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A Q and A with Kieran Ward of Make Your Betting Pay

Hi Kieran, and many thanks for joining us this month, first off would you start by telling our readers a little about yourself and your background?

Hi Darren, thanks for having me.

I’m a 52 year old father of two and I’ve been betting (mostly on horse racing) since my early teens with ‘mixed’ results early on but improving over the years to the point where I’ve been betting for a large proportion of my living for close to 20 years now.

I’ve been running value based tipping services for the last dozen years or so with, what I think, is great success and over the last 5 years have also automated my value finding efforts in a piece of software called The Value Machine.

I figured out early in my pre horse racing career that I was pretty much unemployable.

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Don’t get me wrong I had plenty of jobs, I just couldn’t put up with being told what to do for very long! I always had my eye on other ways of making money so it was pretty inevitable I would end up doing something a bit ‘alternative’ for a living.

What attracted you to the world of horse racing and betting and what do you enjoy most about the sport?

I grew up in a horse racing part of the country, very near to Lambourn and was interested in horse racing and betting from a very young age.

I remember as a small boy accompanying my uncle to the bookies on many occasions and finding it all very exciting and mysterious.  The fact that he had a few big wins while I was with him helped make it even more interesting.

I could go on and on here about my love for the sport – and while I do love the sport – my main interest has always been in making money from it.

Would you say that you have a “typical” working day, and how would you describe it?

My typical day starts with getting the children ready and off to school. I will then start work around 8.30am, monitoring the betting markets and preparing for sending out my selections at around 10.30am. Once I have sent my selections, I will place my own bets – nearly always identical to the selections I have sent out.

One of the big drivers that drew me to the pro gambler lifestyle was being in charge of my own time. Sadly, running a business is not so conducive to time freedom and a fair bit of the middle part of my day is taken up with the chores of running a business before more bets and race watching in the afternoon.

What do you think of the world of sports tipping in general and what do you think people are in search of when it comes to their hunt for a successful tipster?

I think the sports tipping world is very much changed over the last 10 years or so. Previously there seemed to be a fair number of so called ‘tipsters’ tipsters out there simply trying to turn a quick buck with the latest system/made up tipster name. These days the vast majority of tipsters out there are genuine, hard working professionals who do everything in their power to provide profitable advice. This change has come about mainly because of the internet – information is easily accessible to anyone in a google search and any bad experiences punters have with a tipster are normally easy to find!

Do you regularly bet yourself? What style of approach do you take to your betting? What do you think of staking plans, loss retrieval systems etc.?

I bet everyday – all my selections in singles and my shorter priced ones in multiples. While I think staking plans have their place, I would never follow any service/system or method that hadn’t proven it can turn a profit to level stakes. I am NOT a fan of loss retrieval systems – stakes invariably spiral out of control and months of profit are lost in a single day.

How does The Value Machine work and what led you to set this up? How does this differ from the Precision Value offering? Have you always taken a Value approach to your betting?

The Value Machine works by analysing the betting market and identifying runners that it predicts will go off at a shorter price than the one currently available.

It uses a variety of indicators to make that prediction and its predictions are accurate enough create a significant edge and substantial profits.

Precision Value, one of my other products, uses a near identical selection method to the software but focuses solely on shorter priced selections with a higher strike rate

Sadly, I haven’t always taken a Value approach to my betting. And I was much the poorer for it! I credit understanding the concept of value as the single most important factor in my evolution from a losing gambler to a pro.

What traits do you think a good tipster should possess and what do you think the average punter is looking for from a tipping service?

I think the most important trait for any good tipster is the ability to remain calm under pressure and not deviate from their methodology when the INEVITABLE losing runs arrive. This trait can only really be developed with experience and total faith in your methodology – normally borne of a very large, statistically significant bet history.

I think the average punter is looking for an honest, reliable tipster who they know is giving their all in the quest for profit.

New and old punters alike can struggle to make a success of their betting. If you could give them just one piece of advice to improve their profitability, what would it be?

Do your due diligence! It can become very hard to follow a service into the depths of a large downturn if you are not absolutely confident in their ability to turn a profit in the long term.

To gain that absolute confidence you need to be certain that the tipster has a long, proven record of profitability and has bounced back many times before from deep downturns.

What would you consider to be a highlight of your betting experiences to date? Do you have any personal experiences which when reflecting back brings a smile, or for that matter any which bring a grimace; you can share with our readers?

Pretty much all of my betting involves straight value plays so there are generally an awful lot more grimaces than smiles. It’s the nature of the beast that there will be a lot more nearlys than winners!

The biggest smiles have accompanied my biggest wins and my big wins almost invariably come from perming my shorter priced selections into multiples.

And the biggest grimaces normally come from the same source – when an over-confident jockey gets caught on the line for your 4th winner in a Lucky 15 or falls at the last when 20 lengths clear!

We all have those bad beats I guess, and a big part of betting success is how you cope with them.

What about the gambling industry, is there anything you like to see changed there? Many website forums are full of criticisms of the bookmakers and their treatment of their customers? Is this something you have an opinion on?

I won’t go too deeply into it because it will ruin my day, but I have the same problem as all other bettors with the policy of limiting and closing accounts. Please don’t get me started!

What do you do to relax and unwind? What interests have you outside the world of horse racing?

My other big sporting interest these days is Mixed martial Arts and I spend a fair amount of time finding value in those markets. Quite amazing how far off the mark the bookmakers are on MMA at times.

But, completely away from betting, I enjoy relaxing with my family, walking, the odd drink (or two) and watching/reading true crime books and documentaries. In fact, I’m so (ghoulishly) interested in true crime that at one time I considered training as a private investigator. That went by the board when I realised that most of my time would be spent trailing cheating husbands and serving papers on people!

Find it more about the Value Betting Bot here

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