10 minutes - I thought that was pretty quick for coming up with that title! I'm probably more impressed with that than I am with what it actually refers to! Friday was my first official Sultan Skype Session and what a way to get things started. A marathon session of almost 11 hours, starting with a great win on the Berdych-Anderson match and ending with the result of the day, an enormous profit on the final match as Kei Nishikori came through against David Ferrer in Paris after a 2 and three quarter hour thriller. Every trader managed to tough it out for the full session and I'm sure they are all very glad they did because not only was the Nishikori win the highlight, it was one of my biggest ever wins. I managed to do a quick screen-recording of the end of the session, which you can see below. There were also a couple of losses during the day but these were engulfed by the moolah from the final match, which ended at close to midnight. All-in-all, a very satisfactory first session, which covered most bases and one I thoroughly enjoyed - a big thank you to all who participated.
After that, I'll be taking a well earned rest for a week, as the tennis world takes a break till next weekend before rounding off a fine season with the ATP World Tour Finals from London. I've yet to decide on when my next Skype Session will be. Keep an eye on the blog for details if interested but be warned: the first session sold out within 2 days of me advertising it. So you may need to be quick off the mark, especially as this could be my last session of the year. You do not need to have my Trading Guide to book on but it will help. I'm currently toying with Sunday 9th November, as this will enable me to cover the first two ATP Finals matches and also day 2 of the Federation Cup Final between Germany and the Czech Republic. The only problem is, that's a Sunday and it's highly likely to displease the (soon-to-be) wife! I'll let you know how that conversation goes but I'm hoping the promise that this will be the final week of tennis trading for 2014 and following it will be several weeks of fun-in-the-sun holidaying action (paid for by me, most likely) will allow me to get away with visiting the (soon-to-be) in-laws and spend one final Sunday on the ladders. It won't be the final Sunday on the ladders of course, because the final of the ATP World Tour Finals is the following Sunday. Plus the Davis Cup Final the Sunday after. But she doesn't need to know that..............
Seeing as it's a relatively short post (for me) today, I thought I'd add in a couple of interesting things I picked up on Twitter. Firstly, it seems as though traders of women's tennis are going to be in for a treat in a couple of years time. The WTA is putting together an in-house television deal that would ensure all WTA-level singles matches could be broadcast by 2017. The WTA's current distribution partner, Perform, produced about 700 in 2014, or roughly a third of all matches. That means we are likely to be able to watch over 2000 WTA matches in 2 years time! On paper, that sounds like it can only be a good thing for traders. Having access to a live stream is always an advantage, though it won't make any difference to me as I'll be long finished as a trader by then. It's welcome news for anyone looking to get into tennis trading though. The only issue might be that liquidity becomes a little sparser as the money is spread over a wider selection of in-play matches, though this would only be an issue in earlier rounds and only if Betfair put all the televised matches in-play.
Finally, a quick congratulations to @hotdog6969, better known as Jimmy Soixante Neuf, for this week acheiving what all of us tennis nerds dream of; a shout-out from legendary commentator Robbie Koenig live on air! Not just for being the first to answer the quick-quiz question correctly but also for having one of the best Twitter handles and completing the tri-fector (as Koenig himself would say) by being singled out as one of the world's biggest tennis geeks. As the man himself said (actually I think it was co-commentator Nick Lester but still) "No one watches more tennis than Jimmy Soixante Neuf". And they are right. Jimmy was the first person to give me the link to access the old TennisMatchStat website (orig.matchstat.com), which is infinitely better than the "new and improved" version - a slow, cluttered and inferior tennis stat site. For that, I salute him, as I was very upset for about an hour!
For those who don't watch tennis, getting this sort of recognition from Robbie Koenig is the equivalent of, I don't know, Gary Lineker reading out your Tweet on Match of the Day whilst Alan Hansen compliments you on your footballing knowledge. Only better, because Koenig is far more entertaining than Lineker and far more likeable than Hansen. I recently had the following message re-tweeted by Robbie during a live match and that was enough to make my day!
For those who don't know, Dan Bilzerian is an American poker player who Mr.Koenig mentioned when comparing his beard to that of Feliciano Lopez. He then went on to provide viewers with his website address and let's just say, my eyes were opened wide.............very wide! On the one hand, this man's life is one big cocaine and strippers phase and part of me envies that. But on the other hand, Bilzerian comes across (particularly in interviews) like a complete frat-boy tosser, sticking photos of his money, disturbing obsession with guns and his name written on women's butt cheeks, up on Instagram. The comments from other blokes on his photos, most of whom idolise him, are hilarious. My biggest question is, where on earth do these girls come from? Are they paid to just hang around? Do they have jobs? What must their parents think? Decide for yourself!
www.danbilzerian.com
After that, I'll be taking a well earned rest for a week, as the tennis world takes a break till next weekend before rounding off a fine season with the ATP World Tour Finals from London. I've yet to decide on when my next Skype Session will be. Keep an eye on the blog for details if interested but be warned: the first session sold out within 2 days of me advertising it. So you may need to be quick off the mark, especially as this could be my last session of the year. You do not need to have my Trading Guide to book on but it will help. I'm currently toying with Sunday 9th November, as this will enable me to cover the first two ATP Finals matches and also day 2 of the Federation Cup Final between Germany and the Czech Republic. The only problem is, that's a Sunday and it's highly likely to displease the (soon-to-be) wife! I'll let you know how that conversation goes but I'm hoping the promise that this will be the final week of tennis trading for 2014 and following it will be several weeks of fun-in-the-sun holidaying action (paid for by me, most likely) will allow me to get away with visiting the (soon-to-be) in-laws and spend one final Sunday on the ladders. It won't be the final Sunday on the ladders of course, because the final of the ATP World Tour Finals is the following Sunday. Plus the Davis Cup Final the Sunday after. But she doesn't need to know that..............
Commentary by Robbie Koenig!
Seeing as it's a relatively short post (for me) today, I thought I'd add in a couple of interesting things I picked up on Twitter. Firstly, it seems as though traders of women's tennis are going to be in for a treat in a couple of years time. The WTA is putting together an in-house television deal that would ensure all WTA-level singles matches could be broadcast by 2017. The WTA's current distribution partner, Perform, produced about 700 in 2014, or roughly a third of all matches. That means we are likely to be able to watch over 2000 WTA matches in 2 years time! On paper, that sounds like it can only be a good thing for traders. Having access to a live stream is always an advantage, though it won't make any difference to me as I'll be long finished as a trader by then. It's welcome news for anyone looking to get into tennis trading though. The only issue might be that liquidity becomes a little sparser as the money is spread over a wider selection of in-play matches, though this would only be an issue in earlier rounds and only if Betfair put all the televised matches in-play.
Finally, a quick congratulations to @hotdog6969, better known as Jimmy Soixante Neuf, for this week acheiving what all of us tennis nerds dream of; a shout-out from legendary commentator Robbie Koenig live on air! Not just for being the first to answer the quick-quiz question correctly but also for having one of the best Twitter handles and completing the tri-fector (as Koenig himself would say) by being singled out as one of the world's biggest tennis geeks. As the man himself said (actually I think it was co-commentator Nick Lester but still) "No one watches more tennis than Jimmy Soixante Neuf". And they are right. Jimmy was the first person to give me the link to access the old TennisMatchStat website (orig.matchstat.com), which is infinitely better than the "new and improved" version - a slow, cluttered and inferior tennis stat site. For that, I salute him, as I was very upset for about an hour!
For those who don't watch tennis, getting this sort of recognition from Robbie Koenig is the equivalent of, I don't know, Gary Lineker reading out your Tweet on Match of the Day whilst Alan Hansen compliments you on your footballing knowledge. Only better, because Koenig is far more entertaining than Lineker and far more likeable than Hansen. I recently had the following message re-tweeted by Robbie during a live match and that was enough to make my day!
"Lost all interest in this Simon match now, utterly consumed by Dan Bilzerian.com.....thanks@RobKoenigTennis"
For those who don't know, Dan Bilzerian is an American poker player who Mr.Koenig mentioned when comparing his beard to that of Feliciano Lopez. He then went on to provide viewers with his website address and let's just say, my eyes were opened wide.............very wide! On the one hand, this man's life is one big cocaine and strippers phase and part of me envies that. But on the other hand, Bilzerian comes across (particularly in interviews) like a complete frat-boy tosser, sticking photos of his money, disturbing obsession with guns and his name written on women's butt cheeks, up on Instagram. The comments from other blokes on his photos, most of whom idolise him, are hilarious. My biggest question is, where on earth do these girls come from? Are they paid to just hang around? Do they have jobs? What must their parents think? Decide for yourself!
www.danbilzerian.com