Monday
I start the week off by opening an account with Marathon Bet to practice some horse racing laying and backing on Betfair. Apparently they are slow to cut the odds and they will limit me anyway so might as well make a bit from them while I can. I back £8 on a horse at 8.0 and lay £9 at 7.2 the horse unexpectedly wins meaning a 20p profit for the day. I also make an error laying a horse before placing the back bet which results in me trading out to £0 – lesson learned ensure back bet is placed before laying. I will leave a balance in here and just take any good back and lays I see as and when.
Day P/L - +£0.20
Tuesday
With international friendlies tomorrow I take advantage of Paddy Power’s £50 new customer offer (doing it now to get a quick win and ready for the Cheltenham reload promotions )– backing £50 on France to beat Holland and using the £50 free bet (immediately available) to back a 2-0 win for England laying both at Betfair
Day P/L - £0
Wednesday
France win comfortably, whilst England scramble to win 1-0 – Sturridge scoring (which I had an inkling he would!) Ideally a 2nd goal would have been better but I’m still nicely up due to the bonus
France beat Holland = win £68.75 Paddy Power & lose £61.20 Betfair (+£7.55)
England don’t win 2-0 = win £35 Betfair & Paddy power lose £50 bonus bet (+£33.25)
Day P/L - + £40.75
Thursday
I open a Bet Butler account today to take advantage of their £25 intro offer and I keep things with a French flavour (after having croissants for breakfast) finding a nice close odds bet for Friday on the Nice/ Marseille game and place my opening £25 bet with the intention of using the bonus over the weekend. I look at a couple of horses but find nothing that gets the pulse racing, also miss out on the Betfred lunchtime push due to timings – must look into tomorrow
Day P/L - £0
Friday
I eagerly check the Betfred lunchtime special but it offers no real value. With Bet Butler poised ready for tonight’s game I look into the weekend games for a match that will mean I can use the bonus to my advantage
Day P/L - £0
TOTAL WEEK P/L - +£40.95
Slow start but with Chletenham next week I’m hoping to build my float taking advantage of the numerous offers out there
Websites joined this week and feedback
Paddy Power – Seems a good site, with nice user interface and lots going on – also gave me free £5 casino bonus although not sure how this works so not touched it
Marathon Bet – Find the site difficult to use and navigate and need to call customer services to get into account on 2nd day, my winnings take a long time to appear compared to other sites, and no welcome bonus. Their odds are a little behind Betfair’s which means it is good to practice on, however you are limited on stakes per race and with no welcome bonus there is little incentive to join
Bet Butler – Seems a fun easy to use site, that is not overloaded like some of the larger sites so easy to navigate - £25 welcome bonus is good, but also lots of other offers dotted around worth a look