Joining us on the podcast this week is Nathan Snow, undoubtedly one of Sydney’s smartest punters.

Following a bookmaking career at a relatively young age Nathan realised he could make more money punting and has become one one the leading players on the Sydney scene.

Punting Insights:

His starting point for analysing a race

What he looks for when doing video replays

The relative importance of trainers and jockeys

Why his outlay varies in line with his confidence levels

Today’s Guest:

Nathan Snow - Ratings Analyst

Get the Transcript:

David Duffield: It’s good to have a chat today and also good to have you on board, which we'll get onto a bit later on, but I just wanted to run through a bit about your background, for people that aren't familiar with you and your work. Just talk us through how you got involved in horse racing and betting and then onto the bookmaking career.

Nathan Snow: I sort of took a back route into racing actually. I had a pretty regulation childhood. I just had a desperate dad that took me to the TAB every Saturday and instilled a love of horses and gambling in me that way, and I did the regulation thing and went to uni and ended up landing a job as a bookie's clerk part time while I was at uni, on a Saturday, and just absolutely loved that and ended up finishing work and got a job in the city in a finance company, was hating that and just sort of punting away whenever I could and doing form and loving that.

Eventually my dad saw how unhappy I was and I hit him up for a little loan and I said, I want to have a crack at this and God bless him, he was just behind me a 100% and said, have a crack and do your best. Yeah, I got my bookie's license at the age of 23 and sort of went to Gosford and Wyong and Hawkesbury and made very small books out the back, just playing very small, learning my craft and learning by doing and had the time of my life. I was there for about four or five years, made it to the rails in Sydney and there was great fun, but unfortunately the crowds started disappearing from the race track and it became harder and harder to make a book and as an opinioned book, that was the worst thing because I’d do all this form and couldn't stay out there and do what I wanted to do.

So eventually I started punting Monday to Friday and bookmaking on Saturday. After a year or so of that, it just became apparent I was wasting my time on a Saturday and made the full time switch about four or five years ago.

David Duffield: When you were bookmaking, I think one of the things you said to me in the past was, you did the analysis and you found you were laying the horses that should be laid, but just because you had a relatively cautious approach, having your father's money involved and the like and lack of experience.

Nathan Snow: I knew I only had one crack at it and if I did my bankroll, that was the end of it and I'd have to go back to the real world and get a proper job and I definitely didn't want to do that, so I went out there super cautious. I played very scared and looking back, it's probably not the way you want to do a bookmaking career but, it was the best way for me to learn. After a few years of analysis, I could see I was doing a fortune in bet-backs, so I knew I was laying the right horses and I knew I was doing something right. It was just a lack of confidence and a lack of bankroll so I could start my betting bigger.

I just always, I still to this day, I bet very small compared to what I should be on my bankroll, because I'm just cautious. I want to keep doing what I love. I don't want to get a real job.

David Duffield: When you say you bet small, you're talking in percentage terms of your total bankroll?

Nathan Snow: Yeah, correct.

David Duffield: How were you doing the form in those days, because I know it’s evolved a lot since, but back then when you were going to rate them all from a bookmaker's perspective, what was the process?