This service is aimed at the serious backer who wants to adopt a professional approach to their betting.
Martin uses his infrastructure of contacts and industry connections to provide a service that sets a very high standard, and clients who are already part of this service have been involved in some very nice touches indeed.
The service was launched in August 2008 and is currently showing a level stake profit of £3,812.50 to a £100 industry standard level stake at SP. If early prices had been taken when bets were issued, this figure would have risen to £5,170.
The last few weeks have been very frustrating with so many meetings lost to the weather, and four very strong bets had to be postponed. However, seven bets were issued from the notebook during this period producing three winners at 7-2 (from 11-2) 4-1, 9-4, 2nd 4-1 and three losers.
The notebook is a free bonus provided by this service. It’s made up of bets which Martin has noted from previous runnings exclusively in handicap races who are likely to improve with, say, a change in trip or a reduction in official ratings, thereby making the horse competitive again.
http://www.thetradingplan.co.uk/
You will have heard me make mention of The Trading Plan eBook which was released by Martin Blakey and stripped down my own 16/1 system (quite coincidentally!) to maintain the focus purely on handicap betting.
The Trading Plan tipping service now seeks to replicate the possible market movers that the bookies keep hidden from the average punter and profit from them.
To gain an insight into what Martin does, please refer to my 16/1 system in your lunchtime article – I actually thought, “if he can do it, then I’m going to have a go!!
The logistics of a tipping service, which allowed subscribers the freedom from the live betting market, puzzled me. There had to be some leeway. And I was right. What Martin Blakey does is to identify possible qualifying market movers in handicap races only, previous form and Official Ratings and then sets a target price that the horses must hit in order to qualify as selections.
Since this service was launched at the beginning of 2009 a profit of £2,800 has been made to £100 level stakes.
An interesting aspect of this service concerns horses that fail to reach the target price as set by Martin each day. Members get a list of qualifiers each day with each horse having a target price that it must reach for it to become a definite bet. Those qualifiers that do not reach the target price are obviously not recommended bets. However, these horses alone are throwing up an awful lot of winners and members are realising that there is a lot of scope to be had by taking a closer look at the non-qualifiers – especially if they attract support. In the past week alone the following winners came from those horses that failed to reach the target price.
Won 8-1
Won 3-1
Won 10-1
Won 11-4
Won 14-1
Won 11-1
Won 20-1
Won 5-1
Won 17-2
On Tuesday at Southwell, the 3.20 had six potential qualifiers that gave 1st 8-1, 2nd 100-30 and 3rd 33-1. This seems to me a good waste of winners and I hope Mr Blakey will be less stringent as regards target prices to enable members to benefit from these selections. What impresses me more about http://www.pro-info.co.uk/ is the Betfair screen shots, which show ACTUAL MONEY placed. If Mr Blakey is putting on his hard earned, then you can bet he’s gunning for the winner! The results on the trading plan website pertain to the eBook and NOT the tipping service for the market movers, so please bear that in mind. The selections listed above have all been proofed to me in advance.
http://www.kachinaracing.co.uk/
After reading about some of the eye-watering charges of tipsters, I thought I’d focus on a service which offers extremely good value for money. Kachina Racing operate a number of services.
Pay as you win
There is a £20 joining fee for this service, with each member forwarding £5 for every winning tip. This is low cost entry which is why I wanted to give this a mention. Since 9th January operating to £100 win stakes, or £50 each way stakes, profits sit at just over £600 despite a poor February to date.
System bets
£50 charge for the year (yes the year!) means I have to give this service a mention. A 13-point profit since 12th December 2008 augurs well, despite another poor February for this service after an excellent January.
Eye-catchers
Weekly reports on horses who have captured Chris Beek’s eye. This service augurs well for the future. It’s predominantly an each way service and pinpoints horses, which Chris has flagged up via reports every Monday and email alerts of runners that day. Again, at £100 the profit potential is there for this service. Despite a poor February and a small operating loss since inception on 27th January or –2 points, Chris Beek’s previous performance leads me to believe this will turn a profit over the subscription period.
Value seeker
£50 until the end of the year – this has been a very good performer since 1st January showing a 15-point profit.
This service can be characterised by the odd losing run as prices (as the name suggests) are generally bigger.
For the prices, this service offers great value for money. There’s hope of a profitable year as the weather-affected months are left behind us. This is one I will be following in the coming issues of WRWM. Although profits are not as immediately recognisable as Martin Blakey’s services, there is definite profit potential and the work that Chris Beek puts into the service must be applauded.
http://www.winnerstolosers.com/
This laying system has no doubt come to your attention with its claims of profits galore. Of course, the profits claimed via the website have more than a whiff of ‘over imaginative marketer than seasoned day to day punter’ about it but the background of the author is familiar to me and so this system, I felt, was worthy of further investigation.
Winners to losers comes from the man behind TAPS – The Alternative Punters Syndicate. In true Max Bygraves style “I wanna tell you a story”. Back when I had NO grey hair and was losing a bundle to shyster tipsters, I came across The Alternative Punters Syndicate and joined (the Internet was a fledging operation back them!). For a newcomer TAPS had a wealth of good information and betting systems, which I followed with some success.
So, to cut a long story short, I know the person behind Winners to Losers and he has been “in the game” for 10+ years.
On to the system itself, and it involves seven rules for ascertaining qualifying lay selections. There is no room for the author to skew results as EVERYONE will be selecting the same horse to lay (the potential then for inflated lay odds?).
http://www.winnerstolosers.com/files/2009_bank_sp .pdf shows January’s results, which tally wholly with all selections that I made independently, so this is reassuring at least. The website updates results on a month-by-month basis (at present – I hope they continue) and this will enable you to gauge the lay odds (important for liability control) and potential for long-term profit.
One niggle – results are calculated to SP rather than actual Betfair prices (the author, within the manual, has mentioned compensating for Betfair prices in his results calculations).
Betfair prices are likely to be generally higher in real life.
The manual is extremely well written and covers all aspects, including the potential pitfalls of level stakes betting. e.g. backing to £100 stakes means your maximum loss is £100 BUT laying to £100 level stakes is completely different as your exposure via liability will vary with price.
The author has admitted that Winners to losers will not profit month on month. He has even disclosed via the manual the 37-point loss that occurred during one losing run.
The conclusion drawn, and the recommendation given by the author is for fixed liability staking. This, of course, will have a huge impact on profits BUT by the same token allows you to be in full control of the maximum amount you will lose at any one time. The IDEAL is progressive staking which is 14% of a rolling betting bank fixed liability. This compromise is a happy medium as it allows for compounding and control of potential losses at the same time.
The Betfair SP facility is covered for those wishing to bet and go – in fact, this excellently written manual covers all topics and considerations.
Bottom line
I think, for those wishing to venture out and start Winners to Losers that they should consider some salient points.
As already stated by the author himself, there is a likelihood of a rocky patch being hit at some point. This is a good bit of realism to bring us back down to earth. If you are unprepared to see your betting bank potentially dwindle short term, then this may not be for you.
A long-term perspective, then, must be paramount. You must lay ALL selections, regardless of price (and if using fixed liability as recommended then price should not really be an issue) and stay with the system over the long term. Quitting after a losing run will negate potential future profitability.
Although price is not a concern, some of the prices have been unpalatably high. Anybody considering fixed stake laying may find, on some occasions, an uncomfortably high proportion of the betting bank exposed as liability (potential losses!). If you can stomach these points, and enter into this system with your reality head on, then it would seem that Winners to Losers have come across a good long-term lay strategy. If present and past results (which are fully verifiable) can be replicated in the future, then this should be a welcome addition to the betting portfolio.
Do make use of the results provided on the website, I’m all for ‘cracking the code’. Those Miss Marples among you may be able to see a pattern emerge with the horses names and dates they ran.
At £97 this is one of the pricier of the eBooks on the market, but it’s head and shoulders above the usual guff that we have been used to seeing, being sold for £27, £29 and the rest!