About me

Some bullet points…..

If you are interested in sports trading or betting on Betfair or other betting exchanges, then you have probably arrived in the right place!

Since June 2000, I’ve been on a mission to educate people about the benefits of using betting exchanges rather than traditional sportsbooks or bookmakers. Exchanges are the first time that people have had a fair and equitable chance to profit from their interest in sports. Rather than betting against the house with an exchange, you bet against each other and the bookie makes their money by taking a commission on winning bets.

Lots of people talk enthusiastically about trading on exchanges now, but I’ve always been a strong believer that you should eat your own dog food. So I’ve led the way by using considerable amounts of my own money, at my own risk, to show people how it can be done. I’m one of a very small number of people that can prove they have actually done it. 

I’m proud to have been one of the people to really pioneer a clear path through these markets. Despite having a young family, I quit a well-paid job running around Europe, to realise my dream of achieving something special. The knowledge and experience I have gained over the years are invested in Bet Angel and all the work I do to help improve people’s understanding of exchanges.

A quick summary of my career, to date….

• Joined Betfair on the 18th June 2000
• One of the longest serving and most successful exchange users ever
• Ranked in the top 0.10% of all time users on Betfair
• Successfully traded over 175,000 markets
• Directly analysed nearly 1,300,000 sports markets
• Specialist knowledge of Racing, Football and Tennis
• Modelled in detail, both pricing and underlying market dynamics
• Various radio, TV and media appearances in the vain hope of explaining sports trading!
• Ten-year span writing about trading for various journals
• Created Bet Angel software in 2005, before Betfair even had an API!
• Had a lot of fun, doing something I love

I hope my journey through these markets will inspire you do give them a try, it’s much better, more rewarding and less risky than traditional gambling markets. Of course, it’s not for everybody so don’t to it on the basis that it’s the road to riches. Just like any other job you get out what you put in. Also, trading is simple but hard. Half the battle will be with yourself.

The short version…..

Welcome to the blog of someone who has risked his own money (and credibility) to pursue a dream. Someone who ended up Influencing or directly contribution to a huge number of other high profile traders.

I joined Betfair just after they opened for business. I left my well-paid job, to be one of the pioneers of sports trading, even though it didn’t exist when I did it! It was just a ‘crazy’ idea, but one that worked out pretty well in the end.

I took the risk and got the reward for being one of the very first people to spot the opportunity that betting exchanges created. Trading is a form of spread betting, so I Started talking about the opportunity in 2004 at Financial market expos. A year later Bet Angel was born as I needed the tools to do some clever things that nobody had thought off.

I first started by arbing, then woke up one morning and thought I can do both sides on the exchange! 17 years on I’ve gambled or traded hundreds of millions through the market successfully, it’s been a great journey which doesn’t look like it’s about to end anytime soon. If you are interested in giving it a go, join us on the same journey.

Trading is a great way of attempting to profit from your sporting knowledge so you should definitely give it a go. But do be careful on what advice you take. Like all industries that purport to give you the chance to earn money, the guy on the other is often there to take it from you! But please do give it a go, especially if you have previously been into gambling.

You stand much more of profiting by trading than traditional gambling, so that’s the #1 reason I recommend it.

Some more detail…..

I joined Betfair way back in June  2000, shortly after it opened for business. Back then it was a lonely place, there were no specialist tools available, nobody had much aware of it and there was no money in the markets. Betfair’s first race did about £3400 and most of that was people in the Betfair offices matching themselves! Today Betfair is a listed company worth over two billion pounds.

When I quit my well-paid European job to do this full-time, people thought I was having a mid-life crisis. ‘I’ve got this great idea about how to win in betting markets’ I said. Without exception, everybody told me not to do it, but I’d reached that point in my life where I HAD to do something. Despite a lot of success, to carry on in a conventional career would have killed me!!

It took about 18 months for me to fully find my feet. But once found, I was determined to make the best of the opportunity so I really put my foot down to achieve some astonishing things. I haven’t talked about most of them yet, that can wait for the autobiography! But you can see some of my work in blog posts, articles I write or on social media.

The dream

I dreamt maybe something like this was possible when I was young, but I never dreamt I would actually do it. I wanted to discover something that nobody else had and hopefully, that thing would make a bit of cash. I suppose I really have lived the dream!

When I discovered Betfair, I’d reached that point in my life where I knew I wanted to do something different. I knew this was the opportunity I had been waiting for so, so even with a young family in tow, I left my well-paid job running around Europe and started doing this for a living. Soon I realised this was going to be one of the best decisions of my life and I never looked back.

Back then the tools were not available for doing what I wanted, so you know what I did. I invented them! There are now a plethora of tools and services available, but Bet Angel is unique in that it’s the only one that has earnt more for its creator through using it rather than selling it! We are always delighted to eat our own dog food. Bet Angel encapsulates my journey through the market, it’s a big edge for me when I’m in the market.

The now

I never imagined I would end up becoming one of Betfair’s biggest customers. But since that basic start I’ve gambled and traded hundreds of millions of pounds through the market, profitably. What started out as a bit of fun ended up growing into something much more significant. From a pretty basic start fiddling around at work, I’ve somehow spent near two decades analysing, studying and participating in sports markets.

Over the years I have written scores of articles for national magazines about trading on betting exchange as well as representing, talking and trading for Betfair at a number of shows. Back when I joined, I quickly realised that new tools and strategies needed to be created to get the best out of these markets and that is why Bet Angel was born.  Bet Angel encapsulates the knowledge and skill I’ve picked up over the time I’ve been active in the market. I’m thrilled to be such a major part of the growth and maturity of the opportunity that betting exchanges have created. Exchanges are a much fairer and more honest way of betting that traditional bookmakers and, unlike bookies, there have been some spectacular success stories.

My sports trading journey

If you want to read the full story, click on these blog posts which tell you my entire story: –

My journey – parts 1,2,3, 4 & 5

The blog & other social media

This blog is here to let you know what I am doing or thinking about on a  regular basis with all things betting exchange related. Why not visit the busiest trading forum here at Bet Angel to discuss individual points there with other Bet Angel users. I nip in from time to time to post my immediate thoughts.

Unlike other stuff you may see out there, this is an honest reflection on what I am doing. I do actually do this for real! While some of the numbers may seem amazing, that’s what happens after over a decade of doing this seriously. That brings confidence and now and again special things happen. But I’d generally recommend not going for large numbers and just doing little often, it soon adds up!

I am also on Twitter and have a huge You Tube channel where you can learn about trading

Enjoy!