Two Hours. Done Properly.

Now, it's really important here I'm talking about a process once you've got things set up so your time so for me at the moment i'm recording this in um july this is one of my busiest times of the year because i'm getting everything set for the next season so this is a period where i really put some sort of groundwork and that analytical work in building systems all the stuff i've talked about before in so that when i get to the season my process is mapped out I know what I'm betting on and then that just runs so obviously aside from this process there's bits outside that what you shouldn't be doing in the season is you build a process in the summer you get it running perhaps it gets into a wobbly start and you start looking for new systems that needs to be real clear defined review periods summer winter break whatever it may be whatever suits you international breaks that's when that work goes you shouldn't be doing that in amongst your vetting process or I've got to find something else to do this isn't going very well you know we've got to accept a bit of variance and how it goes so We've got our selections that we're going to bet on.

The first session is Friday evening and it would take around about 30 minutes and its purpose is purely preparation, not placement.

No bets are placed.

You might have Friday games, you might have done it Friday morning as I say, but obviously the first part of...

Your process is fixture identification.

So running through the upcoming fixture list for the weekend and identifying every event that may fall within the scope of your selection criteria, no matter what your elements, even if you're trading.

um you're able to look at the leagues that you trade in see what times the games are playing see when they're going to be on it's not an analysis period it is really a filter period you're finding the events that will qualify for consideration not making any decisions about them yet you've either got them set set and forget that you know what you're going to execute or you've got potential games you're going to trade um and this should be done in advance because then it sits separately from placement and that means then you're not doing it under any time pressure in the same session where you're trying to find what you're betting on whilst trying to place bets so it tends to rather than get into a rushed process where you're scrambling around it's a period that you can sit there separate it out and give you a clean list to operate into going into the weekend betting and you go right i know the games that are going to qualify i know the times i need to be about you know if i'm trading i know what i've got to set up set and forget and whatever that process would involve and you can get all that set and do it separately in a little separate session so that you know so i every friday morning for me it is I look and I know exactly what is coming up at the weekend and what I'm likely to be involved in.

Even when I've done the live shows, you see I pick a trading window when I know there's going to be games on that might offer opportunities.

Obviously, when you're trading, you might need things to develop in the game for the execution, but that's a separate thing.

I'm looking, going, that's when I need to be present in the game, ready to put bets on.

The second one is data review.

So for each of those qualifying events, once you've identified them in this session, you would pull the relevant data, whatever it may be that you're looking at, recent form, head to heads, what does the market look like at this stage? Again, you're not deciding anything, you're making sure the information that you need is in front of you, not something you're clicking around at bet placement time under pressure to put the bets on or trades on.

You need to know exactly what everything that you need about those games should be present in front of you.

And then the third one is notes, brief structured notes against each event, what the data shows, what odds would need to be to meet your selection threshold, any other factors that you may need to check, team news, late changes, price movement.

By doing all this prep in advance, that makes Saturday's placement session efficient.

as I say for set and forget a lot of this people have it set up on automation so that's going to take care of a lot of the decision making and checking prices if not you would need to be in position to check those so you need to know right what do I need to check when and getting all that set up and I used to run around with bits of paper those who've sort of being the spurs of me in the years gone by I used to have massive great bits of paper all this stuff written down I've got to know I've got to check that price and even then it was a bit manic because you're doing it on the move but everything was done beforehand so I knew what I had to do obviously I've moved to a lot more automation now and it's done for me but if you're trading again you need to know what those things are because that's what makes the process then when you come to the games being played efficient and If you don't do it, you end up putting yourself under pressure because you're doing too much at the same time.

So it is kind of when you talk to people, that preparation phase that people tend to skip.

I think at FTS we have done a pretty good job of, particularly within Ultimate, of getting people into a process-driven environment.