Survey feedback & service news - This is looong...
The good news for the customers wishing for a paid preseason package is that we are almost certainly on. Do not know exactly yet how and when as want to sleep over night but soon (Thursday?) I will update the prices - page at the website with subscription details. Not sending any mass mailing reminders as most of the readers prefer football-related stuff, not ads.
For tomorrow´s HJK league cup match I will publish and update a free preview at the website ( a few videos there now from the venue) a few hours before kick-off.
Below a look at what you are thinking. Answering was anonymous and honest but of course the sample is biased as the survey was aimed at already existing customers who supposedly should be happy enough. A few very expected and repeated wishes and comments, let us have a look at some random comments and I will comment them back, naturally I need to keep some things as trade secrets:
Info about unknown league like most Prefer we keep a record of nets placed and units profit
I truly love the service and read it every day. Please just continue with the great work :-)
preseason service i hope for more "live" service
Often picks are played at nordic bookies which makes sense of course being located there. But here ( I live in Germany) Scandinavian bookies are hard to get and those available (like NordicBet, Scandic Bookmaker, Betsafe) are reducing betting limits so quickly to absolut laughable amounts thats its not worth to take them into consideration again. Plus - live picks advised are also very hard to played in Germany due to above mentioned reasons and the fact that almost all Asian bookies don't take customers from Germany anymore.
I like it that there is a great deal of inside information and professional insight input in all of the previews and reviews. I don't like it that the newsletter is sent at a random time.
not been a previous member so wouldnt know sorry
i like your trustful, honest and skillful work.
Wellwritten and usual good information.
Would like to see a x/10 system implemented.
i like the in depth match previews and analysis after match
Haven't tried the paid service yet
Like - big knowleadge on finnish soccer, nice recommandation from different persons. Looks very pro also from the newsletter, videos and reviews. Dislike - I consider that what push this backwards is the approach of not having stats for previous seasons. Is different approach to regular services but ain't neccesarry a bad thing. I can get used with it if I get in as I keep my own stats
I like your detailed analysis and the early information. I dislike the price but just because I don't bet big amounts of money.
Like the professionalism of Jarkko. Keep it up!
***********
All of these are very common and well-known challenges which I have tried to tackle earlier with different methods but have decided to keep the service running the way it runs and I have explained the reasons for it several times and I will do it once more again.
Stats
There is not going to be public stats in the future either because of the way I present the ideas is not exact; the odds I want for a match in many cases are not available at the time of the Newsletter but they are likely to be. Going for a strict policy of verifying every pick would lead that the number of matches I talk about and recommend would be very small and would be of no use. In that case I would have to concentrate in getting in my own bets at best possible price verified pregame without bothering what you get. I can reveal here that in general I do get better prices for myself than what I advice to you as I am there first. The other reason of course is that I take almost all my -hc bets late or live at some point with better odds/hc than what has been available at kick-off time. Publishing unverified stats is definitely a no-go as well. It is your stats that count, not mine but admittedly I lose a great marketing tool by not publishing winning long-term stats.
X/10 staking
This also answers partly not having exact x/10 staking but I open up my way of taking personal bets here: in the scale of 1/10 the 1 unit bet is very rarely taken. There have been a few occasions where for a big underdog there has been odds above 10 available and a small bet has been advised (Jaro to win HJK for example) but normally small stakes are not ever mentioned as those odds are not available for all. Veikkaus is a bit of an exception as they offer big handicaps/odds for Veikkausliiga games but I know that my Finns can find them theirselves and add up some extra excitement.
Flat is is
My flat stake in this system would be 5/10 and for a recommened bet there is in avg about 10% value – this number is based on 3 last years history of taken bets. At Veikkausliiga it has been less, at cups, friendlies, Ykkönen and Kakkonen a lot greater. Not too interested in recommending shorter value bets with smaller stakes, instead I am more into seeing what happens at the markets.
It is rather dangerous to start talking about max stakes of 10/10 ”in public”, but usually you can read if from the preview if I am very keen on a selection and you can increase the stake yourself. I also want to leave some room for adding up the stake in live-betting in case the selected team for example has conceded a goal against the play. I am cautious with pregame max bets as there is a limit of money I am ready to lose for one single match, but I am always ready to react in live betting.
Suggesting a 6/10 instead of 5/10 would basically require that the markets would not move and we have fixed odds. I know that many of you can calculate things on your own and even better than what I do, but last time I tried this - it was 3-4 years ago - I did get a lot of questions regarding that the odds had changed and what would be the optimal stake for the new odds. And then the odds changed again and again... Flat staking works just fine.
I do like getting feedback and questions, but during match days it is often impossible to answer to them, or even read them. Following the round live is always the priority and connecting with people seeing the other matches live takes a lot of my time.
Estimations
Publishing exact % estimations & goal expectations would partly take care of that problem and that has also been tried. And given up also years ago. I am not saying that if you have a brilliantly exact % estimation of 43-28-29 estimation created by your rankings and models for a game you should not stick to it and back in the end the other team if odds move dramatically into one direction. What I am saying is that in these smaller leagues there are occasionally so dramatic and quick changes in the team strength that you have often seen me say ”no bet at any odds for the team X here.” Last season the team X was usually TPS, JJK or OPS and look at where they are now. Too bad I did not use KuPS there as X...
No too many mathematical models can keep up if the whole squad is suddenly changed or all key players injured, like JJK of 2013 or TPS of 2014. There is a built-in model and ranking working in my head without a break, but it is often better to look at the performances and use your brain instead of the models. I have been offered and checked dozens of models and created some myself, still I think that if you have the time and resources nothing beats a manual analysis.
Schedules
For the scheduling thing and a fixed sending time there is the one problem that only FIN football association and sports media do offer; any reliable and confirmed information comes late – and not in scheduled time. Sometimes not at all. A fixed time is a problem if you have the Newsletter ready at 1600 but you have it scheduled for 1700 and you wait for the hour to pass without markets making too big moves and all the days work writing the stuff meaningless. Anyway schedule is the least of the problems we face, but of course something can be done, like announcing before hand if the schedule is changed for the day. The first Newsletter can easily be be scheduled but the later ones not. There have always been ”extra” Newsletters when something important comes up and they can not be scheduled in any way.
Live info is something that is a lot more difficult to pass on to a group of people than you would think, but any increased live betting info is something I have always wanted to do. Perhaps this is something to work on with the clients who have the biggest needs.
Eurobookies?
Someone mentioned that picks would be at nordic or other european bookies but there seems to be a misunderstaning here as they are not. Asian hc only. Occasionally perhaps something silly has been mentioned in the website for those who follow it and can take advantage of them but the Newsletter service is different to that.
If the country limits your betting it is a nuisance but usually there are options available. How does sportmarket.com work in Germany? Try that one out if you can. If this remains a problem possibly we can find a solution here from another German.
Customer satisfaction:
30% of the ones who answered found the service moderately useful.
36 % very useful and
12 % extremely useful.
Good numbers overall, but the experience of those 30% of moderate useful has to be improved. As a matter of fact no one was dissatisfied, the rest of the 100% was filled with potential new faces! Hopefully small improvements will do the trick to make every one a bit happier.
Customer stakes:
Not going to open this up too much as it is a sensitive issue for many of us, but there is a massive difference from a regular working man´s fun bets into top professionals and the customer base can be divided in two completely different groups that I both appreciate. Nothing new there actually, except that there were surprisingly small number of the stakes in the neighbourhood of 200-400 € which I haed expected to be the biggest group. For many of you early asian prices are no problem, and for others placing a wanted stake is not at all easy until 1h to kick-off or live when limits are higher. Different needs there. Very different.
Service price:
The previous question naturally reflects the answers to this and the pricing issue remains. I do not want to be the greedy bastard here as I have always respected the ordinary man and the idea that information should actually be free. Still having too low prices make the pros suffer and the other way around if the customer base is too big and the info is spread all over the world. Average price is the worst and it is what I have been offering for a long time but the average Joe does not seem to exist at all! Price is also an image factor and having too low and user-friendly prices gives the impression of low quality. A problem. I should optimize this for myself as it is the only source of even relatively secure income I have had for th past 5 years to pay the bills but I am too soft for my own good.
Two differently priced products are actually needed to serve all. I have to put my mind into this and any ideas are always welcome but it looks like that the first step is to rise the price for the service even if some of the old long-term customers in the other end of this scale suffer. Hopefully there is a win-win situation waiting behind the corner and we can work this out.
Bookies:
Sbo and Pinnacle are unsurprisingly the top bookies, but quite a many do also have Singbet and IBC accounts. Bet365 was mentioned separately from eurobookies, as well as Veikkaus but their odds are not useful to international audience. Any mad odds at Veikkaus will be mentioned however also in the future for the handful of Finns using this service but foreign customers are not allowed to bet there.
Monthly subscriptions are wanted and personally I like to keep them available too. Possibly only those after the preseason as the busy season service sometimes is a killer and it is relief to know that a break can taken. This preseason time makes monthly a bad option as there is very little point in selling for example February only as it would not bring the informational value needed for a season preparation, only some odd bets. Of course it can be used a partly payment or a test for the service. At preseason all the months will differ a lot of one another as some of the clubs are more or less in confusion and looking desperately for new players, and some are almost ready. New guys are coming in every week.
The Free Edition Newsletter is planned to be monthly at 2014 always with some fresh news and of reminding of the paid options. In the near future there will be very little or no advertising for the paid options as I hate it as much you do but sometimes it has to done. Website will be as carelessly and randomly updated as it has been before, and all key info is always reserved for the paying customers only.
Have a great day!
Have a great day!
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti