The Form Analyst

It saddens me to say this but after 14 months, 540 bets, 116 points profit and a ROI of 12%, the game has got the better of me and I’m closing the service with immediate effect.

At the end of July, this was 445 bets, 189 points profit and an ROI of 25%. Mid July, it was even better as I ended July poorly!

I know some will be shocked, some will be disappointed, some will fully understand, some will never understand but being honest, I want to be as fair to all of you and myself as possible and simply, I don’t want anyone following me over a cliff at this game.

It was important to me that I put everything into this and I think I’ve given it my best shot. Simply, I can’t seem to be able to get the tipping results to match the work, effort and knowledge I have and therefore, I’m not doing myself much good or any of you much good trying to flog a dead horse. I said on day one I was only playing this game to be the best service in the market long-term and I think I have failed at that and therefore, now is the time to stop.

Some people will rightly point to the long-term performance and some services would kill for my results over the first 14 months of the service but being honest, it is about half as good as what it should be and anyone who has been with the service knows that too.

I’ve obviously got lots of loose ends to tie up but I’ll try to pre-empt any questions people may have.

I won’t be stopping the site and as long as I can reach agreement with Dave regarding the upkeep of the site and the forum, I’d really like the forum to remain in place for all of you long-term. I’ve met some amazing people in there and therefore, I’d like people to keep using the forum. It’s a great place.

Obviously, I’m sitting on subscription fees belonging to all of you and therefore, I need to try to get these back to you as quickly and fairly as possible. What I would say is that I gave full refunds to a whole host of people a few months ago and I paid for a lot of these out my own pocket as I still have costs associated with this service regardless of whether I’m tipping or not.

I’ll try to pro-rata the refunds although I have given plenty of people free time and I’ve not been too worried about collecting on time etc. so I need to be fair to myself as well as all of you. I’m going to end up out of pocket possibly but I’ll spend the next week seeing what money I’m owe all of you and I’ll get that fixed up. I’ll also try to ensure I come to an arrangement with Dave for keeping the forum going and for his future time and effort and I’ll maybe use a small part of the subs for this.

What about the 30pt guarantee? Well, that still stands strangely enough. I’ll take a break from tipping (daily grind has worn me down over time and I’m sure Andrew feels the same) but I’ll remain about the forum as I’m sure Andrew will. After that, we’ll see how we feel but the point of the 30pt guarantee was so that I don’t want people to pay for tips if I’ve not made a profit. Hence, none of you will have to pay me for any tips again!

I’m sure many of you will think I should come back and try again in March after what I achieved last Summer on the flat but being honest, I’m not sure what will happen. I feel like I do owe all of you and therefore, trying to do that is one possibility. Obviously, I won’t charge again for tips and it’s not something I’ve ever been comfortable with from day one as many of you know.

I’ll also promise that I won’t join any other tipping service or start any new service or anything crazy like that without ensuring you lot get your profit guarantees, so basically, I’m putting myself out of the game completely until I win you back what you’ve lost. Hence, I don’t want anyone to think I’m taking an easy way out as I’m not.

What does the future hold? Well, firstly, I’ll look forward to not having to spend 3-4 hours some nights on the laptop and then deciding I don’t have a selection! I’ve got lots of ideas about portfolio management and I’m keen to help some of you out with recording your results and improving your portfolios and helping you guys make money from other tipsters if you want my help. I’ll probably get back into trading as I don’t need to do anywhere near the amount of form study I did for TFA and making money from Betfair has always been much easier than making money from tipping!

I’m sure I’ll miss this massively and after the work and effort I’ve put in over 14 months into the service, it is heartbreaking to pull the plug but the reason I got into this game was to make you guys money and clearly, I’m not doing that by tipping.

The highs were definitely the summer months and simply, I know some of you won a lot of money over a 4 month spell and therefore, even with the current run, you may not be in that bad shape. The problem at this game though is always the lows and we’ve had a lot of lows over the 14 months!

Boxing day sticks in my mind and a good few Saturday’s stick in my mind too but I hope it’s been a great experience for many of us and for others, it hasn’t been the best experience I’m sure. To start a service with 12 members off the back of a blog and to then grow it to be 5 times the size in 12 months isn’t a bad achievement I guess and to do all this and work full-time too has taken an amazing amount of dedication and commitment from me.

Lastly, I’d just like to thank Andrew and Dave for the massive support and I’m sure when they both read this they’ll be shocked as will many of you but I’ve always acted with the best intentions from day one and I’ll hold my head high about what we’ve done with the service and I’m sure we’ve all learnt a thing or two in the forum from Jacko!

Best of luck with the future and I’ll be in touch with all of you in the near future concerning refunds for your remaining time with TFA!

Graeme