The return of the season long €20k challenge

It's the Decimal format. If something is 33/1 you win 33 euro and your 1 euro stake back. In decimal format odds that is 34.0.

It's most convenient when you're checking odds on selections. For example 4/6 is 1.5. You always divide the first number by the second number and add 1.

Pretty disastrous Christmas for the selections, especially the Ajose ones, which is a shame as I was starting to believe it could be an interesting selection. Armstrong had been dropped or rested, but it turned out o be the latter and he came back with a bang with a hat-trick for Coventry. Disaster!

Ajose back out to 33/1, and very likely that Armstrong will extend his loan from Newcastle, which is a kick in the balls!

Exeter, Doncaster and Bury selections doing truly awful, so I have most definitely written off everything from 2015, but with a new year comes new opportunities! I've just placed my January accy and it's split into two again.

I suppose it's a bit like when you make your fantasy league team at the start of the season; you look at it and say, this is an amazing team and this year I will finally win it! But it never turns out like that.. I'm looking at these selections and thinking there's a lot of good value there. Anyway, here they are!

Lyon to finish top 3 @ 4.0
Sporting Gijon to be relegated @ 2.25
Dagenham & Redbridge to be relegated @ 2.5
Selby to win his quarter (Masters) @ 3.4
Gillingham to be promoted / Top 6 finish @ 2.75 / 1.29

Total odds: 210 / 98.68
Stake: 75€ on each
Potential winnings: €23,151 (both win) OR €7,401 (Gillingham only finish top 6 but dont get promoted)

A great little start for the new accumulator!

Lyon beat Troyes (last place) 4-1, but most importantly, Monaco drew and St. Etienne lost. Actually the only team to win around them was Angers and they beat one of the other teams up there.

Similarly, Gijon were beaten in Spain and results around them weren't the best for them (but good for me!).

With the FA Cup, there weren't many league games, and Selby starts tomorrow with his 1st round game in the Masters. I'll also be looking for Mark Williams to do one over on O'Sullivan.

January
Lyon to finish top 3 @ 4.0 -> 3.0
Sporting Gijon to be relegated @ 2.25 -> 1.91
Dagenham & Redbridge to be relegated @ 2.5
Selby to win his quarter (Masters) @ 3.4
Gillingham to be promoted / Top 6 finish @ 2.75 / 1.29

Total odds:
210 -> 133.7
98.7 -> 62.8

A brace for Ajose also makes things a litle interesting but a couple of the bookies didn't notice that he bagged those in the league. Ssssshhhh! Now's your chance.

Cheers lads, yeah this is defo a goer now. I'm on holidays at the moment so opened the app on Saturday evening and was delighted to see all the results!

Nicky Ajose is the most in form striker in L1 now for sure and I can see him catching Armstrong. Armstrong will miss two games when away with England U18s over Easter which is a nice bonus.

I see the other parts of the bet as pretty much nailed on.

Even Exeter are not looking too much out of top 7 after signing Jayden Stockley on loan from Bournemouth, although I'm still upset that I couldn't get the full stake on for the first selections I had.

Was also very upset to see Selby get beaten by O'Sullivan. That hurt, I must say. I hope the other parts of that bet don't come off. O'Sullivan was so close to being beaten by Williams in R1 and I was very confident Selby would beat him. Anyway, back to watching the Ajose bets!

The January bet got off to a great start but fell at the first hurdle when Selby was beaten by O'Sullivan who went on to win the tournament.

Now it is time for the February bet

Bit of a strange one, and the main outsider is Southend to be finish in L1 top 6. I usually like to have one outsider and a few more solid bets which beef up the odds. I won't go into too much detail yet, but will update after the weekend games. Here are the selections:

Southend - L1 Top 6 Finish @ 9.0
Monaco - Ligue 1 Top 3 Finish @ 1.5
Carpi - Serie A Relegation @ 1.44
Villarreal - La Liga Top 4 Finish @ 1.61
Burnley - Champ Top 6 Finish @ 1.17
Florida Panthers - NHL Atlantic Division Winners @ 3.6

Total odds: 131.83
Stake: £110
Potential winnings: Approx €19k

I normally wait until Monday or Tuesday before updating the odds but I feel compelled to tot them up this evening after a cracking start to this new Feb accumulator.

It's the best start of any of the bets so far, by a long way. It has been a very interesting start and all seems to be going great for now at least. First the odds, then a few comments:

Feb
Southend - L1 Top 6 Finish @ 9.0 -> 5.0
Monaco - Ligue 1 Top 3 Finish @ 1.5 -> 1.3
Carpi - Serie A Relegation @ 1.44 -> 1.2
Villarreal - La Liga Top 4 Finish @ 1.61 -> 1.5
Burnley - Champ Top 6 Finish @ 1.17 -> 1.1
Florida Panthers - NHL Atlantic Division Winners @ 3.6 -> 2.5

Total odds: 131.83 -> 32.16

:eek: They certainly are short odds for a potential return of €19k! A sea of green!

I didn't expect them to be that low, but that said they could be lower as Southend should be less than 5.0. Coventry drew today, which means they haven't won in 5 games, and have won only 2 of their last 12. They are two points ahead of Southend with a game extra played. Yet Coventry are 1.73 and Southend are 5.0.

I'm not sure if the bookies realise the strength in depth Southend have now after the January transfer window, but I do, and I'm confident they'll finish top 6!

Panthers are the only other selection that are odds against and they have been very impressive, although they threw away a 2-0 lead last night to lose in OT. They had won their previous 5 by three or more goals. Tampa Bay are 6 points behind with a game in hand (2 points for a win).

I'll leave the Ajose odds to another day as he didn't score.

A disappointing Tuesday night with Southend losing 2-0 away to Bradford. Phil Brown made 6 changes and they were pretty shyte all round by all accounts. Luckily Millwall also lost but Bradford and Scunthorpe are now in and around the playoff places like a bad smell.Southend are three points from the playoffs with 15 games to go, and are at home to Burton on Monday night.Ajose is 4 goals behind Armstrong, also with 15 games to go.Exeter lost to relegation threatened York, so thats them done

A couple of nice results in the ice hockey means Florida are back in command.

Ajose Part 1
Nicky Ajose - L1 Top Goalscorer @ 34.00 -> 10
Burnley - Championship Top 6 @ 1.67 -> 1.07
Plymouth Argyle - L2 Promotion @ 1.57 -> 1.5
Dundee Utd - Finish Bottom of SPL @ 1.80 -> 1.08

Total odds 160.46 -> 17.33

Feb
Southend - L1 Top 6 Finish @ 9.0 -> 7.5
Monaco - Ligue 1 Top 3 Finish @ 1.5 -> 1.25
Carpi - Serie A Relegation @ 1.44 -> 1.33 :eek:
Villarreal - La Liga Top 4 Finish @ 1.61 -> 1.44 :eek:
Burnley - Champ Top 6 Finish @ 1.17 -> 1.07
Florida Panthers - NHL Atlantic Division Winners @ 3.6 -> 2.25

Total odds: 131.83 -> 43.23

A whole lot of green there.

Interesting trivia... The only time I won one of these big bets was a few years back when Nicky Maynard scored on the final day of the season. Now I'm waiting on Nicky Ajose, but more interestingly they are both ex Crewe strikers!

Thanks bud. I always let them run.

3 years ago I had Benfica in the final of the Europa League to finish off one accumulator to win about €25k and they lost in the last minute to Chelsea.

I had asked the bookie a few days beforehand if there was an option to cash out / settle and they said no. With large potential winnings like this its almost impossible for me to lay off to make guaranteed profit, especially if there is more than one selection in the running.

It's a positive problem and one I hope I have to think about

Already thinking about the March selections. Those odds on offer for Villareal and Carpi are maybe too good to turn down. Need to find an outsider...

Well that was an interesting weekend to say the least! Seeing Ajose's name come up three times on the Sky Sports vidiprinter was very sweet indeed, especially since Coventry were not playing and Armstrong could not score!

Then tonight I got the chance to watch Southend play for the first time, and win at home to the league leaders! That was a huuuuge win for this bet.

This weekend has certainly been the best for this season's selections, and they continue to head in the right direction as we will see with the odds update:

Ajose Part 1 - for €10k
Nicky Ajose - L1 Top Goalscorer @ 34.00 -> 4.5
Burnley - Championship Top 6 @ 1.67 -> 1.03
Plymouth Argyle - L2 Promotion @ 1.57 -> 1.60
Dundee Utd - Finish Bottom of SPL @ 1.80 -> 1.12

Total odds 160.46 -> 8.3
Potential winnings €10k

Feb - for €19k
Southend - L1 Top 6 Finish @ 9.0 -> 5.0
Monaco - Ligue 1 Top 3 Finish @ 1.5 -> 1.15
Carpi - Serie A Relegation @ 1.44 -> 1.22
Villarreal - La Liga Top 4 Finish @ 1.61 -> 1.25
Burnley - Champ Top 6 Finish @ 1.17 -> 1.03
Florida Panthers - NHL Atlantic Division Winners @ 3.6 -> 2.34

Total odds: 131.83 -> 21.13

A win for Plymouth away to Yeovil would go down a treat tomorrow night. I still think they are hevily overpriced because of Portmouth (reputation only).

With 1 point from 3 very winnable games after beating the league leaders, Southend have thrown away any chance of getting into the top 6, so that accummuator is now a no go. Florida Panthers have also been faltering, but it provided very good value for money, getting below 30/1 at one point I think.

chompdown wrote: »

Pretty quiet thread for me so far this year, and that's because the bets have been performing pretty averagely so far. They are all still in with a shout, but not looking likely at all. The reason for the update this morning is to add in November accumulator, so here it is:

Vardy Top Prem Scorer @ 9.0
Doncaster League 1 relegation @ 4.33
Exeter League 2 Top 7 finish @ 7.0

Stake: €90 @ 272.79
Potential winnings €24,550

Vardy is top by 4, Doncaster in the relegation zone and Ezxeter 3 points off the top 7 despite a sh1tload of injuries.

Not a bad little treble there at all!

However.... what the gambling gods taketh with one hand, they giveth with the other.... The above quoted accy from November is not actually looking that bad anymore! Doncaster haven't won in 9, Vardy is still top and even though Exeter are still outsiders in 14th they have lost only one of their last five and are 5 points off 7th.

Aguero and Lukaku both missed penalties today too, so I'm defo gonna keep an eye on those three selections.

Ajose didn't play today as Swindon's game was postponed. Armstrong didn't score, although he had one ruled out for offside . Winnall missed Barnsley's win with an ankle injury. Don't know how serious that is.

Will be shouting for Vardy now on Sky

Edit to add: Bet365 have Exeter to finish top 7 @ 40/1. Seems very generous!