No.1 - Poor Mans Steve Palmer

Long empty weekends are the breeding ground for bad and good ideas, this weekend has been one of those weekends. The sheer absence of anything to do is a luxury riddled with pitfalls; the greatest pitfall is the bad idea that you decide to carry out.

Well I have hatched a bad/good idea. The fact you are reading this suggests I am carrying it through. I will treat this blog like a roller coaster, this first post is the safety pads locking over my nervous shoulders, there is now no getting off. I just hope the egg that I am hatching spawns a triumphant eagle worthy of an American flag and not a feral bird flu carrying feather ball worthy of a fire.

Simply put the plan is to turn £50 into £1,500 through the artistry of gambling. The winnings of which will go to paying off my student overdraft that is looming over me like a dark money cloud of doom. I appreciate this plan is nowhere near full proof. Mr Bankman if you are reading this,

“I am sorry. But stick with me be optimistic. Imagine if I pull it off.”

In fact from now on I will avoid the word gambling its a word weighted by the assumption of losing, the last thing this tin pot idea needs is any negativity. It exists on a thread of positivity as it is. Speculating is a better word.

I realise that the ingredients for this speculative blog do not at first glance seem the makings of a literary feast. The best ingredient I could have is money, which I lack severely. Big bets make better reading be it through fear, awe or jealousy of a big pair of betting balls. For those who read the Racing Post they will know who Steve Palmer is. For those that don’t please have a look at this brilliant blog.

It is real man betting. In comparison this betting blog is a poor mans plastic replica, the sort that makes your wrist go green.

This blog needed spicing up. Then it came to me whilst betting in running on bet365.

I was looking to back Everton a couple of weeks ago at home to AEK Athens. They flew out the traps in that game like a Usain Bolt greyhound hybrid. Which would be an unlikely combo as I’m sure Usain Bolt is not into bestiality. But Everton did look a good bet, of course as I got the price up Yobo confirmed my assumptions and nodded in the first of four. Which is a stomach churning feeling. The optimist in you says at least you got it right and your intuition is well wired. But the realist says bollocks I could have made a penny or two on that, had I been quick enough.

There is absolutely no satisfaction in an I told you so. Which is exactly why I am wary of people who place sportsmen bets, where the winner receives a penniless payment of smugness. The only thing worse than an ‘I told you so’ is an ‘I told you so’ from a smug git.

So we move on.

As I watched Everton score goals for fun in the background, I scoured the bet365 website. Then I arrived at Bandy, The Guatemalan Premier League and Trotting. Those bet365 people really do have a plethora of markets. This is what I needed.

Throughout this blog I will place a couple of bets a month on a sport I know nothing about from a country outside the UK. I will not bet blind though I will read up on Swedish Floorball and Pelota and share my thoughts. Odds compilers if Bjorn and I are the only ones backing Balrog IK at home to AIK its not that i am in a match fixing coalition with the Swedish mafia. I am just having a punt, a speculative punt at that.

And so this debt slaying journey begins...