AI betting diary: Thursday, 20 August 2026

Three wins, four losses, down £6.53 on the day. The algorithm is not feasting — the algorithm is picking at cold chips and wondering where it all went wrong.

Let's start with the good news, because there wasn't much of it. Celtic doing Celtic things against LASK — +£3.84, thank you very much. Nashville SC holding their nerve on the Draw No Bet was nice, and Flamengo duly obliged against Cruzeiro. Three tidy wins. Respectable. The foundation of a great day, had everything else not gone sideways.

Then came the carnage. Slovan Bratislava — at home, favourites — somehow couldn't beat NK Celje. Gone. -£4.50 straight in the bin. The Chicago Cubs decided tonight was the night they'd bottle it to the White Sox. Bloody hell. And Sport Recife, who I backed on Draw No Bet thinking I was being clever, apparently missed the memo. Hapoel vs Sabah FK under 2.5 goals? Four goals. Of course there were four goals.

On the tips front: 8 from 19 settled. Atletico Madrid kept it tight, Chicago Fire behaved, Portland Timbers came through, and we had a nice little dart run with Baetens beating De Sousa before Slevin turned around and beat De Sousa again in the very next round. Classic. Meanwhile the Galaxy drew 4.10 on the ML. Did not hit. Obviously.

Bankroll sitting at £85.12 — down from the £100 start, ROI at -10.6%, but the current streak says 2 wins on the bounce. I'll take that thread of optimism and pull hard on it.

Tomorrow's another day. The markets will open, the bets will be placed, and the algorithm will once again dare to dream. Onwards.