Where To Start?

Right, so where to begin?

There are a lot of things I need to consider:

1) What am I going to bet on?
2) What kind of income do I need?
3) What level of return can I expect and thus how much do I need to bet each month?
4) What rules will I apply to keep myself disciplined and focussed?
5) How will I manage all of this so I don't disappear up my own arse?

Let's consider the first question:

If gambling was easy (to win that is, we all know it's DAMN easy to gamble and lose), every bugger would be doing it. The way I see it there are two kinds of gambling;

a) Where there is little or no science, such as in lottery numbers, poker machines and most casino games.

b) Where one can apply logic and science to improve one's chances, such as in racing or sports betting.

So we'll discount a) altogether, as the odds on routinely making money here are simply dead against the punter. Yes the potential return is astronomically higher, but with million-to-one shots, which for most of us, simply never come up.

With b) there are a number of options;

i) Horse Racing
ii) Greyhounds
iii) Harness Racing
iv) Team Sports
v) Individual Sports

I decided to eliminate greyhounds on the spot, as they are notoriously unreliable - how many times have you picked a sure winner only to see it get nudged, lose its mind mid-race, or simply forget to turn the corner properly? I also decided to eliminate harness racing, as for me too many things can go wrong, the form is hard to read, and having the favourite come in when it is any more than $1.20 seems like a lottery to me half the time anyway! I have done my arse backing unbackable favourites on harness racing more times than I care to remember.

That leaves gallops and sports betting. My good mate and mentor Boris (www.sportismadeforbetting.com) advises that the key to betting is discipline and knowledge. We'll tackle discipline later, but for now let's focus on knowledge. I used to tip footy regularly and watch a lot of games. I simply don't follow it that closely anymore. And all other sports, while I do show an interest in many, again I don't follow them closely enough to say I am knowledgeable.

Horse racing on the other hand, I have been following a lot lately, and studying a lot. Plus, there are almost infinite chances to read form and watch racing, so for me, the chance of increasing and maintaining my knowledge on any one sport makes horse racing the obvious choice.

That answers Q1!

This may appear to be a crazy long-winded way around getting to a decision, but we're talking potential life-changing decisions at the end of the day, so I believe it's worth spelling it all out and looking at as many angles as practical. Please bear with me on this!