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| Photo by Matt Hudson on Unsplash |
Take cycling (you can for me). First you have the cost of the bike...then all that lycra and a helmet…and of course the loss of earnings once a BMW driver has barged you into a ditch. Lego’s just as bad. You buy a starter set for £20 and before you know it you’re forking out £735 for a Star Wars Millennium Falcon. When you think about it, unless your hobby is throwing good money after bad, having a pastime can be an unexpectedly costly business.
Having a bet is my hobby. Many people would view this a potentially expensive pastime and judged on my last couple of tips they might think themselves right. January was a particularly bad betting month for yours truly, and out of the thirty-eight bets I placed only four of them returned a profit! Whilst this may sound bad, and it is quite bad, I keep meticulous records of all my bets which is why I know that in 2023 I had eight winning months out of twelve and my piss poor January has not cost me a single penny of my own money. And that is the point I want to make. Approached sensibly, betting is one of the few hobbies that can actually be enjoyed for a relatively small outlay and - whisper it - even pay for itself.
Unfortunately a lot of people that bet do not make it pay, but of course if every punter did there would be no bookmakers left to take their bets. There are many reasons why people lose money betting. The most obvious reason to me, as this was my Achilles' heel for many years, is chasing imaginary winnings. Let me explain. You place a three horse accumulator that for a stake of £5 will return £100, a profit of £95 should all the selections win. Amazingly the first two horses oblige and you start spending the winnings in your head. You (rightly) resist the urge to cash out and your last horse gets headed on the line. Disaster! £100 gone in a flash which you now feel compelled to chase. But you haven’t lost £100, you’ve lost £5, you never had £100. Once you realise you have only lost the dream of winning £100, it’s a game (and possibly life) changer.
This week I got a letter from my GP surgery inviting me for an NHS Heart Check-Up. I was only saying to Mrs. Punter the other day that I was overdue a health review and as if by magic the shopkeeper appeared (the "shopkeeper" being the "letter"; one for the kids there). I rang the surgery as instructed and after the inevitable wait for the receptionist to answer, the call went something like this.
“Hello, I’ve just received a letter from you to book a heart check-up.”
“You’ll have to phone back in March as the nurse who does them is off long-term sick.”
“But the letter is dated last Friday.”
“I know, but we have to send them out. Call back in a month.”
Click.
At least it's only my heart and not a vital organ.
My sincere apology for the unanticipated mid-season break, but sometimes the life of a betting blogger is not their own. There are fourteen weeks left until the end of the football season and hopefully I will be here for all of them along with my recommended weekend win double. So far this season I am £93.70 in profit so let’s see if I can at least double that and even break through the £200 glass ceiling before Manchester City once again lift the Premier League trophy in May (spoiler).
I wouldn’t usually tip a side that have only won two games out of their last ten as the first leg of my recommended win double, but Nottingham Forest (11/8) have recently shown signs of promise (by netting two against Newcastle in a match they might have won) and on Saturday they welcome West Ham United to the City Ground who themselves have been struggling of late. Both teams will be eyeing this match as an opportunity to get back to winning ways (so 0-0 then) but sometimes you have to listen to your spidey-sense and my spidey-sense is telling me that both teams will score but that the Trees will score at least one more goal than the Hammers. Home win.
To date I have offered no selections from north of the border but hoots mon that changes this weekend with the second leg of my double, Heart of Midlothian (4/6). Hearts have won five on the spin and on Saturday play host to Motherwell, who hopefully will be Motherbad. Motherwell have won two and drawn three of their last five games, which is nae shabby, so they won’t be travelling to Tynecastle Park with a loser’s mindset, but stretch that form out to their last ten league fixtures and Motherwell have still only won two compared to Hearts' eight. Hame win.
Both games kick off at the traditional time of three pm and my “hypothetical” £20 win double on Forest and Hearts currently returns £79.17 with Sky Bet at combined odds of 2.96/1 for a profit of £59.17 after deduction of stake. You never know.
I hope to see you next time.
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