Interview with PFS
Next up on our quest to interview the web’s top tipsters we have spoken to PFS, you can find out more about them on their official site (Toby Note: Sadly defunct now), check out their free tips and follow them on Twitter.
Toby – For people who don’t know you could you give us a quick background into who you are?
PFS – We are a statistical-based football website that produce pre-match forecasts and predictions for upcoming matches across the Premier League, Bundesliga and La Liga, with some help of our ‘SAS’ (Statistical Analysis Software’ we developed in 2011. Personally I am a football fanatic who has been passionate about football stats for over 6 years. Studying the game in terms to numbers and figures really gives the game an extra dimension while helping to find some winning bets and in turn produce a healthy profit along the way.
Toby – How long have you been a tipster for?
PFS – I personally started ‘tipping’ (not a fan of those terms) in 2011 as a hobby on Facebook. Some of you may know the page (Beat The Bookies – Football Tipster), if not go check it out! The hobby quickly turned into a more serious project once people started to enjoy the bets and the results they were producing.
Toby – What term to you prefer?
PFS –
Toby – During your time as a tipster have you noticed any weird changing trends in the world of online football betting?
PFS – Not so much weird changing trends, but there has been changes in the world of online betting for sure. Betting online has become a lot more popular since I started betting on football, it’s been a lot more accessible as well as more and more markets that are constantly being added throughout. Saturday morning bets used to consist on win/draw/win bets, however now you can go as far as to number of cards and corners, which is great for stat-lovers such as myself because it has opened up a whole new way to bet and profit from the beautiful game.
Toby – What does an average betting day look like for you?
PFS – I wouldn’t say there’s an average betting day, because everyday is different. However it involves a huge amount of research to find little pockets of value in upcoming games, placing the bet is the easy part.
Toby – What tools do you use to help you make the right choice?
PFS – Our website is the perfect tool for a lot of bets, as well as our SASoftware which crunches the numbers for us. But the website breaks down the statistics so that they are easily read by even the most novice of bettor. Average goals scored, average goals conceded, average first goal time, average cards received, average corners conceded are just a few of the statistics it provides and when using the head-to-head tool on the website side-by-side it’s striking information that can easily find a perfect bet.
Toby – If you had one tip you could give to our readers about football betting in general, what would it be?
PFS – Have discipline and a staking plan. Ok that’s 2 things but possibly the two most important aspects of betting. Without these in your locker, you will lose more than you win – which is not what anyone wants. You need to know when to walk away from a situation. Too many times I’ve seen someone chase their loses in the heat of the moment and lose even more. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been there we’ve all been there, but betting is about experience, and if you can’t learn from your mistakes then things won’t improve.
Toby – What have you found most challenging about doing a tipster service online?
PFS – I read Toby’s interview from TFT with Ian earlier, (Toby’s note: You can read the interview here) and I couldn’t agree more with him on this question. The amount of work that goes into producing everything people see is always under-appreciated, especially when running a free service. People expect results, and whether you spend 1 hour or 10 hours researching a set of games, all that matters is whether there is a ‘W’ or ‘L’ sign on the slip after the games. Which to be honest is understandable, but saying that there are always a handful of people that show appreciation no matter what the result, which makes it all worthwhile.
Toby – Who do you support? Do you let your love for them effect your betting?
PFS – This is one thing I’ve stayed well clear of announcing. Reviling who you support is a dangerous game. You learn to separate your love for a team and your bets – as the old cliché goes, ‘bet using your head, not your heart’ – so no it never affects bets.
Toby – Haha, you are just right! If there is one thing you could change about football what would it be?
PFS – As a general football fan – ticket prices. Football used to be a working man’s sport, and when you see ticket prices of over £50 for a game it’s becoming harder for people to attend games, especially with recent times. The German’s have it spot on; they offer reasonable ticket prices and fill their stadiums out. If you ever watch a German game, rarely will you see a half empty stadium. The same goes for the second tier of German football. I was watching a game a few months back, and the atmosphere was incredible for what was a standard league match, puts us to shame.
Toby – Thank you so much for this, is there anything else you would like to add?
PFS – Pleasure – no except for reiterating to be disciplined, disciplined, disciplined!
Thanks again to PFS for taking the time to answer my silly questions :-)