Costly Mistakes and Damage Control
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I thought it might be interesting to hear some horror stories. What have been the most costly mistakes in your MB career? Where you able to claw back any losses? What lessons have we learned from having our bank roll shrink rather than grow?
I was just scrolling through my bet log spreadsheet and noticed a loss of £73 which came from jumping on what i thought was a killer arb opportunity only to find that I’d backed and layed different horses – they had very similar names and very similar odds. After the race I checked my accounts and had the kick in the gut feeling. Obviously if i’d noticed it before the race was over I’d have tried to minimised losses by backing and laying again, but such is life.
Thats probably not that bad of a loss in perspective, but I had a tiny bankroll and was only putting small wagers down on arbs. It was easily made back but knocked my confidence and hammered home the fact that concentration is fairly important in this game.
+1May 5, 2016 at 10:24 am
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a few for me, took sp night before on betfair and a horse pulled out and bet was not there anymore placed again and of course horse won later checked account and both bets were there. found out if you take sp and then there’s a withdrawal betfair don’t update until the off.
2 browser windows open on same race – another £150 loss.
Had loads in my fav
where i’ve placed inplay footie bet and then suspended and the team i was just going to lay has scored.+0ive backed at the bookies and then laid the stake as the liability so instead of laying £50 for £10 return i laid £10 for £2
ive had free bets from betfairs sports book that i accidentally let expire 🙁
+0I was showing my friend something on Team-viewer, about matched betting. I ended the call with him, didn’t realise team viewer was still on, at this point i had £2900+ in Smarkets. He didn’t know what he was doing and placed 48 in the odds box rather than the stake (apparently he wanted to place this bet as a joke). so some lucky person got 48.0 odds on a horse who was 4.5 to win. the bet was £10, luckily the horse didn’t win, but most stressful race of my life – shameful mistake.
Other than that, i’ve Underlayed a horse by about £100 (Racebets), got my numbers wrong through lack of concentration. Again, I’m extremely lucky as the horse actually won, putting me up by about £250 from a mistake.
I now have a rainy day fund for any future mistakes, as this luck has to run out.
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F Shep. How the hell did that happen? (The 48 odds). All the times I’ve layed higher than the current it just matches at whatever is current (Lay @ 6.0, accidentally lay @6.8, matches at 6.0). It does admittedly auto adjust, but in that case you can back out of it pretty easily.
It must’ve been a dead market for that to happen surely?
My worst would just be, like above, letting Betfair FB expire as they are available for about 2 days compared to a week most other sites or waiting until too late to lay (Bet365 4/1 offer) and not getting an in-play match.
If I have backed/layed the wrong horse, I haven’t noticed.
+01. Layed on wrong football game that had the exact same odds. Lost -€200.
2. Backed for €30, layed for €300 on a football arb when I was drunk. Won €270. Against U 4.5 goals. Thank you Barcelona.+0
I keep messing up on the bet 365 offers. Bet 50 prematch and on the opposing side at a third bookie then completely forget about the in play bet. Has happened more than once
+0A certain bookies void my bet 2 minutes before the race was due to start £250 loss
Not happy about it, playing catch up now and its not fun!
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My biggest error so far is £100 loss. Got money stuck in realdealbet as I kept winning bets.
Decided to put £100 on over 1.5 match goals and lay after the first goal to make a profit rather than a loss.
Picked a game, Scotland v Poland i think, put my son to bed, he wouldn’t settle for a bit. Got back to the game and it was already 1-0. Stupidly changed my bet to over 2.5 match goals and of course it finished 1-0.The other two internationals that night finished 1-1!
And to make it even worse the bet wouldn’t have counted towards rollover anyway as it was on an Over/Under market!+0i’ve bet on over 2.5 goals then laid over 2.5 goals and once it settled i found out i had bet over on one football matches and under on another match. both bets lost, i didnt lose to much, but be careful with having too many windows open when checking around for good odds
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I lost 350 quid a couple of months ago on a Will Hill horse offer – one of their enhanced multiples for a particular trainer’s horses to be placed on 3 different races. The first two were placed and then the third one came in 3rd. Problem was a horse withdrew from the last race so only 2 places were paid on Will Hill, but on smarkets they still paid out for 3 places. So I lost on both sides. Painful experience but really there wasn’t much I could have actually done about it!
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mainly putting in a lay on bfx and expecting it to be taken before KO/race starts, and it going off unmatched, (has been bad and good) but missed three betbright free bets, one being a £25 euros outright, also messed up during cheltenham backed a horse and went to lay just before the start and the odds went from around 10, and started going up, put in the same back increasing my liability around £75 and then the horse bloody won.. but cant complain.. its been a great ride so far!
+0Thought I backed Kimberella yesterday with 365, definately laid Kimberella. All chuffed going into my 365 account and I had backed Growl by mistake!! £125 down the drain. Got £50 from Centurian and a couple of wins today at chester, so that loss hurts a little less now.
+0A few close calls similar to those mentioned like laying the wrong outcome/in a different market. If you double check everything you should spot any mistakes. Most bookies allow you to cash out for a small loss. Mistakes on the markets can be sorted easily enough. Bit more pressure when it’s in play but if you don’t panic you’ll likely be ok.
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