Testing, testing 1, 2, 3...

Well once again, it's been a while since I updated the blog. The "daily grind" really seems to be getting in the way of this gambling and bloggin lark at the moment. However, although the blog has been silent (those of you who have been watching carefully might have even seen the odd tumble weed rolling around!) there has been work going on in the background. I've been researching laying as well as taking another look at greyhound racing - there's nothing to report with regards to profits on these yet as both have resulted in breaking even.

I did stumble upon an interesting website: www.tipexchange.co.uk which seems quite interesting. There's both paid for and free tips on the site and the best thing about it is that the website keeps a tally of the individual tipsters overall profits so it's easy to look and see whose profitable and whose not (there seems to be some fairly profitable free tips being offered on there so it might be worth a closer look).

I've managed to do some matched betting today and brought in a profit of £17.00. My aim is to try and complete 1 bookie offer per week until I have more time on my hands and my mojo has returned. I'm trying to keep focused on what the money will go towards (my mortgage repayment) and i'm hoping that that will spur me on a bit. I've also been making a bit of cash by selling stuff on Ebay and through Amazon as i've recently felt driven to declutter my house (I hope i'm not going through the female 'nesting period'...i'm not ready for the pitter-patter of tiny feet yet! But for some reason any spare time I have has been on more homely things recently - soup making springs to mind!)

Anyway, time to sign off and cook tea...no soup today though!

Best of luck with your betting!

Daily profit: +£17.00
Total profit: +£157.09

Long time no blogging

Why is it that when you find a definite way of making money from the bookies you suddenly have no time or inclination to get online and claim that cash? Is it just sods law or perhaps because there's not enough of a challenge involved? Who knows? Either way my gambling inspiration has been on a somewhat downward spiral for the last month and i've felt the need for a bit of a break...as you can probably tell from the lack of blog posts.

However, in an attempt to get my gambling-mojo back I took advantage of a matched bet that was too good to avoid and managed to net myself £35. I also have a potential profit in the pipeline for the Grand National on Saturday, but as i'm not one to count my chickens before they've hatched i'll keep it under my hat until i've got the cash in my hand.

Anyway, here's to more frequent betting posts for April. Best of luck with your betting!

Daily profit: +£35.40
Total profit: +£140.09

Hectic times

Apologies to all for the lack of updates over the past few weeks, work has been really hectic and as a result i've had very little time to dedicate to the challenge. I'm on holiday for a few weeks very soon so hopefully i'll be able to play catch-up then. I have managed to snatch a few minutes here and there at the weekend to work on some matched betting and have managed to make a total of £30.62 (funnily enough I think this might be more than my total for February).

Well that's all for now. Hopefully i'll be back very soon. Best of luck with yor betting!

Daily profit: +£30.62
Total profit: +£104.69

Rain stops play

Apologies for the lack of updates of late. I've been a bit under the weather this week so haven't even switched my laptop on let alone place any bets. Thankfully i'm back on form and with the new month come new plans. Firstly though it's time to reflect on February...

From an outsiders point of view February may have seemed to be a bit of a 'non-event' and it certainly was with regards to making a profit. However, behind the scenes there was a lot going on - mainly concerning my future approach to the challenge. As I discovered i'm not a gambler, I hate the feeling I get with long losing runs, so February was spent trialling out some less-risky but also less profitable systems.

As you may recall I had planned to trial 'system 2' for the full month, but as I found it took up a lot of my time and meant that I had to watch a sport that i'm not particularly interested in - football. At first the system seemed quite safe and in the first week I found that I had doubled my initial investment, however, during the second week I lost everything...twice, thankfully i'd only invested a small amount in the system. Personally, I feel that for someone who is interested in football and knows alot about the teams 'system 2' could really work, but I just didn't have the knowledge to pick the right games.

During the month I also tried out the Pocket Money System, now here's something that I feel is a keeper, it really is extremely low risk although to make serious money I would need a much larger betting bank...but for something that is such low risk I think it's great. Aswell as this i've turned my hand to football trading, now I know I said I don't really like football, but unlike System 2.0, with this I can trade out within about 20 minutes of the game and make larger profits. Again I plan to continue withi this for the moment.

Finally, February has been a month of research as i've been looking into some place betting stats. I think i've found some decent criteria for selections but aren't prepared to risk any money on this until i've got lots of research to back it up.

Now for March, well as i've said I plan to continue with the Pocket Money System and my football trading ventures as well as my research. But I have also plucked up the courage to have a go at 'matched betting'. It's funny but despite living in a so-called 'modern society' I still feel a certain amount of stigma attached to being a female gambler, so as you can imagine the thought of signing up with loads of bookies in order to take advantage of their introductory offers made me recoil somewhat. However, thanks to Mr 20k who made a throw-away comment about it being "impossible to make £1,000 for free", the gauntlet was thrown down. So i've armed myself with some background knwowledge on matched betting and got myself a nifty spreadsheet and i'm ready to commence. For anyone whose interested in matched betting there's a really good forum on it here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=325861

Anyway, I had my first experience with matched betting today and have made £19.43 and hopefully there'll be a further £25.00 to follow as I signed up via a cashback account ( I wont add this to my total until i've received it). Not bad for a days work. I did make a loss of £6.70 following some horseracing tips, but made a further £1.08 trading a football game. So i'd say it's been a good start to March!

As for my total profit, i'm no longer going to separate my results as i've a feeling i'll be adding a few more systems to my portfolio. So to keep it simple i'll be going back to recording only my daily profits.

Well I think i've certainly made up for being away for so long. Here's to a prosperous March! Best of luck with your betting!

Daily profit: +£13.81
Total profit: +£74.07

A quick update

I've had a bit of a break from my research today as i've had quite a lot of preparation to do ready for the week ahead at work. I did manage to trade a couple of football matches and made a nice profit of £4.05 which isn't bad considering I was using stakes of £5.00.

Before I sign off for the night I just want to say thanks to everyone whose taken the time to comment on my blog, it's really nice to have some support on my journey.

Best of luck with your betting!

Daily profit: +£4.05
Total profit: +£45.75

System 2 0 / total +£1.19

PMS 0 / total +£13.32

Research and yet more research

Most of my time over the past few evenings has been taken over by research for my place system, so there hasn't been much time for betting as most of my time has been spent collecting data. Thinking about it logically, part of me does question the reliability of turning over consistent profits when betting on horse racing as there are so many possible outcomes in each race. However, the data i'm collecting does look profitable so far, and hopefully the correct staking plan will increase its potential...but that's another project for another day.

As well as research I spent some time today trading on a few football matches and this has brought me a profit of £4.53. There wasn't much scope to use the Pocket Money System today, although I am pleased with the results i''ve had with it so far and plan to increase my stakes for this system once i've doubled my betting bank.

Hope you're enjoying the weekend - happy betting!

Daily profit: +£4.53
Total profit: +£41.70

System 2 0 / total +£1.19

PMS 0 / total +£13.32

It's oh so quiet...

I haven't been placing many bets over the past few days, hence the reason for the quiet blog. Most of my spare time has been spent collecting and collating results for my place system and it's been a very slow process, however things are slowly starting to take shape and I now have some ideas for what I need to be looking for with my place selections. Obviously I need to collect lots more data...at least a years worth, if not 2, so it's going to be a slow process. But it's a learning process and hopefully an insightful one.

With regards to placing bets, it's been fairly quiet, i've had a few losers and winners but it's left me in profit of 97p. I have got another horse running later this evening so i'll update that either later on or tomorrow morning. Aswell as this i've tried my hand at trading on a football match and am currently showing profit for each outcome - how much depends on who wins, but i'll be sure to update this once the match is over. Just to clarify this is nothing to do with system 2 so i'll add it to my normal total. As for system 2, I just haven't had the time for it over the past week or so, but i'll pick it up as and when the time is right.

Hope your betting is prosperous!

EDIT: Just a quick update of this evening's results - my first trading venture brought me a profit of £1.83 and my place system brought me a further profit of £1.11, so i'm pleased with tonight's endeavours.

Daily profit: +£3.91
Total profit: +£37.17

System 2 0 / total +£1.19

PMS 0 / total +£13.32

Positively positive

Well i'm pleased to say that i've finally managed to update my results on the day they relate to. I spent some time today continuing with my research on 'place' stats and have come up with some selection criteria that seems initially positive. It's far too early to start planning for my retirement, but from previous data it seems to have a 70% strike rate. I trialled this today with level stakes and won 4 out of 6 races, so it's a start. This brought me a total profit of £1.09 today.

The Pocket Money System has done well today bringing in a profit of £7.45. So in a week the system has paid for itself and more. Although I am usually at work during the week so would not be able to operate the system as I have done this week, i'll definately continue to use it on the weekends and hopefully increase my stakes as my bank grows.

Well that's all for today, i'm visiting relatives tomorrow so doubt that there will be anything to update tomorrow evening. Happy betting!

Daily profit: +£1.03
Total profit: +£33.26

System 2 0 / total +£1.19

PMS +£7.45 / total +£13.32

Friday's results...

Well I think it's fair to say that i've completely lost track of the whole blogging thing during my week off...back to work on Monday and hopefully the routine will help me stay on track of things. Here's a very quick summary of Friday's results...the place system ended on a loss of £2.50 but the PMS is still bringing in a profit - 73p to be exact - not bad for the small stakes i'm currently using.

Daily profit: -£2.50
Total profit: +£32.23

System 2 0 / total +£1.19

PMS +£0.73 / total +£5.87

Thursday's results...

Well you can blame Valentine's day for yesterday's lack of results, as Mr 20k took me out for a meal last night and I got back very late and feeling a little worse for wear. The day was quite busy as far as the place system goes, I picked out 3 selections, 2 of which won. Unfortunately, it was only after placing the losing bet that I realised it shouldn't have even qualified as it was a 7 horse race meaning that betfair only pay out for the 1st and 2nd places - I tend not to go for these type of races as they seem to be much less predictable. I was a bit cross as my mistake, when combined with my 2 winning bets, resulted in a loss of £1.24 for the place system for the day.

However, I did have a bit of a lightbulb moment earlier on in the day when I realised there was a way I could tweak the 'Pocket Money System' to make it more profitable. This tweak only applies when a certain set of circumstances arise, but it does help make the PMS much more profitable. Obviously I can't explain what the tweak is here as I don't want to reveal too much about the PMS and be accused of giving away someone else's intellectual property, however, if you have the system and would like to know more about the tweak then feel free to email me and I will be more than happy to clarify.

EDIT: After testing I have found that the tweak isn't as profitable as I first thought...i've still found a way to squeeze a bit more profit from the PMS, but miscalculated my initial profit.

Anyway, here are yesterday's results and i'll hopefully update today's later.

Best of luck with your betting!

Daily profit: -£1.24
Total profit: +£34.73

System 2 0 / total +£1.19

PMS +£2.24 / total +£5.14

Once again...

Here are yesterday's results. My place system brought in 2 winners and one loser bringing me a profit of 86p. I've just had a quick look through the results and so far i've had 14 place bets 10 of which have been winners, so i'm feeling positive. I'm currently increasing my next stake by £1.00 after a loser and this seems to recoup most of my previous loss and sometimes makes me further profit. So i'll keep on with this modified system and see how it goes.

Whilst talking about systems I just want to congratulate Brian on his Wilkinson System, which i've just read has broken through the 12k mark in under 150 days! You can keep up with his progress on www.betstobefair.co.uk of by clicking 'Life of Brian' on my bloglist. Great work Brian - keep it up!

Best of luck with your betting today!

Daily profit: +£0.86
Total profit: +£35.97

System 2 0 / total +£1.19

PMS +£0.39 / total +£3.29

Yesterday's results

Apologies for the delay in posting, i'm currently on a weeks holiday and the lack of routine seems to make it much harder to keep on top of the blog. I had another profitable day yesterday with my place system bringing in £1.25 and the 'Pocket Money System' (which i'm actually quite reluctant to post about but it's making a profit so it would seem a shame to drop it) brought me a profit of £1.90. Although these are only small amounts in comparison to some of the more expert gambler's out there, i'm happy because as long as I can prove to myself I can make small profits then it means I can do the same thing, once i've built up my bank, and net some larger profits.

Just to refer briefly back to my previous post, I posted a link to www.allwhois.com a site which enables you to do a bit of research on owner of a domain names. At the moment I have found that this site tends to give an error message when I do a search, so an equivalent site you may wish to use is www.whois.sc.

Have a profitable day's betting!

Daily profit: +£1.25
Total profit: +£35.11

System 2 0 / total +£1.19

PMS +£1.90 / total +£2.90

bettingdetective.com or is that bettingdetective.ommm?

Well after reading Maggie's response to my previous post which claimed possible links between Andy Minalto and the 'Betting Detective' I decided to do some research. For some reason I couldn't access any information on http://www.allwhois.com/ but thankfully Mr 20k came to my assistance and managed to pull up the details...and heres what came up:

Domain name: BETTINGDETECTIVE.COM
Administrative Contact:
Minalto, Andis info@minalto.com
12 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXX Kildare
IE

Hmmmm, does that name sound familiar? Thanks for the tip off Maggie! But the one thing that really confuses me is that the 'Pocket Money System' actually seems to work, so why do this? In my opinion it doesn't seem right to be reviewing your own systems without making it clear that you are doing so. I'll definately make sure I do more research on 'reviewers' in the future!

Best of luck with your betting.

Oops - nearly forgot today's updates:

Daily profit: +£1.63
Total profit: +£33.86

System 2 daily 0 / total +£1.19

PMS daily +£0.70 / total +£1.00

A busy weekend

Well it's been a busy weekend so apologies for my lack of posts. Today has been a gardening day and i've been starting some seeds off in preparation for spring - potatoes, broad beans, chilli's and garlic are currently on the go with lots more to prepare in March. Now on with the challenge, it's been a funny weekend really with a losing place bet yesterday which I then managed to recoup with a winning bet. As for system 2, I started with a losing bet yesterday (due to been interrupted mid-process as I had to pick my car up from the garage), this left me £6.00 down, I gradually managed to recover this, only to have lost it again. So it's been a bit of a mixed bag.

Yesterday, whilst researching place betting and trying to work on some strategies, I stumbled upon a forum which lead to the 'Betting Detective' website. The 'Betting Detective' basically trials systems and then either approves them of exposes them as a scam/failure. From what I can see there are no affiliate links and the 'Betting Detective' himself claims that he has nothing to gain from the site. If anyone is looking for some inspiration or wants to try their hand at something new then you might want to check out the site http://www.bettingdetective.com/ - just click on the 'betting system reviews' link at the bottom of the intro page to see the systems he's trialled - you don't need to enter your email details to have access to these. I was quite impressed by the review of the 'Pocket Money System' and for the price (just £4.99) have decided to give it a go. I've got to admit I was very impressed with what received and it seems that unless you deviate from the plan you wont lose money - you can keep tabs of my progress with this at the bottom of the page (entitled PMS...no pun intended).

I'm aware that I may seem to be deviating away from my original intentions when starting this blog, I am gradually changing and adapting my betting system as well as adding some new ones along the way. But the hurdles I encountered in the first month and the challenges I had to face have made me realise that what I really want is something that is relatively low risk. Looking back on my goals at the start of this challenge, well to be frank it was all about the money - making as much as I could in a small time span - now I feel I would be much more content with something that would increase my bank by 1% and had less of the highs followed by crushing lows...i'm not prepared to allow this to begin to impact on my emotions, it has to be strictly business. Of course it has to be enjoyable too, afterall I may spend a year and turn-over no profit...then what would I have gained if I hadn't enjoyed what I was doing. As for the enjoyment factor, this comes from researching new ideas and learning new things. I've really enjoyed looking through various forums this weekend whilst trying to educate myself on place betting strategies, there's so much out there to learn i'm sure it will never become boring. I enjoy updating this blog too, it helps me to keep track of where I am with my betting endeavours aswell as keeping me focussed on where I want to be.

Anyway, enough rambling fr the evening. Be prosperous in your betting!

Weekend profit: +£0.73
Total profit: +£32.23

System 2 weekend -£5.92 / total +£1.19

PMS: +£0.30

Friday's update

I fell asleep last night while watching tv so I thought i'd quickly update yesterday's results this morning to help keep things in order. I had 4 winning place bets yesterday giving me a profit of £2.00, which i'm happy with. There was nothing worth betting on with system 2 so I left well alone. I'm really happy with the progress my new system has made this week as it did, as claimed, double my initial investment. What I plan to do this week is separate my profits from this system (£7.11), plus my initial £5.00 investment (£12.11 in total) into 2 groups - half of which i'll bet with and the other half will act as a reserve in case things go wrong. So i'll be starting with £6.00 this week and hopefully this will have doubled by the end of the the week.

As for today's action, there are a couple of place bets i'm considering and also a few matches that have come up for system 2. Hopefully i'll stay awake tonight and will update my results later.

Best of luck with your betting!

Daily profit: +£2.00
Total profit: +£31.50

System 2 total: + £7.11

Some slight changes

Over the past few weeks i've been looking at some horse racing stats regarding the performance of favourites. One thing i've noticed is that whilst favourites win around 30% of their races, they are placed in around 60% of their races. So i'm considering changing my focus slightly from winning favourites to placed favourites. I need to research this more but have some ideas what to look for, for example any hurdle/jump races are out, as are 7 horse races as they only pay out for 1st and 2nd place on betfair. But interestingly, if a race has 8 runners and one drops out before the race betfair urrently still pay out on 3 places, so any of these races would be considered. My plan would also include using fixed stakes and I would not try to recoup any losses - as due to the small place payouts (usually 1.5 or less) doing this could easily destroy my bank. These are all just sketchy thoughts, but i'm happy to give this a go for a short while and see if it's profitable, if not then i'll revert to the original plan with a bit of extra knowledge to take with me on my journey.

As an aside, i'm happy that I wasn't following my backing favourites to win system tonight as it would have resulted in another losing day. My attempt at backing favourites to place brought me 1 winner and 2 losers (one of which was just a 7 horse - 2 to be placed - race which I backed by not paying attention). This brought me a loss of £3.00.

Also a quick system 2 update - today it has made me £1.71 bringing my total profit to £7.11 - more than double my original investment.

Best of luck with your betting!

Daily profit: -£3.00
Total profit: +£29.50

System 2 daily: +£1.71 / total: +£7.11

A very brief update

There's no evening racing cards tonight, but System 2 has brought in a profit tonight so I just wanted to quickly update my blog so that my records are up to date. There's not much else to say tonight, and i'll refrain from waffling as I feel quite tired - why is it that on the day's you do the least you feel the most tired?

Hope you're all having a successful day.

Daily profit: 0
Total profit: +£32.50

System 2 daily: +£1.20 / total +£5.40

A mixed bag

Today was the second day of testing my new staking plan and i'm pleased that it was as my first 6 horses failed to provide me with a winner. This left me £25.00 down, and i'm sure that if i'd been using my previous staking plan the figure would have been more like £40.00. I'm a bit disappointed with today's results but it's actually the first time since i've been using this system that the British and Irish tracks have failed to provide me with a winner, so i'm hopeful.

As for system 2, it's been a winning day and has left me £2.35 in profit - a total of £4.20 so far. As I mentioned in my previous post, the person who devised the system claimed that it could double your betting bank in a week, and as i'm using a bank of £5.00 to trial this system, my initial investment has nearly doubled already. Exciting stuff, but it's early days and only time will tell if it's got potential.

Best of luck with your betting ventures.

Daily profit: -£25.00
Total profit: +£32.50

System 2 daily: +£2.35 / total: +£4.20

Wee Buns

It was the first day of trialling my new staking plan today and so far things seem positive. I was onto my 4th race and I was only down by just over £10.00 - with my previous staking plan I would have been down by well over £20.00. The odds today were generally higher than usual meaning that I didn't have to stake as much, so I have to take that into account, but generally it's been a good start. Wee Buns (great name!) won his race resulting in a profit of £3.00.

I'm also going to take the opportunity to use this blog to track another system. It's a system that I have briefly used before, but I gave up after the first loss, and personally I feel that I gave up on it too soon. The maker of this system claims that it can double your bank on a weekly basis, a bold claim, but i'm willing to put it to the test. Just to clarify, i'm using just £5.00 to start this venture so in theory my balance for the system should be up to £10.00 by next Saturday. I plan to trial this system for 1 month and if it's profitable and not too time consuming then i'll keep it, if not i'll bin it. In order to keep this trial separate from my main system i'll refer to it as system 2 and keep a separate log of profits/losses.

Happy betting!

Daily profit: +£3.00
Total profit: +£57.50

System 2 daily: +£1.85 / total: +£1.85

A plan for February

Initially it wasn't looking like a good start to the month as it took me 5 bets to find my winner, although a mix up whilst placing my bets resulted in me making more profit than I intended. Ironically, it was mainly the second favourites that won (there's one for you Zappi). I've been thinking a lot lately about ways to preserve my bank and make losing runs less risky, and today whilst watching my horses losing, I had a flash of inspiration. Currently I aim to increase my betting bank by 5% per day, however it only takes about 6 losing runs - sometimes less - to wipe out half of my back, and using those calculations, it probably will only take 8 losing runs to wipe it out completely. However, i'm contemplating using a staking plan based on odds. I haven't fully thought this out yet so i'm not sure if it would work but I thought as a basic starting point if the decimal odds start with a 2 I aim to win £2.00, a 3 £3.00 etc. I would contine to increase my stakes to cover my losses as before. As I say it's only an outline, but it's something I may trial for the month to help me build up my bank and possibly reduce losses. If anyone has any thoughts on this please let me know.

Well that's it for today. I'm going to sign off and watch Derren Brown's 'The System' a supposed "guaranteed" system for winning the horses...i'm not convinced but it's got me intrigued.

Happy betting and good luck!

Daily profit: +£10.00
Total profit: +£54.50

Reflections on the first month

Well that's it for month 1 of the 20k challenge and it certainly has been a month of highs and lows with my bank reaching a peak of £151 profit only to crash down to £20 the next day. My total profit for the month is £44.50 and to be honest i'm happy just to be in profit after the first month.

In terms of knowledge I think i've learnt a great deal over the past 31 days and i'm sure that the knowledge will be worth it's weight in gold, especially since i've firmed up my thoughts with regards to loss limitation (although this is something I will continually be looking to improve). I've also learnt the folly of becoming overconfident and that this tends to lead to risk-taking, which more often than not fails to return a profit.

Whilst my initial reasons for beginning this blog were to ensure that I stuck to my system as well as enabling me to keep a running record of it's profitability, i've come to realise that it's much more than that and, without being over sentimental, i'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to post comments on my blog, all of which have been very helpful. I'm amazed by the willingness and the generosity of people who have taken the time to offer advice and support.

Well that's it for the night, i'm optimistic to see what February brings!

Best wishes with your betting!

Daily profit: +£5.50
Total profit: +£44.50

A note to myself...

...before you bet always, always, always check the odds of the races you plan to bet on. To be honest it's something that has never crossed my mind, until today when after placing my first bet - which resulted in a loser - I found that the following bets had ridiculous odds of 30/100. This meant I would have had to bet the best part of £50.00 to recoup my loss and make my daily profit. Thankfully I left well alone as the 'dead certs' didn't come in, but instead of walking away for the evening with a small loss I decided to have a go on the American tracks - which surprise, surprise all lost. As a result i'm £35.50 down, which I suppose serves me right for not sticking to my rules. So I guess there are 2 things I can learn from this:

1. Always check the odds of the races you plan to bet before committing any money...especially if there are only a few races running.
2. Do not bet on the American tracks.

On the bright side, i'm so pleased that I didn't stake £50.00 on the dead cert.

Daily profit: - £35.50
Total profit: +£39.00

A relaxing day

I've been feeling a bit under the weather today so have spent most of the day doing not very much. I was supposed to be visiting some family members, but didn't feel up to the journey so instead I spent the day relaxing; after curling up on the sofa with a book and a cuppa I decided to dust off the xbox (which i've concluded has been neglected for far too long) and lose myself in the world of Fable.

On the betting front, my fourth horse came in - thanks Pomme Tiepy - giving me £5.00 profit. I'm still transferring my profits out of my betting bank on a weekly basis, hence the reason that my daily targets aren't increasing. Once i've reclaimed my initial investment this will probably change.

Best of luck with your betting!


Daily profit: +£5.00
Total profit: +£74.50

A day of awful odds

The odds for today's horses were really low and after 2 losers I was left with the risk of having to recoup over £35.00 if my third horse lost. After seeing the way things were going I decided that if I had 4 losers I would call it a day and take a loss. Thankfully my third horse, Nevertika, came in, but the experience has made me realise the need to be flexible in my strategy so that I don't destroy my bank.

Hope you have a prosperous days betting!


Daily profit: + £4.50
Total profit: +£69.50

A super-speedy win!

My first horse, King of Charm, won today at Kempton which i'm happy about as it means I can turn my laptop off for the evening and not have to keep half-an-eye on the time. So what lies ahead for the evening? Well in true Friday night style we've just had a home-made pizza and are now vegging out in front of the tv, watching "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ", followed by the Big Brother eviction - bliss! Have a good weekend!


Daily profit: +£6.00
Total profit: +£65.00

Another good day

Once again my second horse came in today. Mafaheem won the 19.20 at Wolverhampton giving me a profit of £4.50. I'm keeping it short tonight as it's been a hectic day. Happy betting!


Daily profit: +£4.50
Total profit: +£59.00

A quick update

The result from the first of this weeks evening races has been very positive with my second horse, Avoca Dancer, winning the 18.50 at Kempton. Slow and steady seems to be the way to go at the moment, which i'm comfortable with, and i'll continue to work on figuring out the best way to manage my betting bank to minimise huge losses.

It's been a long day so i'm signing off early tonight. Good luck with your betting endeavours!


Daily profit: +£5.50
Total profit: +£54.50

The inspiration behind the challenge

As I have more time on my hands today, I thought i'd blog a bit more about the reasons behind this challenge and what I hope to gain from it. Obviously an extra £20k in my bank account at the end of the year would be wonderful, who would turn that down? But in all honesty, if I end up in a reasonable amount of profit at the end of the year, say £2,000, I would be more than happy. As a novice gambler I have no idea whether these expectations are realistic or not, but as the famous saying goes "you've got to be in it to win it", and for the sake of £200 i'm willing to take that chance.

So what will I do with the money if I end up being successful? Well the answer to that question goes hand-in-hand with my reasons for beginning this venture. Just over a year ago, I bought my first house with my partner for an extortionate price. Anyone whose been half awake for the last few years will be aware of rising house prices right across the UK and the constant speculation about how much these would continue to rise (or possibly fall). So 14 months ago myself and my partner (shall we call him Mr 20k - yes for those of you who haven't read my profile I am a female ; ) ...) decided to bite the bullet and get our feet on the property ladder. We managed to get ourselves a modestly sized house, nothing fancy, but after years of renting, it was the first place that we felt we could really call home. As you can imagine this set us back a rather large amount of money and despite both being in relatively well paid jobs, we still had to take out a 35 year mortgage to ensure that we could manage the payments if the unexpected happened.

This is where the 20k Challenge comes in...I'm hoping to put any profits I make from this challenge towards our mortgage to drive down the amount that we owe. So fingers crossed that it will be a success, however big or small.

Just a very quick update on the weekend's racing results. Admiral Dundas brought me my first winner on Saturday and a nice profit of £6.50, while Mujamead won at Wolverhampton today bringing a profit of £6.00.


Weekend profit: +£12.50
Total profit: +£49.00

A good start to the weekend

The weekend got off to a positive start for me as my second horse Watchmaker came in. This week has been quite an eye opener due to my big loss on Monday and I feel I need to take some time to reflect and see if there's any further way to minimise my losses. I'm also unsure whether to continue taking out my winnings on a weekly basis until my initial investment has been returned or whether to build my betting bank back up to £200 first and then start reclaming my investment. I think it's fair to say that the week so far has definately given me a lot to think about.


Daily profit: +£6.50
Total profit: +£36.50

A Wolverhampton winner!

Well I continued with following the British tracks this evening and got my winner on my 3rd bet thanks to Alonso de Guzman in the 19.50 at Wolverhampton. Whilst I know there's still a likelihood of that rainy day wiping out the majority of my profits, I definately feel more comfortable focussing on the British and Irish tracks, probably due more to familiarity than anything else.

I've decided not to top-up my betting bank after my big loss so i'm currently operating from a bank of £100. Whilst i'm aware this may slow down my progress towards my goal, it will allow me to rebuild my confidence in the system i'm using without risking too much of my own cash. Anyway, Big Brother's just started so it's time to sign off. Good luck with your betting!


Daily profit: +£5.00
Total profit: +£30.00

Heading in the right direction

Today I had a much needed positive result, there were a few races at Kempton this evening so I decided to have a go and see if my luck had turned, it appears that it had and my second bet brought me the winner I needed. Although I didn't have a bet on the American tracks last night, I did check the results later in the evening and found that the first 6 favourites had come in. I couldn't believe it! It just brings home how much of a gamble this is, and the need for sensible management of any profits made. Well that's me signing of for the night, just 2 more days until the weekend.


Daily profit: +£5.00
Total profit: +25.00

How to lose £131 in just one day

Well the inevitable has happened...today I had my 6 losing runs, resulting in a loss of £131.00. I'm probably going to have a few days off to reflect on things but i'm sure i'll end up reaching the same conclusion that i'm at now - no more betting on American tracks. As we all know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but with the luck i've had on the American tracks recently I should have known it was coming.

I've been transferring my profits into my bank on a weekly basis to reclaim my initial investment, so at present i'm left with a betting bank of £100.00. At the moment i'm considering using this as my bank rather than re-transeferring any more money, but we'll see how things stand after a few days.

Anyway, it's been a long night so it's time to sign off. Hope your all having better luck than i've had today.


Daily profit: -£131.00
Total profit: +£20.00

Another good day

Well today I was a bit dubious about my chances as there were only 2 tracks open, Carlisle had been called off - i'm guessing it was due to the weather, so it left just Kempton and Leopardstown. However, I was pleasantly surprised when my first horse, Psycho, came in, meaning that I could pack my laptop away for the day and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

I'm back at work tomorrow so it'll be back to the evening races. I've not decided yet whether i'm going to use the American tracks or focus purely on the British evening races, i've been keeping records on some of the American tracks for a while so I may participate in those that have the highest strike rate, but i'll decide tomorrow once I see what's on offer.


Daily profit: +£11.00
Total profit: +£151.00

Hooray for the weekend!

After a week at work i've really appreciated having today off and tying up a few loose ends. It's been a really productive day and i've managed to get a few bits of preparation done ready for the week ahead. I've also enjoyed being able to follow the days races right from the beginning, rather than just catching the final races at the end of the day. As for today's results, they too have been positive and once again i'm £10.00 up thanks to Sawwaah at Lingfield. Anyway, it's the weekend so just another short one for today. Have a good weekend!


Daily profit: +£10.00
Total profit: +£140.00

A bit of light relief

After yesterday's tough running at the Amercian tracks, I was pleased to have the opportunity to follow this evening's races at Kempton...and I was even more pleased when my second horse, Sion Hill, came in. Once again, I think the odds are slowly stacking up in favour of focussing on British races (no pun intended).

Right, it's Friday night and there's some serious Big Brother eviction watching to be done, so i'm keeping it short tonight! Good luck with your betting ventures!


Daily profit: +£10.00
Total profit: +£130.00

A daunting day

Well today was hard. Once again I was focussing on the American tracks and once again I watched my bank decrease as I backed loser after loser (can you see a pattern emerging here?). After just over an hour I was onto my 6th race and I was trying to recoup over £90.00...as you can see I was in serious risk of wiping out any profits i'd made. My system is based on backing favourites so it's easy to rack up quite a deficit within just a few races, hence my reason for stopping after 6 losing races.

As race 6 arrived I prepared myself for the worst, I checked the favourite and placed my bet, despite checking the odds within a minute of the race starting, there was a delay at the track which resulted in the favourite changing, I couldn't believe it! I contemplated laying my original bet to try and rectify the situation but I decided that it was a potential no-win situation and I could end up kicking myself whatever choice I made, so I left it. I half heartedly watched the race as I prepared myself for defeat, and I couldn't believe my eyes as my non-favourite came in! I felt very lucky and extrmely relieved that I didn't change my bet, but once again I feel the need to carefully consider my future participation at these tracks.


Daily profit: +£21.00
Total profit: +£120.00

A positive result

Well after yesterday's performance my confidence had been knocked, to say the least. However, today things seemed back to 'normal' and despite starting with a loser at Turfway Park, Dodaa romped home at Wolverhampton and gave me my winner for the day.

This win has brought my grand total to £99.00 and considering that I only began my venture just over a week ago it seems to be a very positive start.


Daily profit: +£11.00
Total profit: +£99.00

The day the bubble nearly burst

Well today nearly saw the end of my winning streak. As I mentioned yesterday, due to work commitments i'm shifting my focus to the American tracks on an evening. Today almost left me regretting this decision as I sat watched my betting account slowly diminsh, it was when I realised that i'd be over £60 down if my next horse didn't come in that the reality of my precarious situation hit me. Just to recap, i'm using a betting bank of just £200 and i'm withdrawing my 'winnings' on a weekly basis until I recoup my initial investment, so in this situation £60 is a lot of money.

No doubt the professional or more seasoned gambler's out there will find this highly amusing, but to the novice it can be a real test of mental strength as you sit and contemplate whether to get out now and salvage what's left of your bank or carry on and attempt to recoup your losses. This is why i've set a limit of 6 losing races before I switch off for the day - to prevent my bank from being damaged beyond repair (hopefully). Today I was lucky as my 5th horse came in (thanks Grand Canal) but it was still an unsettling situation and one that I hope not to repeat too often - although I know it's the chance I take every time I place a bet.

By the way, i'd be interested in hearing anyone else's opinion on this or any of the other posts i've submitted - it can get a bit lonely over here on this side of the blogosphere.


Daily profit: +£12.00
Total profit: +£88.00

Back to work today

Well that's it, the end of my holiday has finally arrived and today was my first day back at work. I finished early and managed to have a bet on a few of the afternoon races. The first couple of races at Southwell and Ludlow yielded no results, but Taunton gave me my winner and Treasulier crossed the line unchallenged.

As i'm not going to have access to the internet while at work, during weekday evenings i'll be shifting my focus to the American horse races. I'm not completely unfamilar with the American tracks but I certainly feel more comfortable with the British tracks, probably due to familiarity rather than anything else. It will be interesting to see if my system has the same success on the American tracks - fingers crossed!


Daily profit: +£9.00
Total profit: +£76.00

This weekend's results

I didn't get around to updating my results yesterday, but i'm pleased to say that I ended the day with a profit of £13.50, bringing my grand total to £57.00 and meaning that i'm now one quarter of the way towards my first goal of reclaiming my £200 investment.

I had another successful day today, Dickie La Davoir won the 12.40 at Southwell meaning that i'm up by £10.00.


Weekend profit: +£23.50
Total profit: +£67.00

Keeping it simple

Turning £200 into £20,000 is a huge goal, so i've decided to break it down into a series of smaller goals in order to keep myself interested and motivated. So my first goal is to reclaim my initial investment of £200. I'm hoping that luck will be on my side i'll get this done by the end of the month.

As for today's progress, i've just had another win, although I had to reclaim a loss I made by backing Ice And Fire in the 12.10 at Southwell, thankfully Cragganmore Creek came to the rescue so i'm £11.50 up for the day.


Daily profit: + £11.50
Total profit: + £43.50

Today's goal achieved

Art Man won the 12.35 at Lingfield so i'm up by another £11.00. I was slightly dubious about backing him as his odds on Befair were below 2, I think I managed to scrape 1.93, but after seeing the result i'm pleased I did. I'm always wary of odds where you risk losing more than you win because i've seen many races where the so called 'sure bet' just didn't come in. Anyway, enough rambling, it's been a profitable day and that's all that matters.


Daily profit: +£11.00
Total profit: + £32.00

A cautious gambler

There are a couple of rules which i've decided to lay out for myself in an effort to stop myself from completely destroying my bank...well at least attempt to limit the damage. Firstly, as i've funded my betting bank with £200, I intend to withdraw my winnings each week (yep, i'm thinking positively here) until I have reclaimed my initial investment. Then at least if this whole thing takes a turn for the worse it will only be time that i've lost. Secondly, once i've reclaimed my initial investment, I plan to draw out half of my profit on a weekly basis and put it aside in case of a rainy 'betting' day. As i'm using a staking plan in order to regain any losses, I also hope to limit too much damage to my bank by allowing no more than 6 consecutive unsuccessful bets - if horse number 6 loses then it's time to turn the computer off and start afresh the next day. To put this all into perspective, i'm aiming to increase my bank by 5% each day hence the reason i'm trying to limit any losses.

As for today's results, Bayonyx did me proud leaving me with a profit of £11.00, and as i've achieved my 5% goal it's time to switch off the computer and enjoy the rest of my holiday.


Daily Profit: + £11.00
Total profit: + £21.00

First success...

Thought this deserved a post of it's own. Andytown won at Catterick today meaning that my total profit at the end of day 1 is £10.00, not a bad start.


Total profit: + £10.00

So what's this all about?

Well the title says it all really, this blog will record my attempt to turn £200 into £20,000 over the course of just one year. As mentioned above, I consider myself a novice to gambling, although I must admit I have experimented with a few 'gambling systems', most of which have shown promise to begin with but have eventually resulted in me breaking even over the long term. Despite this brief flirtation with a handful of the many systems on the market, I have no understanding of 'form' in racing and if you showed me a racecard I wouldn't have a clue what I was looking at, i'm not into football, cricket, tennis, or any of the other multitude of sports you can gamble on these days, and despite being a Big Brother addict i've never gambled on the outcome. What i'm hoping to do through this blog is chart my gambling progress primarily for my own interest but also for those (if any) who want to tag along for the ride. So let it begin, here's the journey of one novice gambler, one horse racing system and a betting bank of £200.