In 1987 DGA Software's Pro-Punter software was one of the pioneering race forecasting expert systems to be made available for the home computer and across many PC formats. Back then, of course, we are largely talking Sinclair Spectrum, BBC Micro, Commodore 64 and Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad PCW... and so on. Each had its own and often quirky operating system -there was no standard platform. Happy days! Not until later did the IBM PC really start to be the PC of choice for home users.

Back then, interest in race forecasting by home computer was phenominal, fuelled by press stories about the the "Computer Kid" and others who'd written "gambling" software. It's probably true to say that during 1988 and into 1989, nearly every single month some monthly publication dedicated to one micro or another carried a review or comparative review of race forecasting software by which time there were many on the market. We're very proud to say that our Pro-Punter software was always well received, well reviewed and more often than not voted top of the pile. In the early nineties when the pre-windows DOS based PC was starting to take a hold at home, the Sporting Life Weekender reviewed Pro-Punter under a headline "King Of The Computers" and a review in the Racing Post concluded: " (Pro-Punter) deserves the praise lavished upon it by other press reviews and satisfied customers.....the best racing software available."

Fast forward over 20 years and - sadly - it's a much duller scene in terms of home forecasting packages. The rapid growth of the internet and online racing information has pretty much decimated the market for home based forecasting software: there's now much less available and what there is doesn't sell by the bucket loads it used to. A further factor is that home computers have also lost that "do anything" (including "get rich quick" - see magazine cover below) promise and allure that they briefly held when new. The novelty's worn off and reality has set in. Add to that the fact that many of the programs that were produced were - frankly - useless junk and must have put off many a fledgling punter. It's not a situation anyone selling gambling software in the 80's might have foreseen: millions more PC's at home but falling sales. These days the new interest in automated betting and bots captures some of the old excitement but anyone who was around in the 80's will tell you it's not the same!

In terms of further development the Windows based edition of Pro-Punter has now recently fallen by the wayside (although you can still obtain a copy) and only two or three still commercially available packages have a lineage back to earlier days: notably Brimardon software to the 1980's and Dataform to the early 90's.

Pro-Punter however does live on in the expert system computer code that produces our daily ratings and forecasts, and over 25 years of experience developing and using it also form the basis of our SELECT RACING service. If you'd like to try the actual software - and please check compatibilty with your PC - we are offering it at a give away price on Ebay. Click Here to be directed to the Ebay page.

A 2 page review in this one:

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