I pretty much keep my political feelings to myself and it has been a unique year where even “Sharon from Facebook” apparently has a firm grip on how to deal with a global pandemic. I’m pretty cynical about the majority of politicians and this year has only confirmed that viewpoint. Some countries have managed to “contain” things, our own government seems to have made a complete shambles of things from day one and sadly it will take a generation to recover. The one video I remember was the man who had worked on the Ebola virus saying that you cannot sit around and wait, you act now and see what the consequences are after. Those countries that acted like that are now reaping the benefit, indecision has cost us badly.
That’s all I will say on what has been a difficult year and one that has given me an awful lot of time to look at what I do and even find something new. It’s been a slow realisation for me that betting pre-tournament on the two main tours has become harder and harder and I can no longer make it profitable. When I wrote about my favourite golf betting memories of the past twenty years it became apparent they were all a long time ago so I had to think about what has changed. The one thing that came to mind was that back then there were actually huge variations in prices early doors and maybe it was easy to capitalise on those. These days with the odds comparison sites and a dwindling lack of independent golf odds compilers then prices have become rather homogenised. Add in the fact that with the likes of Twitter any erroneous early prices are snuffed out as soon as they appear and the picture is quite clear. I have still done OK with betting antepost on the Majors but all the profit on the main tours is now, for me, in running so it makes sense to concentrate on that.
The Korn Ferry tour remains profitable from the offset with a couple of winners in 2020 in the shape of Periera 125/1 and Hodges 35/1. I will also persevere with betting on the Champions Tour although that may prove harder in 2021 with Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk set to dominate proceedings.
Overall in 2020 I made £18k, down on target but then again we lost an awful lot of golf although in the end that only contributed £8k profit with all the rest coming from National Hunt racing. I will admit backing horses was always more of a hobby concentrating on staying chasers but my hand was rather forced to try new avenues earlier this year and that was one thing that has come out of the year. I decided to have a crack at French jumps racing and it has been a cautious but very impressive success. From 150 bets I have won £7k with an ROI of 60% which isn’t bad for something I had never looked at before.
It has always been the case with my betting, I am not a high stakes punter therefore I need a high ROI so to find that from something new is particularly pleasing. So there we have it, when lockdown hit in March I feared the worse for earning a living as any writing jobs dried up and the website earned nothing but it confirms something learnt over the part 20 years of doing this you have to adapt to survive.
Bon Chance
Ian