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 If on the 30th of December 2008 you had asked me whether or not I had made money from my sports betting I could not only have answered you but also given my nett position to within a few rand either way.
I had throughout the year religiously tracked every bet placed summarizing my position through a blog posted online every Tuesday.
I started 2009 in much the same vein but somewhere I veered off course and as I tap out my final Citizen piece for the year I would if asked the question above reply something along the lines of “I think so”.
I know it has not been as good a year as its predecessor and it was probably due to a dip in form towards the end of the Super 14 that I stopped my weekly updates. It is far easier to write about success than failure but keeping track of the lows is every bit as important as celebrating the highs.
There were plenty of the latter such as Ireland winning the 6 Nations at 4/1 (and watching the final game with hundreds of Irish fans) and Stenson 50/1 and Poulter 80/1 running 1st and 2nd for me in the Players Champs but I took my fair share of knocks as well especially on the spread betting front where I did my money going high on New Zealand points in their mid year matches against the likes of France and Italy at home.
Backing Jenson Button to win the F1 title at odds of 53/1 steadied the ship and kept the bookies at bay and I reckon I did enough over the closing months to finish in profit but such a statement is simply not good enough for someone who takes his punting seriously and expects others to read and on occasions follow his advice.
2010 looms as an exciting year for sports bettors with the FIFA World Cup the highlight. I hope to play my part in introducing new players young and old to responsible sports betting but before I do so I need to get my house in order. The discipline will be back and I will make a point of reconciling the books after each weekend (be the news good or bad) and should you run into me 12 months from now be sure that my answer will be more precise than “I think so”.
This article first appeared in the Citizen CitiGaming section on Thursday 31 December 2009
Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Saturday morning at 07h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet.
You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/brentgraham or get on his mailing list by dropping him a line at brent@goodforthegame.co.za
  
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