The Weekend Wager

Welcome to this the latest Weekend Wager free betting column produced by Mike Bishop and the team at the Secret Betting Club.

Each and every Friday through this column we bring together some of the finest experts to give you betting tips, advice and guidance for the next 7 days..

1. Mike Says..

In this column, Secret Betting Club co-editor and professional gambler Mike Bishop discusses some of the weeks most topical betting issues.

What’s in a name?

Regular readers of this column will be familiar with the fun I often have when faced with the usually harmless question ‘So Mike, what is it that you do?’

I suggest the person asking the question probably would have odds on my answer as follows:

1 / 2 – Accountant
6/4 – IT Consultant
20/1 – International Man of Mystery*
1000/1 – Professional Gambler

*Presuming of course, I met this person while wearing a dinner jacket on my way to a James Bond theme party.

In all seriousness though, it does make me wonder what exactly is in a name? Because the different reactions I receive were I to say ‘fund manager’ or ‘Professional Gambler’ are fascinating. Most people perceive them as quite different jobs, when actually they both have a heck of a lot in common. Let me explain why…

We both gamble on uncertain outcomes for a living and hope and expect to make an overall profit long-term with the odds in our favour. Many of the same principles we use for success are completely identical, such as how to run a portfolio and money management.

A good gambler will always place value bets (i.e. backing a horse at 8/1 when it should be 6/1), similar to how a good investor will in its simplest form buy low and sell high.  We are both taking calculated and educated risks with our money.

Wall Street or the 4.20 at Southwell?

This is a fact that I have regularly confirmed by one of our members and contributors here at SBC – a pro gambler who goes under the pen name of Mr Gekko.

Now Mr Gekko (No, Gordon isn’t his first name) is a former City of London Investment banker who escaped the rat-race and now makes a much more sedate living gambling professionally. He has been able to apply lots of the best theory he learnt from his time working in the city to his gambling, all of which have contributed to his continued success.

He actually started out as a newcomer to gambling a few years back after joining us at the Secret Betting Club on a recommendation from a friend.  If you are in the same boat and yet to try out betting, then let me encourage you to try out a membership with us here as the best way to get started.

Whether you are an ex city trader looking to make returns that beat the stock market hands down or just regular Joe Blogs looking to make some money from betting – there is something for you. Join today by visiting www.secretbettingclub.com.

Check out these other latest articles from our Blog this week

The Changing Of The Tipster Guard
An expansion of my article last week on the new breed of betting tipsters, including the good, the bad and the ugly!

Mike’s Football Bets This Season
Linked in with my column below on making a profit in the English Premier League. A busy weekend ahead of bets from me.

Until next week…

Mike Bishop

2. Mike’s Football Bets

Mike analyses the forthcoming football betting opportunities over the next week and highlights a few bets he feels offer value. This is part of a season-long experiment to see the likely returns from such an approach and to build up a public record.

It’s been a crazy few weeks in the Premier League, even by its own often sometime ridiculous standards. What with all the lawyers, court cases and offers of 250k a week wages – it all makes me pine for the days when the biggest news of the day was the quality of mullet on offer. Check out some of these beauties for some light relief!  What was Barry Venison thinking!

There may be no mullets on offer at Stamford Bridge this weekend but it does feature my first bet of the weekend where I am very keen on Chelsea to overcome a 2.25 goal Asian Handicap at 2.1 with Bet365. Last season they won 8 of their 11 games against the bottom 12 of the league by 3 goals or more and have already stuck 4 and 6 past West Brom and Blackpool this year. They host a limited Wolves side and I see an easy 3 points here with hopefully lots of goals.

I also want to continue my net-busting bets on Blackpool this weekend where 12bet are offering 1.83 on over 2.5 goals when they visit Birmingham. The home team’s defence has lost the mean look it had last season and Blackpool have gone overs in 7 out of 8 games already. Ian Holloway ended his last game against Man City with 4 strikers on the field, whereas Brum will see this as a must win game and won’t sit back either.

I am quickly picking up some favourite teams for this season and one of these is Bolton who I am backing with a 0.25 Asian Handicap away at Wigan (1.85 Pinnacle). There are two sides going in contrasting directions and I am a fan of Owen Coyle and what he is doing at Bolton, who could be a dark horse this season.

Another quarter ball Asian Handicap for me is on West Brom to overcome Fulham, who continue to have a very poor record on the road. The Cottagers have drawn all 4 games away this season, whereas the Baggies have shown fantastic resilience and plenty of skill by beating Arsenal and drawing with United away recently. I am taking the -0.25 Asian with Canbet & SBObet on the home team at 1.90.

Main Bets
1.5 pt Chelsea (-2.25 AH) V Wolves. 2.1 Bet365
1.5 pt Blackpool V Birmingham. Over 2.5 goals. 1.83 12bet
1 pt Bolton (+0.25 AH) V Wigan. 1.85 Pinnacle
1 pt West Brom (-0.25 AH) V Fulham. 1.90 Canbet, SBOBet

Shortlist Bets
1 pt Man City V Arsenal. Under 2.5 goals. 1.93 Pinnacle/12bet

Whatever you bet on, good luck!

Mike
Just to clarify, although we have members and some tipsters providing some free tips and systems, we are primarily a review service. Please dont expect miracles or read too much into this experiment!

The Latest News On Whats Making Money Betting

Issue 53 of the Secret Betting Club newsletter is out NOW and features the very latest news, reviews and info on what makes money betting including…

• The truth on the much hyped All By The Book system. Our ongoing analysis is 100% independent and a must-read if this system interests you as we reveal what no other review service will discuss.
• The updated rules for our hugely successful 4 Pronged Attack system supplied for free to all members. Its made 75 pts profit from just 100 bets since May. Find out how you can get all you need to run the system delivered to your inbox for free!
• The Hall of Fame racing tipster that at simple £100 stakes has made £9480 in the past 12 months alone – yet still they remain relatively unknown outside of SBC!

Sign up today to access it risk free with our 100% money back guarantee at http://www.secretbettingclub.com

The A to Z of Tipster & System Reviews

Check out the new look Secret Betting Club website, which now features a full A to Z list of many of the tipsters we have reviewed and analysed.

Our latest reviews include: Gorans Winners, CD Systems ProLays, Football Bets, System Selections, My Betting News, Daqman, Packed Pockets, Football Betting Index, Northern Monkey, Bet Soft Pro & Bettor Logic.

There is also plenty written about Betfan, Statman Racing, Turf Accoutant, Martin Bishop, Selective Betting, All By The Book, Soccer Oracle, Winners Bet Winners, Sports Power Club & Daniel Morrison.

f you cant find a review on the service you are interested in, simply enter their name into the search the site box – chances are we have featured them in the past.

Visit here for more info: http://www.secretbettingclub.com/info

3. The Winabobatoo Weekender

Winabobatoo provide English Premier League, Football League and Scottish Premier ratings and systems. Using their own in-house systems to often ‘Win a bob or two’ for their members, they are penning an exclusive Weekend Football Guide to help with your bets every Saturday and Sunday.

Football never ceases to amaze us, does it? Last week’s recommended bet, Peterborough to beat Swindon, proved that. Peterborough were 3-0 up, it got to 4-4, and a late goal made it 5-4 to Peterborough in the end. No wonder managers have heart problems! It can be a pretty stressful occupation being a pro-gambler too!

Anyway, that brings the season record for bets highlighted here to 6 winners from 8, returning 13.74 points, for a profit of +5.74 points. I hope you’ve been on them.

Winabobatoo produces two magazines per week for members. There’s a FREE weekly Mini-Magazine for non-members. It contains plenty of advice and there’s a tip for at least one extra game in there. Last weekend’s tip was Everton to beat Liverpool. There was analysis that explained why Man Utd held no value against West Brom too. This week there’s an in-depth look at multiple betting. It explains how you can multiply your profits.

This weekend’s selection is:

Chesterfield to beat Shrewsbury. At the time of writing, you can get 2.10 with BetFred. It’s available at even money in many places.

Odds are always subject to change, so please see who is offering the best prices at the time you place your bets.

A statistical fact: Blindly backing every home team priced under 1.50, since 2000, has given:

Bets: 1399, Win 1032 (74%), Lose 367, Returns 1363.05, Loss -35.95 points, %Loss -2.57%.

74% winners but NO profit! Finding winners is only part of the battle; finding winners where the odds more than justify the risk is the key to long-term profitability.

You can visit my website at www.winabobatoo.co.uk to get your FREE copy of the Mini-mag and learn more about how to find the games where the odds more than cover the risk.

Have a great weekend.

Mike Lindley

Visit The Winabobatoo Website

4. Systematic Soccer

Mat Hare runs Soccer Systems, a free blog where he is sharing the selections from 9 different portfolio systems this season. The selections generated by one of these systems (Game Form) are being exclusively posted on the Secret Betting Club forum this season. Each week in this column, Mat will also be sharing a sample of what the Game Form system has produced this weekend.

There were no bets on the Game Form Portfolio last weekend and none for the midweek Championship programme either so with the international fixtures earlier in the month it has been a very quiet period indeed. Fortunately there is a bet this weekend so I do at least have something to write about. Our bet this weekend is over 2.5 goals in the fixture between Norwich and Middlesbrough. The away side have just parted company with Gordon Strachan who had been trying to turn them into a Scottish side based on his transfer activity. They are languishing down near the wrong end of the table, perhaps due to the fact they have only scored 12 goals this season and conceded 21. Norwich, on the other hand, are fifth having scored 18 times and conceded 15 in their games this season. Boro’s away form has been poor this season and we’re probably going to need them to score if we’re to land this bet based on Norwich’s home goal averages but the system has pulled this match out as a 2pt bet so who am I to argue with it?

Saturday 23rd October

23/10/2010 Norwich v Middlesbrough – 2pts Over 2.5 goals @ 10/11 (4 bookies)

On the other Soccer Systems portfolios it was a winning week, just about, with four of the seven systems showing a profit. Check out the blog for the latest results and performance figures. Bets for this weekend will be posted on there later on this afternoon/evening.

5. Putting For Profit

Ian Richards runs Sportsbettingindex.com, a betting portal which includes an odds comparison site, free tips and betting blog – helping the punter for the last 10 years

PGA Tour Childrens Miracle Network Classic
European Tour Valderrama Masters
Nationwide Tour Tour Championship
Champions Tour AT&T Championship
LPGA Tour Hana Bank Championship Korea
Euro Challenge San Domenico Grand Final
Japan ABC Championship
Asian Asia Pacific CMB Classic

Next week there are some interesting and somewhat crucial events being played around the world. In Asia there is an event being staged for a lot of money with a big international cast, whilst on the PGA tour it’s the final event of the main season where players will be desperately seeking to hold onto their playing priveleges for next year.

In Europe they play the final event on ‘home’ soil until next year and return to the famous Valderrama course after a two year gap.

There are also two very interesting limited field events – the finales for both the European Challenge Tour and the Nationwide Tour and I have a couple of ideas of where to look for potential bets.

In the US, the top 60 on the money list compete in the Tour Championship with the top 25 gaining their PGA tour cards – the higher up the list they finish, the more starts they will get next season and the money list winner will receive invites to the bigger events like the Players Championship.

On the Challenge Tour the top 45 from the money list play in the Grand Final with the top 20 gaining their full European Tour cards and again the higher they finish on the list the more starts they will get.

So what do we look for? Firstly, look at who can actually win the money list – in 2008 Matt Bettencourt won it by winning the Tour Championship. Last year Matt Every was well down the list, needing a win to gain his tour card and he did exactly that. Try to avoid betting people who are around the ‘bubble’ as they will have huge pressure on them and down the stretch on Sunday some will be happy just to gain their card rather than actually win the event.

That’s all for today! Have a great weekend…

The Weekend Wager is brought to you by

http://www.secretbettingclub.com

Best Regards,

Mike Bishop and Dan Jones
Co-editors, Secret Betting Club

P.S. All new members get our full back catalogue when joining and considering we have recently published our 53rd edition, that’s a huge amount of info all thrown in for free!