This is a "really useful" book for the horserace gambler, backer or even (mug) punter. Unlike most books on backing, Potts is a writer who believes in making the book humourously readable (cf. the equally valuable and well written but statistics-bound books by Nick Mordin). The author tells of his early years as a mug punter, spending (as many of us have done) wasted afternoons in the fug of the small betting shops so much part of British life: the fug is probably less now than in the 1970's, thanks to aircon, but the mug punters are almost certainly just the same! Going on from those times, Potts then tells us how, with a relatively few thousand pounds (I think maybe 10,000, but that would be, at a guess, around 1980) he started out to bet professionally.
Pott's first season was almost a complete disaster, but was redeemed near the end with some triumphs. In all, the story might be said to be a profane version of Parsifal's, i.e. that of the "fool slowly wise". Unlike the average punter (let alone gambling "addict"), Potts learned from experience how to make this game pay.
Among valuable insights often kept obscure: the pro backer is not betting against the bookies but, in reality, against the mug punters and all those backing otherwise than himself; the value of betting on-course with the aim of getting, say, 9/2 instead of 4/1, unimportant if one is backing at a 5 level (i.e. worth 2.50), but worth a lot more ( 500) if one is gambling 1,000. That remains true despite "betting exchanges", not seen when this book was first published. A further important point made is that, with the exception of rare coups, the backer is limited: too high a regular bet and the odds shrivel and it becomes difficult to "get on".
If the reader takes away anything from this book, it must be "value". AN ODDS-ON HORSE CAN NEVER BE VALUE! Why do people find this hard to understand? A good "strike rate" and a decent return (price or odds) for each winning wager are the lifeblood of successful betting on horses.
If you do any more than put a fiver on the Grand National, buy this book!
As the title suggests the theme of this book is about betting 'Against the Crowd'. Throughout the book you will find references to 'the mugs'. These are your opponents. Not the bookies. Bookies are commision agents. It is other punters that determine the prices of horses not the bookies.
Potts explains some good techniques of how to do the opposite of what the mugs are doing. You can learn a lot of why not to bet something rather than follow the sheep.
Like Nick Mordins Betting for a living, he displays his betting diary of his major bets during 1994.
