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Copyright 2013 CityMan Business Solutions Ltd
Lucy's Guide to Making 1000 Per Month From Gambling
First published in Great Britain by CityMan Business Solutions, 2011
7 Ford Road, Sheffield, S11 7GZ, United Kingdom.

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authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
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Table of Contents
Introduction Page 5
Having principles and sticking to a plan Page 6
Your betting bank and staking Page 8
Building your bank with the bookies' money Page 10
Bookmakers or Betfair? Page 12
Arbitrage Page 14
Trading Page 21

4 Bonus Appendices - Betting Basics! Page 30
Bankroll Page 31
How not to do Loss Recovery Page 33
8 Ways to stop bookies limiting your account Page 36
4 Great Staking Secrets Page 40

Conclusion Page 43
---INCLUDES LINK TO MY ADVANCED, FREE E-BOOK CONTAINING
MY ROLLINGSTONE SYSTEM!! ---


1. Introduction
My website (www.laybackandgetrich.com) is full of betting system tests showing you
how to make money from gambling, with my main focus being on horse racing and
football, but also increasingly on tennis, snooker, darts.! However, I am
conscious of the fact that websites can actually sometimes hinder not help, as a new
user can arrive on any page, and then be over-faced, or just plain confused, by the
amount of information that's available, or by the way that pages are linked in a
fluid, rather un-structured, way.
So I decided to put this guide together to explain, in straightforward English, how
anyone can reasonably expect to make 1000 per month tax-free from betting,
using an organised approach. It also happens to be basically what I do**. Do the
same, and you'll find it just ain't that hard to make money from betting.

The guide is organised into the following sections.
1. Introduction
2. Having principles and sticking to a plan.
3. Your betting bank and staking.
4. Building your bank with the bookies' own money!
5. Bookmakers or Betfair?
6. Arbitrage
7. Trading


I have also scattered throughout the text:
Profit Targets. These should give you an idea of the amount of money you
can make from a particular technique. Obviously this will vary from month
to month, but it should give you an indication of what's possible.
Lucy's handy little tips .... keep your eye out for these, as though they
may appear somewhat tangential at times, however they are often more
important than the stuff that surrounds them!




** with the exception of SkewTrader Pro, which is a whole separate story ;-) .
2. Having principles and sticking to a plan.
I am constantly amazed at how few punters have a real clue about what they are
trying to achieve in their betting.
Sure, you're trying to win money! Well thanks, I guessed that much, but.. it would
help before we begin, if you could answer the following questions.
1. How much do you wish to make? And how much are you prepared to stake?
(There is obviously a connection between the two! We will pick up on this in
section 2).
2. What level of risk are you prepared to tolerate? (Highly risk averse people
are probably better starting with arbitrage, whereas those who are more risk-
tolerant may find arbing frustrating, and require the thrill of backing or
laying).
3. Do you have the constitution to put up with long, losing runs? (If not,
longshots are out. And if you have a real problem with this, you may wish to
dispense with backing altogether, and instead focus on laying, or arbing)
Lucy's Handy Little Tip 1 - This guide doesn't have a lot to say
about backing systems, as I believe consistency is best achieved by
arbing or trading. In my view, backing is more for the true
gambler, who is not really the person I'm aiming at here.
4. How much time do you have to devote to your betting, and do your favourite
sports events take place when you're working? (If the answers are not
much and yes, then live trading is almost certainly out too).
5. What are your favourite sports? (e.g. If you know a lot about football, why
wouldn't you exploit that knowledge?).
6. Do you have a 'mathematical' mind (in which case arbitrage or trading may
suit) or are you more interested in trying to understand form and thereby
predict outcomes (in which case, you should probably be backing or laying) ?

Answering these questions will help you decide on the best approach for you to take.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but please don't make a start without having
attempted to answer them, preferably in writing. Please do it now, then I
recommend you come back to them when you've finished the guide, to see if the
course of action you've developed as you've worked the book is in tune with your
basic personality type.
The rest of this guide presents a number of options from which you can select the
ones that suit your personality, based on the questionnaire above. The idea being
that, by the time you get to the end, you will have a portfolio of betting systems that
suits you. Then, once you've designed your portfolio, please - stick at it. Do not
keep chopping and changing as you will not achieve anything!
There is a continual tide of new tipping and betting systems and services on the
Web nowadays, and apart from being somewhat overwhelming, it can also be very
tempting to keep trying the latest 'new thing'. I understand these thought
processes as, trust me, I've been there myself. Some new system appears and you
think, Maybe I'm missing out? Maybe everyone else is making money but me?
Well yes, quite possibly they are but then of course, very possibly they're not.
Believe me, there is nothing quite like running a betting systems review website like
www.laybackandgetrich.com to highlight just how hard it is for most systems to live
up to the hype. I see it every day. Some wonderfully marketed new product hits
the market, allegedly with a great track record, and well, like everybody else I
guess... I'm always initially sceptical, but always also thinking, maybe, just maybe,
this time it will be different!
And of course, it occasionally is but not, I assure you, very often!
So yes, it's good to keep an open mind. But to start with, I urge you please to
construct a plan and stick to it. Give it six months or so. There will be plenty of
time to try new systems and approaches after that. Six months isn't all that long!
And that's how long it takes, in my view, to see if a given approach works.
My next concern is that you may agree with all the above in principle but still not
actually do it as you have just found this 'one special system'. So repeat after me:
I will avoid system hopping NOW!
Too many punters buy all the latest whizz-bang football betting systems, then when
they stop working for a few weeks, get despondent so rush out and buy the latest
horse racing system. Then when that doesn't work..... repeat ad infinitum!
This is just a way of making the systems providers rich at your expense! They are
exploiting your emotions, to their profit and at your cost!
I can't stress enough (and I will repeat ad nauseam below) that you need to be
professional. And that means, adopting a structured approach and sticking at it,
through the ups and downs. Otherwise, you will never make money from betting.
It also means recognising that this process is going to require some actual effort.
The process is simple but not easy. By which I mean, you will make 1000 per
month if you follow some simple principles, but you still have to put some actual
effort in, as with any worthwhile endeavour in life. Stick with it, and it will be
worth the hassle in the end.

3. Your betting bank and staking
a) Your betting bank.
Always use a betting bank containing money you can afford to lose. Everybody says
it but that doesn't mean it ain't true.
If you can't afford to set aside a separate betting bank, you should not be gambling.
This principle is non-negotiable. If you are drawn to betting but are worried that
you cannot afford it, or deep down suspect that betting is not right for you, go to
http://www.gambleaware.co.uk, and please read no further. Instead, good-bye and
have a good life!
I'd personally recommend having a separate bank for each system that you use.
Now this can get a bit unwieldy if you're running with half a dozen systems, but as a
minimum I'd recommend separate banks for backing, laying, trading and arbing
(assuming you're doing all four). Otherwise you will get muddled up, which tends
to lead to a blurring of focus, and a consequent lack of persistence.
Remember be professional. Keep the pots separate, and you will feel more in
control, which will encourage you to persist, and help you learn about each type of
betting as you proceed.

b) Start with small stakes.
As with bank size, this is going to depend to a certain extent on your personal
circumstances, however what follows are some practical guidelines for getting to an
approach that's right for you.
Lucy's Handy Little Tip 2 - It may surprise you that I personally don't
recommend paper trading. It doesn't work for me, or, I suspect, most people,
as it's not real enough to teach you about your emotions. Instead, find an
amount which is really ultra-safe, but which you'd still feel ever so slightly
disappointed about losing. For me, that amount is 5, but for you it might
be 3, or even 2.
The minimum bet on the world's biggest betting exchange (Betfair.com) is
ostensibly 2, though in fact you can bet less than this by editing unmatched bets.
However, to do so is a pain, so I'd recommend 2 as the lowest possible minimum
starting bet to the ultra-cautious.
Really, if you can't afford to bet 2, I have to question again whether any form of
gambling is for you.

c) So how much of my bank should I bet on a single bet?
How long's a piece of string!? No, don't answer that! Instead, consider the
following:
Firstly, to repeat, your bank(s) must all contain money you are prepared to
lose. So they can contain 100, 500, 5000 provided you can afford to
lose it, the precise amount is up to you.
However, to make 1000 a month, I believe you are going to need a total
betting bank, across all your systems, of 2000.
You don't of course have to start off with a 2000 bank! You can work up to
it. So, if you only have 500, start with that. But in this case do not
withdraw money from the pot until you've reached your 2000 target.
If you are starting with much less than 2000, I'd strongly recommend you
begin with arbitrage only (see section 3 below). This is relatively easy, so for
a long time you may even decide to do nothing else. It's a nice, steady way of
building up your capital reserves, plus it is likely to lead to you opening up a
good range of bookie accounts (which is no bad thing), whilst you familiarise
yourself with all the web screens you're going to be using.
Whatever bank you choose to begin with, please use discipline when staking.
This is crucial. A typical 1 point backing bet using a new system should
probably commit no more than 2% of your betting bank (hence bet 20 if you
have a 1000 backing bank).
You may even wish to consider 0.5 to 1% when you're starting out. So if
you only have 500 in your backing bank, your very first back bet on a
new system would be for between 2.50 and 5.
That said, if you're placing arbitrage bets, you may end up risking
nothing at all, so these restrictions would not apply: see Lucy's Handy
Little Tip 3 below.
Remember there's no rush. It's ok to get rich slowly, especially when
you're learning!
Learn also to ratchet up and down what 1 point means to you. I
recommend you do this at the start of each betting day, then leave well alone
till the start of the next day (i.e. don't make intra-day changes or you'll get
horribly confused).
Thus, if you're working with the principle that 1% of my bank = 1 point,
and your bank has progressed (say) to 520, then today you will be
placing bets of 5.20. If however, at the end of the day, you have
regressed to (say) 505, then tomorrow you will be betting 5.05 each
time. (That said, I also think youre better off rounding your stakes at
least to the nearest 1 when betting at a bookies website).
Ratcheting has the benefit of accelerating your progress when things are
going well, and protecting your bank when you're struggling.
Lucy's Handy Little Tip 3 - These ultra-cautious staking principles
do not apply in the same way when arbing, as the amount of money
that is at risk is far smaller than the amounts you actually place as bets.
Arbing is inherently low risk, as its goal is to lock in profit without
any sports risk whatsoever (though there can be some risk arising
from, say, data entry or timing error). We will look at how to place
arb bets later, but for now just note that they represent a great way of
making consistent, steady profits on our way to our 1000 / month
target.
4. Why not use the bookies' own money to build your betting bank?
a) Bonus Bagging
The single most satisfying way to build up your betting bank is to do so
with the bookies' money before you start betting regularly. This is easily
done by exploiting bookies' bonuses. And without a doubt, the very easiest way
to do this is to use Mike Cruickshank's Bonus Bagging service, as it really
is, monkey see, monkey do! It's enormous fun, and still worth doing if you
already have a lot of bookmaker accounts. To find out more, read all about my live
trial by clicking here.
If this concept is completely new to you, the principle is that you back on an event to
happen at a particular bookmaker's website (e.g. Lucky Ned to win the 3.50 at
Kempton), and then bet that the same event will not happen via a betting exchange
such as Betfair.com (i.e. bet that Lucky Ned will lose the same race this is called a
'lay' bet). Doing this with the right stakes (Mike tells you precisely how much!)
allows you to extract the free cash that bookmakers will give you to open an account
with them, without incurring any sports-related risk: i.e. you are guaranteed to
profit whether or not Lucky Ned wins the race.
This approach is an example of sports arbitrage ('arbing' for short), about which I
will have more to say in section 5, however Bonus Bagging is a particularly
satisfying variant, as the profits can be remarkable (with risk-free offers of up to
200 available from some bookmakers). Mike's Bonus Bagging site explains the
process in more detail, though it does require a small, one-off fee to join (currently
27). You will however typically win a lot more than 27 on your very first arb, so
it's easily worth doing.
A beginner should be able to amass a four figure sum by following Mike's
instructions. But it is still worth doing even if you have a heap of bookmaker
accounts already. I had loads, but still made a tidy three-figure sum during my
trial, and could have made quite a bit more.
There are in fact a few completely free alternative services to Mike Cruickshank's
site, however Mike's service is truly second to none, and, in my opinion, well worth
the small initial fee, particularly as youll recover the cost in the first arb or two.
Sports arbitrage is notoriously fiddly, but Mike explains everything in great detail,
so really you can't go wrong with his service.
Lucy's Handy Little Tip 4 Mike's service is also worth persevering with
following completion of your initial 'capital-building' phase. This is because
new opportunities, including reloads, refunds and even casino offers, become
available all the time, and Mike keeps you informed about them all, and
explains in simple English what you have to do to exploit them.
Profit Target You should be able to make a four figure capital sum to start
with, and then add a regular monthly income of around 250 via reloads,
refunds, casino and spreadbet offers. And all you have to do is 'do as you're
told' by Mike!



b) Record-keeping
This is probably as good a time as any to reiterate something which is a bit of a
mantra of mine... namely that, as you build your bank, you will inevitably open lots
of bookmaker accounts so save your logon and password details in a spreadsheet,
and add a column to record your balance, so you don't forget what's where.
Having lots of bookie accounts is good as it means you can spread bets around and
not have your accounts limited by your favourite bookies when you have a lucky run
with one of them. You will also need an account with Betfair.com, and with Betdaq
(but only for when Betfair is down).
So I know it sounds boring, but please do keep records. You will be glad you did.
We agreed we needed to be professional, didn't we? Well this is one example of it.
One thing that puts people off keeping records is that they're not really sure what
information to collect. There really isn't that much. You just need a spreadsheet
with one row per bet, with the following column headings:
date of sports event
time
venue
your selection (horse, team, desired outcome)
market (e.g. win market, place market, correct score etc.)
name of bookmaker or betting exchange
bet type (back /lay / trade / arb)
odds taken
Betfair SP (a useful benchmark even if you don't actually take it yon can
find it out after the event what it would have been, at no cost by going to
http://www.timeform.com/free/)
result (win/lose)
opening bank
stake
returns (after commission if at an exchange)
closing bank

This information will be invaluable when you review your progress (which I
strongly recommend you do from time to time). It's amazing how many times you
will see patterns in your betting, and realise where you've been going wrong (or
indeed, right!).

5. Bookmakers or Betfair?
Bookies are getting a bad name!
If you read a lot of gambling blogs, you would think there is little point in ever
placing a bet via a bookmaker's website. Betfair.com in particular (which is a site I
admit to loving!) has the reputation amongst a certain class of gambler as being the
only place to bet.
There are a couple of often-repeated reasons for this.

a) On average, Betfair.com offers better odds than your average bookie.
Well yes, on average, it almost certainly does. However, most of the odds
advantage on Betfair is on longshots, with short-priced favourites often similarly or
more attractively priced at the bookmaker's.
I'm not entirely sure why this should be maybe the bookies are simply terrified of
getting burnt by some 100-1 outsider!? - but in practice, it means that they often
offer competitive prices on fancied horses.
So it all depends who you're planning to bet on. You may well find the most
appealing odds are not on Betfair.com after all. And odds comparison websites
now make it easy to compare and contrast the bookies with the exchanges.
Also, bookies don't charge commission. Whereas if you place a winning bet at
betfair.com, you will hand back 5% of your winnings to the website for the luxury of
administering your little flutter. Bookies can only dream of being able to do that to
you.

b) Betfair.com allows you to place different sorts of bet, including lay bets and
trading options.
Well this certainly is true, but often these work best when used in conjunction with
related bookmaker bets. We've already seen in section 3 how bookmakers' bonuses
can be exploited by combining back bets at the bookie, with lay bets on Betfair.com.
We shall look at this phenomenon in more detail later.

So ok, we need bookmakers and Betfair.com right?
Yes and there's another reason why too.
In the world of horse racing, bookmakers offer one attractive feature that
Betfair.com does not: something which, in my view, is worthy of a lot more
attention than it appears to get from the online betting community. I am talking
about Best Odds Guaranteed (or BOG for short).
This extraordinary little offer from an increasing number of major online bookies
ensures that you will always receive the higher of (a) the odds you took when you
placed your bet, and (b) the Starting Price. This feature can be worth a small
fortune, and make the difference between an average day and a great one.

Lucy's Handy Little Tip 5 Many punters will put a disproportionate
amount of effort into making a good betting selection, but then simply take
whatever price is currently on offer! This is a major miscalculation. Over
the long term, taking the right price may, in my view, actually be more
important than making the 'right' selection.

As often as possible, when considering betting via a bookmaker's site, you should
think about placing your bets with BOG bookies, so you benefit from drifters.
Doing so can drastically improve your overall profits.
Oddschecker.com allows you to identify BOG bookies quickly (via a big green tick
displayed at the head of all bookie columns which offer it). Unfortunately the
other major odds comparison site (Bestbetting.com) doesn't currently provide the
same feature so for bookies that are only listed here, you will need to click
through to the bookie's own website to check whether they offer BOG terms.
Bookmakers can add or withdraw BOG status at short notice so it's worth checking
from time to time. For instance, Stan James temporarily withdrew its BOG offer,
but has since renewed it.

6. Arbitrage
In my view, the easiest way to make consistent profits, including achieving our
1000 per month target with a minimum of fuss, is to use sports arbitrage
techniques.
We've already looked at one such strategy in section 3, where we talked about Mike
Cruickshank's Bonus Bagging service. However, there are several others, as
follows.

a) DIY arbitrage
You don't have to use a third party service to find arbs; instead, you can easily find
them for yourself. All we do is search for opportunities to play the bookies off
against each other by focussing on arbs in events with only two or three outcomes.
And by avoiding Betfair, we ensure we don't pay commission, and thereby keep a
bigger chunk of the arb profits for ourselves!
For instance, look at the tennis coupon on the Oddschecker.com service. Wherever
you see a percentage figure less than 100% next to a particular match title (which
happens a lot), you should click on all odds on the right to expose the available
odds, then click on the underlined, bold odds that Oddschecker will offer you.

Assuming the bookie site you click through to confirms the same odds, you can
place matching bets to lock in a guaranteed win (And don't worry, for more detail
on how to work out the precise bets to place, read on...!!).
This approach also works with football matches, via Oddschecker's 'bumper coupon'.
This remarkable resource page can take a little while to load as it lists an enormous
number of matches in precisely the same way as the tennis screen above for quick
evaluation. This process doesn't take more than a few moments however, as once
again all we are doing is scanning down the right hand column for combined match
odds below 100%.
Lucy's Handy Little Tip 6 Bear in mind with this approach that profits
on any single match can be modest so you do need to keep at it. But then
it's all back to being professional! All you have to do is lock in 35 per day in
profit and you're on track to banking 1000 per month. So a few pounds
here and there will soon get you to where you need to be.
Continuing the football theme, if I told you there is a website that allows you to
review every single soccer division for the week ahead, and automatically highlights
potential arb opportunities across all European and international leagues, on
markets from Match Odds to 'Draw No Bet' and 'Half Time Result', would you be
interested?
Well, there is - it's called bestbetting.com, and it works like a charm.
All you do is go to bestbetting.com, then click on 'Football' in the left hand column,
then select one of the competitions e.g. Champions League and keep clicking
through, if necessary, until you get to a list of individual matches.
As with the examples at Oddschecker above, we're simply looking for a 3-way arb
where the total percentage shown in the right hand column for the best available,
combined odds is below 100%.
Look for instance at this example:


There are clearly several possible arbs here, with the most attractive being the AC
Milan v Arsenal tie on 15 Feb 2012, which is showing a best possible percentage of
97.59%.
So we click on the Arsenal match and we get the following table:


We can now see that by backing AC Milan at Boyle Sports, and by backing the draw
and the Arsenal win at Pinnacle (who are the ultimate arb-friendly bookmaker by
the way!), we can lock in a guaranteed profit.

b) But I'm no good at sums! How do I do all this 'calculator betting'?
Effective arbing can depend on your ability to make accurate calculations quickly,
and to compare your options just as quickly.
Should you bias the outcome to the favourite? Or the outsider?
Should you round off to the nearest pound in order to conceal your arb from
the bookies? Or just guarantee an even outcome no matter what?
And how long is all this "calculator betting" and decision-making going to
take, and will the odds change whilst you think?
Well, my immediate response is to remind you of Clive Dunn in the BBC comedy
classic, Dad's Army: in short, don't panic, Mr. Mainwaring!!!.
There are a lot of solutions out there, so trust me, you don't have to be any good at
maths.
I almost hesitate to plug Oddschecker.com's online utility, as if I mention them one
more time, you may think I'm on the payroll! (I'm not by the way!). But if you are
still unfamiliar with this one, go to their home page, click on the Tools dropdown in
the top right hand corner, and you'll see a variety of options under the heading
"Calculators". I prefer the Dutching one for arbing.
However, my current favourite calculator doesn't actually run on the web at all:
instead, you install it on your PC. It's available from a site called Windows
Arbitrage Calculator (fair enough name I suppose), where you just click on the
'Download' button to get started. It is simply the cleanest introduction to
"Calculator Betting" I have ever seen. Specifically, it has an 'Arbitrage' tab that
could transform your arbing - making it faster, more decisive, and ultimately more
profitable.
I love the four options at the top. Once you've keyed in the available odds, and the
Total Stake you're prepared to work with, you simply select the type of arb you
require:

Equal (i.e. same winnings irrespective of outcome)
Favourite (i.e. bias winnings towards outcome where favourite wins)
Outsider (i.e. bias winnings towards outcome where outsider wins)
Smooth (i.e. round off stakes to nearest pound - something I am very keen on
as it stops the bookies getting suspicious about what we're up to!)

So, taking the Arsenal example, what I've done below is select the smooth option,
then keyed in a total bet of 500 (to be spread across the 3 bookies), together with
the available odds, to find out what stakes I need to place to lock in some nice
profits. As you can see, once I've placed my bets as below, I am certain to win
between 8.75 and 15.50 which is a healthy contribution to my 35 daily target.
If however, I'd wished to skew the result, say, towards the favourite, I could have bet
as follows:



This would deliver a very handsome win if AC Milan triumph at home, and no loss if
Arsenal were to get a result. It also makes watching the match on television a lot
more exciting!

Lucy's Handy Little Tip 7 I always round off stakes prior to bet
placement to avoid flagging myself as an arber to the bookmaker. I like to
place bets to the nearest 5: which is why the Sm0oth option above is so
attractive.
Lucy's Handy Little Tip 8 I placed the bet above at Boyle Sports
before the bets at Pinnacle. This is because Pinnacle will never close you
down and openly welcome arbers; however Boyle may conceivably query such
a large bet, especially if you haven't bet with them for some time. Thus I
waited to ensure that Boyle had accepted my bet before placing the bets at
Pinnacle. If Boyle had restricted my bet e.g. only accepted half my stake
I would have reduced the bets at Pinnacle by the same percentage amount.
As it is, I had no problem, and have now locked in a profit. It therefore pays
to exercise a degree of caution with some bookies, particularly if you are not
familiar with their betting policies. Always confirm your bet first at
the bookmaker that you think may be least willing to accept your
bet.
Profit Target You should easily be able to make 10 per day via DIY
arbitrage, which equates to a monthly income of 300 per month tax free.
This is a conservative estimate that is likely to be constrained more by the size
of your betting bank than by the available opportunities.

c) Reloads
Reloads never cease to amaze me. They are, in effect, arbs that come looking for
you!
They work in almost precisely the same way as account opening offers, with the
difference that they involve an existing bookmaker of yours incentivising you to
start betting with them again (if, perhaps, you've not visited their site for a few
weeks) and as before, they do this by offering you free money to drop by their site
and place bets.
As with account opening offers, you can simply lay off your bets at Betfair.com, to
lock in risk-free profit. You simply back a horse (or whatever) at your bookmaker,
and then lay it off on Betfair.com; then get rewarded with the free cash from the
bookie once you've placed enough bets (usually a certain amount of cash has to be
staked before you are allowed to withdraw your reload bonus money).
By the way, if you've subscribed to Mike Cruickshank's Bonus Bagging product, he
will once again guide you through precisely what reload bets you need to place... I
know I'm plugging his service somewhat, but it is a steal, and his customer service is
remarkable.
You tend to hear of reloads directly from your existing bookies via email. Bet365
do a lot of them, but so do most bookies from time to time, as the betting market is
ultra-competitive.

Lucy's Handy Little Tip 9 Reloads sometimes require a bit more
patience to 'cash out' than an account opening arb, as you may have to
place a whole series of arbs to cross the required staking threshold. I
imagine the bookies rather hope you won't have the patience to see the
reload through to the bitter end... well, this is where professionalism
comes in again, right? Ensure you keep good records of how much you've
staked so far, and see the task through to its conclusion. You'll be glad
you did!

If you want to see how it's done... I recently conducted a reload arb on my site,
whereby I had to place 600 worth of bets with Bet365 to extract 100 in cash. It
sounds a pain but it wasn't: it was just about being organised and well, counting up
to 600!
For the details of how I did it... see http://www.laybackandgetrich.com/?p=1778 for
the start of the process and http://www.laybackandgetrich.com/?p=1828 for the
finish! The steps I went through on the second of these two pages were mixed in
with an ongoing trial of an expensive product called Rebel Betting (which you can
ignore for now), so you'll have to scroll down a bit to the comments section halfway
down the page, to find the actual bets. The bottom line however is with the
proceeds, I bought a new pair of shoes!

Profit Target You should easily be able to make at least 20 per week
from reloads however, assuming you have bought Mike Cruickshank's
Bonus Bagging product, then, to avoid double counting, I shall score this
technique here as NIL income. (i.e. I have counted the potential monthly
income from reloads in section 3a on Mike's Bonus Bagging service, so I
do not think it fair to count it again here).

d) Bookie Shop Arbing
A lot of people say to me that they like the idea of arbitrage but they can't be
bothered administering all those bookie accounts. Well, to a certain extent, I can't
help feeling that some folks don't deserve to make money after all boys, it ain't
difficult! - but I guess, we all have different tolerance levels for admin, and some
people just can't stand it.
So, for these folks, I would like to suggest a way of arbing that involves not a single
bookmaker's account. All you need is a Betfair.com logon. And (ideally) some
form of transport, or at least some strong shoe leather, as you may be walking up
and down your local high street rather a lot.
Every week, the major UK bookmakers publish fixed odds coupons at the start of
the week in their betting shops for the upcoming football fixtures. Usually these
run up until and including the following weekend: i.e. they look almost a week
ahead. But the odds are printed on paper at the very start of the week...
I hope by now you can smell an opportunity!
A bookie may quote odds on (say) a Monday, only for a key player to be injured on
the Wednesday a fact which may well have a material impact on the likely
outcome of the following Saturday's match. In this instance, if you had picked up
your coupon on the Monday, you would still be free to compare it with Betfair's (or
indeed any bookmaker's) odds at any time later the same week, to see if an arbitrage
opportunity had presented itself.
If it does, you simply walk into the bookmaker's shop in the high street, place your
bet using Monday's coupon, then step outside, and (maybe using your smart
phone!), lay the same bet on Betfair.com at shorter odds. You thereby lock in an
arbitrage profit without opening a bookmaker's account!

Profit Target You should conservatively be able to make 5 per week from
Bookie Shop Arbing.

e) Sports Punter
Finally, I would like to bring to you the gold standard in sports arbitrage. It's called
sportspunter.com, and it appears to cover every sport under the sun. Just follow
this link, and you will be presented with an arber's dream - basically, a series of
dropdown boxes that allow you to search for arbs across a huge range of sports
leagues all over the world.
All you have to do is specify the sport, the country and the league in the first three
dropdowns at the top. Try 'Soccer', 'England' and 'Premier League' to get the idea.
And exactly as previously, you are looking for a combined percentage outcome of
less than 100% for all possible results.

Lucy's Handy Little Tip 10 Sportspunter.com also offers an amazing
paid-for service that works out at a shade over 50 per month, and provides
you with a constantly refreshing page of live arb alerts across over 100
bookies and 1500 competitions (and which I tested here). This is the next
level in sports arbitrage, and one that positions you to earn a real primary
income from your betting.

For starters however, you can just use the free sportspunter.com link, apparently
indefinitely. (To try the paid-for service, you click on the 'arbitrage betting' link on
the right hand side of the page you land on, then follow the instructions under the
heading Sign Up Information).

Profit Target You should conservatively be able to make 8 per day from
the free sportspunter.com service. This equates to 240 per month. If you
are using the professional service, I believe you should be able to make at
least twice this amount, even after allowing for the subscription fee.


7. Trading
By now, using the techniques above, you should be well on your way to making
1000 per month tax-free from betting. Some of it can seem a bit unexciting whilst
you're doing it, or at least require a certain degree of patience and persistence, but
our goal here is not thrills and spills, but profit, and as I keep saying,
professionalism is the key.
All that said, there is undoubtedly an attraction and dare I say, a degree of greater
excitement? - in adopting a different route to money-making in the sports markets.
I am thinking of the thrill, and also the risk, of sports trading.
Now this subject is worthy of an entire manual in its own right, and I almost
hesitate to introduce it here. However, it is a natural extension of the subject of
arbitrage, which can be regarded indeed as a form of ultra-low risk trading (though
purists won't thank me for saying so).
So what is trading, and how do I recommend we approach it here?
Well, sports market trading is effectively a real-time technique whereby we aim to
buy and sell risk for an overall net profit. Thus, for example, imagine that
We buy the risk (i.e. a 'back' bet) that Lucky Ned wins his next race at odds of
(say) 5-1....
...then later we sell that same risk (i.e. 'lay' the same outcome) at odds of 7-2.
If we have managed to do this, in both cases, for (say) a stake of 20, then we
would have succeeded in locking in a risk-free bet on Lucky Ned. For, if
Lucky Ned were now to win the race, we would make 30, by winning 100
on our back bet, and losing 70 on our lay bet.
If Lucky Ned doesn't win, then our net position is zero, so no harm is done.

Which all begs the question: how is this little miracle done?

a) Heavy Trading on Betfair.com
The classic approach to trading is to use Betfair.com to buy and sell risk. This can
be done via the usual website interface within your browser, but this is not
recommended. Odds can move too quickly on Betfair.com for your browser to
handle, so specially tailored software is preferred.
This manual is not designed to be a Betfair.com trading manual, so if you do go
down this route, I strongly recommend you get some specific training before you
start investing serious money. There are a number of products you can use to get
started, of which probably the most impressive is betangel.com. However, it
doesn't come cheap, so please, if you choose to bet in this way, try their free trial
first.

b) Lucy's Light Trading Technique
So... do I recommend trading?
Answer yes, but. And the but is: there is a much easier way.
As mentioned before, I believe there is a lot of value to be had by exploiting the BOG
(Best Odds Guaranteed) feature provided by a lot of bookmakers. Essentially, this
guarantees the punter that his/her odds will be the higher of (a) the odds taken
when the bet was placed, and (b) the eventual Industry Starting Price.
Oddschecker.com allows you to identify BOG bookies quickly, via a big green tick
immediately above those bookies that provide it. Unfortunately the other major
odds comparison site (Bestbetting.com) doesn't currently provide the same feature
so for bookies that are only listed here, you will need to click through to the
bookie's own website to check whether they offer BOG terms.
Lucy's Light Trading technique works on horse racing only. It involves comparing
BOG bookies' backing odds on Oddschecker.com and Bestbetting.com with the
equivalent laying odds available at Betfair.com, and, where a particular bookie's
backing odds are favourable, then backing the horse at the bookie, and then laying
at slightly lower odds on Betfair.com.
The key is that we don't simply take whatever Betfair.com odds are available.
Instead, we ask for lower odds than those currently available on Betfair that are
level with the current average odds on Oddschecker/Bestbetting. We then use the
Betfair.com Keep option to provide insurance in the event that we don't get
matched on Betfair prior to the race starting.
Take the following example:

Boyle Sports and Ladbrokes are currently offering odds of 6.5 on Spes Nostra,
which, as you can see, is significantly better than the average available odds, which
are between 5.5 and 6.
I therefore just bet 50 on Spes Nostra at Boyle Sports, and laid it off for 52.75 (to
cover the 5% commission) at Betfair.com, at odds of 5.8.
Now there is a very good chance that my 5.8 lay bet will get matched on Betfair
prior to the race (which, at time of writing, is a couple of hours away), as this is the
current consensus price amongst the bookies, according to Oddschecker: i.e. I am
not asking for outrageous odds. But the 5.8 price is currently unavailable at
Betfair, so I have changed the Status of my Lay bet from 'Cancel at In-Play' to 'Keep
at In-Play' as shown overleaf.


This one little change has the happy side effect of ensuring that, if my lay bet is not
matched before the off, then it will go forward into the in-play betting market to be
matched there.
Now of course there is no absolute guarantee that my lay bet will be matched in-
play either. However, the odds are massively on our side that it will. The first two
or three favourites in a race typically yo-yo around in price in the five minutes
before the off, and even more so once the market goes in-running, and so our very
conservative lay bet is almost certain to match up during the race if not prior to it.

Lucy's Handy Little Tip 11 The key is that we dont get too greedy:
which of course, we haven't done, as we have merely attempted to match up
against the general market consensus. Remember the goal is to set your
lay odds in line with the bookies' average odds, then having done so,
select the Keep option to ensure your lay bet goes in-play if necessary.

There is also the possibility that having been matched on Betfair.com (usually well
before the race), the horse's price then drifts in the market prior to the off. In this
fortunate situation, we will benefit from the longer SP odds, as the BOG bookie will
pay out (if our horse wins) at the longer price. When this happens, we should be
lucky enough to lock in significant margins between the back and lay side of the arb,
which in turn delivers dramatically enhanced profits. e.g. In the example given
here, a win for Spes Nostra at 8, against a betfair.com lay of 5.8, would deliver a net
profit of 96.80.
Another happy outcome can occur owing to a curious quirk in Betfair.com's
handling of non-runners. UK bookmakers handle the possibility of non-runners
via the notorious rule 4 deductions, which effectively reduce the value of any
winnings you achieve by a mathematical progression. However Betfair.com, for
reasons best known to its designers, uses a different method to downgrade its
prices, that always seems a little more draconian that the equivalent rule 4
deduction. This often leads to the Betfair lay odds being reduced by more than
your bookmaker's back bet, thereby widening the gap between the two sides of the
arb and hence delivering more profit to you.
In summary then, my light trading technique is a low-risk way of exploiting small
odds movements to create gaps between back and lay bets, that convert into profit if
and when our selections come home in front. However, this is gambling. Unlike
many of the arbitrage examples above, there is the small risk that the Betfair.com
match is not made, in which case you can lose your backing stake entirely, and not
have a balancing lay bet for compensation.
In practice, you should win a lot more by this method than you lose over time, but if
you cannot face the possibility of losing at all, you should not use this technique.

Profit Target You should comfortably be able to make 50 per week from
Lucy's Light Trading technique. There are usually several such trading
opportunities each day.

c) Lay the Draw
Many novice punters, particularly in the UK, often know a lot about football, so for
them a quick route into effective gambling is by exploiting their existing knowledge
of this sport. This approach can often turn them into effective punters much more
quickly than trying to learn how to study form in horse racing a sport that
basically involves trying to guess which one of a bunch of wild animals can run most
quickly across a field!
The oldest online football trading system going is the Lay the Draw approach. It is
emphatically not my system, and indeed is widely (and freely) available across the
world wide web. I am therefore conscious here that a lot of readers will groan at the
prospect of reading about it again. Don't! When adjusted for a couple of minor
issues (as below), the basic principle of laying the draw between two evenly
matched sides that each have a record of leaking goals, then trading out when a goal
is scored, remains a solid way of making money from betting.
Lay the Draw is a bookie-proof system as it is operated exclusively at betting
exchanges. Not only do you therefore not have to worry about getting your bookie
account limited, it also means you can bet with large or small stakes, entirely as you
wish.
For example, English Premiership matches often offer millions of pounds of
liquidity at Betfair, so there is plenty of scope for very significant profits (and of
course, significant losses if you get it wrong!).
So what's involved in running the Lay the Draw system?

(i) Basic Lay the Draw System
The basic principle of Lay the Draw is to find games on Betfair featuring evenly
matched teams where, according to the Match Odds Market, any of the three
possible win/draw outcomes is fairly likely: with ideally, decimal odds of less than 4
being offered for each of the three as below:


The chosen games also need to be flagged as being in the Betfair In-Play list (as
we will want to place bets on them during the match). In practice, all major
matches do go forward into the in-play markets, however Betfair provides a
convenient filter via daily in-play coupons so you can be sure, as below:


You should now further screen the match(-es) you have found by selecting only
those where punters believe the respective defences are likely to concede easily.
The simplest way to do this is to rule out any matches where, in the Over/Under 2.5
goals market, the odds for there being over 2.5 goals are longer than they are for
under 2.5 goals.
In the traditional version of Lay the Draw, you then place a Lay Bet in the Match
Odds market on all selected matches before the kick-off. Once the game(s) go(es)
in-play, you sit and wait for a goal to be scored by either side. When it is, the
Match Odds market will be automatically suspended and re-loaded by Betfair, with
the back odds for the draw usually coming back much higher than the lay odds you
took at the start. You now back the draw at longer odds than you originally laid it
at, thus locking in a small profit no matter what the result.

Lucy's Handy Little Tip 12 You can play around with the exact stake
required in Betfair itself, as keying a potential back bet into the Match Odds
Market without submitting will give you trial balances in green under each
of the 3 outcomes. Submit when you've found a stake of the right size to lock
in profit no matter how the game finishes.


(ii) So What Can Go Wrong With Lay the Draw?
By far and away the biggest problem is goalless matches; as the system depends on
a goal being scored by someone before the back bet is placed. If no goal is
forthcoming, the system cannot be used properly. (Which is why we filtered for
teams with leaky defences above).
A common solution is to trade out of goalless games when (say) a certain period has
gone (70 minutes maybe?), or when the Draw odds have come down to (perhaps)
2.0 as the Draw will have been getting more and more likely the whole time that
the game remained scoreless. Both of these options involve placing a back bet for
less than you originally laid, and accepting a net loss to offset against all the other
times when you will have made money with the same system.
However, although minimising losses is often a valid betting strategy, there is an
additional factor to consider here, around the almost inevitable Murphy's Law
effect - whereby you can almost predict that the moment after you decide to trade
out, one or other of the teams will score the decisive goal that could have made you
a lot of money.
It has to be said that the trade-out approach has its supporters, but I remain
unconvinced as some of the losses arising can be significant, thereby undermining
the system's overall profitability. I therefore recommend an alternative strategy
(see below).
The other key weakness of the basic system relates to unbalanced matches. If, for
instance, Manchester United are playing a bottom of the table team, you can expect
United's odds to be significantly shorter than their opponents'. If you were to lay
the draw in this match, and then United were to concede first, the odds of the draw
would probably shorten, not lengthen, thus stopping us locking in a profit. This is
why I have proposed selecting only even matches above.

(iii) My Preferred Solution to Goalless Matches with Lay the Draw
The problem with goalless matches arises from the big disparity between the odds
against a draw at the start, and the odds against the same event at (say) the 70
minute mark when no one has scored. My preferred solution is therefore to
wait till half-time before you place the original lay bet (which you obviously
only do on matches that still remain level at this point).
Never trade out. Instead, wait right until the final whistle, if necessary, for a
goal, and only place your back bet if a goal is scored.

These small changes in overall approach will drastically reduce the lay odds that you
initially commit to (therefore limiting your overall potential liability), whilst still
giving you a full 45 minutes to secure your all-important goal. Given that defenders
unquestionably tire in the second half, and that managers are tempted to 'go for the
win' later in a match, this solution is more attuned to the way football is actually
played.
This approach also allows you to forget about expensive trading out solutions (as
youre not losing as much if there are no more goals). It may sound risky as you
now only have 45 minutes to find a goal, but the flipside is that very late goals can
make you a fortune (as the back odds will jump out much further once Betfair
reloads the market). And running multiple matches in parallel on a Saturday
afternoon often then becomes really exciting and rewarding.

(iv) Lay the Draw In Action
As discussed earlier in this guide, I recommend you try the Lay the Draw system
with small amounts of real money. I'd avoid totally risk-free paper trading as
it isn't realistic enough for you to learn about the emotions you will experience.
Then as you make a little money, reinvest your winnings in increased stakes.
Make sure you have access to good quality real-time score data (Radio 5 live and
Sky Sports News are popular for the English Premiership, but my favourite is Victor
Chandler's goals feed at http://vcbet.goalsfeed.com). Which ever service you use, find
one that contains all the games you are tracking in a single place. And give it a go!

Profit Target You should comfortably be able to make 50 per week from
my amended version of the Lay the Draw system potentially a lot more.

d) SkewTrader Pro
I cannot complete the Trading section of my manual without mentioning my very
own trading solution, SkewTrader Pro! It is not covered in this manual, but is
available for immediate download from my website, and comes with a 45-day no
quibble money-back guarantee.
SkewTrader Pro is the first system that shows you how sports arbing can be
done at realistic stakes (i.e. staking normal bets instead of 3 figure sums) in
such a way as to generate a valuable income without attracting lots of
unwanted, account-limiting attention from the bookies. It does this by using a
special twist to widen the gap between the back and lay sides of the arb to
produce better returns at lower stakes. This in turn gives you far less risk, and
less stress, whilst delivering long-term, higher profits.
SkewTrader Pro is very low-risk though not absolutely risk-free, as it
provides a number of options for you to select the risk/reward profile you
require. Thus it is actually more flexible than traditional arbing systems. For
instance, there is a pure arb mode and a punter mode, the latter being more
suited to the true gambler. However, both exploit the novel twist that allows
you to widen the arb gap and thereby make more money at lower stakes. You
can therefore use either method to generate a significant income stream.
The system has nothing to do with bookies new account or re-load offers.
All bets are placed as normal without reference to any such incentive
schemes.
SkewTrader Pro has been robustly road-tested by subscribers to
laybackandgetrich.com, many of whom have made practical enhancements to
the product as theyve gone along.


APPENDIX A - Back to Basics Betting Class

PLEASE READ THIS APPENDIX AND SAVE YOURSELF SOME MONEY!
There are a number of timeless betting lessons that it seems that every new punter
has traditionally had to learn the hard way. Please save yourself time and money,
and don't skip this section. It may not seem glamorous, but it is important, and
really could make all the difference between success and failure.
There are four key sections in the appendix:
1. bankroll
2. loss recovery how not to do it!
3. 8 ways to stop bookies limiting your account
4. 4 great staking plan secrets


A1. Bankroll
If youre even thinking about Bankroll management, you are being professional.
And thats a great place to start!
The key issues with Bankroll are:
- how big should it be?
- where should I hold it, and how should I move it around and manage it?

Taking these in turn then.
a) Size
No matter what youre told, size does matter! Now obviously, absolute size is up to
you but please remember, do only ever bet with money youre able to lose. If you
ever feel tempted to bet with money that is needed for stuff that really matters,
please go to Gamble Aware nd get help.
The way to look at your Bankroll is like this: once you have deposited money at
Betfair, at a bookmakers, or in an e-wallet, its gone. You should consider your
money spent at this point. If however, you dont feel entirely comfortable, and are
mentally reserving the right to withdraw that chunk of money again if things go
wrong, then youre investing too much in your betting, and you need to deposit less
in the first place.
Remember Mikes Bonus Bagging! Build up your bank first with the bookies money
and your betting will be far more confident and assured (and therefore successful)
as a result.
As explained earlier in this report, you should have a separate bankroll for each type
of betting you are planning to do. So if you are planning to back, trade and lay, you
should have three separate bankrolls. This approach will create focus (and thereby
help develop persistence) as you will be able to see what youre doing best at, and
where any problems are.

b) Location location location where to hold all that lovely money!
Your laying bankroll can be deposited into Betfair, but the rest needs much more
careful management.
Now, it is an indisputable fact that a good way to get your accounts limited at the
bookies is to keep moving money into and out of your account. Especially if you do
so with debit and credit cards, as the bookie will have to stand the transaction
charges arising (or worse still, in certain cases, try and pass them on to you!).
It is a common complaint from punters that bookmakers will allow you to deposit
instantly but then make you wait up to about 5 days to get your money back! Thing
is, this is telling you something: namely, that bookmakers really dont like you doing
too many withdrawals! And its not only that they want your business; its also that
they wish youd stop running up their bill for bank charges!
You will be far more bookie-friendly if you deposit and withdraw via an e-wallet,
such as Paypal or Skrill (the new name for Moneybookers), as the associated costs
for bookies are negligible. Consequently, your friendly bookie will reward you by
allowing you to move your money out much faster. Which in turn increases your
betting power: because of course, the longer your cash is tied up, the harder it is for
you to leverage your bankroll and make money!
So: less in and out; and, please, use an e-wallet!
Also, most importantly of all, ask yourself: do I really need to make a withdrawal?
If you find yourself withdrawing and then depositing at the same bookmakers
within a short period, you are probably over-trading. Try instead to track whats
where (it only takes a little spreadsheet, where you can also store the passwords for
each site!) and then only withdraw cash when you really need to.
Finally, remember also that the right location for your funds depends on what you
are planning to bet on: so think before you deposit, and dont simply respond to a
bookies advertisement!
For instance, back-and-lay arbers will need a small percentage of their bank in a
series of bookie accounts, with some float in an e-wallet, and a big chunk of money
to cover laying liability at Betfair. However, if youre mainly trading with a product
like Total Football Trading, all you need to do is deposit the bulk of your cash
straight into Betfair.

A2. A lesson from history how not to do Loss Recovery aka
Martingale!

Here are two immutable laws of betting:
1) Losing is emphatically part of winning.
Strange but undoubtedly true no matter whatever the latest overblown system
claims are out there on the interweb...you are going to have to work your losing into
your winning, if you are going to come out ahead.
If you cannot accept this, you shouldn't be betting. Yet people refuse to accept it,
and instead chase losses instead. Which brings me to law 2...

2) The quickest way to the poor house is to chase losses.
Yet when you've lost a large-ish sum of money, it is so tempting......
Whenever you are tempted therefore, I want you to repeat to yourself the story of
Martingale, the most infamous betting system of them all....

So what is Martingale?
It is odd that a system as (in)famous as Martingale should actually be so very
simple. The Martingale system involves placing a sequence of bets on a 50/50
outcome, and doubling your stake every time you lose, to ensure you always end up
ahead. The idea is that each sequence of bets should produce a 1 point profit,
irrespective of the strike rate achieved.
This might work as follows.
Imagine a phantom punter, Phil, walking up to the roulette table in Lucky
Lous casino, and placing $100 on Red. A sultry young croupier spins the
wheel, up comes Red, and phantom Phil is $100 better off. He smiles at the
croupier as he takes his winnings off the table, sips his gin and tonic, and
contemplates his next move.
Phil now places a further $100 on Red, and awaits the croupiers next spin.
Unluckily for him, his sultry friend spins the wheel to Black, before raking
his hundred bucks off the table, without smiling back. Unperturbed, Phil
places $200 on Red, and waits for the next spin. Unfortunately that loses
too, so he punts $400, and (as that loses too) he stakes $800. The croupier
looks at him dubiously, thinking she has yet another desperate punter on her
hands. But Red comes up this time, so Phil wins $800 (to offset the $700 he
has lost to date on this sequence), and visibly relaxes as he picks his
winnings off the table.
But Phil does not leave the table. All is actually going to plan. Instead, he
simply starts a third sequence by placing $100 on Red again

The idea therefore is that each sequence should produce a 1 point profit,
irrespective of its length. Thus in the example given, Phil has won $200 after the 2
sequences have been completed, even though he has only had two winning bets out
of five.
In practice, this makes Martingale the ultimate loss-chasing system, as every stake
in a sequence is equal to the sum total of everything lost to date, plus one point.

Where did Martingale originate and how did it get its name?
No one really knows the precise origins of the system, or of the name Martingale.
Wikipedia claims that the term refers to a class of betting strategies popular in 18th
century France, but doesnt cite a source.
The French link is often also made with the town of Martigues, and a particularly
scholarly article I came across(http://www.jehps.net/juin2009/Mansuy.pdf) lists a
whole series of French connections, including references to Provenal terms for
absurdity, and derivations from words relating to items of clothing, equestrian
harnesses and even prostitution.

Good points and bad points
The attractions of the system are its simplicity, and its ability to produce a long
series of winning sequences in spite of the random nature of the underlying bets.
However, this is where the good stuff ends. Martingale presupposes a very
understanding casino, and, on the part of the punter, very deep pockets. Its clear
flaw being the risk that the occasional long, losing sequence either bankrupts you,
or (if youre lucky) gets you barred from the casino first.
A losing Martingale sequence that begins with the bet of a single dollar would
require, by its 21
st
bet, a stake in excess of a million bucks. ($1,048,576 to be
precise). It is a sure fire road to perdition.
It seems almost insignificant in comparison but it is worth being aware that that 50-
50 punt on the roulette table isnt quite as even a chance as all that either. Roulette
tables usually have a zero on the wheel, which counts as neither Red nor Black, nor
Odd, nor Even. This guarantees the house a long-run edge.
Finally, Martingale itself suffers from the lack of an edge. All good systems consist
of an edge (i.e. the reason why the system works in the first place), and a staking
plan. Martingale is actually just a staking plan, and a particularly irresponsible one
at that.

Can Martingale be used online, specifically with online casinos?
Martingale has had something of a renaissance with the advent of online casinos.
After all, a piece of software is unlikely to notice the sweat running down your brow
as you place that $50,000 bet, whereas our sultry croupier friend would surely have
alerted her pit boss by this point (and given the game away to you with a series of
withering whos the loser?! glances).
All that said, most online casino systems contain automated checks and balances,
and inevitably monitor betting patterns. So the chance of you getting your
$1,048,576 bet accepted on your virtual roulette table is likely to be zero.

Is Martingale limited to casino-style betting only?
In principle, no, Martingale can be used on any 50-50 style bet or indeed, on any
series of short-priced punts. Though trying it on (say) a series of Manchester United
home matches (for which the odds can often be as short as 1.2) will have the effect
of exponentially accelerating the stakes growth rate.
Or put more simply, the shorter the odds you take, the faster youre able to go
bankrupt.

Are there variants of it that work better?
The reference to Manchester United isnt entirely flippant. The classic Martingale is
based on a sequence of bets that have no relation to each other. Every spin of the
wheel is a stand-alone event. However, you could argue that football matches are
not as disconnected. After all, if Manchester United were to fail to win 3 or 4 home
games in a row, surely the manager would take action? Maybe he would change the
strike force, or perhaps even buy another centre-forward? Thus you could argue
that this is an improvement on the roulette situation as you would have the
management team of a giant football club doing everything in their power to get
your betting sequence back on track.
This is the logic of the poor house; please dont buy it! Although I suppose loss-
chasing on this scale would probably give you a heart attack before it bankrupted
you, so you would retain the possibility of dying solvent.

Are there any variants that you recommend?
No!
The lesson of Martingale is to avoid loss-chasing systems. Even today there are
so-called stop at a winner systems available on the internet (try typing it into
Google!), which adopt various types of loss recovery strategy, and can be trusted to
deliver you a whole series of winning days, followed by one monumental disaster
that breaks both your bank and your heart.
Todays lesson therefore boils down to this. If a system doesnt work at level
stakes, walk away!
And if you still dont believe me, try watching this scary video I found on Youtube!!


A3. 8 Ways to stop bookies limiting your account
A repeated complaint from newly successful punters is that bookmakers close or
limit their accounts. You spend all your time perfecting your betting skills, and then
youre barred for using them. Is it really worth the effort?!
The answer, Im sure youll be pleased to hear, is a resounding yes. There is no good
reason why you should get your accounts closed or limited by the bookies if you
follow these simple rules.

a) Bet round numbers (i.e. stakes ending in 0 or 5, without any pence).
Betting very precise amounts (e.g. 46.56) will mark you out very quickly as an
arber. And most bookies dont like arbers. This is because they really want to attract
so-called mug punters who are happy to take random punts in a spontaneous way,
and who traditionally lose money hand over fist.
In contrast, arbing suggests you are aiming to milk the bookies in a systematic way.
And frankly they could do without the aggravation, as life is too short and anyway
these days their margins are paper-thin.
If youre arbing, use calculation software that works out rounded stakes (see my
article on calculator betting for the best option), or use a system like SkewTrader Pro
(coming soon) which is designed to work with round stakes. Only bet pounds not
pence, and stick to sums ending with a 0 or a 5.

b) Consider using the basic fake-a-loss technique by laying your bets off
at Betfair (though a better option follows at steps c and d!)
It may seem like stating the obvious, but bookies dont like winners. You therefore
have to think about how to fake losses effectively, with the classic way of doing so
being to (a) back an event at the bookies (e.g. Lucky Ned to win), (b) lay the same
event off at Betfair (Lucky Ned not to win), then (c) hope that the event doesnt
happen (e.g. Lucky Ned falls at the first).
This approach can often work but may prove expensive or back-fire entirely and get
you shut down. In particular, things can go wrong if youre tempted to back-and-lay
longshots to make sure you lose, as longshots are often only available at much
longer prices on Betfair than they are at your bookmakers.
So if you back Lucky Ned at 30, you might be offered lay odds on Betfair of 40 or
50. Such an arb could cost you up to 400 on a 20 stake if the Law of Sod kicks in,
and Lucky Ned comes home in front. This, in my opinion, is way too much stress for
the pleasure of making your bookie twenty quid richer. With the punchline being
that, if your longshot wins, your bookie will probably close down your account
anyway. This will follow as night follows day, if youve been taking money off him
prior to the race. Hell now figure youve moved on to successfully backing rank
outsiders and are therefore not worth the trouble.
There is also the additional cost of Betfair commission to factor into your lay bet, so
you may end up locking in a loss no matter what. Arbs that are guaranteed to lose,
and in some cases lose you a lot, are an unnecessary price to pay for making your
bookie smile; so my advice is to use this approach with caution.
So instead, here is a more sophisticated way to manage your bookmaker accounts

c) Rest winning accounts in favour of losing ones.
Keep records of where you are with each bookie. I keep records of bookie balances
in my bookmaker passwords file (its only 1 row per bookie so its really not
onerous), and then I track whether I am up or down this week with each of them.
This should be easy if youve been recording all your bets (which you have been
doing, right?).
Obviously, if youve lost money at a given bookies this week, no further action is
required, but if youre up, review your progress over the last month and quarter. If I
am ahead across all three periods, I will take action (see below). But if Im only
ahead at a given bookmakers over any one or two of these periods, I will usually
decide to rest him, and switch to the accounts Im losing money with. There is
usually no need to fake losses if youre managing your bookmaker accounts
carefully.
Now I do a LOT of arbing so there are always some accounts that, by chance, end up
ahead, with others falling behind. The obvious long-term goal is to take your profits
in Betfair, but you can give the natural cycling of bookie balances a helping hand
simply by leaving successful accounts alone for a bit. In my experience, this actually
only means resting two or three accounts at a time when Im arbing (as of course
bookie odds are designed to help the bookie profit over time, via the over-round, so
usually the majority of accounts end up overdrawn).
But what do you do if you are still ahead at a particular bookie over the last week,
month and quarter? Well, after kicking yourself for not resting the account earlier,
try this.

d) Back-and-lay short-priced selections (between 1.5 and 3.0) until you
lose enough money.
This approach may sound counter-intuitive (as you will worry that favourites will
win), but it is actually a sure-fire way of making losses on your bookmaker account.
After all, the bookies make the bulk of their profits by laying favourites, so it
shouldnt be hard to lose to them by blindly backing anything in the required range.
Plus, if youre backing favourites or second favourites, you are going to look like the
mug punter they so want you to be. And if your short-priced punt does come home
in front, youre likely to win such small amounts (relative to your stake) that your
bookie is likely to let matters run, sure in the knowledge that your mug punter
behaviour will soon find you out.
Now I know what you are thinking havent we, in step 2, questioned the value of
backing-and-laying on account of (a) the odds disparities between the bookies and
Betfair, and (b) the Betfair commission issue?
Well yes, but Betfair rarely offers long lay prices on favourites. All you do is use a
site like Oddschecker, combined with a separate Betfair window, and find back-and-
lay options where the lay odds at Betfair are equal to the backing odds at the
bookies. Then lay your horse/team/whatever at Betfair for the same (or lower) odds
as those on offer at the bookmakers, for a sum equal to the backing stake.
If your selection wins, you will finish level, or possibly even ahead if you got better
odds at the bookies. And if it loses, you will be down by the amount of your Betfair
commission: typically 2.50 on a 50 stake, which is, I feel, a price worth paying to
put the smile back on a long-suffering bookmakers face!
That said, if you follow the guidance on pages 14 to 20 above, you should even be
able to make money from your short-priced arbs. Which in turn makes the whole
thing that little bit more pleasurable!

e) Avoid moving money into and out of your accounts any more often
than is absolutely necessary.
I cant stress this enough. Bookies incur quite significant banking costs (that
thankfully they dont usually pass on to you) if you use bank cards. If they are
already having doubts about your account, there is nothing quite like a whole pile of
bank fees to tip them over the edge.
Just because you dont see this cost doesnt mean it doesnt matter to them.
Remember bookies margins are wafer-thin, so naturally they are tracking this
stuff.
A really good way of getting accounts limited is to open an email about a reload
offer, make a debit card deposit, milk the offer, then withdraw all your money again.
Please dont do this! Instead, focus on the long game.

f) Use Skrill (formerly Moneybookers) or Paypal to deposit or
withdraw.
This follows from point 5. Save your bookie bank charges and he will smile on you.
Moreover, he will let you make much quicker withdrawals, so your bankroll can be
turned over more quickly. So everybodys happy!

g) Use arb-friendly bookies.
No article on this subject would be complete without a plug for Pinnacle Sports.
This bookie is a punters dream. They offer great odds, openly welcome arbers, and,
as far as Im aware, have never closed down a soul. If you dont believe me, read
this! Reward them with your custom (and no, in case youre wondering, I do not
benefit, financially or otherwise, from saying this!). They really are in a class of
their own.

h) Use a system that allows you to bet at modest stakes.
Arbing is all very well but if you are placing 200 bets on League Two football
matches in order to drive out 2.70 worth of profit, it wont be that long before your
bookie limits you (Pinnacle aside). It would be better to place four arbs of 50
across a whole range of bookies, so the risk of unwanted attention is reduced.
I developed SkewTrader Pro specifically as a way of widening the gap between the
back and lay sides of the arb, to allow you to make enhanced profits at lower stakes.
You can read about it here.

So thats it. Spread your bets around, using the techniques in this manual, and
open lots of bookie accounts. Then adopt an organised approach to bookmaker
management.
Having an account closed can happen to any of us (sometimes the bookies simply
do random things!) but it usually isnt inevitable. You simply need to plan ahead to
minimise the chance of it happening.


A4. 4 Great Staking Plan Secrets
If there is one simple thing you can do to get better at betting, its to use a robust
staking plan. There is no glamour to it, and very few systems providers explain it
properly (except occasionally to go a bit mystical about Fibonacci or something
similar!). But in my experience, good staking is the bedrock of successful betting.
Do it right, and youre already halfway there. Do it wrong, and you are almost
certain to haemorrhage money.
Here then are the four rules that I personally follow. There are other approaches
but I dont believe you can go far wrong with these four ideas.

1. When youre trying out a new system, please use level staking only.
Any decent system can benefit from a good staking plan, but until youve proven its
a decent system, you should be using level stakes. Otherwise the staking plan will
distort your results (for better or worse), and cloud the issue (which should simply
be is this system any good?).

2. There is one exception to rule 1. I will allow myself to adopt a level
liability approach for laying systems that permit high prices (i.e.
laying to SP), but only as a risk mitigation strategy (which is a fancy way of
admitting to cowardice).
Like the bookies, Im scared to death of the Foinavon effect (i.e. getting torched by
some runaway longshot), but unlike them, I am unable to persuade mug punters to
take lousy odds from me on rank outsiders. So SP laying it sometimes has to be.
But even then, you should keep records of what would have happened if youd used
level stakes.
I have switched to using a wonderful new spreadsheet (produced by regular site
contributor Chris!) to test ZeroHypes Laying service, precisely because it allows us to
track to both fixed liabilities and fixed stakes.

3. Once you have a great system, use ratcheted staking.
This means betting with a set percentage of your bank, in such a way that your
stakes grow gradually as your bank balance rises. For a low-risk system (e.g. betting
at short prices), 5% is an acceptable figure. For higher risk methods, you may wish
to consider 3%, or even 2%.
The most important points though are that the chosen percentage should:
feel right i.e. you dont get too down if you lose, because you know
you have a winning system that will come right in the end
be a figure you decide on in the morning then stick to all day. Dont try
working it out on the fly as youll only get confused.
Ratcheted staking also protects your bank balance if you start to lose, by making it
last longer. A 5% ratcheted stake might sound a lot, but it lasts a lot longer than the
20 bets that first come to mind. In fact, after 50 straight losing bets on a 100
bank, you would still have a little money left (7.69, assuming 1 bet per day). Such
is the joy of exponential mathematics! (do I need to get out more!?)
You may be tempted, during a dry spell, to keep on going with the same stakes (a
flat 5, in my example) in order to accelerate a recovery, but this is seriously flawed
thinking. Be professional and stick to your percentage. If you have a sound system,
then it will only be a matter of time before things improve, and your bank starts to
climb again.
And of course when you do start to make progress, ratcheting benefits from the
miracle of exponential mathematics when going upwards too, so that the results can
be extraordinary.
I digress slightly, but I love the old wheat on the chessboard problem,
which, paraphrasing Wikipedia, illustrates this point quite wonderfully:
When the creator of the game of chess showed his invention to the
ruler of the country, the ruler was so pleased that he gave the inventor
the right to name his prize for the invention. The man, who was very
wise, asked the king this: that for the first square of the chess board,
he would receive one grain of wheat, two for the second one, four on
the third one, and so forth, doubling the amount each time. The ruler,
arithmetically unaware, quickly accepted the inventors offer, even
getting offended by his perceived notion that the inventor was asking
for such a low price, and ordered the treasurer to count and hand over
the wheat to the inventor. However, when the treasurer took more
than a week to calculate the amount of wheat, the ruler asked him for
a reason for his tardiness. The treasurer then gave him the result of
the calculation, and explained that it would be impossible to give the
inventor the reward. The ruler then, to get back at the inventor who
tried to outsmart him, cut off the inventors head to discourage such
trickery!
On the entire chessboard there would be 2
64
1 =
18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice, weighing 461,168,602,000
metric tons, which would be a heap of rice larger than Mount Everest.
This is around 1,000 times the global production of rice in 2010
(464,000,000 metric tons).
Nowadays of course, you are more likely to find that your account is simply
closed by your bookie without the need for decapitation, but it is still a
problem that a sensible staking plan can easily leave you with so do read
section A3 above on 8 ways to stop your bookie from closing you down.

4. Never chase losses.
It really is the fastest way to the poor house. Everyone knows this deep down, but
somehow its easy to forget when things are going against you.
Why do so many people do it? Because they keep losing, and they want a quick way
out, thats why! Hence the popularity of systems like Fancy Fillies, which has a cute
name, but is little more than a well-packaged, loss-chasing plan.
I ditched the Fancy Fillies system after a handful of bets on account of its suicidal approach
to staking. This sort of stuff should be avoided at all costs.

And thats all there is to it you just need to implement and make it happen!

8. Conclusion
This brings to an end my guide on how to make 1000/month from betting
systems. I trust I've convinced you that it represents a very realistic target.
Taking each of our systems in turn, we arrived at the following portfolio:

Bonus Bagging (inc. reloads) - 250 / month
DIY Arbitrage - 300 / month
Reloads - NIL / month (as I have counted this profit within the Bonus
Bagging total)
Bookie Shop Arbing (20 / month)
Sportspunter.com (240 / month)
Lucy's Light Trading (200 / month)
Amended Lay the Draw System (200 / month)

In total, I make that 1210 per month, which clearly gives us scope for poor
performance on certain systems, whilst still achieving our overall target of 1000 /
month profit. It also provides you several options from which you can choose,
according to your personality type.
Please feel free to share this guide with your friends and family. As long as you
acknowledge its source (i.e. me!) and do not modify it in any way, then I have no
problem with it being issued to any interested punter.
Any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact me at:
lucylastik@laybackandgetrich.com

Happy punting!
love Lucy xxx


Ps if you have enjoyed this free manual, and would like to get hold of my
new, advanced system (ALSO FREE), click here for an instant
download.