Betting Bankers and Football Pools
Bankers
What Are Bankers?
'Bankers' is a term usually used to describe 'surefire'
results.
For example, you might see that, say Man U is playing one
of the bottom of the Premiership
teams, at Old Trafford. Most people would see this as a home banker.
Accordingly, the bookies will be offering poor odds (or very
good odds for Man U being
beaten).
How Do You Find Them?
Now, when it comes to draws forecasts, those that are the most
likely of the draws - i.e. roughly in the middle of my
system's sorted list of match forecasts - could be thought of as bankers.
Maybe you would select the middle four draw forecasts as bankers. Because they
have the highest probability of a draw result, then using them in a group as
part of a plan could improve your odds for a given cost.
I don't use bankers myself as I prefer not to tighten my
forecasts any more - bankers are a way of cutting
cost by cutting coverage. Therefore, in my ebook I haven't included plans to cover them.
How To Use Them
However, if you want to do so, then you might
use a plan such as:
Perm 1 group of four matches (your bankers), with and 2 from
each of any 2 of the other 3 groups of four
matches.
This simple example uses 14 selections from your sorted match
forecast list.
So, your plan is:
(your group of four bankers) x (any 2 groups from the other 3
groups) x (2 from 4 in each of the
two groups) x (same again) lines = 108 lines.
That is 1 x 3 x 6 x 6 lines = 108
If you had used a four group plan without bankers, such as any
2 from 4 in each of four groups of 4 (which is 16
selections), then the number of lines would be 6 x
6 x 6 x 6 = 1296. This is a big increase (11 times more lines) for only 2 more
selections as compared with 14 selections using four
bankers.
I'm afraid it's an endless debate. I set my budget, then get
the best coverage I can for that week's stake and
don't favour any particular matches in my list of
draw forecasts (which is what using bankers does).
There is loads of info available on plans and perms on the
web, and some here on this site.
A final word: on the basis of probability, home bankers are the easiest to
predict. Away bankers and draw bankers are harder to predict.
There are coupons which offer, say, eleven homes or four aways, which makes a change from eight draw
forecasts.
Staking Bank
My budget varies week by week because I use a 'staking bank', and never stake more than 5% of my bank
balance (this is an aside, and nothing to do with 'Bankers' or banker bets). That means that I always have enough
for 20 stakes over the season, and more when I win. A 'staking bank' is just an amount that I set aside at the
start of the season. I keep my records on a spreadsheet, but a piece of paper is fine - after all it's
only 20 lines or so for a season (my system doesn't stake every week, only when the circumstances are best).
Date |
Opening Balance £ |
Plan |
#
Lines |
# Selections |
%
Hit |
Stake £
|
Win
£ |
Lose £ |
Closing Balance
£
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Good luck! But then, we make our own here...
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