Les Parkin

Can you tell me about your background in Horse Racing and using the Betting Exchanges?

I first became interested in racing about 15 years ago when I obtained a part-time job working for the William Hill chain of bookmakers. My father had seen an advert in their local shop advertising for staff and I thought it would be a good way to earn some extra cash during the summer. Although I wasn’t too concerned about the racing itself, I was fascinated by the dynamics of the betting market and how this affected the actions of punters. At the time I was studying a degree in Software Engineering and I soon got to work on developing my own betting systems.

Having worked for William Hill and seen countless punters lose their money I was never a huge fan of backing horses myself. It was the introduction of Betting Exchanges that really caught my attention, especially since they provided me the opportunity to once again become the bookie! Like so many others I thought the ability to lay bets was a licence to print money, and I soon realised the hard way that this is most definitely not the case!

Would you describe yourself as a Betting Exchange Trader or a Punter?

The vast majority of my Betting Exchange activity has been as a punter laying bets. I’ve also traded on the odd occasion but I find it a bit too intense for my circumstances. At the moment I hold down a full time job and I find that placing select lay bets fits in nicely with my lifestyle. I can get my bets on during lunchtime and check the results later without it affecting my work. Anyone who wishes to trade successfully needs to devote large amounts of time and concentration to their efforts, or else stick to trading part-time in the evenings or during the weekend.

Over the time you have been betting, would you say you have won more that you lost?

In the early days I was well and truly stuck in a cycle of winning a few bets and then wiping out all of the profits with one losing bet. The breakthrough really came about when I developed a proper understanding of value and a robust laying system to go with it. So long as the winnings from the winning bets outweigh the losses from the losing bets then I’m not too concerned about the actual number of winner’s v losers that I incur. Being a layer primarily, the number of winning bets does in fact outweigh the number of losing bets.

Do you use any Betting Bots and which ones would you advise using?

I’ve toyed with Bet Angel and Fairbot in the past, but because they don’t really offer me any significant advantages to my style of betting I tend to just stick with the Betfair website. Having said that, I would certainly recommend both of the above packages to anyone who wishes to trade or bet in-running. Attempting either of these activities without a dedicated bit of software is very dangerous in my opinion.

What is the most costly lesson you have ever made when either betting or trading?

Attempting to mend a “broken” system by applying a staking plan of some sort (e.g. carrying a loss onto the next bet). If a system doesn’t work with level stakes then forget it – it’s only a matter of time before it will blow up in your face!

What would you say to anyone who is just starting to bet or trade?

Try to see the big picture of what you are trying to achieve. Don’t become over confident following a string of wins, and similarly don’t panic following a single loss. Winning AND losing bets are all part of the process of winning in the long run. Also try and find out as much as possible on the subject, and learn from other peoples past experience.

Have you followed any Horse Racing Tipsters in the past and what did you think of them?

I have used newspaper tipsters on several occasions – but certainly not for their insight! A horse that is heavily tipped in the press is likely to attract a lot of money from backers, and vice versa. People like to have decisions made for them, and if lots of tipsters are all pointing at the same selection then it adds weight to their decision to follow the tip. Lots of punters sharing this same mindset will cause the odds to shorten, which in turn attracts more backers pushing the price down further. Tipster selections can therefore be especially useful for determining the likely direction of the betting market for a particular horse, which traders and backers/layers can all benefit from.

Do you have any further information or help you could give someone who has been betting or trading for a while or is just starting out?

It is vitally important to adopt a betting style that suits your personality and circumstances. If someone cannot tolerate a string of losing bets then they are unlikely to succeed as a backer, as they will likely quit after just a few losing bets. Similarly a person who has limited time and a very small betting bank is unlikely to make trading a worthwhile vocation.
My final piece of advice would be to ask as many questions as possible before buying someone else’s system. Unfortunately there are probably 100 bad systems for every good one (at least!) so it is well worth spending a little time investigating the suitability of anything for sale.

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