Sticking In Pins.

I regularly spend a solid five or six hours on Saturday afternoons following the in-play football on Betfair, generally accompanied by Sky Sports News’ Soccer Saturday.

On the occasions when I’m out for the afternoon, I usually have a little lunchtime punt on a selection of the afternoon’s domestic matches. This has over time evolved into a series of lays of away teams, although whether backing or laying, I always seem to end up close to zero profit. What does this prove? Either that I’m an average tipster, or more probably just that the odds setters often get it right.

Today I followed my usual routine – I picked out a batch of potential selections based upon the available odds and my own opinion ( in this case eighteen games ). I then researched the form and stats for each match, before whittling down to my chosen lays.

So today, I arrived at nine away lays ( Doncaster, Grimsby, Yeovil, Walsall, Wycombe, Swindon, Crewe, Accrington Stanley, Grays ). Result - seven wins, two losses. As usual (and as I have come to expect ), the resultant odds brought me back close to where I started ( well an £8 loss actually ).

And how many of the original eighteen would have been losses? Two! Irritatingly, the average odds of the nine discarded lays was considerably lower than the chosen nine. This game does your head in sometimes.

I’d be surprised if anyone can consistently make money from picking football winners ( as opposed to in-play trading ). If anyone knows different, please put me right. Until then, I’ll accept that those Saturday afternoon punts are just for fun. And try to make a profit elsewhere.