2. Patience
07 Deadly Mistakes to Avoid 
/ Betfair Education / 10 July 2008 / Leave a comment
"You need plenty of patience to become a profitable punter"
We have all heard the saying patience is a virtue, now this probably applies to racing more than most things in life. Believe me when I say you need patience. Most punters have very little and think that they can place a few lucky bets each week to win loads of money using small stakes, if only.
It is very unlikely that they will win anything on a regular basis and losses are pretty much assured. You can only expect a consistent return from your bets if have done your homework and follow a proven plan. Classic mistakes to list a few are betting on too many horses, betting in the wrong races or in combinations of silly bets like Tote exotics, Yankees, Scoop6 and Placepot etc.
If you look in any bookie's window, or on their web site you will see these types of bets are very heavily promoted because they make an absolute lorry load of cash week in week out.
The actual chances of winning these types of bets are very slim and the bookies know this. It's the mania of mug punters, who might win a few hundred from a small stake once every couple years if they are extremely lucky. Let's face reality the odds are heavily in favour of the bookies.
One bet you don't see the bookies advertise is the single, "why" you might ask? A single bet carefully chosen on the right horse in the right race will be successful more often than not, if the truth is known this is where our friends the bookies would love not to accept bets from the public.
This type of bet is where they lose the most money.
Look at the results at the end of any race day and you will see a fair amount of reasonably- priced favourites who have won their individual races. So if you want to profit long term from racing don't bother with silly combination bets.
They offer no value at all even if you do only use very small stakes.
"Remember be patient and wait for the right races to come along before you decide to place a bet, this takes a lot of discipline. Believe me it will definitely be worth it, because you will begin to profit almost instantly "
This series of articles has been written by Jonathan Burgess, a Betfair Accredited Trainer and author of www.false-favourites.co.uk. As an experienced punter, he has some wide advice to share, however his advice and opinions represent his personal views and not those of Betfair.
