2008 - A year in numbers

Thought this would make some interesting reading for blog followers. Here are some stats on last year.

In 2008 I participated in 8579 horse races. The interesting thing about this number is that it shows the potential to everybody. The huge number of events on the exchanges present excellent opportunities. Even if you are not an expert and get an average return of just a few pounds/euros/dollars per race on average, your total for the year wouldn't be terribly shabby for the average earner. £3 per race on average would earn you £26k. Push your average return up and things look very bright indeed.

Having been around for eight years, each year I keep pushing as hard as I can. This shows up in my turnover, which was 47% ahead of the previous year, volume on the exchanges grew less than this. I wouldn't have bet on managing to achieve 47% growth at the start of 2008, especially when your turnover is very large already. I will have to change tack a little this year as the changes at Betfair now effectively punish people for being active, so in order to increase turnover I will be making some subtle changes to how I use exchanges in 2009. I will also need to focus on the best situations rather than adding liquidity to more marginal activity. Average profit, return on stake, average stake values are all stable so thankfully I don't appear to be chasing turnover.

The biggest winning run I went on was 55 races in a row. This is not a record, I set that last year. My worst losing run was 5 races in a row. This low figure tells me I am probably being too cautious and need to take some bigger risks. One of the reasons for such long runs is that if you are trading in the right manner, you will generally see a high strike rate. If your strike rate is 50/50 then you are definately too trigger happy.

Biggest turnover on one race in 2008 was well into six figures, curiously this didn't deliver my biggest profit of the year. It was also a long way short of my best for 2007, in fact around 20% lower. I sense that the markets are not growing apart from selected high profile events. This poses problems for how to increase activity in 2009. It seems, as has been the case for a while actually, that you just can't increase stakes to move forward, you have to work much smarter.

Reviewing figures with some other Bet Angel traders shows that we have all moved forward quite a bit over the year. It would appear that Bet Angel users account for a increasing share of their chosen markets. Turnover for Bet Angel users is now significantly higher than I imagined when we first set out. When I started out, If somebody said that Bet Angel users would achieve billions in turnover on Betfair I would have been astonished. As it is I am sure we ain't finished just yet!

My objective for 2009, More of the same I guess! Due to my fathers terminal illness, I haven't budgeted for a bumper year but also, after years of hard work, I am going to also take some more time out for myself this year. I need to get some balance back into my life again.

In the last six months of 2008 I have probably compiled more research than in my previous eight years on the exchanges. We look forward to bringing you some enhancements based on this work. I'll see if I can do my bit to help you really move ahead in 2009. Here's hoping for a cracking 2009!