What You Need to Know About Being a Professional Gambler – Part 1

Ever wondered what makes a professional gambler tick? How do they discipline themselves and just how much do they win at a time? Well so did I…

Matt from Punt.com has kindly taken time to answer a few questions and offer some advice for us part-time punters. In this exclusive two-part interview he offers a fascinating insight into how he works, what challenges he faces and lets us in on his biggest ever punt.

Hi Matt, thanks for taking time to have a chat…

No problem, happy to be here answering a few questions, just glad someone felt like asking

How long have you been a professional punter?

It’s becoming so long that I’m beginning to forget, time flies when you aren’t keeping track of it. Around 4 and a half years now. Not that long compared to some, but it feels ages.

Where did you work / what did you do beforehand?

I was a professional golfer before I was a professional gambler. Another slightly strange job, I don’t think I’ve ever had anything approaching a normal occupation. I was a teaching professional at a club, never really good enough to play on the tour – though as a teacher you get side tracked and bogged down in learning how to teach and earning a living so much that you never do get the chance to find out how good you could be. That was my biggest annoyance about that job, oh and it didn’t pay well either. I mean, really bad wages! Which was why when my boss came up with this horse racing system I decided to have a go…

And it was terrible! At the time I knew nothing about gambling, I didn’t know the maths or anything to do with horses. It was a massively flawed martingale type system and we promptly both lost our money! Not much money, but still, enough for me to want to take things into my own hands an learn why we lost. At school I was good at maths and loved puzzles, this to me was another one to figure out… I took a couple of months to learn gambling maths and learn what betting exchanges were about, which were still in their infancy at the time. I opened an account at flutter.com (now Betfair.com).

What encouraged you to go full-time?

Making money! Making many times my salary, not having enough time at work to trade and being close to being caught lots of times by people more senior than my boss (who didn’t mind at all watching me in the shop…) ! I could see how with more time to dedicate to it I could really increase the amount I was making. By this point I had stashed away a fair sum of money that would last me a long time – this was saved cash, not cash I was gambling with.

I always say that circumstances usually play an important part, and I had them all spot on when I began. I lived at home (no overheads) and I didn’t have a girlfriend at the time (no overheads!). It meant I had all day and night to spend doing this and build up my savings and my bank. If you make money, never stop stashing it away never to be touched again, you may just be thankful one day.

Obviously I was confident in my abilities to continue my success due to the method I was using didn’t look like changing soon.

How do you deal with the solitude of online punting?

I may moan about it occasionally on my blog, but really it’s not that bad. When I’m working I’m focused on what I need to do and how to do it as well as I can. When I’m not I’m indulging in a few of the interests that gambling has allowed me the time to learn and explore, which I otherwise might not have had in a normal job. I try to get out as much as I can, I’ve started playing tennis as well as betting on it, which has been enlightening, especially when playing competitive matches. Winter months I suppose can be the hardest, but I have plenty to keep myself occupied and I’ve never been one to be too bothered by spending time alone doing stuff.

For many people there is a stigma attached to gambling. How do they react when you tell them you’re a professional punter?

I tend to tell them I’m a day trader. Which has much less of a stigma attached. They inevitably ask what I trade, so I tell them sports and tennis, which usually gets a quizzical look, and so I begin to explain from there. Usually they are more open to what I have to say after attaching the term “trader” to it.

I think if you come straight out with, “I’m a professional gambler” you are immediately on a downer with some people. There’s a widespread belief that gamblers are losers and compulsives, that it’s a bit shady. And to be fair to them, there are an awful lot of people who lose, and have gambling problems. The general public are taught the stigma from an early age when their parents tell them not to go into the bookies, or of someone who had a problem. Then there’s the people who like a flutter here or there, there’s a lot of them. They know nothing about the maths of gambling, just how much they are putting on, how much they get back if they win, and who they think will win. The rest they trust to luck! If they lose it’s bad luck, if they win – their numbers came up, simple as.

It’s this ignorance of the maths which keeps people gambling, keeps bookies pockets lined, keeps those with addictive personalities coming back and scares off and builds a stigma amongst the rest. Bookies have no reason to suggest it’s anything to do with probability, they’d rather keep saying well done when someone wins and bad luck when they lose.

Do you still get a buzz from nailing a winner?

Yeah, I don’t think I’d be human if I didn’t. It depends very much on how much I’ve won though. I tend just to take whatever comes to me as all the same unless it is an unusually big win. The buzz of winning a large amount is possibly the most dangerous thing that happens to me psychologically. It takes focus away from the process of doing what I’m doing and onto the results. When you start looking at what you are winning and losing you start changing the process to suit that perception – not a good way of going about things. Before long you aren’t doing much right, and so something of a spiral begins. The only way is to really focus on doing things properly and forget what the profit or loss is. Admittedly, not easy – humans aren’t really programmed this way, it’s why it’s a hard job to succeed at!

Which sports / markets do you specialise in and why?

Tennis mostly. Because there’s a lot of it on and it’s popular, the markets are fairly liquid. Its also a two outcome market which keeps it simple, I’ve always liked one v one sports to trade. Darts, Snooker and Cricket are three others I can trade successfully, I just choose to dedicate most time to tennis currently and have done for 2/3 years now.

What’s a typical day for you? How many hours a day do you work?

A typical day is working when there’s work to do and trying to live a fairly healthy interesting life the rest of the time – not sure I succeed at that! I work on tennis, so I tend to work when it’s on TV, that’s when liquidity is at it’s best in the market. I’ve been trading the Australian Open this week, its basically a 24 hour a day job for 2 weeks if you include the work I put in to acclimatise myself to the time difference. I work from midnight until midday the next day and sleep in the afternoon from about 2 until as late as I can. I’ve found the more time I can spend asleep while it is dark the easier it is for me.

Some weeks there’s not much on, so I give myself the week off. I’m not tempted to dip into stuff if I’m not up for it and I rarely get that ‘missing out’ feeling. I’d rather do other stuff than gamble all day.

You can read part 2 of Matts’ interview here where he tells us about his research and strategies and reveals how much his biggest gamble was worth. You can also see what he’s up to over at his blog at Punt.com.

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