I may have lost a couple of accounts, but this was just the start of what was to come. It never just stopped there, I went on doing the same thing for about 6-years, until all my resources had come to an end and I had no more options to open more bookies accounts, not just in my name, but all the friends, girlfriend, and family around me at that time. I would actually pay people £200 to open a bookies account for me!

The winnings just kept on adding up, I bought my house outright I bought a BMW M3 Convertible outright, I had more money than I'd ever had in my life and I couldn't see an end to it. But, unfortunately, as is the case with so many good things, it has to come to an end at some point. And it did, around 6-years later, as I just wasn't making the same money as I was when I started, don't get me wrong, it was still possible and maybe still is today.

Around that time there was a sudden influx of tipsters coming on the scene which was making the markets very volatile, to the point where you had so many horses turning blue and getting backed, it was really hard to evaluate which was the REAL money and which was from a tipster and his/her followers?!

Sink or Swim?

With so many horses being backed every morning, life got tricky. I’d often find myself backing three or four horses in the same race, which made it virtually impossible to perm them up with others in different races.

Hills had long stopped pricing up an hour later than everyone else, and most of my other accounts were restricted or closed.

This was around 2008, so I’d had a solid six years of living off the bookies. But now I had a decision to make:

Do I go back to working on the planes?
Look for another job locally?
Or do I carry on working for myself and find another way to make an income?

I did miss the travelling and sightseeing that came with aircraft fitting, but I definitely didn’t miss living out of a suitcase, or having to deal with pretentious gobshite bosses who thought they were better than everyone else.

By then, I’d gotten used to working for myself — no one to answer to, no clocking in, no bullshit.

I was still winning, but not on the same scale as before. And when betting is your only income, you need to be earning more than you could with a day job — otherwise, what’s the point?

👉 Next chapter: Bookies Enemy No1 is Born