Book description
Dave Farrar was like most other gamblers. Fairly low stakes and
fascinated by sport, he loved taking on the bookies. And he'd got to a
point where he'd started to win more than he lost. He'd started to
believe that he had gambling worked out. But then it all went wrong.
Dave's brief downward spiral came about because the girl he thought he
was going to marry walked out on him without explaining why. And he
chased her, and waited for her, but still nothing happened. The days got
harder to fill and so he needed something to hide behind. He chose not
alcohol or drugs but punting. He embarked on an ill-disciplined, stupid,
losing streak that cost him a five-figure sum and left him deciding that
he was done with punting forever. But, as he started to get over the
fact that the girl wasn't coming back, he realised that he missed the
gambler that he used to be. In fact, he wasn't going to give up without
a fight. But this time, he was going to do it right. Dave would delve
into the detail of every sporting event he'd lost money on and make sure
that, whenever he placed a bet in the future, he would know more about
it than anyone else, including the bookmakers. He would travel around
the world and follow the sporting calendar, meeting experts in each
field who could help him get to the bottom of every event so he might
work out what would happen next. He was determined to learn as much
about the sporting process as he possibly could, and emerge from the
other side of the journey having won back every penny that he'd lost.
The story takes in major sporting events such as the US Masters golf and
the FIFA World Cup, the Cheltenham Festival and the Ashes, as well as
less-visited sporting corners of the world: Ligue 2 in France, Eastern
Europe for boxing and Italy for cycling's Giro. You don't have to be a
gambler to enjoy Dave's story, just someone who knows a little bit about
making mistakes and wants to know a lot more about sport. Dave Farrar
commentates on football for ESPN and was the chief football commentator
on Eurosport for 10 years. His journalism covers a wide range of sports,
with a regular focus on how to become the perfect punter.
