To my surprise Pompey lift the FA Cup

I never thought I would see Portsmouth win the FA cup as it was only a couple of years ago that I was at Fratton Park watching them fighting to stay in the Championship.

Earlier on in the season they knocked my team out of the qtr finals which won me £23.75 and I staked a free £5 bet against Pompey going on to win the cup which I have now lost.

I guess I’ll now have to accept that my Dads team are no longer the little team down by the coast that they once were.

Man Utd win the league, but I lose my bets

Whilst I was away Man Utd won the Premier League for the 2nd year running and both times they have lifted the trophy just as I board a long-haul flight!

There success cost me £22.76 in losing bets which I have staked throughout the season against Man Utd winning the league.

But who cares, we are the champions!

Comply or Die wins the Grand National

After my disappointing selections in last years Grand National I had low expectations of receiving any returns on this years bets. However you have to speculate to accumulate so wasting no time studying the form like last year I instead picked Comply or Die and Slim Pickings purely based on the fact I liked their names and backed each with a £2 bet.

Slim Pickings at odds of 13 came in a respectable fourth but Comply or Die that I backed at odds of 11.5 was heavily backed in the hours prior to the race to joint favourite. All this money going in Comply or Die’s direction proved a shrewd investment for punters as he was able to hold off a strong challenge by King Johns Castle to win the Grand National by four lengths. Finally I had picked the right horse and my ‘luck’ was rewarded with an £18.25 profit.

Free £10 for playing PaddyPower games

I received an email from PaddyPower last week offering me a free £10 to play with on their games site simply for clicking a link in there email. Seemed too good an opportunity to turn down so I gave Blackjack a go.

In total I played 11 games at a £1 a go, winning 4 and losing 7 (I’m clearly not that good at the game!). This left me with £6.40 in my account which I tried to withdraw as a little bonus for my MillionaireAdventure pot. Unfortunately this is where the real games begun…

(more…)

My first steps into Matched Betting

Having lost so many of my recent bets I was determined to start recovering my losses from the bookies and having heard how much some people were making through a technique known as Matched Betting I knew I had to have a go.

The basic idea of matched betting is to sign-up for a new betting account with an online bookmaker that is offering a free bet as an incentive to attract new customers. This free bet offer will normally require you to bet through a qualifying stake before you receive the free bet, or in other words risk your own money first!

However there is a way of offsetting your liability by laying on the same result with a betting exchange, which is basically betting against the outcome you risked your own money on with the online bookmaker. This effectively cancels out your original bet and provides a risk free way of qualifying for the free bet offer. If you have never come across this idea then it can be very confusing but it should make more sense as I go through the bets I placed.

(more…)