say is that you was always upfront with every member and the community of the guys you had together on the forum proved that for me.When we won it felt we won together and when we lost it felt like we lost together with you hurting the most ,for people that dont know you or for thoose who have no experience of you then I would say that your one of the good guys in racing/football betting and your views all always so well thought through maybe sometimes even a little to much.How anyone could say tfa failed was obviosuly not involved in the whole experience of it as they clearly did not see how much effort you put into everything.I learnt plenty from your messages and im now trying to make it on my own something I always wanted to do and finding it very rewarding.As you know the negative comments are part of the game and at the end of the day im sure they will be the ones missing out long term.
Hi Paul.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who doesn't really know me, yesterday's post on here was probably a bit of a rant and maybe was an overreaction from me but I did find it a bit annoying that people were leaving comments on another blog about me when they clearly don't know me. The comments were deleted by the blog author and that's the end of it I think.
Having had a blog before, I know people stumble across the blog and just post daft comments or give me stick when a footie team loses etc. but that's all part of the game I think. I don't tell people to follow my footie teams on here, so if they do so, it's up to them.
I enjoy having a blog and although it isn't much to read at times ( I struggle to do much more but update footie systems and results!), the odd post is probably worth reading. Even tracking the results is interesting I guess for some.
Anyway, great to hear you've followed a few selections and made a profit. FWIW, over half the days on the blog are losing days overall, so in the short-term, anything can happen I think. Long term though, I think the systems have an edge as they've shown this season.
Thanks for the comment.
Graeme
Thanks for stopping by Theuphillbattle. Did you name your blog after your experience at TFA? ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm a little intrigued to know who you are now you say you left last summer. I'm hoping it was after a really good spell and you made a lot of money but I would expect it was after a losing run which cost you money! If you were an early enough member, you might have been in OK shape when you left. Better shape than some. :(
I'm doing OK though. The forum is still going strong and we're now past the 60,000 posts mark amazingly! Interestingly, the football section is at 7,500 posts and that only started in Jan-10 when I posted up the idea of building a system on the footie, so it has been a busy 12 months or so.
I spent a lot of time looking at various ways to build a footie model and looked around the market and tried to unpick what others had maybe done to produce ratings and systems and it was then simply a case of trying to build something that I thought was better.
It hasn't been easy and although the blog has been fairly stable, I've been changing things behind the scenes on a near monthly basis as the season has progressed. This has seen a second model built and of course, addition of multiple bets etc.
The biggest difference between TFA racing and the footie has been my own way of playing. As you'll probably know, I was never a gambler at the racing and was always a price trader. I took the leap to the darkside for the footie and I can only wish my P&L was as smooth as these returns to 1pt level stakes these systems have had! Unfortunately, numerous staking plans, increasing after wins, decreases after losses and so on has meant I've not really made what I could have made this season but my ROI isn't bad!
Looking forward to next season though and fingers crossed these systems don't lose the plot after one season. Thankfully, I don't have any input into picking the bets as I've automated everything, so my mood changes won't affect the returns as much! Not like TFA....... lol
Cheers,
Graeme