★ APPLICATIONS ★ DIVERS ★ POOLS PREDICTOR ★ |
Pools Predictor | Applications Divers |
Ever wondered what you'd do if you won the pools? The biggest single pools payout in Britain was by Littlewoods to Jimmy Anderson in July 1987 who won £1.339.358 for a 40p 8 from 10 perm. Experience shows that the most successful method of pools betting is to be part of a syndicate which selects the same numbers every week and goes for highly expensive, and comprehensive 'plans' which ensure that all score draws covered in your selections count towards winning lines. Whether part of a syndicate or an individual gambler (sorry, investor) there are three ways of selecting the numbers cross on a pools coupon: selection at random (eg. with a pin) selection according to a system (lucky numbers, family birthdays and so on) and selection according to form (the method used by pools pundits in the dailies). Pools Predictor takes the last approach, basing its recommendations on the recent form of each team. This means you have to key in the results every week to keep the form register up to date. Each Thursday before you send off your coupon you run the program and ask for its predictions (home, away, or draw) for the coming weekend's fixtures. It's easy to do, but a bit tedious; keying in all the results from one Saturday can take a good twenty minutes and if you miss out results the form gets out of date. Also of course you have to key in all the fixtures for next Saturday one by one to get the results. The program keeps a list of all league clubs in memory and you only have to key in a couple of letters from a name - the full name will be searched out for you. Typing Liv will bring up 'Liverpool' for example. It works on a simple string search, so typing Li brings up Carlisle United! Quick on the draw An alternative to the form prediction is sequence prediction -simply going by numbers on the coupon which have provided draws in the past and suggesting the most likely numbers for you - these appear almost instantaneously. The drawing of the screen borders is irritatingly slow but the rest of the program works fast enough. It's a very easy package to use; the only problem is how keen you are to type in all the results every Saturday. Will it make you money? It's best approached as a bit of fun rather than a serious investment tool; for keen pools punters with Amstrads, though, it might well be a pleasant way to work their hobby onto their PCW. The only problem will be when Pools Predictor's numbers come up one Saturday, and Littlewoods and Vernons receive telegram claims from everyone in the world who has the program...
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