15th February 2016

Hi ,

Something that most people don’t do, in regards to their betting, is to classify what type of bettor they are and what type of bettor they want to become. Doing this will enable you to not only make more profits, but to also enjoy the sport of horse racing a lot more.

We can group bettors in to main categories:

1. Full Time Bettors
2. Part Time Bettors
3. Weekend Bettors
4. Casual Bettors

Whether you['re new to betting or a seasoned professional, you'll fall into one of these categories.There's no right or wrong category to be in, but there are different strategies for different categories as the goals are different.

For bettor types 1 and 2 you’re looking to make a serious profit from your betting. You’re taking it seriously enough to be betting every day or most days and the primary goal is likely to be long-term profits. This means you need to focus on a single set of race conditions and become an expert in to them before looking at more races.

Doing this has the added benefit of spreading out your bets so they’re part time to begin with and, as you get more skilled, you can look at new race conditions so your time commitment increases side-by-side with the profit generated.

If this is you then I'd suggest you always want to start by learning how to read form. Whether you move on to use ratings or some other style of analysis later, reading form will be a solid grounding that you can always fall back on.

Bettors who fall into the next category, number 3, are usually searching for both profit and entertainment. They’re betting regularly enough that they want to show a profit, but entertainment is also playing a part in the bets.

These bettors will usually get more enjoyment by focusing on having a high strike rate first and finding the profit second. This produces a lower ROI than would be achieved by bettors in categories 1 and 2, but it’s an easier learning curve and because of the higher percentage of winners it can be psychologically easier.

Focusing on finding the strongest horses in a race and dutching them can be a very strong method for these bettors to follow in their early stages.

The final betting category, number 4, is primarily for punters who are out for entertainment rather than long term profits. This means that they’re always going to be looking in the short-term and a basic “anti-form” reading approach can be applied.

By this I mean rather than look for the horse with a strong chance of winning where the odds are in our favour to produce long-term returns, you simply look for the horses most likely to win the race.

As long as we’re breaking even then this free betting for enjoyment. Generally most punters in this category don’t keep any records and simply want to get as many winners going across the line as possible, even though this may not generate much (or any) profit.

These are, of course, just the main categories and it’s certainly possible for there to be overlaps between them.

Think about which one you are and then see if the strategy you are using is based on what your ultimate goal is.

Be honest with yourself, it doesn’t matter if your ultimate goal is enjoyment and not profit. If you acknowledge this then you will enjoy the sport much more.

Back next Monday.

Michael Wilding