What a loser

After my last post, I received the following comment:

G24 September 2012 14:11

Dude - your returns are excellent - all winners - do you ever have any losing trades or do you just post the winning ones?



I suppose it makes sense to make clear my policy on posting-up my P/L. I don't religiously post each day's proft and loss because, if I have nothing to say on a particular day, then I won't just post for the sake of a P/L. Instead I'll just skip that day. Sometimes, like yesterday, I'll post-up the last three or four days worth (if I remember), but a P/L and nothing else, as has been discussed before, is decidedly boring so I try to refrain from doing that. This will mean that some losing days and some winning days won't show up on the blog. That's just the way it is. This blog is not meant as a full record of all my betting activities (I use a spreadsheet for that), but rather the P/Ls are just there to give a 'flavour' of what I've been doing. And for my money they do add a bit of context.

On the question of whether I only post-up my winning days, erm, no. The commenter is obviously not a regular reader (and he should be ashamed of himself for that) as if he was, then he would surely have seen some of these entries:

• Only a month to go
• You're breaking-up, you're breaking-up
• Balut!
• Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Carroll
• It didn't knock for me
• What a stunner
• I have a dream
• Men can't multi-task
• Tired
• Confident?
• Tennis Update
• Where are your eggs?

I'm by no means suggesting you read all these, but each and every one of this random selection show losses. I also have countless days where I may have come out marginally green but which also contain losses. So the point is, I think I'm being fair and balanced in the way I post up my P/Ls. It's warts 'n all blog.

Having said all that. I do win more than I lose (otherwise I wouldn't bother) and therefore there will inevitably be much more profits shown than there are losses. And of course I will make absolutely no apology for that!

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Also received this rather dubious comment from Al about my view of the pre-match handshakes

AL24 September 2012 14:18
i think shaking hands is all part of the sport. to do away with it is ridiculous.

As I mentioned in my reply, I was not suggesting footballers should never shake hands. That would indeed be nonsensical. But foisting the idea upon them (not that they need it foisting) and making it a ruling that they must shake hands even before a ball has been kicked.. well I don't see the benefit of that.

After the match, the players shake hands, and at that point it has meaning and worth - mainly because the players themselves are deciding to shake hands. They're not being directed to do so, like schoolchildren.

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No Smug Feeling
I've just finished trading this evening, and had the Fiorentina v Juventus match on in the background. Even though the game ended goalless, Fiorentina had some amazing chances and, in my view, were so unlucky not  to get the scalp of Juventus.

So I lost my bet, but with all things considered, I still think it was a decent bet and so have no regrets. My only real regret is that I couldn't come on here and act like the cat that got the cream. Winning the bet would have been nice, but the kudos of calling the game right... now that would be priceless :-)

Note, the P/L below shows a profit, but I struck my Fiorentina bet on Pinnacle and so lost money this evening.



Football: £82.47 | Tote: |  Total P&L:  £82.47

 

Football Showing 1 - 5 of 5 markets

Market Start time Settled date Profit/loss (£)
Football / Leeds v Everton : Correct Score 25-Sep-12 19:45  25-Sep-12 21:38  17.75
Football / West Ham v Wigan : Correct Score 25-Sep-12 19:45  25-Sep-12 21:37  5.19
Football / Leeds v Everton : Over/Under 2.5 Goals 25-Sep-12 19:45  25-Sep-12 21:24  10.81
Football / Cottbus v Paderborn : Correct Score 25-Sep-12 16:30  25-Sep-12 18:20  9.88
Football / Cottbus v Paderborn : Match Odds 25-Sep-12 16:30  25-Sep-12 18:20  38.84

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Portsmouth

I could lay-off my Portsmouth bet to be relegated now without trouble, but not yet having come out of administration, and thus yet to receive their points penalty, I think I'll just leave it alone. Portsmouth are in real turmoil at present. They are £61 million in debt and there is a fight between rival bidders, including the prospect of legal action, to take control of the club. Consequently, they are still only providing one-month rolling contracts to their skeleton playing staff.

This from BBC today:

"PKF weren't able to confirm PST as preferred bidders because its offer has no substance," Chainrai said.

"[PKF] realised that once you start the due diligence on the trust's offer, there is no actual money in place and there are about 30 of them all trying to run it.

"You can't run a business like that.

"We have the money and experience needed to take the club back where it belongs."

The issue of Portpin's experience at Portsmouth, however, could work against Chainrai.

For most fans, community leaders and the local media, he personifies a fall from grace that saw the 2008 FA Cup winners change hands four times in the 2009-10 season and become the first Premier League team to enter administration.

Portpin controlled Portsmouth's parent company at the time of this dramatic financial collapse, and it was Chainrai who appointed an administrator to halt an HM Revenue and Customs winding-up petition.

Describing himself as a "reluctant owner", Chainrai claimed he was only acting to protect his "investment", a £17m loan - secured against the club's assets - to former owner Ali Al Faraj.

In October 2010, Portsmouth, now shorn of a large chunk of its £135m debt, emerged from administration with Portpin in charge again, only for Chainrai to sell the club in June 2011 to Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov.

Six months later, Antonov was arrested for alleged bank fraud and the holding company he used to buy Portsmouth was placed in administration.

Within two months, the club also entered administration. The supporters' trust alleges Portpin controlled this process, too, which means it falls foul of the owners' and directors' test - a rebranded version of football's infamously ineffectual fit and proper person test.

Under the new system, anybody who has been a director of a club that has suffered two insolvency events since June 2004 - or two clubs that have had an insolvency in that time - is disqualified.

So far, the Football League will only say it is in talks with Birch about the legal status of the respective bids, but the "next stage is for him to select a preferred bid for the board to consider formally".

Pressed on this by the BBC, Chainrai said he had heard "the same rumours of people claiming this and that" about the post-Antonov administration, but denied Portpin had anything to do with it.

But his claim runs counter to details PST has sent to the Football League.

"Portpin's past actions have caused the club to twice go into administration, which is why we have written to the Football League formally on this matter now the time for them to make a decision is coming closer," said PST spokesman Farmery.

Former chief executive David Lampitt, now chief executive of Supporters Direct, the organisation that promotes community ownership of sports clubs across Europe, is believed to have made it clear that Portpin was the primary mover in Portsmouth entering administration again.

This would appear to put the Football League on a path to a legal dispute with Chainrai, a well-worn route some PST supporters believe is behind PKF's sudden change of heart towards Portpin as well.

With Portpin's strongest card being the mortgage it holds on Fratton Park, any move to take it from Chainrai was likely to end up in the courts, an expensive business for an administrator under pressure to secure the best return for creditors and his partners.

For his part, Chainrai says he is willing to spend whatever it takes to get Pompey back up the league ladder.

"The club has no value in League One. Everybody knows that," he said.

"So I'm going to put money in to return them to their glories and then sell the club. But who knows? I might enjoy it so much I won't sell it.

"I'm not reluctant anymore. I've changed my mind."