The reality of sports betting/trading for a living.

[danmw22]

Wouldn't we all like to make a living from gambling?Wouldn't we all like to get out of the 9 to 5 rat race and earn a nice six figure,tax free salary from gambling?Well I think in reality this is never going to happen for 99.99% of us including myself.Ever since I have been young I have been thinking,researching and testing all sorts of gambling systems/strategies and to this day none have ever turned a consistent profit.I suppose that's why the bookies door's are still open. It began long before I was even legally allowed to gamble.Mid-Week and Weekend football accumulator's.Hoping I wouldn't be asked for I.D by the cashier.After a couple of wins I made up my mind what I wanted to do for a living(completely dis-regarding all my previous loses which were well in excess of my winnings:lol)I wanted to earn a living as a professional gambler. It wasn't long before I realised that this was going to be alot harder than I had previously imagined.It seemed that no matter how much time I spent on research/study I could not turn a consistent profit.Finally I thought of value.Then it all started to make sense.The reason I could never profit was because the bookies books are never 100% and they will profit no matter what the outcome of a football game/horse race. Then came my Betfair era.After being introduced to Betfair by a friend the idea of myself being the bookie appealed to me alot.So I decided to start laying bets.For newbies to Betfair(like myself at the time),laying seems to be foolproof.Just pick a losing horse/football team.How hard can it be?It started well.Laying complete outsiders.Making tiny amounts every time only for one or two winners to completely wipe out all my profit.Very Frustrating.Then again the value factor came into play.I concluded that Betfair's odds were pretty much true value or very close to true value.So at best I was going to break even.Actually at best I was going to be down money after Betfair's 5% commission on all my profits. Then came trading on Betfair.Trying to predict movement in odds to lock in a profit before the game or horse race even starts.I tried many systems including many variations of the lay the draw strategy only to be disappointed yet again..Again for beginners this system sounds fairly simple.Lay the draw of a football game before the match,wait for a goal to be scored then back the draw at a higher price to lock in a profit.simple right?not quite.What happens if its 0-0? "just take out an insurance bet on 0-0 to cover your loses"

[froment]

Re: The reality of sports betting/trading for a living.

So finally after all my negativity...

I'd say word in thread title is more appropriate, it's reality, not negativity; at least, reality for most of us amateurish punters... Anyway, interesting read. :welcome to forum, enjoy your staying here! :)