I feel that I am fairly knowledgable when it comes to football. I can spot a good player, write about the game and I can certainly talk about it!

I also have a long history with the betting industry, my grandfather was a bookmaker before retiring about ten years ago. As a fifteen year old I used to go to the races with my grandpa and work on the computer, taking bets and changing the odds. I also used to count the cash out of the bag while the race was on. If things were going well at the meeting he’d give me a fiver to put on with another bookmaker and that was my chance to earn a bonus at work.

But I’ve never been hugely comfortable betting on football. I’d much prefer to bet on the slots!

That said I have noticed quite a few friends winning decent money after putting cash on the results of a few games. I always look at these statuses on Facebook with people showing off their winnings or see people with the bookie-bashing hashtags on twitter and think ‘that could be me!‘.

Plus supposedly sports betting is a billion dollar industry, surely I can get a tiny piece of that pie.

Unfortunately I have a past of losing money on football bets, nothing serious but as soon as money becomes involved my luck deserts me.

For instance, I had a deal with a well known UK bookmaker to give my thoughts on games and have the odds on the preview blog posts too. In return for the articles, the online bookies gave me five free £10 bets. I squandered every single bet I laid with those free bets. Maybe I was too lazy or greedy, as I didn’t really view it as my own cash but the one surefire result I put money on didn’t come up either.

My grandfather has always told me ‘only bet on certainties‘. If only he could take his on advice, he still loves putting a bet on. Just this past weekend he won money on Lille beating Guingamp, yet was miserable after he learnt that his other team, that he had money on, Napoli had thrown away a two goal lead against Inter Milan.

Yet lately I’ve been thinking about maybe starting an online betting account somewhere and sticking £10 in it and giving it a proper go.

Ideally I’d then just bet with the (potential) winnings and take back the initial £10 stake.

Can I trust myself not to throw it away on the first game I stick money on? That’s the million dollar question.

Then there is the fact of the bets possibly ruining my enjoyment of just watching football.

See I get too involved.

That’s why I no longer take part in any fantasy football competitions because if my players didn’t score or if they got sent-off, it would often put me in a mood. I can only imagine that putting money into that situation would make me have anxiety attacks or have me in a padded cell by the end of the season.

I think more time is needed before making my final decision.

Posted on March 9th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article