Napoleon's Betting Record

[Napoleon Solo]

I've decided to make a proper go of betting at a level that could possibly see me move into a semi-professional level sometime in the near future, depending on how this goes. One of the reasons for doing this is that the interest rates are shocking at the moment and I believe I could make more money through betting than I'm getting leaving my money in a bank/savings account/ISA. Seeing as the best savings rate at the moment is 3.05% this hopefully shouldn't prove too much of a challenge over the coming financial year.

I've been wanting to do this for a good few years, but I've never had the capital to but behind this kind of venture. However, I now have a decent level of capital with which I can attempt this. Even with a decent strike rate, it's not going to make me enough to support myself as a professional, or even semi-pro, gambler at the moment, but depending on my circumstances I may be able to move into this in the next couple of years.

I will try and post all my bets in this thread before the event, but there may be times when I'm away from my PC so may not be able to. If this is the case, I will still post my bets when I get a chance, whether they win or lose, to show a true reflection of my betting.

I'm currently waiting for my starting balance to clear through Neteller and will begin as soon as this has cleared. For no particular reason, other than it's a nice round number, my starting bank will be 100 points. This in no way reflects the actual size of the funds available to myself. It could be equal to £10, £100,000 or anywhere in between.

I'll mainly be betting on football, though may move into other sports/events should I see any decent opportunities. All bets will either be 1% or 2% of the bank at the time of the bet being placed, which will include the stakes of any open bets.

Starting bank: 100 points

[ONEDUNME]

Everything crossed for you mate.

Very best of luck

[HastGill1]

Yep, good luck..last season I thought I might be able to go semi pro at some point! This season....not so much, be pleased to get it out the way.

[Napoleon Solo]

21/04/11 00:00 Argentina v Ecuador - International Friendly

Bit of a speculative bet to start with but one which I feel holds a great deal of value.

Both these teams are using this international friendly as part of their preperations for the upcoming Copa America. As this is taking place on a non-sanctioned FIFA date for international matches, both teams are made up of locally based players.

As you'd expect from the Argentinian squad, despite Diego Maradona trying to use every Argentinian qualified footballer before the last World Cup, it's short of international experience. There's no player over the age of 26, or with more than 10 caps to their name, Goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo filling both those particular quotas. The other 19 players in the squad share of total of 24 caps between them. Though they've undoubtedly got a great deal of experience with their clubs, very few of them have played together at International or youth level. Argentina's last match was a dour 0-0 draw with Costa Rica in which a mixture of young and experienced players struggled to make an impact against their Central American opponents. This squad is missing those experienced players and could find it difficult against Ecuador. The squad is also made up of a mixture of players from eleven different Argentinian sides, Boca being the best represented with 4 players. This surely can't help cohesion!

Ecuador are actually bringing a very experienced squad, along with a mixture of younger players, for this friendly, benefiting from having so many established international players in the Ecuadorian league. They miss out on players involved in the Copa Libertadores with LDU Quito and Emelec, but they can still count on a number of players from their other big league sides, Barcelona, Deportivo Quito and El Nacional. In fact, players from these sides make up 16 of the 18 man squad (Barca 3, Quito 8, Nacional 5). These include Goalkeeper Elizaga (17 caps), defender Mina (18 caps), midfielders Segundo Castillo (48) and Luis Saritama (21) and forward Franklin Salas (25) among the most experienced players.

It remains to be seen how Ecuador will treat this game, but it would be a massive boost to get one over on one of the big boys before the Copa America, even if it is a severely depleted Argentina team. Odds of 9.00 are just too big for Ecuador against an understrength and inexperienced Argentinian line-up.

Current Bank: 100 points
Bet: Ecuador to beat Argentina @ 9.00
Stake 0.5 points
Bookmaker: Stan James

[Napoleon Solo]

Result: 2-2
I was right to oppose Argentina at those odds, but I really should have covered the draw. I'm not going to make the same mistake this time.

22/04/11 12:30 East Bengal v Viva Kerala - India I-League

Apologies as it's a bit late but I've only just managed to get this bet on.

East Bengal are missing 7 first team players for this and a long season fighting on 3 different fronts is taking it's toll. They're missing large portions of their backline and midfield, along with striker Tolgay Ozbey.

Viva are just above the relegation zone, but that's mainly down to a terrible start to the season. They've earned 14 of their 22 points since in the second half of the season, scoring 21 goals in that time.

Current Bank: 99.5 points
Bet: Viva Kerala draw or win @ 2.94
Stake 0.95 points
Bookmaker: Unibet

[Napoleon Solo]

Result: East Bengal 3 - 0 Viva Kerala
Poor pick from myself, Viva had conceded first in their past two games and managed to recover. They did the same again, but couldn't get back into the game this time, despite East Bengal's missing players.

My PC has been broken for the past few days (vista fucked up), so only just got it reinstalled with Ubuntu. Much better!

24/04/11 23:00 Atlanta Beat v Western New York Flash - Women's Professional Soccer League (USA)

Atlanta are a young team who finished bottom of the league last season. They started the season with a deserved 1-4 loss at home to Boston Breakers, but followed it up by beating Sky Blue FC 1-0. However, the victory was pretty much undeserved as Sky Blue dominated possession and shots on goal, 18 for Sky Blue, 4 for Atlanta.

Western NY Flash are an expansion team, brought up from the W-League after the extinction of Chicago Red Stars and Gold Pride, last seasons league winners by a long margin, in order to make up the numbers. However, the Flash managed to acquire a large portion of last seasons Gold Pride squad, including Brazilian striker and World Player of the Year, Marta. They started the league season with a 2-1 win over Boston Breakers, achieved without Marta, which was much more convincing than the scoreline suggests.

With the relative strengths of the squads here and the performances so far, I'm struggling to see anything other than a comfortable Flash win.

Bet: Western NY Flash to beat Atlanta Beat @ 1.909
Stake: 2 % of bank
Bookmaker: Bet365


Bet: Western NY Flash to beat Atlanta Beat AH(-1) @ 2.50
Stake: 1 % of bank
Bookmaker: Bet365