Welcome

I've noticed an increase in hits this week, so welcome to any old Reigatians who have popped in for a look around after my article the other week.

I imagine to a non-gambler a lot of what is here appears to be in a foreign language. Indeed, someone e-mailed me to ask me what they should be doing if they wanted to follow the recommendations.

I'd say there's three approaches normally adopted.

1) The fun approach. Some people drop in on the bigger days. The Grand National, Derby, FA Cup final and such like. Just to see what I'm backing as an aid for their annual flutter.

2) The "intuitive" approach. Plenty of people use this as another source of information. They wander the internet collecting as many opinions as possible and take or leave what I offer. Some close friends like to back what they consider to be my strongest bets. They seem to decide on this in a rather haphazard way but some of them do extraordinarily well at picking the winners and avoiding the losers!

3) The methodical approach. It is certainly possible and profitable to follow the selections blind. Somebody asked me how much they should be staking per "point". That is of course entirely up to them, their savings and attitude to risk. I suggested to one friend who wanted to have a daily flutter that she set aside a modest £500 and bet £1 per point. That's actually a slightly more aggressive stance than I take (taking stake as a proportion of the fund). It's also pretty much where I started from 10 years ago - small acorns and all that.

To profit you need to take at least the price recommended. I can't stress this enough. The picks in themselves at any price WILL NOT make you a profit. The margins in this game are tight and you need to be getting as close to the best price available as possible. For a small-time player this can be difficult. I have access to well over 30 betting accounts all over the place to get best prices. Probably the best solution is to sign up to www.betfair.com Unfortunately the place is very confusing and not a little daunting for the novice punter. Instead try www.oddschecker.com as a site to direct you to best prices. Or just open a Ladbrokes account but only bet if you can get at least the price I recommend. This will reduce the bets you make.

I nearly always post in the mornings, so lunch-time is probably the best time to drop in.

From now on, to help any novices I will add two things to my recommendations. Firstly I will indicate where I think this is a really good bet for the fun bettor, or where I think it offers exceptional value. And secondly, I will suggest a minimum price for those unable to shop around.

Any questions, leave a comment. Or if too embarrassed to do that, drop me a line.

Finally, remember that I have some terrible losing runs!