I like gambling. I am a good gambler.
I am not a good gambler because I have made a fortune from betting. I have never won big, I have never lost big.
I am a good gambler because I have never bet more than I can afford to lose. It does not feel like a kick in the balls when a bet fails to land. I have never thought betting an avenue to riches but rather a rewarding hobby in the literal sense. Most of all I am a good gambler because I am not addicted to it. Even when I have been chasing losses, as soon as my betting pot is empty I am able to walk away. I am the first to acknowledge I am very lucky in that respect.
Someone less fortunate than myself is Patrick Foster, the subject and co-author of Might Bite: The secret life of a gambling addict (Bloomsbury Sport 2022). Foster is not a good gambler. By Chapter 13 he has thrown away three promising careers, turned over more than £500,000 in bets and is about to step in front of a train. If it had not been betting it would have been something else. It is a cautionary tale with a happy outcome although not necessarily for the people and institutions he lied to for money. The amounts gambled, won and lost, are eye-watering. But, for a book depicting the danger of excessive gambling, it came up short in one particular regard.
It made me want to have a bet.
It made me want to have a bet because at one point Foster is £94,000 to the good, but so sick is his addiction that in an attempt to round it up to £100,000 he loses every penny! I have never won £94,000. I have not even come close. But it did make me think that if Foster could make this amount from what essentially amounted to mug punting then I could at least try to do the same. I may have missed the point.
Foster’s brief road to riches was built on accumulator bets with hundreds of pounds staked on each. I don’t have the capital to bet equivalent amounts on what bookmakers consider sucker bets. However, I do think there is long-term profit to be made from accumulator betting, which also allows the shrewd operator an opportunity to fly under the radar at a time when bookmaker accounts are being closed or limited at the first sign of a half decent profit being made.
Welcome to I, Punter.
Notts County. Where does one even start? Perhaps it's best not to, but instead to view their return to the English Football League this Saturday as an opportunity for them and their long-suffering fans to draw a very deep line in the sand and look to the future with bona fide optimism. That’s what I intend to do anyway.
Their first opponents of the new season are Sutton United, a side that appears to scream mid-table obscurity. Notts on the other hand will be looking to press on and give Wrexham and their playboy owners another run for their money. I did well backing Notts in multiples last season and I am fully confident of doing the same this season.
Another favourite for League Two success is Stockport County, who narrowly missed out in last season's play-off final and, like Notts, will be looking to make a winning start. Stockport play Gillingham, another side that will be more than chuffed with a mid-table finish. Individually Notts (4/6) and Stockport (7/10) are not worth backing, but combined in a double they suddenly become a betting proposition (1.83/1). My “hypothetical” stake of £20 - to which all future tips will be struck, at Sky Bet odds available at the time of writing - returns £56.67 for a tax free profit of £36.67.
You never know. I hope to see you next week.
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