Tuesday 13th March 2007

As expected there was no reply from ATR regarding their xtra service. Some people have suggested that I was being unfair by directing the question to Matt Chapman. Apparently Matt has sent an email to others stating that he agrees with his viewers but has to toe the ATR line on this and say nothing. So they do have something to hide. This was not a personal attack on Matt, in fact I quite like his style of presenting and he is knowledgeable on matters concerning horse racing, but he is the face of ATR and therefore I felt justified in directing a straight forward question towards him. If I have caused any offence Matt I apologise.

There has been a lot of discussion on various forums about the ATRxtra subject and hopefully this will continue until we get the answers we all need. For the life of me I can not see why ATR, SKY, RUK and SIS can not sit down in a room and thrash out a deal where by jointly they can offer a live fast picture service covering all the UK tracks via subscription to any body that wishes it. There are very few individuals that would commit to a 3 year deal for the SIS service covering half of the UK tracks but a lot would subscribe to a service covering all tracks for a fee of say around £30 - £50 / month. Remember by doing this there would be no need for the extra equipment that you need for SIS which makes up a big proportion of the costs associated with the SIS contract.

Well The Sports Trader has had a disappointing day considering the quality of racing on offer. I often find that on days where I expect to make a decent profit I fall short and on days when I am not too confident something turns up to make for a good day. I ended up trading in just 6 races and 1 football match, but had no losing trades.

My day started with the 13:40 at Sedgefield where I laid Surricate for £43 @ 3.20 and backed back £31 @4.30 to leave me with a profit of £8. I followed this up with 3 small winning trades.

In the 16:15 at Sedgefield I laid Reasonably Sure for £21 @ 3.00 to result in a £21 profit. My last race trade was in the 16:40 at Cheltenham where I backed Heads On The Ground for £50 @ 1.20 to give me a £10 profit.

My race trading had finished for the day with a profit of £41. It was good to see that Betdaq had a record breaking day with amounts matched in the Cheltenham races ranging form £1.86m for the quietest race up to £6.20M in the 2:00 Supreme Novices Hurdle race.

In the Sunderland v Stoke football match I had one trade at the end of the match on the correct score line of 2 - 2 by backing for £71 @ 1.20 which gave me a profit of £7.

My day had finished with a profit of just £48.

Just a quick note also on The Purple Layers blog, Gavin has had a technical problem with his site that means it will be down for a few days. I hope he gets the problem resolved and gets back on track soon.

Paul at Punting for Profits has put a lot of effort into analysing the Cheltenham races this week. He started with a 10 point win for today's card and is expecting to make a lot more in the next few days.

You will also find a twice daily podcast on the Betdaq Exchange Views Blog where Russ will report directly form Cheltenham on all the latest news views and latest prices.

Comments

[Paul]

thanks for the mention ray. Yes i had a good day today so hopefully can keep it up tomorrow.

cheers
Paul

[Ray]

Hi Paul,
No problem, I hope you continue with the good results. Good Luck.
Ray

[Gareth]

Hi Ray

A profit is a profit, nothing to be disappointed with. I hope they manage to sort something out with regards to ATRxtra, seems and odd silence though.

[Ray]

Hi Gareth,

Yes a profit is always welcome. I really don't think we will see the xtra service back but fully expect a subsciption service before too long.

I see you had a good result again. Good Luck.

Ray

[Gareth]

No, quite the opposite! Having a bit of a review of the day and trying to spot errors just now. There was plenty of them there today so I could be some time ;)

Gareth

[kevin lydon]

ray
do u play asian hcaps on daq
liquidity is good and although i ve not read all ur posts ..dont think uve mentioned them
i feel they are a excellant bet but
people neglect them because of the in running phenom

[Paul]

Hi Ray,

I had a similarly frustrating day as well. I found the pre-event markets surprisingly volatile, although I think I was too excited and jumping in before I should have. The connection on betfair was fine though so hopefully I will learn from Tuesday and move onwards and upwards today. Gee Gees +£102, Footie +£43.

take care

Paul (in Luxembourg)

[Nick]

Hi Ray,

I thinks it's about time that you point out that Betdaq report their matched figures differently to Betfair. The figures may look impressive but they are still way behind Betfair.

[Ray]

Hi Kevin,

I have never used the asian handicaps, although I know that the liquidity is good as Betdaq have marketed this type of bet heavily in the Far East where this is the most popular type of bet. The reason I don't use them is simply because I like to trade live matches and the asian's are not great to trade.
Ray

[Ray]

Hi Paul,

Your results are still good but lets hope for better luck today.
Ray

[Ray]

Hi Nick,
I will try to clear this one up later today, there is no disputing that Betdaq broke their amount matched / race which is good to see. Any increase in turnover is good for all of us.
Ray

[Bod]

Yes it would be nice to get a handle on the real amount matched. We know BF double their figures (so can be worked out) and Betdaq use the liability - so its very hard to get a handle on their numbers.

[humble]

Hi Ray i had a similar day yesterday,i was £34 up and didnt get that involved and was supposed to be somehere but decided to trade on more race lol.yes i lost my profit and ended £14 down.A good lesson learnt "discipline discipline discipline".I Realised that if you say SHOULD I get involved or "go do what i am supposed to be doing"then the answer is dont get involved and take the money.Greed caught me out today and i learnt from it.Oh well another lesson learned and £14 well spent for the lesson.

[Ray]

Hi Humble,

Let's hope for a better day today, good luck.
Rar

[Brian]

Good evenin Ray

Been playin on the Daq today and liquidity was good and with 0% comm have had a bargain. How long do you reckon it will last though?

Just a quick gee up to keep on Russ's case about ATR. Theres so much comment on the net but nothing from people who may know something. personally I reckon it would be a right cheek if punters had to pay ATR a sub for the benefit of betting with exchanges. At the fig you reckon that is £600 a year.

And there would still be the point that the Racetech Cowboys and those on-course would still be way ahead of us.

GL on Thu

Bri

[Ray]

Hi Bri,

Good to see you have been taking advantage og the 0% commission. I have no idea how long this offer will last but I will be pushing for it to last as long as possible. Liquidity is excellent again.
I will keep up the pressure in anyway I can on getting the ATRxtra truth.
If a subscription service did become available I would invisage the normal service still to be free and only those that trade in-running would want to pay for the faster service.
I am not sure how much trading the Racetech lads do, but if it is significant then I think they should be covered by the same rules that prevent jockeys and trainers laying in the markets. It is akin to insider trading. Good Luck.
Ray