The first semi-final turned out to be a real cracker with both sides going for goals. Dinamo scored first and then sat back letting Shakhtar in for plenty of shoots on goal. Although I was sat with a potential £42 win if the score went 2-0, I decided to trade and recover my stake while making a very modest profit. As it happens I was right. Shakhtar scored and the game ran out 1-1 giving a nice payout on my cover bet Over 1.5 goals.

Fixtures 30 April Dinamo Kiev v Shakhtar / Correct Score / 2 - 0 Net winnings of GBP2
Fixtures 30 April Dinamo Kiev v Shakhtar / Over/Under 1.5 Goals Net winnings of GBP10.2

Today's In-Play football list is not very good and I can find no value other than Unirea Urziceni v Gloria Bistrita.

Heres' my bets for that match:

Basically, Manchester United scored early in the first half and hang on to win 1-0 and my Draw bet went tits-up. Desperately trying to recover at least the stake money I placed a 2-0 correct score bet with 30 minutes to go. At the time this seemed like a good idea. However, it just increased my losses and considerably reduced my overall bank. Profit and loss for this week is looking grim and I'm really in need of a few green books.

I guess that's the way things go, win some, lose some and hope to get a profit at some stage.

UEFA Cup Semi-Finals (Both Matches Live on ITV 4)

Today's In-Play Football starts at 17:30 with Ukrainian rivals Dinamo Kiev v Shakhtar playing in the UEFA Cup semi-final first leg.

Dynamo are 12 points clear of Shakhtar in the domestic table with the Premier League title within their grasp. Shakhtar have little chance of winning a Champions League place, so this match is about all they have left to win this season.

Shakhtar have five players at risk of collecting a second yellow card which would rule them out of the second leg. This along with playing away should make them approach the game with caution defending in depth and probably try to nick a late goal.

Dynamo absolutely destroyed in-form French side Paris St Germain to reach the last four and will no doubt approach this game in a similar manner.

My Crystal Bollixs predict 2-0, but be warned the old well worn bollixs have been wrong most of this week.

Here's the In-Play list for today and my two bets that have already been matched along with a low stake double with a big payout:

You have really got to laugh at some of the reporting on last night's Barca v Chelsea match. I heard this comment on Radio 4's morning sports news update:

Excitable Reporter; "Chelsea got a defensive victory last night in a nil-nil draw against Barcelona... etc etc"

Defensive victory my arse! If anything 0-0 away gives a big advantage to Barcelona as an away goal in the second leg will scupper Chelsea.

This might be a bit of sour grapes from me, as I lost all my profits from last week and yesterday by Laying the draw.

19:45 Man Utd v Arsenal
This is the bet I should have done last night. I'm hoping for an early Arsenal goal and Man U to score around the 55 minute mark... then I'll trade 'til my crystal Bollixs fall off!
That's the plan, I'm hoping it's a good 'un.

The Draw Odds 3.65 Stake £25.00 Profit £66.25

In-Play Football at Betfair
Wed 29th April
11:00 Kashima v Kobe
12:00 Minyor Pernik v Litex Lovech
14:30 Pirin Blagoevgrad v Levski Sofia
I was going to Back Over 1.5 goals in this game at half time. The starting odds for Levski were very short, while Pirin were big outsiders. This type of price difference is usual good for 2 goals or more. However, a gut feeling made me pause and hold off. As it happens I was right. The match ended 1-0 to Pirin. Sometimes these early doors games are better left.

16:30 Arka Gdynia v Slask Wroclaw
2 - 2 Odds 23 Back Stake £2.00 Profit £44.00
This one has just gone into play. No goals after 10 minutes... please not another 0-0 feckle!

Yesterday's football bets ended up fairly even, although if I'd have held my nerve a £54 to £20 draw bet on Newcastle could have been made. However, I traded early for a even green book and won 8 quid when the final score ended at 0-0. The first match (Sliven v Chernomorets) also ended 0-0 but the match between FC Midtjylland v SonderjyskE was a cracker with the big outsiders Sonder winning 2-4. Again I traded early and made a reasonable green book on over 2.5 goals, but then put a Back bet on 2-2 correct score and failed to trade quickly enough and Sonder scored another 2 goals within a few minutes.

Live and learn.

Barca v Chelsea Tonight

This could ended up 1-1 or maybe 2-1 it all depends on how Chelsea let the tackles fly in. I'm going to wait until after the first 15 minutes before placing a bet on this game.

Early Doors Correct Score in Denmark and Today's In-Play Matches

Hello all, I'm finally back at work after contracting a very vicious throat virus. During my absence, the AskJack website passed the half million visitor mark, which should rightfully be cause for celebration.

The most popular pages remain fairly consistent with "Step Back 360 Years Using 360 degree Panoramic Technology"; "Pacific Bread Maker User Guide Page 5 and 6" and "Typing in the Nude and a Head for Lacy Lingerie" accounting for the most recent surge in visitors.

My betting experiments at Betfair attract interest from the casual visitor and also direct from search engines. Keeping a record of bets made and reasons why the bet was either a Lay or a Back can be a very useful resource especially if the teams involved are offshore.

Profit and Loss for the Last Seven Days

Darts: -GBP2.54 | Horse Racing: GBP1.60 | Snooker: -GBP12.06 | Soccer: GBP53.67 Total P&L: GBP40.67

In-Frame betting on the snooker is a bit tricky and you have to be very quick to close positions and retain your stake with a modest green book.

Most of the football profit came from early doors offshore games in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Holland mostly using a Back bet on over 2.5 goals and trading after 2 goals are scored. The main risk in this type of bet is the dreaded 0-0 draw, so I look for matches that have strong favourites playing at home. This seems to work 75% of the time often with the required 3 goals scored in the first half.

Klaarsen gave up against Barney in the darts on Thursday night reducing my darts profit from £15.70 to a dismal -£2.54.

I'm not sure where the £1.60 horse racing profit came from, as I don't recall placing any bets on the "nags".

Minimum stakes and low liability betting does work, but you'll never make a decent living from it (grin). Today's In-Play Football

A Venture into the Ante Post Market for the English Greyhound Derby May 30th 2009

My only experience of betting anti-post turned out to be a disaster. I backed Jack the Giant to win this year's Cheltenham Gold Cup £2 at 200 to 1 only to find out the next day he would be withdrawn due to a leg injury.

However, this time I'm more hopeful of at least getting a run in the final.

Here's my "tip" back it at your own risk:

The Betfair In-Play coupon for today shows no matches. I guess everyone has a day off after yesterday's rough-and-tumble.

Darts Premier League for a Bit of Entertainment with Minimum Liability and Stakes

Back the draw between King v Wade at 5.1 looks value and then trade In-Play when the score goes 4-4

Lay Barney in the first and Back draw in the second (the Welsh chap has problems with doubles and Mardle seems to like treble 5 to much)

Lay Tailor in the last (just for a laugh) if there's some profit from the first three bets.

That's my plan; probably not a good one.

Low stakes for some good entertainment unlike yesterday's Bahrain v Qatar muddle.

Here's my "before the off" bet screens:

Wednesday Starts With a Ninety Pence Loss! Things JUST have to Improve?

Wed 1st April In Play Matches at Betfair

10:00 Australia v Uzbekistan
12:00 South Korea v North Korea
Fixtures 01 April / South Korea v North Korea / Match Odds South Korea Back £2.00 @ 3.5 £5.00

14:30 Serbia U21 v Romania U21
15:15 Bahrain v Qatar
Fixtures 01 April / Bahrain v Qatar / Over/Under 2.5 goals Under 2.5 Goals Lay £10.00 @ 1.49 (-£4.90)

15:30 Kazakhstan v Belarus
16:00 Bulgaria v Cyprus

So, 90p down going into the next Live video match:

16:30 Latvia v Luxembourg

Latvia went 1-0 up just before the end of the first half. I need one more goal from either team to make a trade or hold out for a 3 goals total.

Status Matched: Lay Under 2.5 Goals 1.3 Stake £10.00 Profit £13.00 Liability £3.00

Things are not looking good right now... but at least traded at the right time and I've got my 90p back (GRIN) might just have to LAY England and HOPE!

The In-Play Football List for Today

The trading chances for today are seriously limited. Out of the ten matches listed there's only one team "odds-on" (Barrow) all the rest seem to be priced evens or more.

Football betting at Betfair today is probably a waste of time and money.

The published start times reflect "British Summer Time". However, nobody at Betfair seems to have realised that last night the clocks went forward and we are now using GMT. Actually, this is typical of the Betfair services. They can be so good most of the time and then so crap on the small details.

Sun 29th Mar
07:00 Yokohama FM v Urawa
13:00 Brescia v Livorno

Just could NOT resist... I don't like cricket... I LOVE football. Brescia scored in the first minute and a few seconds later Livorno equalised. Then later in the second half Livorno scored a magnificent goal and went 1-2 up. The Livorno odds went into free-fall. I plunged, as the before match odds made Brescia favourites and there was still 20 minutes to play.

Lucky Jack got a green book and life is good... or it would be if England can get a few more wickets!!

15:00 Zvezda v Umea
16:00 Weymouth v Barrow
16:30 Herfolge v Silkeborg
18:30 Alaves v Hercules
18:45 Pisa v Bari
20:00 Dallas v Chivas USA
22:00 Ecuador v Brazil
00:10 Peru v Chile

So, is there any "free" money in laying the England cricket team yet again.

Will the losers finally perform?

The last few days have been hard.

However, here's my Lay bets on the football for today:

I hope to trade In-Play and NOT suffer the 0-0 feck-up

Yesterday's adventures at Betfair turned up some great green positions in the most unlikely circumstances.

I put a Lay bet on England in the ODI against the Windies, set the recliner to 50% and prepared to demolish a bottle of Three Rum, fresh limes and tonic water. Just recently that's the only way to watch the England cricket team mis-perform.

TEN minutes before stumps, I switched bets and traded to an England win book.

21:16 ODI Series West Indies v England - 1st ODI / Match Odds
Comm Charged 5% On Net winnings of GBP8.4 - - - (0.42 Betfair taking a drink... cheers!)

21:16 ODI Series West Indies v England - 1st ODI / Match Odds / England
Back 1.87 20.00 Won 17.40

14:22 ODI Series West Indies v England - 1st ODI / Match Odds / England
Lay 1.90 10.00 Lost (9.00)

I've absolutely no idea why I did this, as the Windies were sure to win. However, a mis-calculation of the 'Duckworth-Lewis Method' (http://www.dtol.co.uk/rain_rules.htm) by the Windies backroom staff handed England a win by ONE run and Jack's bread was buttered!

Actually, it's a bit of a shame to see a sporting event reduced to an arithmetic formula rather than bat-on-ball.

Anyway, it was a long day in the chair and I strayed on a few occasions to raid some offshore football and boxing.

Friday's Profit and Loss put the whole experiment back on track:

Boxing: GBP2.04 | Cricket: GBP7.98 | Soccer: GBP15.67 Total P&L: GBP25.69

Super Saturday Starts Here!!

Already in the green for Portsmouth v Everton match and I'm anticipating a hard day's trading.