Football, football, football. I just can't get enough of it, despite the imbalance of power being exacerbated by the millions (or should that be billions?) of foreign owners in the Premier League.
As with many punters, I'm all about the value proposition, knowing that backing this every time will result in a steady ongoing profit.
I've worked within the betting industry for eight years, working as a football journalist before that. I'm all about highlighting some great football bets over the coming months, resulting in a decent profit for people following my tips.
I have worked in the racing industry in some capacity for almost twenty-five years now, starting off with William Hill bookmakers at the age of sixteen and working my way up to Supervisor of a team of twenty for Satellite Information Services. I now work freelance for the Press Association, writing and tipping Greyhounds for the Racing Post.
My main passions are National Hunt Racing, Greyhounds and obviously Football, although I also have a very keen in interest in Boxing and Golf. The Cheltenham Festival is the best week of the year for me with plenty of ante-post bets and lots of studying in the lead up to the greatest show on earth. My biggest success came via the Henrietta Knight trained Best Mate with vouchers of 33/1 littering the house prior to his first of three victories.
My attempts at being a successful Greyhound owner have proved less fruitful with countless hard-luck stories and most of my spare cash frittered away on dogs that my parents little terrior could have given a run for their money. Thankfully for readers of the Racing Post I am a pretty good judge when the race doesn’t involve one of mine competing in it.
As far as Football goes I am a Manchester United fan living in Kent (long story), but not a glory hunter and my interest in Boxing stems from an Amateur career of over twenty fights, hence any crazy decisions I make the wife blames on too many bangs to the head as a youngster.
To end on a more serious note though, betting for me is about two things, enjoyment and winning. So plenty of spare time is put into coming up with angles of attack to beat the bookmakers.
My interest in racing transcended beyond a passion six years ago when I was lucky enough to break into the world of journalism. For the past five and a half years I have worked on the Daily Mail racing desk and, since the beginning of 2008, have regularly contributed spotlight-style pre-race analysis for the weekly Racing+ newspaper.
I have also worked for Racing & Football Outlook, the Racing Post, the Sportsman and have edited a sports betting website, producing extensive racing previews and consistently delivering profitable advice. I have found Value Checker to be an invaluable tool; the site is an outstanding resource whether you enjoy the occasional flutter or are a seasoned punter.
Betting is all about getting the best value for your money and Value Checker enables you to do that readily with its excellent odds comparison facility. My objective is to help point you in the direction of value bets, drawing upon a combination of my observations, emerging trends and an insightful assessment of how races are likely to unfold.
Having been employed by a major high street bookmaker i have been both poacher and gamekeeper. Over the years i have learnt their ways of working and now use that knowledge to successfully win money from them.
The wealth of markets now on offer means that the bookmakers have to be experts on every sport and event they price up. I look for anomalies in these markets and the total percentage and make up of the book. By studying and following the long term market i get an insight into their opinion of an event.
I often bet on speciality or novelty events that the bookmakers are not fully up to speed with, i then step in early to take advantage of prices that i know will shorten. I look at cause and effect on prices, there is always a reason why particular odds have been offered.
A level stake profit over the year is always my goal.