Hello everybody. Apologies for the delay in getting this newsletter out to you, the past three months have easily been the busiest of my life and there is no sign of any let-up. As a result, I have had to take a step back and rethink my role in Bet Exchange News.

Writing the newsletter has been an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for me.  If I was to look at it in purely financial terms so far I would have to describe it as an expensive hobby. However, the payback in other directions has been significant.

I have come into contact with many exceptional people, some of whom you will have read about in this newsletter. I have learnt from and, in some cases, co-operated with these people with the result that my betting profits now provide my family with a more comfortable living than I could ever have expected from following a conventional career path.

The newsletter has also opened up doors to other, even more exciting projects. One, in particular, over the past three months has made it impossible for me to find any time for anything else. 

I have been consulting for a new betting exchange which will be launching in the next few months. In an industry where Betfair have got it so spectacularly right, it is difficult to imagine a genuine innovation. However, I believe this site does represent a genuine innovation and perhaps the first real breakthrough since Spreadfair brought spread betting to a p2p audience. 

This new site will be targeted at a sophisticated audience who are prepared to embrace an unfamiliar model in exchange for great value and we anticipate good liquidity. By its very nature, the site will not satisfy all betting needs, and will therefore be used in conjunction with rather than instead of Betfair and other sites.

Details are being kept under wraps at present, but in the next few weeks the site will be revealed to a specially invited audience who will have the opportunity to try it out in advance and to offer feedback.

The VIP list is currently being put together. If you would like to be considered for a place on this list, and be one of the first people to experience what could be the next phase of the betting exchange revolution, please send an email to VIPPreview@hotmail.com giving a brief summary of your betting background.

I still have great belief in Bet Exchange News as a concept and as a business opportunity. But it’s clear that its potential is never going to be realised with my erratic newsletter delivery. In order that it gets the attention that it deserves, I have decided to face the inevitable and hand over the editorship to a new writer.

Mike Holden is a trained journalist with experience of writing for the Sporting Life and he is a betting exchange user who is currently undergoing the tricky transformation from seeing his betting as a profitable hobby to becoming his primary source of income.

Mike is absolutely ideal for this role and I’m excited that he has agreed to take it on. He is coming on board with new ideas and a fresh outlook. Therefore, I look forward to a new energy and direction for the newsletter.

Thanks for reading Bet Exchange News and its various previous incarnations, and a special thanks for those of you who have been kind enough to offer feedback with kind comments.

A huge thanks must also go to the team of contributors who have added so much to the project and have been more than generous in sharing some of their innermost betting secrets. I will still be around and when I get a chance will contribute the odd article but, in the main, I am looking forward to being a reader like the rest of you.

Best wishes and good luck!

Mike Cooksedge

mike@betexchangenews.com