How I've Minimised the Risk With Gambling

I've spent a lot of my life losing money gambling on football with British bookmakers. I chased the 'easy money' dream which clearly doesn't exist and it's fair to say that over the years it has cost me a few quid (that's a bit of an understatement).
I do still believe that money can be made from gambling, but you have to be a particular type of person. You need the knowledge of the sport you are betting on, a decent staking plan, and patience and discipline.
Now patience and discipline are the two areas that I have consistently failed with. It's frustrating because I know where my weakness lies, but I just don't seem to be able to do anything about it.
Around 10 years or so back the betting landscape in the UK changed with the introduction of betting exchanges. Betting exchanges allow you to both place bets and take bets from other people. Using betting exchanges is also a bit like trading shares, where you can buy (place a bet) at 3/1, and you can sell (lay a bet) at 2/1, allowing a guaranteed return.
What they also do is allow you to trade an event, say a football match, before it has started. The sheer weight of money for a particular football team leads to price movements. Therefore if you can predict those price movements you can back a team (buy) at a higher price, before you lay (sell) that same team for a shorter price, all before a ball has been kicked.
This is where an impatient and poorly disciplined gambler like me comes into the equation. As I can't seem able to cope with the discipline side of betting, I have decided to take the betting side of things out of the equation.
Using my knowledge of the sport and of the gambling markets I am now currently trying to earn (not win) about 1-2% of my betting bank on live football matches by taking advantage of price movements before the game starts.
I usually use the outright winner market, but have also been using the goals spread market of Over/Under 2.5 goals (3 goals or more, or less than 3 goals), where there is obviously only two outcomes, as opposed to the win/draw/lose scenario of the outright market.
It is tricky and not as simple as it sounds as markets don't always react in the way you expect them too.
The best part about it for me though is that I am not really gambling. Yes, if the price moves the wrong way in my pre match trade, I could lose money, but only a smallish amount that would be in proportion to what I will make when the trade goes the right way.
So far after three weeks using the technique I am up by about 15% of my starting betting bank. It is probably a bit below where I would like to be, but I've got to bear in mind that I am only learning the technique and that this is a long term project, so as long as I'm making money every week - no matter how small - I should be happy.