spreadeck

Thanks for taking the time to find out a bit more about myself and the other brand new authors on LTO.

My background professionally is in IT, working in this environment for 20 years, initially in the Civil Service, then with IBM. I took the opportunity to leave around 4 years ago to concentrate at that time on a property business I had been running alongside my day job for a year or so. A very long and tough year that was!

I still maintain my property business, but this now accounts for less than half of my working week. The rest is spent working on my trading and gambling strategies, as well as writing articles and blogs on the subject, and assisting people where I can.

Having spent 20 years enjoying the camaraderie with my IT colleagues, but finding the work dull as dishwater, now I have hardly any face to face interaction most days, but the work is stimulating and exciting like I've never really experienced before. Even the wife has taken up a part-time job to get away from my exhilarated moods!

My area of expertise on LTO is spread betting, and I am building and maintaining a statistical database mostly relating to football at the moment, but hopefully broadening to encompass other sports soon. I think that access to this information while gambling is vital, assuming you intent to make money from your trades. Investing rather than gambling, as one of my fellow writers referred to - both very different in terms of approach.

As well as my interest in spread betting, I also actively lay bet, generally on Horse Racing and Football. I have been working on strategies in this area also for around a year, following a very gentle loss recovery system which works well.

My main sporting passion is football, but I have a healthy interest in horse racing, tennis, golf, cricket, snooker, which I play at league level, and pretty much any sport involving a pulse! There is nothing quite like the drama and excitement of a sporting event, and combining this with betting and trading is a heady concoction.

Don't be fooled by the photo taken at Nottingham Forest. I have no allegiance to them at all, but I am trying to visit as many grounds as I can across Europe with a view to writing a book on the subject. Time will tell if that ever happens, but I'd like to one day. I follow one of the Glasgow giants, but I won't say which one at the risk of alienating half of our Scottish readership!