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There are two groups of punters who invariably go to the races, or their TAB agencies, with the percentages piled high against them. They are the backers of favourites and longshots. No matter wh...
There are many problems associated with beating the trifecta. Punters probably don’t realise the task they are taking on when they tackle this bet. Question 1: Can you predict the 1-2-3 finishin...
Greyhound racing is probably the best system under which a punter in Australia can risk - or rather, invest - his hard earned dough. To my way of thinking there is nothing so good as a standout "...
Let me ask you a question. If you bet on a horse and you see its price rise or fall dramatically, how do you feel? If you feel sick when the horse's odds spiral upwards and smug when they fall, I'...
Fitness plays such an important role in horse racing, and so few punters really know much about how to assess it, that we assigned Statsman to set out in detail his own expert views on this import...
PPM reader Kerrin Brown has been enjoying success as a “lay” operator on Betfair. In this article he relates his personal story, and how he makes money from his operation. The first time I w...
I’ve spent years trying to beat the TAB and bookies and I’ve lost my bank more times than I can remember. There have been a few big wins; as many as a man with only three fingers could count on ...
You would like to back a winner every two selections? That’s a 50 per cent win strike. Some dream! But maybe it’s not so crazy. After all, picking two horses a race and making a ‘book’ by savin...
The late Don Scott once wrote that the best form of exotic betting is the trifecta. I think he was right. Don said picking a trifecta winning bet was a test of skill rather than a game of chance. ...
They call it 'deep state' handicapping. It's the method used by shrewd computer geeks to make millions of dollars on Hong Kong racing. The average punter has no idea of the penetrating analys...
In this final section of a review of the unconscious factors that may adversely affect our judgement when gambling, we will look at only one factor - but a very important one. The myth of skill. ...
When you go to gamble you make a decision. There are a number of components - what to be on, how to bet on it (win, each way, doubles, quinellas, etc.) and how much to bet on it. Are you aware o...
Last month, we looked at the psychological pressures of "negative recency" and "utility" and how they affect the average gambler. We tried to highlight how these factors may influence you uncons...
An academic colleague vaguely interested in horse racing (a rare breed!), asked me if I had heard of a book he was reading about horse racing and written by a psychology professor in America. I us...
Russell Clarke is one of Britain's most successful professional punters. He writes for the popular magazine Odds On and runs his own Internet site. In this special article, he gives his views on b...
One of the most vexing problems facing punters is to decide how much betting their pockets can stand. To put it another way: can you afford to bet as much as you are betting? Or, is your betting ...
Tell the truth: Have you stuck to your New Year's resolution to change your silly betting habits? Or have you drifted back into your old destructive patterns of betting? I pose these questions be...
Last month I stated that laststart winners repeat at about an 18 per cent strike rate, roughly twice the strike rate of horses selected at random. Backing all these last-start winners, I pointed o...
I wonder if we will ever discover what really happened to Don Scott? The great professional punter was found dead in his bed last year amid rumours that he had killed himself with a massive overdo...
Last issue, Russell Clarke, one of Britain's most prominent professional punters, revealed aspects of form analysis. Drawing on his research, he concluded that weight does not have the effect univ...