December marked month 105 of the Making a Million Challenge. After a strong finish to the year, I was hoping to kick things off with a bang and lock in some early profit to set the tone for the months ahead.
As we all know, though, the betting gods don’t care much about what us mere mortals want to happen and variance has a habit of swinging whichever way it feels like.
Let’s take a look at how things actually played out.
Value Betting Results
Value betting had a strong month to start the year, having bookmaker accounts available to use last year was definitely a big benefit. A common question is how do you have accounts after all these years of betting?
Moving house has enabled me to re-open previously closed accounts and then working with family members/friends opens up opportunity. Other then that exchanges/brokers and shop betting are your best options to get money down. Unfortunately this month Paddy/Will Hill and Skybet all hit me with limits which will make things harder. I’ll continue to use them for Sharp Betting (doubles strategy) and value betting getting down whatever money possible.
Here are the strategies used:
- Each Way Value using Oddsmonkey and Betting Mastermind – On any accounts that still let me bet
- Inflated Odds on the exchanges – for example Bet365 superboosts on smaller markets (lay money pushing odds higher then they should be)
- Sharp Betting – Tested at small stakes on both the betting exchanges and with limited bookmaker accounts
- Shop bets – I have a local Coral and Betfred shops in my area that can be useful for value bets and UFC
- UFC Bets – Using my own analysis
Profit:£1912
(Adjusting stakes to win £100-£150 per bet).
I record profit/loss daily by each individual bookmaker or exchange.
Horse Racing Betfair Strategy Results
This strategy had a poor January and significantly underperformed expectations. As things stand, it has effectively been breakeven since May of last year. That said, it still returned around 100 points (£10 per point) over the course of last year, which gives me enough confidence to continue with it.
The approach is based on identifying what I believe to be sharp money in the morning markets and following those bets as they come in.
Profit: -£374
(Staking £10 per bet).
Total Made in January 2026
Total = +£1564 (Profit is slightly different to the combined totals in this post due to a few misc bets that don’t fit into any category but are recorded on my daily P/L)
Overall Profit Since The Challenge Began (106 Months Ago)
+£213,373
Stagnation
The start to the year felt painfully slow. A lot of racing was cancelled due to the weather, the first UFC event didn’t take place until the 24th of January, and overall there just didn’t seem to be much going on. Things did pick up towards the end of the month, but I was still left with the feeling that my betting has become a little stagnant.
The phrase “If you always do what you always did, then you’ll always get what you always got” kept popping into my head.
I do regularly test new strategies and services, such as Sharp Betting and Tilt The Odds. However, despite that, I feel that my overall approach hasn’t really evolved over the last few years. It still works but I don’t feel like I’m actively improving it. Not being at the point where I can increase stakes, beyond expanding my ability to work with others to gain access to new accounts, I’m a little stumped for ideas.
The reality is that most strategies that genuinely work tend to rely on soft bookmakers, with exchange based services remaining something of a holy grail.
That said, a strong February or March could easily shift the current slump I’m feeling.
How did your betting go in January? Are there any interesting services or approaches you’re using at the moment?
Let me know in the comments and as always, thanks for reading.
