Taking the right bets may not always mean winning them, the question you have to ask is whether, given the chance, you would make the same ones again? I had to grapple with this in reflecting on my past weekend.
Generally, my answer is yes.
Let’s start with Sunday evening. I posted a tip to my Facebook page on the Liverpool v Spurs game. Liverpool’s away form going into the game read as a 13.333% success rate, yet Spurs were deemed underdogs by the bookies at 23/10, despite their fantastic home form this year. My feeling was the brand value of Liverpool was the cause for the disparity in odds, and when such a disparity exists, you take the bet.
Liverpool were fantastic in the first half, Mo Salah looked like the man of old, and Spurs’ lack of attacking options hurt them big time. The bet lost, it happens. I still feel it was the right call to have made given Liverpool’s terrible away form and all-round inconsistency this year, but on reflection I was perhaps not considerate enough of what Spurs’ lack of attacking prowess would mean for the final result.
That was the only Premier League bet that I tipped, but from a predictions perspective I called 6/10 matches and Ollie 5/10 in our preview show last week. Given the unpredictability of the competition, anything from 50% upwards is a solid showing.
It was the first weekend in a long time that I haven’t come away with great betting success, and it was crushing to watch the Boks go down to Ireland in such a shambolic manner. Again, I thought the odds were heavily skewed, with the Boks underdogs at 2.60. Ireland may be number one in the world, but they should never have been that heavily favoured. Had the Springboks pitched up, and considered actually fielding a Test kicker, that result could have been very different. They were nowhere on the day and they added to my woes of the All Blacks walloping Wales.
My saving grace for the weekend actually came in the NHL, where I put a simple straight-win bet on a strong Colorado Avalanche to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Avalanche came through for me in style!
A weekend to move past quickly, given some really disappointing results in terms of the teams I support, and frustrating results given the thinking that went into the bets I made.
Nevertheless, another week and weekend of full-on sport ahead! Keep your eyes on my facebook page for my tips throughout.
MoneyMan
