New Member - Matt Ayles
-
Hi BTC,
My name is Matt Ayles and I live in Weymouth in Dorset on England's beautiful south coast. I have been married for 12 years and have 2 young children.
At the time of writing this I have been trading as an amateur for 6 months with varying degrees of success! I have been a member of the Betfair Exchange for alot longer but wouldn't consider myself a trader then.
My background is in finance and more recently the gambling industry. I qualified as an accountant with local government before changing careers to work for what is now Entain, the umbrella company for Ladbrokes and Coral. I have found that this has given me a very solid base to work with on Betfair as I have good understanding of both financial and gambling aspects.
I joined BTC after a few months of trying to learn trading on YouTube. I came across your channel and have since signed up to the academy and begun dedicating time to learning the trade properly. I love the idea of the lifestyle that comes with professional trading and I fully appreciate that knowledge is power, so the more I can learn the better.
My goals for my trading are to one day become a professional. Those who work in the gambling industry, more specifically those tied to shops, are painfully aware of their imminent death! Lockdown has begun to drive the nails into the coffins of the highstreet bookmaker and I want to use the next few years to learn how to become professional so that should the worst happen and redundancy threatens, I will have created an opportunity for me to turn professional. I do not know that shops will definitely close, but if over the next few years I can become semi professional, create not only a decent Betfair bankroll, but also create enough of a life pot behind me, I could then turn pro on that eventuality. Of course that day may never come, and in which case I will continue to work and trade until the day I can "retire" from the business and focus entirely on trading.
-
@Ryan if ever there was a day that laid out exactly why the highstreet bookies days are numbered it was yesterday (boxing day).
For the high street, it's the second busiest day of the year behind Grand National. Yet yesterday, it was no different to any other normal sunday. I spoke to loads of shops all across the SW of England and the picture was the same everywhere.
Sure the covid impacted football schedule didn't help, but its not uncommon to lose loads of games to the weather this time of year so the only real impact covid had was making people scared to come outside... especially given the incredible rise of online gambling during the pandemic.
I had best work doubly hard on my trading in 2022......
-
@Matt-Ayles I like your plan and it is similar to mine
-
@matt-ayles 100% I don't want to drop you in it lol but think it would be great, can do it in the new year
-
@ryan said in New Member - Matt Ayles:
@matt-ayles Love this!
Would you be up for coming on the podcast? Talking about how bookies compile odds and how we can compile our own etc...?
We don't have to talk about going online, think it would be really fun and educational for the listeners.
Of course you dont have to!
Yeah absolutely! Providing you can pre warn me the questions and give me some prep time... lol.
-
@matt-ayles Love this!
Would you be up for coming on the podcast? Talking about how bookies compile odds and how we can compile our own etc...?
We don't have to talk about going online, think it would be really fun and educational for the listeners.
Of course you dont have to!
-
@matt-ayles you are spot on with your evaluation there too, it's like people who will pay X amount for something at a store when they could get it £10-20 cheaper elsewhere, it baffles me how a company like Game still exist when they sell a new release for £60 and it's available for £40 online elsewhere with a quick google search.
-
Been listening to @Martin latest podcast. Only half way through but he talks about value and how in the bookies you can regularly find a matchup where both outcomes are odds on (his example being 5/6). He's absolutely right about this. As i sit at work i can see examples of this all around me.
What's interesting is, it all comes down to education. I'm not implying that my customers or any mug punters are uneducated, I'm sure they all went to school etc, but a very small percentage of people have received any kind of gambling education... most people discover gambling and simply accept what they're given.
I could go and have a discussion with my customers about value, the way bookies set odds, how to find an advantage etc. I mean even by punting online you'd get better odds and offers than in shop as they have significantly less overheads to cover, and that's not even regarding the exchanges. I won't do that of course because half won't listen, a quarter won't go online as their partner will find out and losing the rest would put me out of work!
However isn't it interesting. At school you learn so little about the real world and money, and absolutely nothing about gambling of course, lets not go there. Yet millions of people around the world gamble without a second thought about the odds. -
@matt-ayles 100% what does it tell us... people want big pens
-
@ryan ah, the demise of the little pen. First Argos, then the bookies.
-
@matt-ayles That's a very smart move by Draft kings as ladbrokes have the very popular 5 a side game that they do, automatic customer base for them!
Bad for the high street, pubs haven't helped though - wifi and racing uk subs.....
I can get a pint and food and bet on the racing in a better surrounding?! Than the little pens and stools in laddies?!
-
@Ryan have you seen the news that Draft Kings have put in an offer to buy out Entain, the umbrella company of Ladbrokes/Coral?
Share prices rose about £6 over 24 hours!Not sure what impact that has on the highstreet however... yet more moves towards an online empire can't be good in that sense.
-
@matt-ayles Yep! Every single time it happens, I mean take Palace for example...... how the hell are they going to play? Set up etc....?
It's been a huge shift from Roy and the players that they had to Patrick V - anything could happen! Anything, how will united gel? etc....
Same with Villa for example it's all over the place!
-
@matt-ayles such a shame about the high street, I still love just going into town and browsing the couple of gaming and thrift stores left, won't be long before they are gone.
yeah you really are guessing trading the start of the season
-
Whilst I was at work today I overheard a brilliant conversation between some customers that rung so true to alot of the podcasts/academy modules that I had to share it.
@Ryan you and Martin talk alot on the channels about not trading the first few games of the season (in any given league) as you need to see how teams gel with new players, new managers, new pressures etc.
At the time of writing this we have just had the first round of fixtures in the Championship/L1/L2 etc and are approaching the opening weekend of the Premier League. Lots of the major European leagues kick off over this two week period also.
Now these customers were discussing the opening weekends fixtures saying things like "you really shouldn't bet the opening games, you should wait several weeks" and "you can never predict what will happen on day one"... followed shortly by a discussion entitled "all my selections lost".
It made me think about all the videos and podcasts where you all advise your followers against these practices and you are absolutely spot on. Made me chuckle.
In other news, as per previous discussions on this thread, the first wave of shop closures has landed and a couple of the local ones are closing for good (not mine). Second wave due by the end of the year.
Not a good time to work on the high street in any retailer!
-
@matt-ayles It would be huge for Betfair if it was allowed - the stats on American sports and the money on the exchange it would be amazing.
-
Yes the States are certainly coming around. Entain, who own us, are predominantly an online platform based in the US. There are also talks of further mergers with MGM which is huge.
-
@matt-ayles That’s pretty crazy the ideas of self serve shops, that reminds me of a slot place I went to as a teenager that had a section with a pool table I was allowed to play at this.
I see there’s some movement in the US as well in some states.
-
Thank you for your reply.
In terms of the shops, they are alarmingly quiet these days. Obviously there will be geographical variances but on average I'd say most locations are seeing around 50-60% of it's trade levels pre lockdown 1.
All those folks who swore off going online were forced to do so in lockdowns 2 and 3. The first lockdown wasn't so bad as there was very little sport being played in the world.
I imagine the "machine heavy" shops will survive for a while but those who rely on the counter trade are in trouble.
There are trials happening already for "self-service" shops which only contain machines which require a card to login/bet etc. This may be the next step but I imagine there will be another wave of closures across multiple operators beginning towards the end of this year.
Online however is thriving of course!
