The Postman – A Q and A with Barry Cooper
Hi Barry, and many thanks for joining us this month. First off would you start by telling our readers a little about yourself and your background?
Thanks for the questions! I’m a 54 year old man from the north east of England and since I left school in 1986, I have been serving a life sentence, possibly without parole at a very large postal company! Not only that for extra punishment I've had to support the ‘Toon' for 40 odd years, talk about hard labour….
Anyway, it was shortly after starting work that a colleague of mine started taking me to the local betting shop to place break time lucky 15's at 10 pence win, the cost shared between 3 of us! It was also soon after starting work that I gained an affection for beer but don't worry it was completely legal in the 80's!
I like to start the day with two hot things, a ciggy and a cuppa, then check the racing results and prepare to go to work. After a really taxing shift its back home to the real world and Horseracebase. This is when I check any runners from my systems to see which ones I will be backing.
Most days there are anything between 3 and 10 qualifiers but usually this gets narrowed down to 3 at the most.
After this its place my bets, then start research for anything that maybe of interest, e.g. trainer/jockey booking or maybe it could be a Jumps trainer with a runner on the all weather.
Typically, I bet modestly and the bulk of the money is on singles but when you have 3 or more selections this is a little bit boring so some small stakes multiples are required but I always try to ensure that the multiple betting stakes can be recovered by just one winning single.
Back to the subject of ‘anything that maybe of interest', this is one of the things I find most interesting about horse racing, it’s the unpredictability.
I remember reading articles/books from Allan Potts and Matt Bisogno to Dave Nevison and Dave Renham, all with differing approaches but with on main theme, an angle.
And this is the fun of racing. Ever seen a gamble unfold on a premier league fixture? There have been as I seem to remember a certain team putting the ball out of play very early, so early in fact I think the spread betting firms abandoned offering this bet shortly afterwards.
But as regards trying to eke out an edge on say premier league fixtures well it's just my opinion but I think the bookies have that down almost perfect.
But yes stats on football can be profitable but I find a kick in the teeth much easier to take when it doesn't come in the form of a VAR decision or in the distant past a bit of magic from Matt Le Tisser who in his day could score against the Toon from the car park, facing the wrong way wearing a blind fold and with one leg in plaster..
But I think the uncertainty of racing is what can make it a profitable pastime, that is why do some trainers perform well at certain tracks or a particular month or their 1st or 2nd run in a handicap? Why can trainers be useless with 2yo runners but excel with 3yo runners (I have my suspicions on this one). But what I do know is I can interrogate this information and possibly come out of it with a profitable angle or even a negative angle that can be exploited.
So, with this in mind I try to find an angle with an “off the radar” trainer or (and sometimes and this can be better) a popular well known trainer with and “off the radar” angle.
All of this is easier said than done of course but if you go about it the right way, i.e. you do your research, you keep it as simple as possible and check for anything that can skew overall results like a 50/1 winner.
After this then you have to be honest with yourself and ask the question ‘am I really happy to be putting my own money down?'. If you can answer this question ‘yes' then you can offer other people your advice.
Of course, if you cannot answer this question honestly then you could maybe take a ride on a time machine and open your own premium rate tipping line that offers ‘a real steering job' or ‘expected to win head in chest'. I do know that there have been successful tipsters in this field but many more that were definitely not!
If memory serves me right I did phone one of these lines a few times with no memorable results but I do have a memory of one group of friends that received a winning tip via phone call then proceeded to pay 100 quid for something like 3 months of tips only for the tipster never to be heard of again.
Thankfully, this sort of tipping seems to of died or at least there is less of it but obviously the betting world is awash with dubious practices…which brings me to bookies.
I must admit I personally have not had a problem with any bookmaker as such but I do have my issues with them. EG, I received 5 free spins on slots with a value of 10p each, so I play then get distracted and all of a sudden, I'm using real money but the stake by default goes to a quid a spin. Ok so that was my fault but why have the default stake set at a pound when it should be the minimum of 10p and the punter can then up the stakes themselves.
The other thing that really gets me is some of the offers like place 3x five pound bets and get one free, this to me is like the food industry promoting healthy eating by offering 3 pizzas for the price of 2. Of course, if you're putting the bets on anyway then fine. Of course I'm being negative as not all offers are bad; I mean who doesn't love placing a bet then you remember you have an odds booster and your 6/1 is now 13/2!!!! Eureka…
Of course, many punters are their own worst enemy. I know many a person from work who on nightshift is always looking at their phones and why? Because they have a bet on Mercury v Uranus under 2.5 goals in the first round of the Milky Way Conference Cup. More often than not though its basketball or anything else I know they haven't got a clue about.
I guess what I'm saying is, be selective.
Having said that I'm not adverse to betting on a conviction from my own observations or something you think is intuitively right. Which brings me to my probably best ‘snap judgement' bet.
After watching Andy Cole score 12 in 12 in the then 1st division I decided that he was a great bet at 16's to be top goal scorer the following season. So, on my £20 went. Except it didn't a colleague at work suggested that Teddy Sheringham was a real threat. So, I found another bet which was Cole to score 21 or more goals at 4/1.
On January the 1st he duly obliged with I think his 21st and 22nd goal so my bet was up four months early but if I'd stuck to my guns I would have collected on my original selection. Thanks Dave.
One thing to note here is looking back those odds were shocking for an unproven player with a newly promoted club.
Anyway, it’s now time to relax and get ready for the weekend which goes something like this.
Bets on. Ok maybe another.
Cup of tea, ciggy, a repeat of Tales of the Unexpected (which is easier to predict the end of than horse racing)
Book and bed (current book, The Fighter Of Auschwitz) – Sleep, Wake up, check results, listen to the end of the match. (Newcastle 4 Leicester 1 you gotta be optimistic!)
Then get ready for a night at the pub (cask and keg ales because nowadays I'm a beer snob)
Thanks for reading.
Barry
