What is Operation One Grand?

Welcome to Operation One Grand, a £1-£1000 challenge betting challenge.

I have attempted these sort of challenges before and they are bloody hard work and incredibly frustrating when it all goes wrong. I’m no betting expert and never claim to be, but I am a regular punter and enjoy pawing through the games and stats just to find that value bet in the Estonian third division. However, this is a different animal.

In the past I have found that these sort of challenges mostly fail due to a lack of discipline and by trying to cut corners. Trying to rush to get to the target more quickly rather than biding my time. So this time, there will be strict rules.

The original model behind these sort of challenges is to pick out a 1/10 shot for each bet and roll over the winnings for each subsequent bet at the same odds. Following this, you can reach £1000 (or £1,066.60 to be exact) in 49 bets.

In the past I have started out with good intentions but have become frustrated with the slow progress at the beginning of the challenge. For example, it takes eight bets even just to break the £20 mark. So why not start off at £20?

Because the challenge is £10-£1000! Plus if we fail and need to start again, I’d rather be depositing a tenner rather than £20 each time.

A 1/10 shot should sail in. But of course there are always shocks and things don’t go according to plan on a fairly regular basis. Only the other day Liverpool started off at prices around 1/16 in their F.A cup tie at home to fourth tier Plymouth Argyle. The game ended 0-0. So banana skins are always there. However, this is where a bit of research and caution comes into play. Liverpool’s starting eleven was their youngest ever fielded. The potential for something to go wrong was there. The prices offered by the bookies simply didn’t take that into account. Minimising risk is a huge part of this challenge.

However, we can do all the research into form and frequent scorers and longest runs since a 0-0 and such like, but if I've learnt anything in all my time watching the game (and betting on it), football has a habit of making people look like idiots.

So, rule. Well, the main one is to avoid the temptation of cutting corners. So, only one bet per day will be placed. Today is the 10^th January, which means that if everything goes according to plan then we will hit our target on 28^th February. It’s a slow burn but hopefully that will help rather than trying to cram several bets into a single day and rushing things.

The main market I will be looking at is the over 0.5 goals in a game. This means we just need to avoid a 0-0 game. In the grand scheme of things, 0-0 games are relatively few and far between. Out of all the games that are played around the world each day, we just need to pick one single game each day that has at least one goal scored in it. Sounds easy right?

The problem is that even after identifying a suitable game to bet on, most games for this market will start off at odds worse that 1/10. Depending on the game it may be 15-30 minutes before the price comes down to what we need. Obviously some games will see a goal fly in sooner than this, so multiple options will be needed as backup. Tricky.

So, what have we got to lose? Oh, yeh, a tenner. But let's see how it goes anyway...