You have to simply accept that some sports may not be as ‘clean’ as they should be or are as portrayed to be. In this tweet (1st of 3) we will talk about Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). It can hugely impact betting markets depending on the sport.
The sports that immediately spring to mind when talking about performance enhancing drugs are horse racing, athletics and cycling. However, it definitely isn’t limited to those and I suspect that it is rife in sports such as tennis and soccer as well. Maybe even golf these days.
In an ideal world every sport would be clean and all competitors would be performing on an equal footing. From a betting perspective we want to know that previous performances were on the level and that future ones will bare some resemblance to the previous ones.
Unfortunately, that simply isn’t the case and we have seen so often, sporting achievements completely at odds to previous achievements. You have to be incredibly sceptical about what you are watching, particularly if the purported clean athlete is degrees better than proven drugs cheats.
I always remember having fiercely debated discussions in the pub about Lance Armstrong. Quite simply everyone he was beating was a proven drugs cheat, Are we really to believe that someone is not only 5% better than anyone else but 5% better than someone using PEDs?
You are saying he might be 10% better than the field if no drugs are involved. It just doesn’t stack up. I have huge question marks over someone like Bolt. Are we truly to believe that he was the only one in the Jamaican setup not using drugs?
Remember their out of season testing was non existent. He was at one stage the only sprinter to have not tested positive for PEDs out of those who had posted the top 50 times of all time. That may have changed a little since but the same principles apply. Can anyone be that good?
Just watch the documentary called ‘Icarus’. You will be left in no doubt about how rampant PEDs are across world sport. There is little incentive to not use them. You can gain great riches if they catapult you to the top. Relatively short bans if found guilty and you keep the money etc.
There is a similar, albeit slightly different principle at play, in UK & Irish racing. Do people honestly believe that doping is rampant all around the World, whether that be in the USA with Bob Baffert, France with Rossi, Australia with Smerdon etc but not the UK? It happens everywhere.
That is of course apart from the UK & Ireland. It is simply that the testing procedures in place are not fit for purpose. You cannot honestly believe some of the performances at Cheltenham from the Irish raiders are natural progressions? It is what it is though.
You just have to accept that whilst the authorities wont do anything about the situation, that it does happen and probably significantly more often than you would like. Adjust your betting accordingly.
The point is that you can pick and choose which sports you bet on and if you choose one where PEDs are frequently used, then you have no one to blame but yourself, if you are on the wrong end of some unexpected results and performances. It does happen.
ProPunting 