Last week’s eletter mentioned ‘bankers’ and how services such as www.soccerstreaks.com focus on very short-priced bets and hope to profit from them.

This service, for instance, typically focuses on football matches where the favourite is priced at around 1.2 (1/5 in fractional terms). This means that in order to simply make £20, you have to place a £100 stake.

The advantage here is clearly with the bookmaker and all of the risk is with the backer.

At the end of September, www.soccerstreaks.com lost three ‘banker bets’ in one week. This hit the betting bank to the tune of £100 each (if betting to £100 level stakes). This means that they require 15 consecutive winners at odds of 1.2 in order to be back to where they were before the first of those losers arrived.

Oh boy! All of that work for nothing!

But there is a way to use this to your advantage…

I was rather taken by this ‘banker’ idea so tried it out for myself this week. I used £100 as my stake and where I differ from Soccer Streaks is in one important area: all of my bets are placed in the in-play markets at www.betfair.com.

I do not bet pre-match. I wait until the football match or (as you’ll see) the tennis match is already in-play.

It’s been a profitable week! Here’s a look at the bets placed this week – all £100 stakes, sometimes a little bit more (including profits from previous banker bets [click on the image to see it properly then click ‘back’ on your browser to get back here])…

I hope the screenshot is big enough for you to see. I’ll do a close-up on the markets used (see below). That’s £387 profit this week from odds so short that Ronnie Corbet no longer needs a step-ladder to see them!

What do these bankers have in common? Look at the players: Sharapova, Nishikori, Raonic, Serena Williams, Andy Murray, Marin Cilic, Rafael Nadal, Berdych, Djokovic. Nearly all of these tennis players are household names – top 10 or even top 5 players and heavily fancied.

The bets were placed mostly after the first set was won by the strong favourite. I looked, oftentimes, at the set betting market (usually backing 2-0) in order to find my banker bet.

I also looked at football for my banker bets (again, click on the image)…

Look at the markets employed here for the football bankers. Remember these bets are all in-play. I have employed the Halftime market (where on occasion I have layed a team, such as Besiktas, rather than back a team), and I have used the Halftime/Fulltime market. In the Krasnador v Everton match for instance, I layed Krasnador/Krasnador in the Halftime/Fulltime market and was saved, thankfully, by an Everton equalizer after krasnador rather unfortunately took the lead 3 minutes before halftime.

So, what have you learned from my approach to banker bets?

1. I use tennis and football and leave the horse racing alone.
2. I use in-play betting in order to find my ‘apparent good things’.
3. I do lay on occasion, mostly in the Halftime and Halftime/Fulltime market. Laying in football markets where there are three options means you are covering two of the three options.

I bank all profits over £10. My desire? To bank at least £100 so that this becomes a no-lose game for me.

The negatives?

A 100% record is the ideal here! You cannot afford to lose in the run up to your first £100 banked, otherwise you are on the back foot immediately.

If you want any ideas on how to find banker bets of your own, how about downloading the results at www.goal-power.com/Bankers.html? These will give you an idea of the markets this ‘banker seeker’ looks for. Please note I do not endorse www.goal-power.com, as I have no direct experience. I only want you to take advantage of their spreadsheet listing their results, in order for you to learn the kinds of markets in which a ‘banker’ bet is found.

Why not try finding your own banker bets this weekend?

Here’s another resource for you football banker seekers: why not use the Odds On Coupon in the football section of www.willhill.com?

I’ll continue with my banker selections this weekend, I’ve already banked £58 today by backing Andy Murray just as he was about to win the first set, at odds of 1.14; backing Maria Sharapova to win the second set at odds of 1.25 after she was 5-2 up in the first set; backing Nishikori at odds of 1.06 to win the first set; and backing Raonic in the match odds at odds of 1.15.

Experiment yourselves this week. The key is to try and win your stake back as quickly as possible, and then you will be in profit-making territory.

There are other ways you can manage the staking, such as betting 10% of your bank and such like.

I’m off now to find some more bankers. If I carry on winning, this must surely catch the eye of the newly single Kelly Brook?

Surely???