Your Luck is In!

It always helps to have answers to questions where betting is concerned. In the long run, having discipline and a deliberate approach goes a long way. You see it in horse racing, you see it in casino skills games like poker, everywhere really. A calm head and balanced approach to betting, as opposed to getting caught up in the highs and lows, brings success your way. There is of course the flip side to that though, the wild card. The 'what are the odds of that happening' events that always turn up from time to time. Regardless of what you know in life, it definitely helps to have a bit of luck on your side.

This is perhaps best illustrated with the likes of Frankie Dettori's legendary Magnificent Seven win, where Dettori won in every single race on the September 1996 race card. A feat that had mind boggling cumulative odds of 25,051-1. It could be said that what's really surprising about this event above all else though, is the loyal little group of punters that decided to bet on all seven of his rides that day, despite it looking distinctly unlikely that he'd actually perform a clean sweep. It would've surely seemed like a foolhardy endeavour prior to the races, but despite that some were laughing all the way to the bank. On course Bookmaker Gary Wiltshire alone lost over a million of a day. Mary and John Bolton, up from Somerset to celebrate their wedding anniversary, pocketed £500,000 from their Ladbrokes bet (The max payout, they were actually due £900,000!). Some were not so lucky, betting on the selections individually. The difference between daring to dream and playing it safe.

So there can be an element of 'you've got to be in it to win it' even if the odds look almost insurmountable. This can often be true of extreme Outsiders in racing, especially with the 125-1 or 200-1 odds that are not especially uncommon on the exchanges. Even if you feel the odds are up against you, consider how few you actually need to come through for you to make it the right bet to make. The value bet to make. And this is where there is an element of skill involved, so why not go with it, especially when you see that even with pure luck examples of good fortune, some are now sitting pretty. The odds of lottery and scratch cards wins for instance can be significant, but for those who actually raked in winnings due to a big win for a tiny outlay it's entirely academic. We're talking significant life changing sums of money here. Of course again this is where it's solely luck at play, but it's useful to put odds in perspective, and what you can miss out of if you hold back even when you do have knowledge and insight on your side.

It can be hard to see the big picture sometimes, and often people read 100-1 or 200-1 and see 'impossible', which in part frequently explains the drift on the exchanges due to the 'it'll never happen' crew. Well, quite often it does happen, and if you're considered in your approach and also have that little sprinkle of luck that we all need in life, the odds may very well be on your side.