About a year ago I came into contact with someone who calls himself the Betting Stig. For those who don’t know, the Stig is a character in the British Television Show, Top Gear and the character wears a helmet at all times and the concept of the show was that no one would know the true identity of the Stig.

Well the Betting Stig works the same way and while a few of us may know his identity the betting public with whom he shares his information does not. The Betting Stig has over the last few years developed an algorithm that basically helps him to handicap rugby games in leagues around the world. This algorithm is a constant work in progress and he is always refining it and currently uses inputs such as home ground advantage, team selection, current form and more.

After feeding in his inputs the algorithm spits out a favourite and a winning margin and the Betting Stig then waits for the bookmakers to price up their lines and if for example the Golden Lions are playing the Blue Bulls and the Stig Line, as he calls it, is (-11) Lions and the handicap opens (-7) Lions then his selection would be the Lions on the handicap. He does not claim his system is full proof, but he is striking it around 58% which is well above that of your average punter and he encourages those who follow him on Twitter or read his Blog on Goodforthegame to use his Stig Lines in conjunction with their own research.

Over the years I have experimented with many methods to try and get on top of the bookmakers, some successful and some less so and I am certainly watching the Betting Stig’s progress with a lot of interest. He has on occasion appeared on my Thursday night Rugby Betting Show, The Handicap, but don’t think you will find out his identity then as he wears a helmet throughout the entire show.

If you are looking for a different angle to your betting then check out the Betting Stig’s Blog on the Goodforthegame site. His lines are not skewed by emotion and he admits to not even watching the games on many occasions.

The bookies would no doubt like to get their hands on the Betting Stig Algorithm

Twitter: @BrentGraham.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 10 September 2020.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register