With business trips to the US, a break from the All Weather season and general day to day life “stuff” to attend to, blog postings have been sparse. However I have not been idly sitting my hands but in deep evaluation and transition of my statistical betting approach to utilise data from Proform Professional.
An overview of the software is available on the Proform Professional web site and there is an excellent review at this link
Although I had sang the prises of Raceform, a twitter conversation with Andy Richmond (@Bickley14) prompted me to give Proform a second glance. The main reasons for cancelling my Raceform interactive subscription and siding with Proform as a data source are:
(*) The Proform offering includes 14 year databases for Flat AND Jumps racing covering the UK and Ireland and therefore price competitive when compared to Raceform Interactive. Not that I mind paying for specialist racing software but it all boils down to that revenue minus operational costs = profit calculation.
(*) The ability to run the Proform Database application on TWO computers. I travel a lot. During my recent trip to Ireland I downloaded to my notebook next day declarations on the train from Dundalk to Dublin on Sunday. During the Journey I reviewed the form of Monday’s cards before catching the flight home in the evening, punted a 8/1 winner Monday afternoon and proved the value of this feature. QED
(*) The inclusion of speed and pace ratings for Dundalk. I had considered developing my own speed ratings as Raceform does not provide any for race entrants who have had previous runs in Ireland. In fact with the lack of publically available historical speed ratings which enables the creation of “par” standards at Dundalk for me suggests a window of opportunity or “edge” for punters who utilise speed ratings in their selection methods at this venue.
(*) The ease by which you can extract information from the Proform database and manipulate in applications such as Excel. As ex Software Engineer now Technical Consultant, I am amazed that the front end of Raceform Interactive database Query tool has not had a revamp. Extracting data using Proform’s equivalent is literally light years ahead of Raceform Interactive.
The downsides of not using Raceform Interactive? From my experiences in recent weeks, basically none. However, Proform may not be to everyone’s liking as there are no race/horse “form commentaries” available. Some people may find post race comments useful during pre race handicapping but frankly, if you are betting on the basis of someone else’s opinion without conformation with your MK1 eyeball you should really reconsider any aspirations toward profitable punting.
Each application has its own way of doing things and most of my time has been spent in understanding the “Proform way” and discovering which options enable me to extract various datasets from Proform whose equivalent was an absolute pain in Raceform.
Also Proform is geared toward punters whose foundation for punting is statistical and therefore the application cannot be considered the typical “form book” or “tip/verdict/recommendation” available in rival offerings. This will deter the majority of “give me the winner of the race” punters, those that like “in between the lines analysis” or those who like to second guess the official handicappers. To counter, Proform subscribers are provided with free and “proven” system selections on a daily basis along with daily reports, daily race cards and trainer /jockey statistics for all UK and IRISH racing.
For me, Proform is a racing systems and statistician’s wet dream which has enabled me to consider adapting my statistical approach to turf and jumps racing as part of my betting portfolio alongside All Weather Racing. For now this is work in progress.
The other benefit is that Simon Walton who runs Proform Professional Ltd is ultra ultra responsive to emails and it extremely helpful in answering questions. Raceform were good in this respect, but Simon is on a par and comforting to know given my investment in his application.
Finally I am not receiving any compensation or inducements from Proform in writing this post, just sharing the love…