afterjacko

This month’s forumite is afterjacko...

1. Tell us a about yourself - how did you get into betting and what are your other interests?

I live just outside of Milton Keynes with my better half, just 10 minutes away from my local race-course of Towcester, which I attend regularly.

Some of my earliest memories as a child are of spending Saturday afternoons with my grandfather watching the racing on television and picking out plenty of winners, which got me hooked to the sport and I have been an avid follower ever since. My betting is purely for fun, although winning a few quid always goes down well and, aside from Betfair, my main betting activity is the Tote Placepot, which in my view is a cracking bet and one that I have some success at – the first day of last year’s Cheltenham meeting being my finest Placepot moment and one to repeated soon I hope.

Outside of the betting arena, I unfortunately work far too hard, but thankfully work from home the majority of the time and ‘At The Races’ is always on in the background which does dull the pain somewhat. Away from work, I turn my hand very badly to golf and snooker and am an avid collector of racing memorabilia from Ascot racecourse much to the annoyance of Mrs AJ who tolerates my time on Betfair but not the various packages of badges/signage etc. that arrive on the doorstep on an almost daily basis!

2. When and why did you join Betfair? And what sports do you normally bet on?

I joined Betfair in April 2002 after rave reviews from some of my friends who are also regular users of the site and have never looked back since. The thing that really attracted me to the site was that I could lay horses, which sounded like the way to go for me – I was always terrible at picking winners and so I thought it was easy to pick losers to lay but I now know that it’s not quite as easy as it sounds!

Most of my betting activity is on horseracing but I also like to have a dabble on football, snooker and darts which I like to think I know a bit about… but my betting P&L indicates otherwise!

3. If you could change one thing about the site what would it be?

For me, the site is great as it is, aside from the odd slowdown and ‘Http/1.1 Service Unavailable’ message when using the forum. There is a lot of talk on the forum of having separate sites for horseracing and football to ease the load on the site during busy periods but being a technophobe I have no idea if that is a sensible or viable solution!

4. You’re known in the forum for organising various forum competitions. Why do you do it and what, in your opinion, makes for an interesting competition?

Fortunately, there are other forumites who work much harder than me on running the various competitions, which are so well attended every day and my thanks go out to them as they all do a great job.

Hopefully, the various competitions provide a bit of fun for all the players and a welcome distraction from the hard grind of all the form-studying and race-watching.

From a personal view, I enjoy the banter and camaraderie that the competitions provide – I have met several forumites from the competitions at various race meetings over the last couple of years which has been great and I have to say that I have yet to meet a bad one!

Each and every competition is keenly fought – we usually have 140 odd naps table players posting every day – and the fact that the comps are open to all and everyone has the same chance as the next man keeps it interesting. We constantly have new players joining to pit their wits against the rest – some with more success than others!  And of course, the chance to win some Betfair goodies is a great incentive to pick plenty of winners!

5. 2006 looks set to be another great year. What events are you especially looking forward to?

The football World Cup must be high on the list and all England fans must be dreaming of lifting the cup given the team we have (assuming the key players stay fit). Although, being a lifelong Coventry City supporter, I know all too well the disappointment that football often brings!

In the racing world, the reopening of Ascot race-course in May will be my highlight – I was previously a member there and will certainly be renewing it again given the fantastic way they have redeveloped the old place.

6. Back to the World Cup - who do you think are England’s main rivals if they’re going to “bring football home”?

You can never discount Brazil and the forward line they have looks exceptional as always, but how on earth the manager can accommodate Ronaldo, Adriano, Ronaldinho, Baptista et al into the first team is beyond me!

A friend of mine has got heavily involved on here with Spain but they seem to flatter to deceive far too often for me (hope you can trade out of that bet, Louis!) so I’ll take Italy to finish runner-up to England… well, here’s hoping anyway.

7. A question we always like to ask: do you ever get involved with in-play betting? And what memorable stories can you share with us?

I only ever bet in-play on horseracing to trade out of a bet I have placed – I am happy to leave the rest of it to the bigger players who no doubt profit from hoovering up all the 1.01 money near the line. Saying that, I did get one 1.01 shot bet in a sprint at Windsor a few years ago but that was more luck than judgement and has sadly not been repeated since.

I do, however, like to bet in-play on other sports – my most recent painful attempt was the Phil Taylor/Wayne Mardle darts semi final over Christmas. I was a layer of Taylor at 1.06 when he led three sets to nil but somehow came out losing on the match despite Taylor trading at fancy prices when 5-3 behind!

8. Okay, last question. What’s your most memorable win and how did you celebrate?

Not my most profitable win, but one of my first wins in four figures was a few years ago now at Ascot during the Shergar Cup meeting in August, where I won a significant (for me) amount on the Placepot.

Several bottles of champagne were then guzzled at the bandstand before I struggled home and duly took out annual membership to the place as a treat… unfortunately, Mrs AJ duly pinched the rest and I still, to this day, have no idea what she did with it!