Second Half Secret Review

Rules-based systems do hold a certain appeal.

You know the sort of thing…. apply four magic filters to a long list of football matches, bet on the games that you end up with and you will make money.

Well, that’s the theory at any rate. And its appeal arises from its apparent simplicity… though of course, a little voice in the back of your head can be heard muttering that making money surely can’t be that easy…

One such system is Second Half Secret, which I started testing back in early November 2016.

There was quite a bit of fuss about it at the time, including, when I posted my trial introduction, a flurry of comments from folks wanting to know how I was getting on.

Inevitably, the answer has taken rather longer to come up with than I’d have liked, but we are finally at the finishing post.

So… has Second Half Secret made me any money?

Sadly no, a truncated trial has finished with my bank balance firmly in the red.

I say ‘truncated’ as, one day in late January, the tips emails just stopped coming.

I wrote to the supplier to ask why but, in spite of my receiving a courteous initial reply, the selections themselves never restarted.

Subsequent chasing emails from your triallist yielded no further responses. The trial was therefore at a standstill.

Now, strictly, I could probably find the right games to trade from the system rules, even if it is quite time-consuming to do so.

And I did seriously consider this option.

But then I suddenly came to my senses as I realised that, even if I were to win all of the remaining 36 bets in my trial, I would only finish with a positive balance of £8.58!

Which would work out at a shade over four points’ profit… after finding and putting on 200 wagers!

It clearly wasn’t worth the effort, so I’ve called a halt to the whole exercise.

The final results table, therefore, looks like this…

It’s really hard to get excited about a set of results like that, especially as I’ve had to go to a lot of effort to find all the right matches and markets to bet on.

The complete results log for the trial is available for download here.

Summary

I have found this to be a tedious trial to run, particularly as the final outcome has rarely been in doubt following a dismal opening period.

Matters have improved since then but the trouble is that you need three winners for every loser to make even a slight profit… so inevitably, the slightest wobble has tended to derail the recovery.

I can’t award this anything but a Fail rating. It’s simply been a waste of my time.

If you still wish to find out more about Second Half Secret, you can do so here. But I wouldn’t recommend it.

Lucy

Original Review Intro: 4th November 2016

I still get that old buzz of excitement that I’ve always got whenever I open up a new system.

Maybe you are familiar with the feeling?

It’s that (possibly slightly immature!) hope that maybe, just maybe, this product will provide a path to riches, and even perhaps the punter’s Holy Grail.

Though I do know of course, from bitter experience, that Holy Grails have proven to be rather thin on the ground over the 5 1/2 years I have been running this website!

Still, I can’t help myself. And if I didn’t get a little bit excited, maybe I would just run out of steam altogether and stop trialling. 🙂

All of which is a long-winded way of coming to the subject of today’s article: my new trial of Second Half Secret.

Second Half Secret is something of a throwback to the kind of product I used to look at when I began trialling here at Lay Back.

Unlike many services nowadays, that often require familiarisation with a whole range of different methods, this one simply involves learning five straightforward rules then applying them mechanistically.

As its name suggests, Second Half Secret is a product that aims to teach you how to trade football matches in-play immediately after the half-time whistle.

The rules are really just selection criteria for the games that you will want to trade.

Essentially, you are looking for matches all over the world that comply with five requirements. Once you have one, you enter the market and bet in a certain way.

You don’t have to wait around once you have placed your bet.

The product is extremely simple to use and therefore, if it turns out to be profitable, Second-Half Secret is likely to appeal to many.

Summary

I suspect the selection criteria are likely to throw up quite a few games so I’m reasonably hopeful that I should be able to get to my usual 200 bet target without too much difficulty.

I intend to trade primarily at the exchange simply because I expect to get better prices there.

However, I will occasionally use a bookmaker such as bet365 for obscure matches where Betfair does not offer adequate liquidity.

Incidentally, the product comes with quite an aggressive staking plan, however, it does suggest that you adopt a method that you feel comfortable with and I certainly don’t feel comfortable with the one proposed in the manual!

I will, therefore, use a 50 point bank though I may reduce it if I start to feel more relaxed over time. I will, I am pretty sure, be betting at quite short odds so it is feasible that the bank size could be reduced.

I’ll be back in December with my first report. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, you can find out more about the Second Half Secret over here.

Lucy

Update: 11th December 2016

Like a lot of punters, I suspect, I have a weakness for systems with simple, mechanistic rules.

The idea that there is a loophole in the betting markets, no matter how slight, is a deeply appealing one.

Because it suggests you could potentially return to Betfair whenever you like, find opportunities that meet your designated criteria, and extract a stream of winnings.

All of which explains my interest in Second Half Secret, a product that undoubtedly qualifies as simple and mechanistic.

Second Half proposes a single in-play bet on one particular goals market whenever five criteria are satisfied.

You find games that match the rules, place your bets and you’re done.

Seriously, if this works, who wouldn’t be interested?

So, one month into my trial, is Second Half Secret living up to its billing?  Read on to find out….

Sadly, no. We’ve had a very disappointing first month.

I’ve put on 99 bets in a frenetic opening period and lost almost fifteen points in the process.

Fortunately, I’ve only been betting at £2 a point from a bank of £100.

The strike rate simply hasn’t been high enough, as you can see from the detailed results log…

All bets have been placed at Betfair and my results allow for a deduction of 5% winner’s commission:

Summary

I am struggling to persevere with this trial.

I need a strike rate up around 75% if I am to make a profit and I am well short of that.

And, of course, I now need a prolonged period of outperformance if I am ever going to get into the black.

One of the things I don’t have to worry about, however, is a shortage of bets. This month has clearly shown that the product throws up a lot of betting opportunities.

I have put on 99 bets and could probably have placed a lot more. Opportunities occur throughout the day and it would require an almost superhuman effort to track them all.

I have therefore simply decided to be pragmatic and put on 200 bets as quickly as I can.

I’ll be back with my final report when I cross the finishing line.

Meanwhile, you can read more about the Second Half Secret here.

Lucy

Update: 15th January 2017

There was quite a bit of fuss about Second Half Secret when it appeared in late 2016.

I, for one, got a lot of emails about it. And it just seemed to be popping up all over the place.

Based on the no-smoke-without-fire principle, inevitably I started to wonder…. were the people behind it onto something with their mechanistic method?

So I begged for a copy and duly got one… and immediately dived in.

Unfortunately, the first month was a massive anti-climax. (How often does that happen!?).

So had I just been unlucky.. and would month #2 perhaps bring an upturn in my fortunes?

Month #2 was better. But we still only made 1.4 points.

It was however nice to be able to finish in the black for the period:

Unfortunately, adding these numbers to the brought forward figures for month #1 produces negative totals for the trial as a whole:

The complete results log for month #2 is as follows..

I am using £2 stakes and allowing 5% for winner’s commission.

You can download the complete results log by clicking here.

Summary

I’m 150 bets into a 200 bet trial and 13 points in arrears.

As I can only gain just over a third of a point from a winning bet, I would now need a strike rate well in excess of 90% to finish in the black.

I just don’t see it happening.

I will finish the trial as planned but have to admit to being seriously underwhelmed by Second Half Secret so far.

I’ll be back when I get to my 200 bet finishing line.

In the meantime, you can find out more about Second Half Secret here.

Lucy