[benrama]

Just a quick one - there's been a bit of talk about tracking plays on here, this is by far one of the best resources I've found to do so:

http://www.aussportsbetting.com/tool...cel-worksheet/

I use my own version of excel, but stuff like this is what can take you from fking around with sports betting, to actually making some meaningful $.

[IDunno89]

Thanks bro looks the goods... Might have a closer look when I get home...

[astrobloke]

Cool thanks dude. You rock!

[benrama]

No worries mate - get into it!

[kingsr]

Thanks for sharing the resource Ben. I love this forum!

[astrobloke]

Thanks for sharing the resource Ben. I love this forum!

Kingsr its great, and its people like you that make this place priceless.

Keep up the good work

[kingsr]

Haha I'm blushing. Thanks Astro don't lose that lighter side around here, we need that s*it to feel normal and off edge. And keep your insights coming, every angle from everyone's mind helps.

[IDunno89]

3 units on that king just shed a tear lol

[kingsr]

3 units on that king just shed a tear lol

On USA?

[benrama]

Agreed, ripper of a forum this one. I'm thinking of starting a thread sometime soon for all of us to share our top 5 betting resources and our top 5 betting things we've learned. For example - I've found some solid ways to make money off American sports I'm happy to share to my fellow More Sportians.

[Duff85]

Thanks for posting this. Very interesting - certainly some ideas there for tracking book balances. One of my books got me for $6 last weekend i'm pretty sure. Problem was I had about 250 bets to sort through and couldn't be fked putting the time in for that money. :-)

[hawley]

Agreed, ripper of a forum this one. I'm thinking of starting a thread sometime soon for all of us to share our top 5 betting resources and our top 5 betting things we've learned. For example - I've found some solid ways to make money off American sports I'm happy to share to my fellow More Sportians.

I will happily share my knowledge of American sports betting, although its still very limited it is growing all the time.

I am also read conquering risk which is in the SBR Store which I recommend, discusses models and betting all the american sports but all goes into alot of the numbers and ideas behind gambling.

Its under 300 points and a worthy read.

[kingsr]

I've never ordered from the store...how does it work? Do they deliver to AUS? Delivery is included in the 253 points?

[hawley]

I've never ordered from the store...how does it work? Do they deliver to AUS? Delivery is included in the 253 points?

Yup got free delivery.

Worth a look if you have some points sitting there.

[benrama]

@Duff, no problems, and I hear you. I'm a volume better with about 7-10 bets per day, so maintaining a spreadsheet is not practical (Edited to add: for ALL plays that is, I track all my big plays).

@hawley, def interested to share learnings; to be honest I make most of my money on american sports following the right people, not capping the games myself (with the exception of NBA and select MLB games). The hours required to understand college football teams (for example) is not something I'm interested in or going to spend the hours on; however if I find the right people to do it for me I will tail them - works pretty well.

Some of it simply comes from experience. For example from only 3 years of MLB I've learnt clearly that September is the month of the MLB dogs > +130 - and this has been on an obscenely $$$ run of late. Combined into a labby and you have what almost seems like free money. There are no guarantees in life, but I am practically banking on another 20 Units from this strategy between now and the end of the season.

I've had that conquering risk book recommend in the thinktank by someone as well, will have to get my hands on it.

One thing I've learnt is that there really are two key - and very different - approaches to successful sports betting, and one should choose the one that suits your personality type.

1) Tight, conservative: betting 1-2% of your bankroll, not moving up till you've doubled your bankroll, never betting "for action", choosing your spots, etc. I know people (not many, a handful) that have made money this way. It's very doable and to be honest the reason why most people don't make money this way is because it's rather boring and a lot of us got into this for the thrill of the punt in the first place.

Still - poor bankroll management and a lack of research into your plays is the #1 and #2 reasons that people don't make money. I'm 100% convinced that anyone with half a brain could sit down and find 10 plays per week in sports they know and research and be able to hit 55% winners. From that one could start with a $10K bankroll and make $550 per 100 plays, or $5.50 per play - if you were betting $100/play. You make 10 bets a week and thats 500 plays a year, or $2,750. 27% return on your money is not bad in anyone's books. Better than that disaster which is the sharemarket right now (been brutal to me!)

2) As with 1) but with action bets and selective aggression: for lots of people like me the above is pretty boring to maintain; I like to have action on a lot of games, and in games I feel I have a true edge then I like to up my bets to more like 5% of my bankroll, sometimes even 10%.

The "action bets" are actually the key to this approach because they allow you to still have $ on a game without risking your bankroll. I think they should be at most 1/5 of normal bets, and they need to be significant enough $ wise for you to still "care". That's why I never started making money at this till I had a bigger bankroll; betting $20 on a game doesn't do it for me. I want to at least buy a quality bottle of scotch with each win

On the bets you go selectively aggressive with you need to be pretty damn sure you can hit 60% long term. If you can - and it's a big IF - then this strategy adds a much higher level of profitability.

I probably make about 1 big bet per fortnight, usually on Australian sports only (as it's a requirement that I've watched the teams/players enough to warrant the bet), and I hit at pretty much that 60% rate.

If you make 26 of these bets per year, and each one is $500, and you hit 60%, this gives you $2,180 profit for the year at -110 odds. If you get more like -105 odds then it increases to $2,340.

Combined then you have more like 50% annual return on your money.

If you start with $10K, then in 5 years you've turned that into:

Yr1: $15K
Yr2: $22.5K
Yr3: $33.8K
Yr4: $50.6K
Yr5: $75.9K

And I think anyone on this forum is capable of doing this.

[kingsr]

Nice write up Ben, very much appreciated. I'd also like to know who you guys tail for USA sports, as like many Aus/Nz punters Im not very familiar with the sports so I prefer to tail a proven capper/cappers.

Oh and No.2 is the only way to bet imo...

[IDunno89]

Just a quick one - there's been a bit of talk about tracking plays on here, this is by far one of the best resources I've found to do so:

http://www.aussportsbetting.com/tool...cel-worksheet/

I use my own version of excel,
but stuff like this is what can take
you from fking around with sports betting, to actually making some
meaningful $.

Bro you are the ******* man.... This is EXACTLY what I was looking for... Cannot be bothered going back through all my betting history so just starting the tracking from current bankroll...

[IDunno89]

Anyone know of a way of getting this spreadsheet on my iPhone?

[RLF]

It won't work on your iPhone, tried it already. It's too complex

[kingsr]

Surely there's an app that allows u to open excel worksheets...google it. I would've searched for u but I'm on my phone ATM.

[IDunno89]

I love but I'm never home always on the go

[kingsr]

I tried emailing the spreadsheet to myself then accessing it from my iphone. I was able to open and read it only, I wasn't able to update/make entries to it. I'm sure there is an app that will do so though.

Try searching the appstrore on your phone and reading the description/user comments on various pdf apps. See what they have to offer.

[benrama]

Numbers app for iPhone is the must have if you are using Excel. I hear you though on wanting to access something on the go, it's what stops me logging all my plays too.

I'm just uploading the spreadsheet to Google Docs and seeing what it's like to access it from there ...

[benrama]

Google Docs crapped itself with this, would have been far too complicated to edit on the phone anyway.

I think you're stuck with the same method I use - simply updating it on your PC when you get the chance. Pinnacle has good clean historical records sortable by last 7 days and month so this makes it quite easy.

If I think of anything better I'll let you know.

[s2230011]

This is a great thread ... keep it up ... so who do people follow in which sport ??

[s2230011]

I'll kick it off ... Laurent Marty from betadvisor is very good at Union picks .. I am not a current subscriber, but his record is very good.

I used to follow Sweetjones55 before he went tout, I think he is very good with NBA

[crblahblah]

That is a great starting spreadsheet. I use it but have made some alterations to combine parts of other spreadsheets I liked into the one linked. I included Teams (NBA, NFL, MLB, NRL, and AFL), daily/monthly/days of the week totals, and adjusted things to feel my needs a bit better (I track seasons instead of agencies). Anything can be changed to fit whatever you want to track, just change whatever you want to track under "Seasons" in the settings tab or type of bet under bet types. It may seem confusing but it works well once you get a handle of it. I kept their tutorial and hints on there as well. Here's a link to my version if anybody is interested: http://www.mediafire.com/?fe06z1jy6b4ccro

[benrama]

CR - excellent work mate, I've thought of these additions as well. How do you personally use this spreadsheet?

I've been looking at a Google Docs version that I can share with the forum - just something super simple but allows editing readily from an iPhone or Android phone, hope to have something up in the next week or so. I figure once I have the raw bet data I can do all the reporting/filtering I want at a later time.

Thanks for sharing, and glad you found a username that wasn't taken ;-)

[benrama]

In terms of people I personally follow and make $ off, the below is something I shared with s22.

Anyone else have some good cappers to look at, or follow with good record keeping and track record feel free to contribute as well!

In MLB, I have been following Bodio and "Louis IV" on Covers forum (google for them - let me know if you can't find them), combined they won me about 50 units for the season - baseball is a bloody grind though, hate the sport to bet on really. It only has the playoffs left now so there'll only be probably 7-8 plays left for the season.

In College Football I have been following "Boom_Boom" and "BigEastExpert" also on the Covers forum. Unlike Bodio they keep their thread history hidden unless you "friend them" but you can readily find their plays by going to the covers college football forum and scrolling through the first few pages. Boom_boom in particular has had an epic start to the season, I've already made some 25 or so units from him. Could regress to the mean, as he made only 25 units all the last season - no reason it has to though.

In NFL it's been a complete crap shoot so far, and Bodio, who I was going to follow in this has had a pretty average start, going now 6-11 in plays. I'm pretty sure I will stick with him though he did this in the NBA and MLB as well, started off slow and has ended up every single sport in the last 18 months or so. He is a highly analytical guy and uses the right combination of statistics and situational analysis.

I also follow Bodio for the NBA and NCAAB as well, but looks like the NBA season won't be starting any time soon. Agree about SJ55 being a solid capper too for NBA, but I refuse to ever pay someone $ for picks again (burnt once - learnt my lesson), so that's not an option any more.

For WNBA I have been following "44-dimes" on covers but again the season is nearly finished there.

For soccer I've been "loosely" following beeps220, simon2g and Ogucci_SBR (live soccer) on SBR forum, but for less than my normal units, still don't 100% trust that these are guys to long term follow but have done pretty well so far. I usually bet soccer games live and only when I can watch them - which is not often.

For tennis, Shari is good for insight, I like to play dogs and Tevari on SBR is pretty solid for these. Gregm also put me onto Nick Bolleteri's picks (again - google it) but lots of juice and square plays there. Still some good parlay opportunities in the slams in particular come up for it.

For AFL, NRL by far I've found this forum to be the best on the web - so good work ladies and gentlemen for making this place what it is.

[kingsr]

Thanks for this Benrama...I'm really not sure who to tail in US sports, it seems like a brothel in those sections of this forum.

[hawley]

dam thats a comprehensive list.

I stay well away from the College sports , way too much going on to keep track of. Only way I would play would be straight tailing somone

[benrama]

No worries gentlemen.

I only cap sports I watch and know inside out - American sports ain't in that category. Follow the guys I mention above and see how they do and then see if you want to tail. Let's just say I make 75% of my profits solely from tailing, but you have to stick with the right people and ride out the ups and downs.

BOL with it!

[hawley]

You going to play the NBL this year Ben?

Im pretty pumped for it .

[benrama]

Yea mate, I used to play a lot of basketball growing up (along with League, Cricket and any other sport I could my hands on ), so still follow the NBL but don't watch much these days. If there's no NBA season though as is looking likely I'll be watching more, looking forward to it too, it's not as bad as some people make out!

How'd you do on it last season?