The Betting Lab

[BillyHills]

I don't know if many people on here are subscribers to Racing UK? (Some good deals knocking about for those who are not) Anyway i'm not here to promote Pay TV, just wondered if many had watched the 'betting lab' over the last month or so. Its a discussion about betting which takes place in between races at Kempton on Wednesday nights and i have quite enjoyed the series so far. Main topic seems to be about that favorite word of ours in betting land 'value'. Last night i watched the episode with Neil Channing as the guest and was interested to here his methods and thoughts about the industry. He obviously does most of his betting on the exchanges as he just wouldn't be able to get on with the normal bookies, especially as he likes EW betting. His point about there being more value at weekends when more 'mug' punters are active was also something i hadn't really thought about. I suppose its obvious when you think about it. Those normally at work in the week watch the Morning Line, listen to our Tanya telling everyone about Pricewise selections, the so called experts giving their selections and at about 9am the bookies get super busy and most of the money is for the same few horses and distorting the markets. In the week its only those who try to make a living at the game that are that keen so most of the liquidity is from punters who have done their homework and the markets will be more accurate and less errors by the bookies. Also the racing is a lot less competitive on a wet Monday afternoon compared to the Scoop 6 races! A couple of nuggets he gave us for those who cant watch the shows; Back the 3rd round leader of a golf tournament to win it outright; He says if its a nobody he will be massively underrated and expected to crumble under the pressure hence getting great value, if its someone such as McIlroy everyone will be trying back something at bigger prices and the real value is the best player in the tournament with a lead! He also said that in a Tennis match if a player was leading 2-0 and pulled back to 2-2 you should back him to go on and win the match despite the momentum being with the guy who has come from behind? Always better value. We have had many discussions about value and the experts reckon that since Betfair has taken over in setting out tissues and markets that the edge has been taken away from the average punter. You can still get a couple of quid on early the night before at decent prices but the liquidity is only healthy as the market sorts itself out and by the time your commission has been taken off there isn't much of an edge. With Bots and bookies being very active on the exchanges it make you wonder how you can make it pay unless you know something that isn't in the public domain. Everyone has so much information at hand for free and loads more if you want to pay for it. The consensus is that times have changed so much and where once punters were told to specialize and only bet one or two races a day it now seems that some of the big pro's bet in many races throughout the day and have a far bigger turnover but only making a smaller percentage on each bet. Some of the old books knocking about by Alan Potts, Nevison and others would no longer be applicable in todays climate and it seems that most of the professional punters have diversified into sports betting to make a decent living and interestingly some of the American sports. So has Racing had its day as far as consistent profitable betting is concerned (unless you are on the inside)? Links to the Betting Lab episodes; (will put up the latest one when its available) Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 How To make a Tissue Any thoughts on any of this? Betting Staking Value Tissues :ok

[Trotter]

Re: The Betting Lab I've watched them all but last night's was the most interesting Quite a character was Mr Channing.........I thought it was David Walliams at first......:lol He'd be a great regular guest on the Wednesday night show