H_B

Betting is always easy with hindsight. I don't doubt your claim, but I trust no one's betting stories unless they are proofed to a forum beforehand. Gamblers are notorious liars. It's like the Betfair forums - they are tremendous comedy. Everyone is a winner - it's amazing there aren't bookies going into liquidation every day!

I'm amused reading this when people claim the magic success story is betting very short price football singles, when yesterday was a prime example of just how many of those short priced singles inexplicably lose. Then we are to believe that of those short priced singles, only Arsenal was (conveniently) the one any sensible short priced gambler would have got involved with! How fortunate!! I remember seeing many a website claiming vast profits from "pro" tips. Any time their bets were verified with independent third parties, it just so happened that month they made their "first ever" loss.

How much do you make a year as a professional gambler? I believe the number of people in the UK that are professionals (excluding poker players) is exceptionally small.

Correct. Betfair has been a shot in the arm for punters, and made it all the more embarrassing how much of a take the traditional bookies have. I find it very difficult to believe it possible to make a long term career out of punting without having insider knowledge. Certainly the guys who are pro racing punters (like Dave Nevison for instance) will have ins with major stables and jockeys. Your punter from Fife with a laptop and the Racing Post aint going to make a living very easily. ditto for betting on football, unless you only bet for/against a team which you are privy to insider knowledge.

They have a sliding scale of a "cut" based on how much business you do with them. It's roughtly 3-4 % of each winning bet you have I think.

Unless it's Betfair. And it won't.

Back on thread, one thing I would stress is the value in level staking. Every gambler will know how irritating it is to win 4 in a row betting say £20 on 10/11 shots and then blowing £60 on another 10/11 shot which loses. So you have won 4 out of 5 and only have a small profit to show for it.

Yes. If you put on one bet a year, and it's a 1.33 shot, you have a decent chance of saying "I made a profit in 2008 betting", but the more times you take 1.33 shots, you will eventually lose. And you (obviously) need several wins to recoup the lost bank from the one loss.

I agree it is still only a tiny number of people who profit over a long period of time, compared to the number of gamblers. It's too volatile.

Well, you have to give them their "cut", but you are betting to significantly more attractive margins. Plus, unlike conventional bets, you are effectively acting as a market trader, and can "sell" the bet once it reduces and take a profit, even before the event starts.

Then you are wrong. Mid-tons is right though. Betfair has made it possible to make a decent living out of being a trader.

Yup. I'll add to that, don't tell people of winning bets unless you mention what you are taking before the event starts.

Did you see their offices in Barcelona? I don't think you could have found a shadier looking premises if you scoured the city for days.

That can't be the case. All of the government's key medical advisers who become media famous find themselves murdered in forests.

I think that's clearly the implication. Who knows what Gilbert is like to work with. Ultimately it is Murray's career and he can do what he wants. It does expose the folly of the LTA paying for a 3 year contract for a single player's coach when they can just decide to ditch him as and when they want.

"But the time has come to move on to the next stage of my career. "I am ranked 11 in the world and can now afford to pay my own way and so will now hire a team of experts each to fulfil a specified role in the development of my tennis and fitness." Mmmm... His brother decided he was ready to smbrace "the next stage of his career" when he dumped his doubles partner and has hardly won a match since. This is a strange move. It's not like Gilbert is some joker like Petchey - he is a top 3 world coach. Who is he going to get that is better? Agassi didn't exactly struggle for fitness with Gilbert's regime either.

I see Andy Murray has announced he will no longer be working with Brad Gilbert. He is going to be one of these "coach a year" types clearly. I assume now the LTA will tell him he is funding his own coaching from now on. Not good that we have Gilbert on such a lucrative contract now though, good coach though he is. Not really worth paying a 7 figure contract to someone coaching Alex Bogdanovic and Jamie Baker!

Yes, they decided not to do this, after the trust meeting. Has any paper asked them if they feel morally justified in spending other people's money, whilst not earning themselves? I think we should be told.

Yes, if any donor had bothered to read the small print. I said from the beginning you would have to be questioned if you gave to the fund, with the terms by which it could be used. What a nice couple huh. I'm sure the old grannies that gave £5 did so so that Kate and Gerry wouldn't have to work again.

Yes, you would have expected so. Maybe even a tour of the resort showing the picture. I guess it just makes the job of the army of private detectives they are no doubt hiring as we speak with the huge "Find Maddy" fund much more difficult.

Did the blogger tell us why they hadn't released this high quality photofit till now?

Yes, I am sure they don't have any ISAs, shares, or savings accounts to delve into. They really are a pair of cretins. Beyond contempt.

Surely this is a story just made for the unique (well apart from Auntie Phil) twin detective-pathologist skills of Quincy?

That can quite often be misleading. Once it gets to 4-0 or so a player will often tank the rest of the set to save energy. Tennis is a game of momentum. Once it shifts it is hard to get it back.

I went to see Atonement last night. Had never heard of the book, though the preview blurb claimed it was regarded as one of the finest British novels of the last 30 years. Mmmm.. The film was all right. Keira Knightly is tipped to win an Oscar for her performance, which is slightly surprising to me. James McAvoy is however excellent.