Showtime

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The new NFL season is due to start on the 8th September and I'm very excited.  Long time followers of my blog will know I've always been a fan of this American sport although I have to admit to it only being my 4th most profitable behind cricket, rugby union and darts.
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This year I hope that'll change as I'm really keen to establish a regular a income from a sport other than cricket during the winter months and NFL fits the bill perfectly as there's not much cricket played on Sunday and Monday nights!  To help in this quest I've put a lot of time into studying the sport and I'm hoping this will pay off.  So watch this space, or.....
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You could join my NFL Trading Room.  This was an idea I had at the beginning of last year whereby I would blog my thoughts 'live' during a match to give readers an idea of what I was doing. It was good fun but the main problem I had was that typing and trading at the same time just didn't mix, and I was worried I was missing opportunities that I'd otherwise be able to capitalise on.
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So why am I thinking of doing this again?
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Well there's two main reasons.  Firstly, Cassini from the well respected and popular blog 'Green All Over' has agreed to help me co-host.  By sharing the hosting responsibilities it'll hopefully take a little pressure off me to fill the gaps whilst also providing a different outlook on what's happening on the field.  Cassini is a big follower of American sports and has a proven record so I see his input being invaluable to myself and others.
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Secondly, I want to find out if there's a demand for this type of thing and whether or not I have an ability to host it. With Betfair increasing their Premium Charges there's a big incentive for me to slow down the rate I win at, and it maybe the case that in the future I can do that by offsetting future wins by charging for services similar to this.  That may or may not ever happen, but there you have it - I'm being honest.
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So if this sounds of interest and you'd like to come and take part, all you need to do is click on the link at the top of this page.  The first match to be covered is likely to be the Steelers @ Ravens on Sunday 11th September but this will be confirmed in the members area nearer the time.
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Distracted

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August has been a testing month so far which is especially frustrating after having a blinding start.  I'm wondering if it's at this point I stood on a mirror or perhaps insulted a gypsy by mistake, as every step I've made since has left me banging my head against a wall.
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Firstly it was my cooker.  One lonely night I was all set for a ready meal 'a la carte' and the bloody thing wouldn't heat up.  It turns out the heating element had gone.  Three days later it was fixed and back up and running - ah well, I thought.
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The next day I got a call off Nic who shouts down the phone, "the car's broken down on the motorway!"  Bugger.  She managed to get it to the nearest garage but what was initially diagnosed as a 30 minute job turned into a bill for a £1000 and a week driving a courtesy car. I hate Mechanics.  With the risk of something else going wrong it was decided we needed a new car.  More money down the drain.
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Surely nothing else?
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Wrong! Within the next few days the Dishwasher packed in and my computer blew up!  Unbelievable.  Now I like to think of myself as a pretty good planner and someone who takes into account all eventualities, but this was turning out to be me v the World at Defcon 1 and Dell telephone support were not the people I wanted to be speaking too.  Maybe I went a little far in screaming down the phone but they had me on the phone for 6 hours trying to fix what turned out to be a faulty graphics card.  Something which they couldn't resolve but still wanted to charge me £69 for because I'd taken up the Technicians time.  If only I'd been in Bangalore.....grrrrr.
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If you add to all this a 20 week baby scan (which fortunately went okay - we're having a little girl), the hassle of Betfair Premium Charges and doing preparation for the upcoming NFL season, you could say it's been a busy time.
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What was it that John Lennon once said?
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" Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans"
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Too right John.  Rant over.  Feeling a little better.

Football Match Database

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After spending a lot of time researching and gathering football statistics over the last few months, I've come to realise that I won't be able to commit to sending out weekly rating emails over the coming year.
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As most of my time is focussed around cricket it only leaves so many hours in the day, and with a new baby on the way it's only going to become harder to manage!

However, it's not all bad news as I've decided to offer the data I hold to subscribers of last seasons ratings email and to readers of my blog.

In total, I now have access to over 30,000 football results covering seasons 2000/2001 to 2010/2011, with match statistics for each game at the click of mouse.  The majority of the major European leagues are included:

English Premier League

English Championship

English Leagues 1 & 2

Scottish Premier League

Spanish La Liga

German Bundesliga

French Ligue 1

Dutch Eredivisie

In addition I've also included my revamped performance ratings which splits a team performance into attack and defence (maximum of 13 points for each).  By doing this it helps me build an instant picture of a teams strengths and weaknesses. 

If you are proficient in excel and are happy at filtering and using pivot tables,then you can answer multitudes of questions in seconds - full data includes:

Home & Away teams with match dates

Full time scores (by team)

Half time scores (by team)

Attack, Defence & average performance ratings (by team)

Number of shots (by team)

Number of shots on goal (by team)

Number of fouls (by team)

Number of corners (by team)

Number of yellow cards (by team)

Number of red cards (by team)

Pre-match Bookmaker odds (home, draw & away)

Total match goals

Full time and half time results

I really believe that having this information makes a difference, so if you want access and a copy for yourself then follow the link below:

I WANT A COPY OF THIS DATABASE

There's a small one off fee but after that the data is yours to keep and manipulate however you wish.  The data is supplied as a spreadsheet in .xls format and is best accessed using Microsoft Excel 2007 or later.

To give you an idea of what to expect I'm happy to email anyone interested a sample file of 500 matches for free - just email me at members@markiverson.com.  Enjoy!

Note - For those of you who do decide to purchase, please allow up to 24 hours for delivery and check your spam folders for my email.
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I'm making this available as I feel some of you could benefit from using the data to analyse and benchmark past games, but if you're not interested or already have something similar then that's fine.