November totals

So the first month of the experiment comes to an end. Not a full month, but I will go for calendar months for the purposes of recording results rather than going from mid-month to mid-month.

A winning month, which is the main thing. Not a huge profit, just under nine hundred quid, but a couple of services have shown promise and hopefully the others will pick up as the national hunt and all-weather seasons get into full swing.

A word about profit targets: my aim is to make a minimum of £20,000 over the first 12 months of this experiment. I hear the average London salary is 25 grand, so given that there is no tax on gambling winnings (unless you include Betfair's premium charges!), that would be the equivalent of a London salary. I have already largely covered the costs of the subscriptions, but I guess if we're being honest those should be included in the totals as well.

There are currently nine services in the experiment, so that would be just over two grand profit each on average, which I dont think is overly ambitious. I am looking to add one more service to make it a nice round 10, which would then also mean an average of exactly two grand profit from each service.

There is also my own betting, which centres largely around golf but includes some football trading and occasional tennis bets. I would expect to make at least 10 grand from my own bets, which if the tipsters hit the target set for them, would make up a tidy total.

Anyway, I have no control really over how much the services will make, so having targets is a bit of an abstraction but I feel it is always helpful to have an idea of what you would like to happen when you start something like this.

Looking further into the future, if these services continue to be successful as they have been in the past, there is considerable scope for building banks and increasing stakes. The issue then becomes getting your bets on, which is already a little bit of a concern. However, rather like the football manager who has a full squad to choose from, that will be a nice problem should it arise.

Below are the totals overall and for each service for November:

TOTAL FOR NOVEMBER 2009: £895.50

Tipping Legends: £795.50
Horse Betting Index: -£40
Steve Lewis Hamilton: -£288
Pricewise Extra: -£337
Football Elite: £495
Keith Elliott: £470
Birdie Golf: -£40
Dave Tindall: -160