How much sports investors really make? What does it take to be successful? What works and what not? Lets find out from our survey!
Thank you everyone who took the time to complete our Z-code survey. I learned a lot about you from our results and your suggestions will help us build our vision and plans for the coming years. As you all know, Zcode is here to stay for years to come and thanks to our members, we have the support to continue our research, developments, new tools and start new great contests.
Of course, we are not perfect but we’ve learned a lot about what works for you and what doesn’t, and we’ll keep all your suggestions in consideration. As usual, our main approach is to roll out smooth upgrades and avoid “fixing what’s not broken”.
Let’s quickly go through your replies to be on the same page, right?
1. How long have you been a Z-Coder?
I was pleasantly surprised to see that over 50% of you guys have stayed almost a year or even more with us. That shows that only consistency and a long-term approach is the way to go in sports investing. If you are new, remember it’s a Marathon, not a Sprint. There will be bad times along the way, it’s inevitable. But long-term approach always wins.
2. The number of systems in Zcode Club and Forum.
This was very important question for me. You see, it’s very hard to find a right balance between “too many” and “not enough”. Sometimes, it might look overwhelming with so many topics and wall pick posts. We are still looking for ways to shape them in the best way. For now, we have the “Hot Trends” tab under which we collect the top performing systems that you might benefit from following. But remember, following too many systems is not the right thing. It’s better to choose a few that you are comfortable with and follow them very consistently, instead of jumping between systems.
3. Zcode has developed a lot of extra tools such as Oscillators, Line Reversals tools, Rankings, Soccer Buddy.
Most of them are integrated into VIP picks so if you did not know, you can simply hover the mouse over the stats and get the popup with extra info. Someone wrote pop-ups are really annoying and better to have them under a click but I am not sure about it. This will cause a lot of clicking and slow things down, I am afraid. Let me know your opinion in the comments.
4. Majority of people keep Zcode at their fingertips, visiting it few times a day or even keeping the VIP Club always open, like me.
5. The WALL vs. FORUM
The result: Draw.
Basically, it’s clear we need them both… The wall is good for fast communication & updates but it can get overwhelming without a solid forum foundation, where the tracking and the system rules are clearly defined in the topics. I think it’s a pretty good synergy. All other systems have either ONLY forum or only live chats. Both? Why not, it works for us here at Zcode. So, we’re gonna let it remain as it is for now.
6. The majority is still using desktop computers/laptops most of the time but almost 40% use both stationary and mobile devices.
During the last year, we made a lot of attempts to get the WALL working faster for mobile devices and cellphones, and I believe we achieved some good results with the performance speed increase. With new Androids and iPhones, it might get even better because the speed limitations are mostly from the mobile processor itself.
7. The membership fee seems reasonable to a majority of our members, but some believe it’s too high. One guy said “way too low“… was not me, I swear!
Talking about the fee, we also need to keep a reasonable balance between the price and the value. Our goal is to provide the best value possible and use the money to invest in our future developments, support the LAB programming team and our cash contests.
Reducing the price too low would provide an increase in people who are not serious about sports investing or have no capital and just came to “check it out”. Such people don’t have a value for the community and we really don’t want to become the next Covers with 100,000,000 members posting random stuff and spamming around the board. “Please don’t get TOO BIG!!!” was one of the main suggestions from you!
If you are new to Zcode, you will easily see the kind of camaraderie we have all share as a close group of friends who share the same common interests in sports and betting, in comparison to other websites that simply have droves of random people joining them with no clue or assistance from the existing membership. Zcode is where a small group of people are working together and helping each other to succeed; your success story is ours too, at the end of day!
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.
Henry Ford
8. I follow Zcode mostly because of…
Well, we are sports investors after all, not just sport talkers. The replies certainly prove the point. Making money by doing what you love is the ultimate goal of every sports investor.
It’s not easy, otherwise everyone would be doing it. But it’s doable.
9. Your approach to sports investing…
This one is very interesting. It shows that Zcode unites people of 2 completely different mindsets!
I am happy to see that the majority of people love to learn and find out how things work, not just follow systems blindly. That is the “teach man to fish” approach instead of “give him a fish“.
However, the second group that suggests “please remove all game commentaries and just give me the picks and unit size” should also be respected. There are a lot of people who work offline whole day and just don’t have enough time to analyze various sports, even if they want to. For them, we try to develop automated systems that just post the picks in an easy and convenient form.
10. Everyone’s favorite question about the loved sport.
No surprises here, NFL is leading by the slightest margin over MLB and other major US sports but the best thing is, our community is truly international where everyone can find the sport he loves.
What I noticed is that people prefer to bet the sport they love and understand. It’s really hard that a die-hard NFL fan will place a soccer bet or vise versa. But we are getting there. Zcode is helping to erase such borders.
As you can see, the community is really international, with a majority located in Europe and USA.
11. Transparency.
The majority of people are satisfied with transparency and we put a lot of effort in both automatic tracking (for Bot systems like Alpha/Delta etc) and for manual systems (Alberto’s tracking team is manually placing bets and tracking them)
However, there is always a room for improvement. We encourage people who are posting systems always try to track the performance themselves and keep the spreadsheets so Alberto’s team can help you analyze them, make charts, find your weak and strong points.
12. “Manual expert systems vs. Automatic systems”
Here I guess majority would reply I prefer the one that works. Seems like it does not really matter if it is automated or manual, as long as it wins long term.
13. Though the majority of members simply like to follow systems, there is a large number of people who develop their own.
Even if you are new to sports investing, developing your own system is the best way to get up-to-speed fast. It may not be the greatest system ever from the start but you will a learn a lot about which stats are most important and which stats are just noise, what filters to use, what progressions to use if any and how to apply proper money management. Start your own system, track and paper bet for a few months! Trust me, it’s really exciting.
14. A difficult question that a lot of people skipped. I did not put “all of it” among answers to see how you prioritize things when you bet.
Obviously all of that matters but the majority of people are putting the most importance on the ability to backtest the system and see how it performs long term. This is a good long-term strategy. Almost each backtested system (not all, of course, but the vast majority of them) showed a solid performance on forward live-betting as well.
15. This one was a shocker for me.
We’ve got so much buzz about the contests and almost 6% of you guys still never heard of them? Come on! 🙂 Wake up, put those thinking hats on and let’s win together.
Participating in the contest will not take much of your time (for example, in the NFL contest, we have just 1 pick per week) but it’s a great way to learn the sport faster and sharpen your skills! Plus win great Cash prizes. This month we have a HUGE championship with a massive prize!
16. Live betting.
Yes, it’s clear now the demand is pretty high and we already developed the LIVE betting room! and Zlive App with live bets is available as well! YEY!
This will make live bets appear faster and will help to ensure the main WALL is less messy and noisy from all the live bets flooding it!
17. Your overall satisfaction with our Zcode VIP club and community. I am happy that 89% are satisfied. You ROCK, guys!
However if you are the unhappy 11%, please send us a support ticket at techsupport@zcodesystem.com so that we can look into your case individually and see how we can improve your experience.
18. I am a WINNER.
Being a winner is our ultimate goal for every member. It’s not easy to become a PRO sports investor overnight; it takes time and learning to become one. If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it, right?
However I am glad to see that 33% are already winning and 63% are getting there and learning. Way to go, guys! Trust me, where the focus goes, the energy flows and the results SHOW!
You will be a winner, I am sure about it.
Remember, 80% of the success is about having the right game mindset. Concentrate on wins, let go of the losses and your results will improve significantly. Before inventing the light bulb, Thomas A. Edison failed 10,000 times. He did not see that as a failure and that is exactly why he succeeded in the end.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.”
19. My main mistake was… when I started sports investing + My advice to newbies on how to avoid it.
This is a very interesting one. I was really surprised with almost everyone doing EXACTLY THE SAME mistake! And you know what that is?
Wrong Money management.
Almost everyone went through the following pattern: jumping hard on every single system and pick and then realizing that you put your whole bankroll at risk in 1 day. Simply put, one bad day can wipe out your whole bankroll and instead of winning, you just end up starting over.
If you think I am smart and did not do it myself, think again. Around 15 years ago, when I started following sports cappers, I blew my bankroll at least 3 times and kept blaming the cappers until I finally realized there is something wrong with me. With the way I manage my bets. It’s not that the system I followed had a flaw; the way I placed the bets was wrong. I had a $1000 bankroll and advice was to put 1% per bet. That would be $10. I was winning $5-$7 per bet.. Then greed kicked in. This seemed too small to me, so I thought, why not put $100 instead? The gains will be bigger, right? Wrong. It will last a couple of good days but the first losing streak will kill the bankroll this way. This is what happened to me and happens almost to everyone who just start betting, no matter how many materials on money management are released and provided to them. I can’t emphasize it more, if you are just starting off, make sure you paper bet or live bet with small $1 bets to get your feet wet, before jumping in hard with a real big bankroll.
Here are some of the best tips and hints that you could follow (I just quote a few, I received about 100 similar tips from you!)
+ Don’t follow too many systems, take your time and get a feel for the community first.
+ Do not bet every game on the board. Pick and choose only a few and compare your results with the experts.
+ Trying too many systems. My advice is to select a few that you know something about and possibly develop a new system from what you have learned and contribute to the discussions.
+ Trying to follow too many systems without defining an emergency plan in case of lost games or a failing system. Define these things first, so that you know to what do is the worst possible cases and then, it’s just a matter of simply following your own rules. This allows a much more relaxed sports-investing experience.
+ Be conservative. Manage your bankroll and only bet your unit level.
+ Don’t over-bet. It’s easy to over-bet when things are going well and you usually end up deviating from your system parameters.
+ Do not blow your bankroll trying to follow every expert. Advice: as I’ve seen from many others, it’s best to take the time to get to know the experts and pick a couple to follow those who suit your style. Money management! That’s where I went wrong when I first started out and tried to follow so many experts.
+ Over-betting: Advice to newbies – start with a reasonable bankroll and unit size and set aside a separate bankroll for each system you follow!
+ Over-enthusiastic money management! Start small and get a feel for the system you follow is my advice.
+ Trying to pick “safe” bets and go big. Advise is set your 1% bets and stick to them no matter how confident you may be of the pick. Set goals and stay positive.
+ Rushing in. Take your time and learn first.
+ Biggest mistake is trying to earn as soon as possible. Patience, patience and again, patience.
+ Start with the wall and carefully read through the System-generated Hot Trends, Recommendations & Odds … also, look for golden nuggets of information such as signal arrows (up/down), trends & statistics, ZCode Statistical Data since 1999, Alpha/Delta trends. Since I started to take note of these parameters, they made a difference to my sports investing!!! Newbies tend to follow what someone says and do not take the time to do their own research nor do they allow themselves to gain confidence in the system. There is a valid reason why ZCode is the best software that money can buy!!
+ Don’t get discouraged or give up. Even these systems are not perfect. Be patient and humble. This is by far the easiest and yet at the same time, the toughest thing that requires the most discipline… otherwise, everyone would be doing it.
+ Getting carried away by emotion – over-betting when you are winning. As tempting as it may, DON’T do it!
+ Sports Investing is very similar to Trading. Do not expect to get rich fast or try to hit the home-run. Slow and steady is the key to making money as well as good money management. Minimize the risk by winning more than losing in terms of units. Winning percentage does not mean you will make money, it’s winning more than you lose in terms of units risked.
20. What are the positives about Zcode club & community and what works for me?
Here, we received a great deal of compliments and encouraging messages from you guys! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
It really inspires the team and keeps us going when we read your kind words!
Here are some of them:
+ All of the members are absolutely amazing. Each is different but all working together for the same cause and from all different parts of the world….pretty cool.
+ Many great systems which allow to follow without spending too much time in sports analysis.
+ I really like the wall posts and auto system picks. You can choose from a variety, paper test, and see what works best for you.
+ The many experts in all the various sports allows me to follow and invest in sports that I know very little about, e.g. Ankush for Tennis.
+ They are people who know betting, and are always eager to help
+ Discussion with experts 24/7, donation program as motivation for experts, sound alerts, automated systems…
+ I love the worldwide experts so there is always a game on that interests me.
+ There is a constant flow of picks
+ The whole interaction is great. The members do care about one another.
+ Friends and money (good one!)
+ First time, I want money. But now, I want money and knowledge of the sports and betting system.
+ The members are wonderful and always ready to help. Makes it fun and make the difficult days not so hard. I am grateful to be a part of it.
+ The wall & the communities are always great to read and is very helpful in determining what to place. I love everything about zcode at this moment.
+ I love how everybody interacts with each other on the wall. I love how everybody trys to help each other win. Its like one big happy family!
+ How much input is given daily. I know more about most sports topics than everyone I talk to and most of that info comes from Zcode.
+ Feeling of “friendship” and amazing positive energy, no bickering or arguing, and they’re smart people at what they do.
+ Everything, Zcode has honestly changed my life, learning from Professionals is probably the main advantage. I DO NOT Want to only follow picks.It is awesome learning, analysing and seeing why somebody makes picks. Automated signal bots are great too and i love alpha etc etc but im talking in terms of expert picks.. i Love the way zcode works, keep it up!
+ Backtested systems on high-limit markets is a great find for me.
+ The winning mentality and the positive atmosphere.
+ The honesty and transparency of it all – and the knowledgeable contributors.
+ Being able to brainstorm with highly intelligent people who have the same goal.
+ The public by at large keeps on betting big name teams and lose in the long-term. ZCode, with tons of statistical data at its disposal, is able to assist me as the investor to recognize WINNING trends. The system is not biased on big name teams or favorites.
+ Follow the Hot Trends and you will profit consistently and over the long-term just like i did!
21. What about Zcode does not work for me (your honest criticisms).
I received a lot of constructive feedback here. The main suggestion here was “don’t try to fix what ain’t broken“. There was also contradictive criticism here as well, such as from “I want to see more game commentary” to completely opposite “Please remove all game commentary“. This just proves our point from question 9 about 2 completely different mindsets!
What really stands out in your criticisms and which I agree with as well… is that sometimes it’s very hard to see which system is hot.
There is a large number of people who don’t have their own dedicated forum topic yet, so they post picks on the wall and it sometimes gets overwhelming and hard to track. On one hand, we don’t want to apply any limits and discourage people from contribution. On the other hand, we need to find a way to stimulate them to keep track of things and get more organized.
I believe one of the ways is to develop a “Who is HOT” rating page where experts and all contributors are rated based on the likes they received during the last 2 weeks. Probably, it is one of the best ways to see who is ‘hot’ judged by the amount of love and appreciation he receives by his followers. Good winning picks with a solid tracking is what everyone benefits from. I believe such ratings will be a great solution to help sort things out and make things less overwhelming for the newbies and other followers.
22. What I would like to suggest for future improvements?
A lot of great suggestions guys, thank you for your tips and thoughts. As you know, we keep working hard on more & more developments and always strive to make Zcode better. There is always a room for future growth!.
Interesting points:
+Just keep doing what you are already doing. I started July with a modest £100 bankroll and I am currently on £500, this doesn’t sound like much but I am extremely happy with what the future holds in terms of my financial situation and general satisfaction with Zcode!!!!!
+ I’m pretty damn happy. It’s been a fun evolution since the beginning. Love you guys
+ Some of the experts should refrain from swearing and using f**k. We need to keep the forum professional as new members. Just my opinion.
+ Beside the games on the wall, there should be buttons where all partakers could confirm whether they bet for team A or B, and besides this the stats: So it would be easy to find games with a lot of experts agreeing.
+ Simplifying all the systems down to one easy page to follow. Alberto was doing it for awhile where he was taking picks from all the experts and only posting ones that coincided. Genius.
+ You guys need to analyze and add College football and College basketball to VIP, just like you guys do the NBA, MLB, NHL, and NFL. Also you should add soccer and tennis on another VIP tab
+ Keep developing a good base of automated systems for a solid bank-building base.
+ ALL the experts have an easy reference, so you can straight away see who is performing well by showing their trades and results.
+ If it ain´t broken, why fix it……. Zcode It works perfectly well for me, can´t really find any downsides of Zcode
+ More automated systems like alpha/delta for other sports.
+ As many of us are not in the USA, it would be helpful if a set time was listed for selections such as Eastern Time and could contributors please list the countries their selections are related to? Otherwise you are all doing a grand job!
Thank you guys, for all your suggestions and great contributions! We will keep working and improving to make Zcode better so that we can all win together for years to come!!
Here is the glorious results we have been getting lately
Your bankroll could be growing like this:
P.S. And if you are still not a member, join us now here and become a part of the community of winners! Click here to upgrade and unlock all winners
P.S. Upgrade to Zcode VIP Club and Unlock All Winning Picks. Instant Access.
