I'm not a moaner by nature....

...but I'm going to moan about a couple of things tonight!

Firstly can someone please tell me if I'm imagining it or are Betfair taking longer than ever to unsuspend a market? I don't think this is a figment of my imagination, and it really is getting beyond  a joke. I'm still not 100% sold on the reasons for suspending a market on a goal or a red card to be honest. The 8 second delay is there to protect people from others whose information is quicker means they can have an unfair advantage. I acknowledge that  the various livescore websites sometimes make mistakes, but surely it's a trader's own responsibility, to a large degree anyway, to ensure the accuracy of his information before placing a trade. There is nothing more frustrating than sitting looking at those large red letters on my Geeks or Evo and not being able to enhance or rescue a position. Especially when another goal is scored whilst this is going on, and, of course, the law of sod invariably makes this a goal that you needed AFTER having adjusted your position and not BEFORE!

Whilst I'm in whingeing mode, why also do they feel the need to suspend a market when someone stubs his big toe in the general direction of a goal, or takes an acrobatic tumble after a perfectly fair tackle? Let's hope the new LadDaq experiment prompts a review of what has to be amongst the worse customer experience most people are likely to suffer at the hands of a multi-national corporation. Whilst they're about it perhaps they can remove Lee Dixon's gurneying fizzog from the front page of the new and exciting 'betting experience' web page.

I'm on a roll now.

Said 'betting experience' web page is NOT what I want to see - I want the old in-play coupon displayed, on one page. That's it. So every f'g night when I log on I click on 'Revert to Old'. And every f'g night it asks me 'Are you sure ..... you want to revert to old?'. Yes, thank you. Very sure.

That's dealt with the major gripes I have with our trading provider.

My second main moan concerns Chelsea fans more than the majority of traders I would guess. The mighty Blues are becoming a joke. It's almost as certain a profit to lay them at a 2 goal lead than it is to lay Liverpool in any circumstance. This can't go on. Will someone please arrange a cab for Rafa?

Correct Score Gaps

Jack commented on the little Correct Score trade I highlighted in my last post. By way of illustration look at the screenshot taken from a Chilean Cup Game tonight. The shot was taken about 10 minutes (only because I didn't think of doing it before then!) and clearly shows the quite sizeable discrepancy between the current  (0-0) score and 1-0 , 2-0 and 3-0.

I chose not to do the trade this time, having laid 0-0 and Any Unquoted, primarily because, as Sultan sarcastically alluded to the other day, South American football is a tad .... unpredictable! Had I got involved I reckon I could have got matched at about 8.2 ish on 1-0 looking at the gaps in the market.

As it transpired it would have been a sensible move to have got involved as Uni Chile scored at 23 minutes and after the market had settled it looked like this...

As you can see a fairly safe, easy, profit had been there for the taking.

What an FA Cup day!

There was a steady stream of people on Five Live's phone in session this evening bemoaning the decision of Mr Rodgers to field a 'weakened' team against Oldham. Spurs fans were accusing AVB of similar things. What these people miss, or forget, in my opinion, is that the FA Cup still has a massive attraction to the lowlier clubs. It's their opportunity to match up against the big boys, give the fans a day (or more, if successful) to remember and to benefit from some much needed TV revenue. The magic of the FA Cup is still alive and kicking.

The teams fielded by all of Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs should really have been able to see off their respective opposition. Two of the three can now concentrate on the league, and Liverpool in particular have enhanced their reputation as the cash cow of the current season for us traders who oppose them. The fact that they couldn't is the great thing about the cup.

Matches that go against expectation throw up all sorts of problems and opportunities for traders, which made for a challenging, enjoyable and profitable day overall for yours truly.

One trade I was able to do several times today involves taking advantage of market reaction to events. With the score at 1-1 between Barcelona and Osasuna the price on offer to lay 2-1 was 7.2 whilst the current, 1-1 score, was north of twenty. By laying 2-1 I was quickly able to take a profit when Barca scored again in short order sending the odds out to about 20. Now I know it could be argued that with only about half an hour gone that my lay was fairly safe, taking the profit enabled me firstly to avoid any risk, and secondly freed that part of my bank to be used again immediately for other trades. These situations occur frequently and are well worth looking out for.