Many people subscribe to Sports Tipster Services and in some cases, they are able to make some decent profits from them. It can be a very easy way of making money, taking very little of your time with just a few minutes needed each day. Check your email or messaging service, see what tips are available, log in to your bookie account(s) and place your bets.
It can equally be a very easy way to throw money down the drain!
What is a Tipster?
Very simply, a tipster is someone who will tell you what they think will happen in a sports event. You then choose whether to take their advice and put a bet on the result in the hope they are correct.
A tip in gambling is a bet suggested by a third party. They are perceived to be more knowledgeable about that subject than the bookmaker who sets the initial odds. Therefore, a tip is not regarded by the tipster as a certainty. It’s a bet based on their view that the bookmaker has set a price too low (or too high) from what the true risk is.
Some tipsters use statistical based estimations about the outcome of a match/race etc. They compare their calculated prices with the bookie’s odds. If there is a gap between the estimated odds and the bookmaker’s odds, the tipster is said to identify “value”.
A person who bets on those odds when they perceive not a certainty but a “gap in the book” is said to be a “value bettor”. When value is found, the tipster is recommending the bettor to place a bet.
Why do they do it?
Most tipster services require you to sign up and pay them for their advices. They normally do it because they make money from your subscription (typically monthly). They potentially don’t even put a bet on their own selections.
There are free tipsters and some are genuine and their tips are profitable. There may be various reasons why they don’t charge. For most I expect their intention is to show they can make a profit and build a history of results. Then once they have a number of followers they change to a paid service.
What Sports do Tipsters cover?
There are tipsters providing their services across all types of sports.
They typically specialise in one area like horse racing, football (soccer!!) or tennis. More specialist tipsters cover greyhound racing, American football (and other US sports), darts, golf etc.
Within each sport, tipsters often specialise further. Some might only tip in certain football leagues (Premiership, La Liga, English Non-League football etc).
Alternatively, they might focus on tips for particular types of markets/results. This might be Win only or others like football Over/Under goal totals or Both Teams to Score markets.
How Much Do They Cost?
Prices for the many tipping services out there range from Free to potentially £’000s per annum. Most paid services operate on a monthly subscription basis and you can choose to cancel at any time. The pricing will typically offer discounts if you subscribe for 3, 6 or 12 months.
What you are prepared to pay will depend on your circumstances. You must consider how much you expect to stake on each bet, the cost of the service and the expected level of returns. There’s no point paying £40 per month for a service if you intend staking £2 per bet. You’ll need to make 20 points per month profit just to cover the cost of the subscription.
One long running tipster scam is to operate on a pay per winning bet basis. There was a programme made by Derren Brown some years ago where he demonstrated how this works. If you have 45 minutes spare you can watch the show on Youtube.
Why should I follow a tipster?
Finding and following a good tipster can be a relatively easy, low effort and enjoyable way to make profits from sports betting. I have a couple of tipsters which I follow and their service works well for me.
I don’t have lots of time to spend placing dozens of bets each day. So, the services I use only involve 5-10 minutes of my day to place my bets.
If a tipster is right for you is affected by a number of factors (see How I Evaluate a Tipster). Again, whether they might be profitable for you will vary compared to other people. For example, most of my bookmaker accounts have limits on the stakes I can place (or are closed). Also, I don’t have access to Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG) for my horse racing bets. There’s not much point me following a horse racing tipster who has proven themselves to make profits but only when using BOG.
However, plenty of tipsters (the majority) don’t return a profit for their followers. So if you are interested in finding the decent tipsters how do you go about it?
How do I find a good Tipster?
There are many disreputable sports tipsters out there and plenty who are just not very good. Try a search for ‘best tipsters uk’ and you’ll be inundated with results. If you then click through to some of them you may soon be seduced by the claims of access to inside information, massive £s and ‘points’ profit, life changing amounts of profit to be made etc. I’ve explained the way that I Check Out a Tipster and Tipsters that have Passed my tests are at Recommended Tipsters.
