The Beautiful Game & An Introduction…

Welcome to "the beautiful game". Introductions are necessary methinks. I am the new writer for the Football Section, just one of ten new writers for different sections of LTO. Going under the alias of 99reds, (I will come to that shortly), I am hoping to resurrect the ailing fortunes of Football on this site. How am I going to do this?—–well, you are going to help me, through various cunning plans I have in store.

Firstly though, you will want to know who I am and a bit about my background. Football has been my life for the last 47 years, since joining the school team at 10 and progressing through onto the books of Leeds United for 2 years as a teenager before being let go, along with 95% of the other lads, (they were dark days indeed).

I continued playing football though until I was 40, in the semi-pro/amateur ranks of the Northern Premier Leagues and then spent 10 years as Coach/Manager at the same level before retiring at 50. This was all done against the backdrop of having a full-time job as well——Chartered Surveyor, Teacher and Royal Mail Manager, in that order.

Since retiring 7 years ago my only income has been through my betting portfolio, which has really turned into a full-time job. Prior to that my betting had been a hobby and not a very successful one but when it became a necessity to make money from betting that is when I took it very seriously.

Apart from my love of the game itself, it now produces more income for me, when I am out of the game than it ever did when I was in the game. That is because of the strategies, systems, staking and banking that I now use.

As I have said, I am retired but to make a success of the betting it has become almost a full-time job. To take on and beat the "books" is a very difficult job, especially in football, where it appears that you are kicking uphill all game , while the bookies are playing downhill.

I will show you why it is so difficult to make money betting on football and how you can turn that round. Hopefully I will be able to illuminate the seedy world of gambling for you and take you on a voyage of the "beautiful game" but more than that, I would love it if you got involved with these posts and the forum site which is about to spring into life again.

I do have a lot of strong views and opinions about the game, with which you may or may not agree but if at least it gets a discussion thread going, then I will be happy. I will often be taking a rather irreverent look at the game and slagging off a few of the great and good but you would expect that, wouldn't you?

My main aim will be to keep you interested, informed and educated. This then will be my first real go at putting my football views and opinions across to a larger audience than the dressing room. As you see, my great credentials are that of being in love with the game and wanting to try and help anyone out there who cares about football and the betting side and pass on my knowledge, experience and love of the game to the benefit of you all.

As I continue to write for laytheodds.com, we will go through many experiences together, including:-

• Tutorials
• Product reviews
• Free systems
• Software
• Websites
• Resources
• Forums
• New products
• My experiences
• Helpful hints
• Starting your own ratings
• Different aspects of the betting market

If I ever get a hang of this IT lark, we may even do some videos

There is so much more I could tell you here but we shall keep that until later blogs. Suffice to say, I am on your side, I hate the "books" and love to give them a bashing every now and then.

Ooh! I forgot, the 99reds. A couple of seasons ago, 2005/2006, I spent the season travelling around the country to visit 99 different football grounds where the home team played in red and that is where my alias came in, 99reds. Why did I stop at 99? I don't know, maybe it's a throwback to Trevor Francis in 1979 when he transferred from Birmingham to Forest. He didn't want to be labelled the first £1 million pound player and so he insisted that the fee was £999,999.

Anyway if there is anyone out there in the real world who has read this and wants to get involved in the football forum here, or wants a system tested, or has any valuable information to pass on, or just to let me know your favourite team, then do please get invloved in the football site. I will be back shortly with my next post—-

"I'm Dreaming of a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ "

Bye for now.