A Q and A with Laura of Goal Profits
Hi Laura, 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 and thanks for inviting me to take part in this.
I grew up in the beautiful Shropshire countryside, although I have always felt more at home in the city, so I have spent some time living in Liverpool and soon to be moving to London.
I fell into the world of betting and trading during the “credit crunch” around 2008. Things were tight and I had stumbled across matched betting online, which I had read could make me a risk-free second income.
This got me thinking… yeah right, whatever! But it turned out to be true. Back then, there were an absolute wealth of offers to make money from and I was making enough to live on.
Once things had started to fizzle out, due to bookmaker accounts closing and being limited etc., someone had mentioned taking a look at Goal Profits.
I learnt so much about the world of football trading from Steve and Kevin and started my journey moving from matched betting to trading and value betting.
This is when I began building a betting portfolio and discovered just how many rubbish services and scammers there were floating around. After discussing with Steve, we decided to start the Goal Profits Review site, to weed out the bad stuff and find out what actually works.
Would you say that you have a “typical” working day, and how would you describe it?
I have been working from home for more than 10 years now, so it feels normal to me. It is certainly not a typical working day by most people’s standards though!
I start my mornings by going through emails, checking odds and recording results for tipster reviews. This requires a big mug of coffee first, as I am totally not a morning person.
The rest of the day is pretty much ad lib. I am working on on-going reviews most days and always scouting out more services and systems to review next.
It is great in many ways, as I can work wherever I want to, so long as there is a decent Wi-Fi connection. On the other hand, there rarely goes a day where I am not doing something to do with the review website.
What do you think of the world of sports trading in general and what do you think people are in search of when it comes to their hunt for a successful trading method?
I think that the idea of sports trading is to make a steady long-term income by making calculated decisions backed up by stats.
Team Stats at Goal Profits has as many football stats as you could wish for, which definitely helps, but learning how to use them is the important thing.
A lot of people seem to want everything done for them and will follow advice blindly without knowing the reason why.
Personally, I feel it is much better to have control on what you are trading. Putting the effort in to researching stats, to carrying out trades and then seeing the profits coming in is so much more rewarding.
Do you feel that the average trader sets their expectations at a realistic level? How and where would you advise a completely novice trader start their trading activities?
I think that with trading, particularly as a beginner, it is easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing and overtrade fixtures that you haven’t researched.
Sports’ trading is mostly made up of short-term trades that can be done within 90 minutes.
When you see winning and losing trades happening as quick as this, sometimes emotions take over and you can end up chasing losses or just not knowing when to call it a day.
My advice, which I learnt from taking time to study the training material at Goal Profits and following Steve and Kevin’s trades, is to have a plan and stick to it!
Mindset, targets and bank management are some of the key topics that are covered in the Goal Profits Launchpad.
I feel that they are the most important to get to grips with before anything else.
Do you regularly trade yourself? What style of approach do you take to your trading? What do you think of staking plans, loss retrieval systems etc.? Do you ever look to place outright bets?
I don’t trade often anymore as I am always busy with the review site, but when I did, I would follow my trading plan. This would consist of a group of Goal Profits strategies, to cover a balance of First Half, Second Half and Full Match systems.
My approach was fairly conservative, but I would be willing take risks in the right scenario.
I used a staking plan to manage my bank, but I am not a huge fan of loss retrieval systems. In many cases, things can get out of control quickly with them and then you’re left in a difficult position.
As for outright bets, I prefer not to have my bank tied up for too long. There are certainly some profitable long-term outright bets to be made, but I prefer short -term trading myself.
I was a fan of Kevin Laverick’s World Cup guides that contained some outright bets for the tournament, but I set aside a separate bank for these for a bit fun.
What attracted you to the world of football and what do you enjoy most about the sport?
I spent some years living in Liverpool and this is where my passion for football began. It is a passionate city that lives and breathes the sport, so it was difficult to not become absorbed in it whilst I was there.
What do you feel Goal Profits can offer the football enthusiast that other traders and tipsters cannot?
Goal Profits is a fantastic community of people all interested in the same thing. Football and making money!
The difference is Goal Profits is all about learning to trade professionally and not just general punting. There have been quite a few members that have taken the step to quit their jobs to take up trading full time, and with Goal Profits help, they have made a success of it.
What traits do you think a good football trader should possess?
Analytical skills, a desire to delve into statistics, and most importantly, patience and discipline!
Love of the sport helps but I don’t think it is absolutely necessary. After all I traded some cricket matches once upon a time… not my favourite sport I have to admit!!
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?
I would go back to that old saying, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. As I mentioned earlier, I like to have a portfolio when it comes to betting and trading.
If following tipsters, I would pick a handful of successful services, perhaps in different sports or with different betting styles.
The idea is to create a balance, so for example if one service is having a horrific downturn, another may be having a great run of results and hopefully cancel it out, or at least make the situation more bearable to ride out.
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 have to agree with the criticisms of bookmakers, particularly here in the UK. From matched betting, I know how difficult it is to keep accounts open or without restrictions.
However, I found that when I moved on to straight betting, I was faced with the same problem. It seems after you are deemed to be a profitable bettor, your accounts are quickly limited. The industry seems to be promoting safe gambling a lot more nowadays and there are tools on betting sites to restrict your own betting, which is a good thing.
It does make you ponder though, who exactly are their target customers.
What do you do to relax and unwind? What interests have you outside the world of football?
My absolute favourite thing is to go and listen to live music. I am lucky that in my area (before the COVID-19 restrictions), there is a buzzing music scene.
There are music acts and bands playing every weekend in the town and open mic or jam nights throughout the week.
I play a few instruments myself, including drums, bass and guitar, so I like to join in when I can. Find out more about Goal Profits here
You might also enjoy our chats with Goal Profits's Steve Brown and Kevin Laverick