Professional Horse Punter
- As with all professional punters, there are no safety nets, you simply have to win. Less than 1% of punters actually win. There is a common perception that “The bookie always wins.” In 99% of cases that is correct, however you can now join the one percent club and be a winning punter!
- In the elusive search of making a living out of professional gambling (Australian horse racing) follow my daily progress, tips and advice.Feel free to ask me.
If you're a successful punter looking to take your betting to the next level and become a professional, then you are likely already implementing a sound staking plan. To become a true professional bettor you must continue applying a sound staking plan and treating your. Like all successful form punters, O’Sullivan acknowledges that you need an ‘edge’ or area of particular focus. One of his is the concentration on identifying, say, a stakes class horse before everybody else has. O’Sullivan’s approach is ratings driven but not exclusive to that. This website contains horse racing systems and ratings, staking plans and many articles about Australian horse racing of interest to gamblers. Interview With A Professional Punter. Quotes from the interview. The positives (of being a full time punter) are much as they always were - freedom from routine, the feeling of doing something.
Perhaps it was because I’d read some of his ‘stuff’ on the Betfair site and elsewhere on-line or that his voice was familiar having heard him, from time to time, on radio.
It probably stuck because a lot of what he says and writes is sensible and educative and this intelligence is happily shared. I can’t imagine this happened years ago but it may have done. The immediacy of the web and social media makes the exchange of ideas so much more accessible.
There’s a little element of the punting evangelist about him. While all the while focusing on generating his own income from various punting related endeavours he is a positive publicist for the game with a solid media and social media profile.
“I see the twitter stuff and all on-line postings as contributing strongly to maintaining levels of interest in racing and even wooing some newcomers. The race clubs don’t do enough in my view.
“Racing and punting is a data driven game in a data driven era and I think the audience is more inclined to grow these days via on-line interaction than physically attending the races,” O’Sullivan said.
If he has a recurring pitch then it is certainly education – much of which is freely shared on The Hub and some offered at a modest fee via www.betsmart.racing and TRB (The Rating Bureau), the success of which is ably judged by the longevity of the services offered.
Pro Punter Horse Racing
“There is a narrow margin between smart and average punters,’ says O’Sullivan, “so any improvement gained educating yourself can be a significant plus. You’re always picking up stuff in this game and I’d say more than half, perhaps 65%, of the equation in punting successfully is stuff other than the form.
“You can be brilliant at doing the form but that will get you nowhere if you’re a terrible punter.”
The Punting Stars team recently caught up with a close friend and professional punter from Brisbane, QLD about how he handles his business in the wagering industry.
Trav does things a little differently to many other professionals out there choosing to outsource a lot of his handicapping information and follow a lot of other sources of sharp money.
Thanks for sitting down with us mate, let’s get right into it as I know you’re a very busy man!
When did you make the leap and start betting full-time, as a professional?
All good! I got going fully at the start of 2015. So I’ve been at it for a little over three years now. What a ride its been!
What’s your setup like at home – presuming that’s your ‘office’?
Yeah, I’ve got my office set up in a spare bedroom.
I have PC with two screens, a laptop, ipad and TV with Foxtel connected all in front of me.
All of the fundamentals! How many times have you questioned whether or not you were doing the right thing?
Definitely a few times during bad losing runs.
However, I have a strong belief that what I do will be profitable over the long term which I think is a very important mindset to have in this game.
Talk us through how many services you follow and the types of sports and racing jurisdictions that you are betting on…
I’m currently subscribed to seven horse racing tipping/mail services. It may seem a lot but most of them specialize per state so there isn’t much overlap and the ones I have now are a pretty good fit for me (I used to have a few more!).
Basically, I bet horse racing all around the country and in New Zealand too.
I also bet on a number of sports including NBA, NBL (thanks to you guys at Punting Stars!), NFL, AFL, NRL, Cricket and Golf.
You could say all of this keeps me pretty busy!
What process do you go through when deciding to follow a tipster?
Most of my current tipsters I’ve been following for a long time, even before taking up a full-time gig. The more recent ones that I’ve added have been recommended to me.
I think it goes without saying that you should always review a tipster’s results before jumping on board.
I also like to look at the consistency of the tipster profits and look for drawdown periods to see what to expect.
Then there is nothing like following a tipster with small stakes for a month or even longer just to get to know what the service is like and whether it will work for you.
Do you overlay any of your own filters to the raw tipster plays?
Yes absolutely. I’ve found that a lot of tipsters have areas where they continually lose or even are just breakeven at.
If you follow someone long enough and track the results you get to learn where their biggest edges lie and can then focus on the most profitable bets.
What’s the best lesson you’ve learned along the way thus far?
Always have a plan.
What I mean by that is decide who you are going to follow or what horses you are going to back for that day and stick to it.
I’ve found that whenever I don’t have a precise plan in place, I may end up betting some things that I normally would not.
Also – there is no last race, its just one big race day.
If you’re having a bad day on the punt, trying to “get out” in the last race isn’t the best idea.
What’s your favourite thing to bet on and what has been your most successful area?
I really enjoy the challenge of trying to make money on horse racing and so far that has also been my most profitable area to bet on.
How in-depth do you go in recording your results and vetting your tipsters?
Very in-depth. I track all kinds of data for each tipster.
This allows me to remain confident that each tipster or service will be profitable long-term and also allows me to make decisions to hopefully eliminate some losing areas like I talked about before.
Talk us through briefly a usual Saturday for you…
I’m usually on the computer by 7:30 am armed with a coffee. I live in QLD so at 8 am I need to be ready for any mail that drops after the minimum bet laws start.
I have Dynamic Odds open on one screen and then I’ve got my spreadsheet and browser on the other screen which I log into all my bookies (I never bet directly though Dynamic).
Emails on another screen and my phone for any services with app/text notifications.
Usually between 8 am and 9 am ill get a bunch of mail come through – some bets ill take straight away if the market is already moving on that runner and others I’ll monitor using Dynamic Odds.
Professional Horse Punter For Sale
As we know its massively important to get the best possible odds you can. I prefer to leave betting as late as I can if possible and have a look at the parade/track conditions but that isn’t always possible.
Mid-morning is usually a bit of a lull, I might have a race or two in New Zealand but otherwise, I’ll spend this time looking at any sports bets I have that day.
I also write down all my racing bets in a notepad so I can keep a track of where I’m at during the day, write notes on how each horse ran to put in my spreadsheet later and also make sure I don’t miss any races.
I find writing everything down is pretty helpful when following multiple services and betting all over the country.
By around 11:30 am the Aussie race meets are underway and then its pretty full on for the rest of the day… getting bets on, watching races and hopefully counting a few winners!
Like I said its all about setting myself up to get the best possible odds on each runner and also keeping an eye on betting moves, track conditions etc to make the best trading decisions throughout the day.
Once the racing is winding up, ill update my spreadsheet which takes some time so Saturdays, look at any night sports and possibly have a look at any early mail for Sunday racing. It never ends!
Who do you believe to be the fairest bookies in Australia and who do you bet with the most?
I find UBET to be pretty fair in terms of odds, markets and letting me on for a bet.
Topsport as well, they have always been easy to deal with – they’ll take a decent bet too.
I probably do about half my betting on the Betfair Exchange and the other half through the corporate bookies.
When it comes to corporates the books ill use whoever has the best odds if they’ll let me on but will always try and use UBET, TAB or Crown where possible as they have rewards points programs.
What’s your most memorable win or series of wins since you started betting full-time as a professional punter?
There have been a few $100 plus winners – they are always very memorable.
The biggest win was when I had $250 at 80-1 on a horse called Nayeli in the last at Randwick back in March 2015 for a 20K plus collect – was having a shocking day up until that point too!
and of course…. biggest loss or downswing?
Well I’ve been through tw0 big downswings over the 3 years and the first occurred right at the very start. What an introduction to full time punting.
Would you believe that in the first couple of months I lost around 50% of my betting bank!
I was definitely questioning whether i was doing the right thing right about then. Luckily i stuck to my processes and made it all back very quickly.
The next big downswing occurred during the early/middle part of 2017 where again I lost around 50% of my betting bank.
Once again I was able to recover those losses and importantly this latest downswing forced me into a full review of my previous 2.5 years of betting.
This review made apparent a number of losing areas that I have since cut from my betting along with other findings that I believe have made me a much more consistent and profitable punter.
What about the current wagering landscape in Australia would you change and why?
Obviously, it would be nice if bookies actually had to take the bets/odds that they advertise.
I believe that there should be minimum bet laws for all markets that bookies list and that they shouldn’t be able to just pick and choose who they take bets from.
What are you looking forward to most about 2018? Do you have any punting goals?
As I touched on above, I’ve spent a lot of time during the last six months or so working on getting more consistency to my results. I know its impossible to avoid downswings or bad variance but I believe that I can manage my betting better so to avoid the really bad downswings like I’ve experienced a couple of times.
I’m really happy with the current tipsters and strategies I’m following and after seeing some pretty good results during the back part of 2017, I’m hoping for a great 2018.
Thanks for your time mate, much appreciated!
No worries at all, look forward to following your NBL, AFL and Golf plays in 2018!
Feel free to follow Trav on Twitter: @TravisCarberry and also let Punting Stars know any questions you’d like us to ask Trav in Part 2 of the series coming soon!