Thursday, 4 April 2013

Nice start to April......

A stunning start to the month of April and the last 8 weeks or so have been unbelievable for the systems. It’s quite remarkable in the sense that this season has been the complete opposite to the first two seasons where the systems did much better in the first half of the season and were treading water thereafter. The systems were very average over the first half of the season but have turned it around in the New Year.

I actually chose to stay up very late on Sunday night to do the monthly review before Monday’s games as if things had went really bad on Monday, I would have struggled to review March properly as I’d have been pissed off that April had started badly! I know it sounds silly but I’ve written monthly reviews before after a new month has started and it is difficult to not get distracted by the fact the new month has started poorly and therefore, it makes the review for the previous month harder to write if it was a good month.

Anyway, I should have held off writing the March review till now as I’d have been using even more superlatives than I used in the review!

The Euro systems only had a few games on Monday and there were no winners, so they start the month poorly but the UK systems have got off to a flyer. Traditionally, April has been the toughest month for the systems, so it’s very early (only two days in!) to say it will be an OK month but given the start, there is a little bit of a cushion for the systems if a bad run does hit.

I’ve said this lots of times on the blog but when you are on a run like this, you are sort of waiting for the downturn to occur. I’ve seen thousands and thousands of bets now and when you experience an amazing run (far ahead of the long-term average), the next downturn tends to never be too far away. I’m hoping we can ride this wave for the next 6 weeks until the season ends but I can’t see it. As ever, we’ll see what happens.

Est Systems



I think this is the first time this season when these systems have had a little bit of luck on a decent priced bet and boy, what a difference it makes to the results. One of two biggest bets were 1-0 down with 5 mins left and managed to win 2-1 in injury time. The other big bet were 3-0 up at half time, so it wasn’t all about luck!

A profit of 62.60pts from 57 games. The combined systems made a profit of 34.34pts from 24 bets. This increases the season’s profits on these systems by 50% in one fell swoop! Amazing what a good day can do for these systems in a poor season!

The base ratings made a good profit too and overall, everything appeared to click for a small sample of games. Won’t hit too many days like this in a season but I’ve experienced this a couple of times in 3 seasons and it feels pretty good when it occurs!

It would be great if the systems could build on this for the rest of the month and finish the last full month with a flourish and hopefully go some way to making up for a poor season overall for these systems. 

New Systems


Not quite as good a return on these systems compared to the Est Systems (not said that many times this season!) but still a great start to the month. A profit of 37.08pts from 94 bets.

Misc Systems


A decent start to the month for these systems too with a profit of 21pts from 38 bets. Surprising that STOZ only broke even on a day when every other system made huge profits but given the run the system has been on, it was probably due a poor day!

Under/Over Systems


A lot of bets to start the month but a profit was made. A profit of 1.7pts from 13 bets.

Euro Systems


 The only systems to start the month poorly. 10 bets, 10 points lost. Hopefully it’s not a sign of things to come this month!

Overall then, a really positive start to the month of April. 212 bets and a profit achieved of 112.38pts. An ROI of 53%. No chance of keeping this up this month but hopefully the systems can keep the good run going for a bit longer!

Be back after the weekend with the next update.


Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Patience Rewarded.....

One of the first rules I learnt in my first season of following the systems was how dangerous it is to move between systems mid-season. The other rule I learnt in the first season was how dangerous it is increasing stakes during the season and therefore, it is probably the two rules I’ve drilled into subscribers the most over the last couple of seasons.  Some still ignore my point on staking and use compound staking and this season is probably the first season where it has worked well as the second half of the season has been better than the first half!

However, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t continue to re-evaluate your current portfolio of systems during the season and if you feel like you don’t have enough diversification or if you feel you are overstaking for example, my advice would always to be to readjust your portfolio but quite simply, don’t just jump from one system to another because results look better. The grass always looks greener elsewhere at the betting game I find!

I know from email correspondence over the Christmas period that quite a few people who were heavily weighted towards system 7-22 for example got a little spooked by the slow start this season and decided to increase their workload and follow more systems. Thankfully, as system 7-22 has improved over the season, so have many of the other systems and therefore, it’s been impossible to lose money since Christmas time I think following the systems. Hence, even those who decided to follow more systems and reduce stakes hopefully haven’t done too badly as a result.

Anyway, the reason for this post is to point any readers to the blog written by Steve across at Daily 25. This is the first season Steve has followed the bets from my systems and I’m sure at various points over the season, he’s wondered what all the fuss has been about and why this blog is littered with badges proclaiming to be a decent sports tipster!

One criticism that is often thrown my way regarding the service is that it is too complicated. Too many systems, too many bets and how the hell can anyone maximise profits with the service?

I really get annoyed when people say this to me (I reckon it’s because it has been said so many times now!) but basically, I supply the bets for each system and all anyone has to do is decide which systems to follow in their TFA portfolio. It’s like a pick and mix of systems. Looking at the returns of the various systems over the first 2 seasons (and very nearly 3 seasons now), no matter what you do with the systems, you should be able to make money!

Getting back to Steve’s blog. Steve made the decision this year to follow 5 Est systems and 5 Euro systems with lower stakes. Given the New Systems and Misc Systems have done better this season so far, Steve has basically picked from the worst two sample sets of systems I am running at the moment. However, his reasoning was sound since the Est Systems had the best results coming into this season and the Euro systems probably had the biggest potential coming into this season.

How has Steve done so far this season? I’m sure Steve won’t mind me copying his results from his last post and sharing them here……


 As you can see, a very decent return and even though Steve hasn’t been following the best systems this season, I’m sure he’s fairly happy about his returns. An 11% ROI at the moment is pretty damn good considering it’s to Steve’s prices and I think from reading between the lines, he only uses Betfair and a small selection of bookmakers.

I think that’s the point I’ve raised over and over on the blog and also to subscribers. No one is ever going to build a portfolio of my systems that creates the maximum amount of profit that can be achieved. That’s not the point. The point of my systems is that it allows you to create a portfolio of systems to meet your requirements and hopefully, these systems will do well and you will make money.

I’ve been saying all season that this season has been the toughest season to date and the results have been disappointing. I know for a fact that some services would bite my hand off to get my results this season. Yes, it hasn’t been as good as the first two seasons and I’m sure people are disappointed by this but at the end of the day, if the game was that easy, we’d all be retired by now!

The best advert for the systems I have aren’t the systems results, it isn’t the money I make following the systems, it isn’t the list of honours the service has won and it most certainly isn’t me. The best advert for my systems and the service is the money that other people make following my bets.

Anyway, I hope that shows what can be done using my systems. I will probably share an update of my own portfolio on the blog at the season end but I tend to steer clear from discussing my own results on the blog as I don’t want it to be seen as trying to show what can be achieved. I’m not a fan of using the blog for advertising and this would be a step too far I think!

Next update should be tomorrow evening as I have some games in the Championship tonight.

Monday, 1 April 2013

March 2013 Review

Well, I said I enjoyed writing the monthly review last month and although March hasn’t been anywhere near as good, it’s been good enough to allow me to enjoy writing this review I think. In particular, one set of systems have had an amazing month and given everyone knows that I want these systems to succeed long-term, I think this is a great first step towards another one of my aims with these systems.

I personally have had another stunning month with my own betting portfolioi (3 highly profitable months in a row) and quite simply, if I end the season with the same £ amount of profit I’ve made at the moment, it has been a very, very good season for me. Hasn’t been the smoothest of journeys as I’ve already said but at the end of the day, once you reach your profit target in this game, I don’t think you should beat yourself up about how you got there.  

Anyway, this isn’t meant to be about me, it’s meant to be about the systems.  Here’s the review for March 2013.

Est Systems


These systems had their best ever month last month since the systems went live but they have followed that spectacular month with errr….a nothing month. By nothing, I mean a very uneventful month, no massive highs, no massive lows, just a quiet month. Overall, a profit of 5.1pts from 396 bets.  An ROI of 1.3%.

The biggest profit on a system was 4.3pts on 7-21 and the biggest loss was 5.8pts on 21 and 6-21. Don’t see this happening too often (maybe the first time since the systems went live?) but every bet on system 21 has appeared on 6-21 this month. Interestingly, the extra bets on system 6 hit 8 winners from 12 bets amazingly, so 6 had a small profit this month as a result.

6-21 had a poor month I think but the combined systems overall managed a very small profit of 3.7pts from 160 bets.

I think it was pleasing to see that even though my ratings haven’t had a good month on these algorithms, a few of the higher combined systems had a decent month.  System 7-22 has managed a profit again this month which follows on from a really good month last month. A profit of 4.1pts from 13 bets is an ROI of 31.6% this month which isn’t bad!

7-21 did a good job in narrowing down the 6-21 bets as it turned a loss into a profit but 8-21 didn’t build on 7-21. 7-22 built on 6-22 but 8-22 didn’t build on 7-22.

Overall, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions from a month like this as the higher combined systems didn’t really have enough bets to look at the trends of how the bets appeared on the higher systems.

If this month was being reviewed in the context of the first two seasons, I would probably say it has been a really poor month but in the context of this season, this month hasn’t been too bad at all. It is the second profitable month in a row and at least consolidates the hugely profitable month we saw last month.

Ultimately, whether or not these systems end the season in profit still hangs in the balance. I really hope they can build on this and finish the season strongly but as always, we’ll see what happens. Given the performance of some of the other TFA systems this season, I suspect this will be the last season where we see so much focus on these Established Systems. I expect there are better systems in the TFA system portfolio these days.

New Systems


Another very solid month for these systems and their 6th profitable month from 7 months of live results. This month didn’t ever appear to be a spectacular month at all and yet, we saw a profit of 52.7pts from 630 bets. An ROI of 8.4%.

The third algorithm I ever built was System 31 and it has had an amazing month this month.  A profit of 30.1pts from 121 bets. System 41 actually had a really poor month in comparison and this algorithm suffered a loss of 13pts from 127 bets.

Quite amazing that two DNB algorithms I’ve built could have such a varying degree of success in a single month! Basically, if we analyse the results of 31-41, we can see that system 31 had 24 more bets than 31-41 and yet, it created a profit of 31.8pts from these 24 games!

I remember saying last season that I hoped the 3rd algorithm could prove to be one of my best algorithms and yet, it was always in the shadow of system 6 and 21 last season. This season, it has been in the shadow of system 41 for the main part but after this month, system 31 is standing out as the best performing algorithm at the moment. Being honest, system 21 and 41 aren’t too far behind but still, system 31 is having a storming season and has just had an amazing month.

Although system 41 struggled this month, the strength of the ratings weren’t bad and system 42 had a 7.9% ROI this month. Not bad considering it was picking games from a sample that had lost 10%!

Although 31-41 made a small loss, the other 5 combined systems made a profit and the 6 combined systems made a profit of 23pts from 256 bets. Not great but it does build on the performance of the season to date. Not every month can be a massive month, even for these systems!

Misc Systems


Have I ever told you that I love the STO systems and they are my best systems? Well, yeah, I told you all last season and unfortunately, they were shit last season! Anyway, they’ve repaid my faith many times over this season and they have contributed to another decent profit for the Misc systems this month.

A profit of 44.3pts from 336 bets is a really good return. 55.2pts profit from 150pts for the STO systems and a loss of 10.9pts for the other 3 systems.

The star of the show was STOZ this month which somehow created a profit of 29.2pts from 64 bets! Amazingly, the AH returns were also massive this month and when the system wasn’t hitting winners, it was hitting teams who draw which meant it wasn’t too far away from an even better month I think.

The results for STOZ this season now are just unreal and admittedly, I always thought the order of the 3 STO systems would be STOY, STOX and then STOZ but STOZ did best last season and has also done best this season. Just shows what I know!

I guess if I was picking the system of the season now, STOZ would probably be it although I honestly can’t remember what sort of betting bank I suggested for these systems if following them individually, so it may be that there are other systems with a higher ROC this season. We’ll find out at the season end as that’s when I’ll be reviewing all the systems and we can do some comparisons.

Last season, this set of systems had 5 winning months and 4 losing months over the season. This season so far, 6 profitable months and 1 losing month. Not too sure what went wrong last season (well I do know, all the aways were draws instead of wins as the Homes did well!) but this season has seen a big improvement. I’ve mocked myself a few times for some of the quotes I’ve used about these systems when I first created them as I honestly thought they could be the best systems I’d created but I changed my mind after the first season obviously! Maybe I wasn’t too far out?

Under/Over Systems


A loss of 3.6pts from 41 bets. Started the month amazingly well, 5.5pts profit from the first 22 bets. 9.1pts loss from the next 26 bets. Says it all, they flatter to deceive. I hate these systems.

Euro Systems


Finally, these systems produce something that mirrors the backtested results I spent all Summer discussing on the blog. My record at building systems with an edge is probably as good as anyone who’s ever looked at football betting in a number of years I suspect but until this month, I was scratching my head about these 4 European Leagues.

So far, the systems haven’t been a disaster but going into this month, they were showing a small loss overall. I’d already made my mind up that I was going to have to start from scratch again in the Summer and have a second shot at trying to crack these European leagues as I honestly thought I’d built a dud set of rating algorithms here.

As it stands, it may well be true that I have built a dud set of rating algorithms as the base ratings aren’t showing any sort of significant edge but thankfully, when I cross refer the algorithms, we’ve seen some amazing results this month.

Overall, it was a profit of 161.7pts from 464 bets. An ROI of 34.8%! The 6 combined systems made a profit of 86.6pts from 191 bets at an ROI of 50%!

I guess the reason we’ve seen these results this month is down to my ratings finally coming good in these leagues. Algorithm one made a 20.5pts profit from 83 bets and algorithm two made a profit of 17.9pts from 92 bets.  It’s easy to make profits when your ratings are doing well and we’ve seen that this month I think.

Some of the ROI’s on the combined systems are just mad and E2-E7 (the equivalent system to 7-22) managed to hit 14 winners from 24 bets with an average odds of 3.50. Not easy to do I think. A profit of 21.4pts from 24 bets and a stunning result.

It’s hard to knock these systems after the month like this but the question has to be….where the hell have they been all season?

I exchange emails with a few members regularly about these systems and I read the blogs of those following and it’s safe to say that those following probably had more faith in these Euro systems than I did. I hadn’t lost faith completely but knowing how good I am at building ratings and systems, I was disappointed with myself that I’d finally failed and I appeared to had built a shit set of systems for these European leagues.

It’s still early days and the jury is still out but possibly, we may have just been seeing a fair bit of variance so far this season and although this month isn’t going to be repeated, it may be the case that once we get to the end of the season, we conclude that overall, this season hasn’t been a disaster for these systems. Of course, we could see a couple of losing months to end the season and we deduce that these systems are rubbish, they’ve fluked this amazing once in a lifetime month and overall, they have no edge.  We’ll see what happens.

Overall

Well, the month of March may not be as good as Feb but it’s not bad as well I think. A profit of 260.2pts from 1,874 bets which is an ROI of 13.9%. 

Given the Est Systems didn’t have that great a month, I get a feeling some reading this may be a little disappointed that they’ve not caught some of the profits on the other systems but I think we need to continue to think long-term at this game. I overlooked the New Systems this season and with hindsight, it was maybe an error but then again, why jump in with both feet on a set of new systems with no live results? Likewise, I know lots of people are watching the Euro systems and hoping these prove the real deal for going forward and this month is the first step on that journey I think.

I suspect EVERYONE is now sitting up and taking notice of the STO systems and therefore, although some people may not be making the best use of the service at the moment, these systems aren’t going anywhere. I’m going to have to do a few tweaks to the service and some of the ratings and systems need tweaks here and there I think and we’ll look at that this Summer. However, the future looks pretty bright I think……..

Sunday, 31 March 2013

Results Update

This is the results update from 23rd March to 31st March. Basically, last weekend and this weekend. I obviously have a lot of bets for tomorrow (Easter Monday) but these will fall into April, so it makes sense to do the results update now. Once this update is complete, I will then look at reviewing March before we move onto April.

The last week or so has been another decent period. The consistency shown over the last 7-8 weeks has been much like what I experienced last season for the majority of the season. The first part of this season didn’t really go to plan as we know but things have settled down over the last two months thankfully.

Est Systems


No real headway with these systems since the last update. A loss of 0.7pts from 83 bets. A small profit was made if using some form of draw coverage, so the draw has played a part in the fact the systems haven’t been able to make a profit.

New Systems


A similar story to the Est Systems here with a lot of bets but no real headway being made. A profit of 1.45pts from 93 bets. Last weekend was actually a decent weekend but this weekend has given away most of the profits.

Misc Systems


A decent set of results for these systems I think. A profit of 5.62pts from 52 bets. The STO systems again were the reason for this profit and these systems have had quite a stunning month again.

Under/Over Systems


Another disappointing update for these systems. They continue to struggle along this season and at the moment, they appear to be gasping for air! A loss of 5.86pts from 10 bets which is very poor.

 Euro Systems


These systems had no bets last weekend due to Internationals but another really good weekend this weekend to finish off an unbelievable month. A profit of 37.2pts from 56 bets.

I’ve been quite hard on the Euro Systems after a slow start this season but the last month has been amazing really. Still not sure I have complete faith in my ratings for these European leagues but at least the results for this season are starting to look highly respectable which is a start.  Interestingly, the actual ratings aren’t having an amazing season but crossing the algorithms appears to be working wonders and at the end of the day, that’s probably what I need to concentrate on. My ratings are only a means to an end and so far, it looks OK. Long way to go for these systems this season though.

Overall then, a profit of 37.71pts from 294 bets to end the month. Quite looking forward to looking back on this month and it’s great to have two really good months in a row. I feel like the systems have steadied the ship a little and in the case of the Euro systems, they are really starting to show what they are made of.

Next post should be the review of March 2013.

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Results Update

A decent enough return from last weekend and tonight’s games. Things appear amazingly steady at the moment (can’t say that has happened too often this season!) but I’m sure the next big downturn isn’t too far away. Anytime I’ve experienced this sort of steady run of results, things usually go downhill soon after but maybe I’m just being a little cautious!

I’m sure I’m not the only one counting down the weeks to the end of the season now. I still feel pretty fresh considering how long a season this can be for me but I think once I get over the Easter period, I’ll be able to relax. There are a couple of sets of fixtures in a short space of time which is hard work but once this is over, we’re nearly there.

Here’s the recent results update.

Est Systems


A steady return for these systems with a profit of 10.17pts from 86 bets. Saturday was good, Sunday was poor and tonight was disappointing in the main. Nice to keep things ticking over with a small profit though.

New Systems


A brilliant weekend again for these systems and a really good midweek too. An overall profit of 40.42pts from 170 bets.

The results continue to look unbelievable on these systems and it will be interesting looking back over the season with these systems. They started amazingly well when they first went live and apart from one blip, they have continued to produce some amazing results this season.  The ratings in particular look pretty good on system 31 and it may well be the 3rd rating algorithm I developed for the UK leagues is the best one yet but we’ll assess things at the end of the season.

Misc Systems


A solid update for these systems too. A profit of 10.64pts from 87 games. The Home bets in particular continue to do really well on these systems and STOZ in particular is in the midst of a very decent run of form.  I keep saying it but the STO systems are really repaying my faith in them this season.

Under/Over Systems


A poor weekend for these bets but they were a little unlucky tonight as a late goal in one of the games stopped it from being an Under winner.

A loss of 2.34pts from 11 bets.

Euro Systems


A really decent weekend for these again I think.  Overall, a profit of 31.7pts from 136 bets. I actually think the systems were a little unlucky to be fair and a lot of the really big priced away bets didn’t have much luck and quite a few came close to pulling off a shock but at the end of the day, they didn’t quite manage it.

This month has been a great month for these systems and after two big losing months, a winning month would be long overdue.

Overall

A profit of 90.59pts from 490 bets since the last update. Keeps the momentum going and continues to build on the profits from last month and the first part of this month. As I said in the intro to this post, the next downturn can’t be too far away I’m sure but let’s just enjoy this while it lasts!

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Email Issue resolved....

I hope.....

Update on email issue...

The server is down which hosts the mailing list and the backup has failed too, so now resorted to pulling together the email addresses of subscribers!

Sorry for this, first time in 3 seasons we've been hit by an IT issue.