Horse Racing Services

Any readers of The Portfolio Investor will spot only minor changes to the services being followed this year from last.

Before I run through them though, an apology to all those who told me to give up on ProBandit when results there took a turn for the worse.

"Patience!", I cried, "It's variance doing it's thing. Stick with it and all will be well". Well, it wasn't. And it's all very well and good me sticking to my guns and ignoring all advice to the contrary, but I met my match in trying to resist the guy who ran the service when even he decided enough was enough! Sadly, ProBandit is no more. I wish Paul, the (ex) service operator all the very best for the future, and I hope at some point he rediscovers his mojo. A good guy who acted in the best interests of his subscribers.

I'm not going to describe the services I follow here for fear of repeating myself. If anyone wants a description, go trawl through the TPI pages.

I list the services I'm following below, and have added the £/point value that I use for my staking. I think some may be a little surprised at the relatively low values I assign to each point, but they are figures that attempt to ensure some sort of levelling out over time in terms of how much money is staked on each service, and are set at a level at which I feel comfortable. Experience has taught me just how vital this is. The lower figures too, reflect my sensitivity when it comes to bookie accounts. I am desperate to stay under the radar for as long as possible. There are weaknesses in my staking strategies; they don't maximise returns, but they do minimise my levels of anxiety! When all is said and done, a typical month will see a turnover of between £10k and £15k. That's quite enough for a little lad like me!

Sadly, I have had to stop following a couple of racing services that I previously subscribed to. This is in no way a reflection on the performance of the services involved. It is solely a consequence of my bookmaker accounts being placed under unsustainable pressure by volume of bets and in one service's case, the nature of the selections. I'm not going to name those services here because I worry that by doing so, people may form negative opinions that the services concerned truly don't deserve.

Enough of such vagueness. Let's list the services in the spotlight for 2012. In alphabetical order...

Horse Racing

1. Chasemaster (£80/pt)
2. Northern Monkey (£30/pt)
3. On The Nose (£20/pt)
4. The Market Examiner (£10/pt)
5. The Sportsman Racing (£100/pt)
6. Winning Racing Tips (£60/pt)

Sports Betting

1. Football Elite (£80/pt)
2. Football Investor (Strike Zone - home bets only)(£50/pt)
3. On The Oche (£80/pt)
4. Skeeve (£20/pt)
5. The Football Analyst (System 7-22)(£40/pt, but note 2pts staked on home team selections)
6. The Sportsman (£400/pt).

The make-up of the racing portfolio is designed to minimise correlation (ie. the situation I often used to find myself in of having about five selections in just the one race), and finding a balance between minimising the actual number of bets struck whilst still maintaining a decent level of diversity. The Market Examiner is about the most prolific in terms of volume of selections, hence the low staking level assigned.

Similarly, I have successfully reduced the correlation between selections in the sports portfolio. Not eradicated it, but certainly reduced it.

One change from last year is my concentrating only on the Strike Zone aspect of the Football Investor service, despite my making a good profit from the "original" FI bets last season. I did set out this season following, but by the beginning of September, I had decided that for personal reasons it was better for me to stop. I frequently spend Friday evenings travelling from Cheshire to either London or Shropshire to see family. The sheer number of FI bets coming through on the Friday evening and the consequent time it took to strike them all, made this tricky. As it happens, FI have found the going very tough so far in the first half of the 2011/12 season, but from what I can gather nothing has changed from the times when were doing very well, and I'm confident good profit-making will return. I should also mention that I'm keeping a close eye on the Strike Zone away bets with a nod to next season too.


Right, I'm waffling. Time to go. Back soon.