The Sports Trader: Saturday 30th December 2006

It has been a slow but profitable day for the Sports Trader. Either my reactions are getting slower, or other people using the Betdaq website are getting faster, as I can not get matched as often at present. Liquidity is down on all exchanges also, which is not surprising at holiday time.

My racing day started with five races where I netted, in total, just £2. So my first reasonable trade was in the 14:05 at Haydock where I laid Good Citizen for £13 @ 5.50 as he made a mistake at the 9th fence. I then backed Sharp Beline for £250 @ 1.10 just as he cleared the final fence and looking good to finish in front, to give me a £38 profit.

Next for me was the 14:15 at Lingfield and here I laid Don Pele for £10 @ 2.50 in the final furlong to net me a further £10 profit, but only after making me sweat for a hundred yards. I then traded the 14:20 at Ascot badly and somehow managed to back Four Schools for £2 @ 2.00 and Witness Run for £10 @ 1.20 to see both lose and cost me £12. In the 14:40 at Haydock I also got it wrong by backing Sunisa for £15 @ 2.00 and £3 @ 1.28, although I did back the eventual winner, The Kop End, for £100 @ 1.01 just before the line, so in total I lost £17.

In the 14:55 at Musselburgh I backed Snowy for £2 @ 2.00 with around four furlongs left and again for £60 @ 1.30 in the final furlong to give me a profit of £20 on the race. I then had two very small trades which lost me £3 before my final trade in the 17:20 @ Wolverhampton where I laid Leonard Charles for £100 @ 5.30 at half distance and backed him for £40 @ 5.30 about a furlong later to net me my best racing result for the day with a £60 profit. My racing day had finished with a profit of £98.

I intended trading the Sheffield United v Arsenal game but missed the start as I had to go and pick the twins up. When I got back the game was into the second half and the score was 1- 0. I had a very small in and out trade on the under 2.5 goals to give me a £1 profit before getting the twins ready for bed. With six minutes left and no trading possible on the under 2.5 goal market I had a look at the correct score betting. I started here with a instant back on the 1 - 0 score for £40 @ 1.80 and a lay on the under 1.5 goal market for £40 @ 1.66. I then backed the 1 - 0 score for £127 @ 1.49 and laid back @ 1.23. Well into the five minutes of injury time I backed the 1 - 0 score for £125 @ 1.16 and laid back @ 1.06. So my few minutes of trading netted me a decent profit of £53. To give me an overall profit of £151 for the day.

I have been watching the two PDC World Darts semi-finals but have not traded them. It's good to see the dream final come to fruition and fully expect Phil ' The Power' Taylor to win his 14th World Championship.