2013 Annual Review

Before I even write this post I know it is going to come across as boastful. I managed to do some amazing things this year and realise I lead a very blessed life. I understand that not everyone is in the same position as me and can afford to travel the world and pretty much do whatever I want as long as there is an internet connection nearby. I’m still nowhere near where I want to be when it comes to my gambling returns, and the second half of the year has been a real shocker, but if I keep working away at it and refining my portfolio then I hope I can replicate years like this one.

I’ll do a quick recap of the profit this year and then move onto the things I did. If you didn’t know, I started this journey 3 and a half years ago on July 1st, so each year I restart my records at that time. You will notice on the blog that I am break-even for the year, that total is for the past 6 months. The totals I am about to present are for the calendar year.

So from Jan 1st 2013 to Dec 31st 2013 I bet a total of $4,051,240 and made a profit of $113,171.84 at a ROI of 2.79%. It is below in pretty graph form.

Breaking this down into each sport, we can see where most of the profit came from
AFL $567,927 $74,841.51 13.18%
Tennis $489,437 $40,334.50 8.24%
Soccer $1,581,491 -$6,964.51 -0.44%
Basketball (NBA & NBL) $377,392 $32,218.22 8.54%
Baseball $660,319 -$6,854.16 -1.03%
NRL $77,888 -$144.78 -0.18%
Golf $17,023.00 $(10,186.00) -59.8%
NFL $105,904.00 $666.96 0.6%
NHL $173,859.00 $(10,739.90) -6.2%

The only real returns of note are the AFL, Tennis and Basketball models. All these are Sportpunter models. Soccer is a mix of 5-6 Tipsters and sadly none of them have impressed me yet. The Baseball, NFL and NHL are also Sportpunter models and I will be dropping some of these in 2014. Golf comes from Niks picks and has been pathetic. Just following Sportpunter models for the year would have netted me $130,466 profit and a hell of a lot less heartache, but I don’t want to rely on just one superstar. I’m glad Jonno at Sportpunter is keeping me afloat while I get to test out all these other services in the hope of finding just one or two who can return a consistent profit. The hope each year is that they just replicate their past results, but this hasn’t been the case. If such a year was to happen, I would be looking at close to $500,000 profit in a single year. I’ll continue to wish for that.

So that’s pretty much 2013 in betting terms. If you told me I would make over $100,000 every year then I would gladly take it, so I am pretty happy with the results. It’s just a shame that all the profit was made in the first 3 months and then I spent the next 9 months dealing with wild swings. I’m sure my year would have been a lot less stressful if the graph was a slow steady climb to the same figure, but it is something I have come to accept.

Now onto why I do this.

My dream, and I’m sure a lot of you would think the same, is to be able to travel the world for 6-9 months a year, meet new people, see amazing sites and learn all about new cultures and be an eternal student. I felt that betting for a living was a perfect match. I needed something that could be done while travelling.. CHECK, something that could return enough to pay for everything… CHECK (mostly) and most of all, something that I enjoyed… CHECK (most of the time).

When I’m home in Australia, my girlfriend and I would spend about $60,000 a year. I’m fairly frugal and don’t really spend money on stuff (although I love my tech). This covers bills, food, entertainment and a few smaller trips each year. It’s a very comfortable life but where I live can get fairly boring for someone my age, especially in winter. On the 5 month trip we took in 2013 we spent an average of $10,000 a month. We stayed in Airbnb places and cheap hotels the entire time, and to be honest I have no idea how we managed to spend so much. The travel was probably the most expensive aspect and I’m sure if I was to do it longer term, we would choose to stay in places for months at a time like we did in Milan. Not only was it much cheaper, but you actually feel at home after a month and then really enjoy the place in the second month. I would say $6 – 8,000 would be a reasonable amount to budget per month. So to travel 9 months of the year I would need $72,000 and about $15,000 for the 3 months back home. That’s a total of $87,000 a year to lead what for me is a dream life. There’s always random expenses and emergencies so we can round that up to $100,000.

I could go on forever about financial stuff, as I love to read financial blogs and play with numbers, but I won’t bore you any further. I’ll end the financial stuff with the dream goal. That is to have $2.5 million in investments paying around 8%. This would allow me to take out 4% a year which is $100,000 and the money should theoretically never run out. All gambling profits go towards this goal.

Now onto all the fun stuff I got to do this year.

Places I lived in or visited:
Dubai, Milan, Lake Como, Venice, Verona, Cinque Terra, Switzerland, Almafi Coast, Naples, Pompei, Rome, London, New York, Miami, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Vegas, Vancouver, LA, Honolulu, American Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Sydney.

People I saw in concert:
Andrea Bocelli, placido domingo, many other of the best opera singers, Third eye blind, Paul McCartney, Maroon 5, Tim McGraw, Jared Leto, Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, Elton John, Drake, Justin Timberlake, Kesha, Phoenix, Joan Jett, Miquel, and a heap of others.

Sport:
San Siro tour, Wimbledon line, Arsenal v Napoli and Galatasaray v Porto, Mets game in New York, Dallas Cowboys game.

These are just a sample of the highlights, I ate some amazing food, met some spectacular people and saw and learnt so much. It really has been an amazing year and am truly grateful to lead the life I do. I told you it would sound like I was boasting.

I hope your year was as enjoyable as mine and I hope your 2014 is even better. Let me know your 2014 goals and what you got up to in 2013.