What You Need to Know About Being a Professional Gambler – Part 2

In Part 2 of our exclusive interview with professional gambler, Matt from Punt.com he lets us in on how he plans ahead, refines and executes his strategies, whilst maintaining his discipline. He also reveals his biggest punt to date as well as offering a few words of advice.

For anyone that missed Part 1 you can find it here.

How much analysis and studying of form do you do?

Not enough form study. I’m fairly slack in this area admittedly, though watching xx hours of tennis a week, it’s tough to do more form type study on top of that. Analysis I do a fair amount of though and I count that as very important. Being content with what you have in this game means falling behind, the competition is always improving, you have to analyse your betting and more importantly your mentality on an on going basis. For me that means spending time when I’m not trading doing some work on the maths of what I’ve done, and making notes of what I was thinking at the time and looking through trying to improve my plan. It is part of the job, if you don’t do it, then you aren’t performing as well as you might or probably need to at some point.

Which sites / tools/ publications do you use for this?

I don’t really look at many sites, and I really should, there’s some excellent ones out there. I have a spreadsheet which I like to use for tennis. I don’t read any magazines or anything relating to tennis or gambling. I do read a lot of books though, and without those I would not be anywhere. “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” should be a good point for anyone to begin reading if they want to trade.

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 ot dedicate most time to tennis currently and have done for 2/3 years now.

What kind of strategies and plans do you work to, if any?

I have a trading plan that I have developed, this encompasses all of the maths and the mental elements, I’m constantly trying to execute it as well as I can and to improve it. Within this there’s a lot of sound gambling and trading principles.

If you were to look at how I trade, you would see mostly a position taking strategy with some small detailed trading back and forth, but you’d also see someone who will hold value if that’s what is called for. It’s all about value, the comparison of my judgement of the right price with the market, after each point. Central to this is the idea that the position you had 5 minutes ago, an hour ago or last point doesn’t mean anything, all that matters is where the market is now, and how my idea of the price compares, action is taken on that.

What’s the single biggest punt you’ve ever had?

I can’t name a particularly one, numerous of £30k+.

What’s the single biggest win and loss you’ve ever had?

I won £37k on Serena Williams beating Hantuchova at Wimbledon last year. I lost £30k on Henin winning Wimbledon, that day was kind of crazy, I lost £30k on that market, lost £17k on another and still came out ahead on the day by £13k!

How do you keep your discipline and don’t just bet out of boredom?

Discipline for me is about acceptance of the risks involved. Losing is a cost of investing at times, it’s just part of the job. if you don’t accept losing, then you will find it hard not to keep cracks appearing in discipline at some point. I also like to prepare as much as possible, I make my plan as easy to understand and simple to follow and stake from as possible. The more I can make work a simple case of acting out what needs to be done without much thought the better.

Bet out of boredom? I never have done this, I’m not sure I would ever do it. I’d much rather be doing something else than betting to be honest. I have bet out of ill discipline before, and this is the real trouble maker for me. Everything is about process rather than results – if I keep that attitude, then I can never complain.

How do you plan ahead, i.e. if a tournament is coming up, do you start your analysis early?

As early as I see fit. As I said above I don’t tend to do a massive amount of form stuff. I do try to plan my schedule as well as I can though, including time away months in advance, planning my week out and making sure people close to me know it too, so that I can focus properly.

Do you ever play poker or casino games?

I like the occasional game of poker, it’s a great game, I’m not very good at it though. I suppose if you were to put the boredom question to me again I would say I go play a £30 tournament or something online, I do quite well in tournaments, never in cash games though – that is too far into the boredom category for me!

I never play casino games… why play a game with a negative expectancy !? if you find it fun, then maybe you might justify paying for the fun, but I definitely don’t !

Would you still be a professional punter if the Internet hadn’t been invented?

No!

What’s your IT set up like?

3 computers, 3 screens, laptops, tvs, sky etc. I’m one of these people without a big satelite dish, I’m probably in the minority amongst the pro tennis traders in that respect. I am 3 seconds behind them, and 6+ seconds behind people at the tournament on their phones. I still do just fine though

Any words of advice for us part-time punters?

Sure… Cut losses, run winners. Always find your own method, don’t bet on the advise of others and if you do, do the research yourself. Never chase a loss – losing is part of the job, let it go move on – it’s a marathon and not a sprint, the event you trade now is no more important than the next, try not to see each individual match or market as your entire universe, it’s one of a never ending timeline. What you are thinking needs to be worked on as much as anything else. Read, learn, improve – never ever get out of learning mode, when you do, you fall behind.

Thanks Matt. All the best with your future punting!

Again if anyone has any questions to pose to Matt please add them in the comments section.

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