Twitter has been an incredibly enlightening experience and has been nothing but positive since I started posting content six months ago. My aim was to provide free content to help people become better punters. That hasn’t changed and remains the goal. Kevin Pullein in the Racing Post today talks about punters in the UK having lost £3bn in the last year. That only 1 in a 1000 punters win longer term. Those are shocking numbers and is something we have to try and do better with.
I am proud of the body of work that resides on the blog for anyone to view at any time. I honestly believe it can offer something for all punters irrespective of experience. The recent tweet (126) was designed to try and help the less sophisticated punter improve their betting. I got lots of positive feedback for that tweet and it was viewed by more than a 1000 different people. However, that isn’t close to enough. I won’t rest easy until 100 times that number have viewed it. Everyone can learn something from it.
What I am really struggling with though, is that the big social media (Twitter) accounts are so reluctant to endorse this type of content. I can think of a few reasons why it might be the case. They might not like the work I have produced. They might not like the way I say it. I realise I haven’t always been fulsome in my praise for everyone. I have always just tried to be honest though. I only regret one comment on here (apologies Joseph Buchdahl!). I would hope egos are not that delicate though, if it means that their followers can improve their betting. They might not know that the content exists. They don’t actually care about their followers and have no interest in them becoming better punters. Some benefit from losers. They are worried to be seen endorsing content that doesn’t fall under their brand/publication. The only other thing is that the content is unrelatable to them. (i.e. they don’t bet/bet small amounts). They don’t appreciate the content that is being put out there. It could be any or all of these. I literally have no idea and hence this tweet.
One of the biggest challenges I have found with the content is the mindset that the huge majority of people seem to have towards their betting. They have so little desire to improve their betting skillset it constantly baffles me. It is literally just about tips, tips and more tips. I have said before that if I gave tips out I could have five times the followers but produce a hundredth of the quality of content. That’s betting twitter in a nutshell. I realise not everyone has the time or skills to find an edge and hence why they would follow others advice.
However, I struggle when people make the same basic mistakes over and over again. If you are providing content (whether that be tv or written media) where betting is at the forefront of it, its not tough to provide viewers/followers/customers with the basics. We have to teach people how to bet more smartly. The advice wont suddenly make people become winning punters. All it does is reduce the rate at which they will lose at. They will get even more “entertainment” for their money. These people would shop around for bargains in a store but not shop around for prices on a bet. Its bonkers. I think it stems from a complete lack of awareness about what they should be doing. Betting doesn’t come with an instruction manual.
Tony Calvin mentioned it recently in a tweet about how poorly the main tv channels do when talking about betting and betting content. Racing pretends it doesn’t exist. There is decent content out there that can help people. Whether that be mine or others. The biggest Twitter accounts have a platform to help their followers not lose as much money. Become just that bit smarter. The betting public is so poorly served at the moment. They have a chance to help people stop losing so much money.
Whatever happens I will keep fighting this fight as it is something I believe to be the right thing to do. If anyone has feedback/ideas on how we can improve the current situation I am all ears.
ProPunting 