Scott Ferguson is Field Education Manager at Betfair, after years of working as a journalist and odds compiler. Combine that with stints as a professional punter and as a teacher and you have a unique mix of experience perfectly suited to developing the education programme at Betfair. Scott has been with Betfair since 2002 and initially worked as a consultant on developing the business in Australia.
Having played a lot of tennis as a junior, and having attended each Grand Slam at least once, Scott lists it as his preferred sport to bet on, with interests in most other sports as well. One of Scott's proudest moments in betting was being just one of four punters to back Ben Curtis at 1000 during the 2003 Open Championship to trade out at 550, 210 and 1.7. Tennis glory stories include tipping Venus Williams in her last two Wimbledon victories at 40 and 17 and Fernando Gonzalez to reach the 2007 Australian Open final. He is still embarrassed by managing to stuff up trading on the Hantuchova-Serena Williams clash at Wimbledon when both players traded at 1.01.
As an Aussie kid not really getting into football until he joined the betting industry, he is proud of having no allegiance to a Premiership club, but has attended matches in all the major leagues in Europe and the 2006 World Cup following his homeland. In Australian Rules football, the once-mighty Richmond carry his support from afar. His sporting hero like many from Down Under is Sir Donald Bradman.
His golden rules to betting - someone will have always know more or have done more research than you. It's much easier to have an edge in a market that interests only 50 people rather than 5,000. You will learn more from your mistakes than your wins. There is no such thing as a certainty and value is everything. Taking a bad price means you have to find more winners, which is hard enough in the first place!
