How the Formdial Ledger Works
Last updated: 11/07/2026
The Formdial Ledger is your own private bet log — the same engine that runs the public Edge Explorer, blank and ready for your betting. You log bets, settle them, and the Ledger turns your record into an equity curve, strike rates, ROI and breakdowns you can interrogate. This page walks through everything it does.
Adding a bet
The add-bet slip at the top of your Ledger needs five things: date, track, horse, odds and stake. Odds go in as fractions (5/2, EVS), or as decimals (3.5) if you prefer. That is a ten-second entry, and the bet goes in as pending until you settle it.
Open More detail and you can also record the code (Flat, AW or NH), class, race type, going, trip, trainer, jockey, the source of the bet (your own pick, the Daily Dial, a tipster), the bookmaker it was placed with, field size, BSP, Rule 4 deductions, dead-heats and a note. All of it is optional — the analysis simply uses whatever you give it. Type a trainer, track or tipster the Ledger has not seen before and it is offered automatically from then on. A half-filled slip survives a page reload, so an interruption never loses your entry.
Each-way bets and stakes
Stakes are unit-free — log in points or pounds, whichever you think in, just stay consistent. For each-way bets the stake you enter is the total: a 2pt each-way bet is 1pt on the win and 1pt on the place. You choose the place terms per bet — 1/4, 1/5 or 1/2 the odds — and settlement uses exactly those terms.
Settling
Every pending bet sits in a strip under the slip with four buttons: WIN · PLACE · LOSE · VOID. One click settles it and the profit or loss is worked out for you, each-way terms, Rule 4s and dead-heats included. The edit pencil lets you add the finishing position, distance beaten or BSP; settling again fixes a mistake, and every change is kept in an audit trail behind the scenes.
Adding the Daily Dial in one click
The Daily Dial is Formdial’s free daily selection — published every racing morning, and every result settled openly on the public record, win or lose. Members can add the day’s published picks to their own Ledger with one click: the Add today’s Daily Dial picks button on the slip shows the card, asks once for your stake per point (it is remembered for next time), and puts the picks in as pending bets tagged “Daily Dial”. Each-way picks go in at twice your unit — that stake each way, exactly as the card advises.
Here is the good part: those bets settle themselves. When the official Formdial record is settled, your copies pick up the result, finishing position and field size automatically, with the profit or loss worked out at your stake. Imported picks show a small “auto” tag while pending — leave them alone and they take care of themselves, or settle one by hand and the Ledger will never overwrite your own entry.
Reading your record
The Analysis tab is the payoff. Headline tiles show your P/L, ROI, strike rate and bank position; the equity curve plots your record at starting price and at Betfair SP less 5% commission (drag across it to zoom a period). Below that, breakdown cards split your record by source, bookmaker, course, class, race type, going, distance, odds band, trainer, jockey, month and day of week — so “am I actually any good at sprint handicaps?” gets a number, not a feeling. The by-source table matters most: it shows which tipsters and which of your own angles genuinely make money.
If you record BSPs, the Ledger also shows your closing line value — how often the price you took beat the market’s final word, and by how much. Long before profit figures settle down, CLV is the strongest early signal that an edge is real.
Slicing it
Everything above recalculates for whatever slice of your record you choose. Use the filter bar, or just type into the quick filter — “handicaps soft ascot”, press Enter, and the whole page answers for that slice. Active filters show as chips you can dismiss one by one, and Copy link gives you a URL that reopens the exact same view.
Bringing your history with you
You do not start from zero. Import CSV accepts any file with at least Date, Horse, Odds and Stake columns — common column headings for everything else (track, trainer, results, P/L…) are recognised automatically. Files are checked first and nothing is saved until you confirm. Export CSV hands your full record back any time, in a format that re-imports perfectly — and uses the same columns as the Formdial Bet Log for Excel, so you can move between the two. It is your record, never locked in.
Free bets, ante-post and housekeeping
Two per-bet flags keep your numbers honest: mark a bet as a free bet and you can filter to “cash only” to see your real ROI without bookmaker money flattering it; mark it ante-post and you can analyse those separately. Your log is tied to your account and completely isolated — nobody else can see it, it is never cached publicly, and you can export or erase every scrap of it through the standard account privacy tools.
Plans and cancelling
The Ledger is £5 a month or £45 a year (twelve months for the price of nine), after a 14-day free trial — the launch price, locked in for as long as you stay subscribed. Cancel any time from My Account → Subscriptions; billing stops immediately and you keep access until the end of the time you have already paid for. The plain-English terms are at Terms & Refunds.
Anything this page does not answer: [email protected].