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Inspired by some dodgy dealings I uncovered this week (more about shortly) today I have put together a list of some of the most common dodgy tipster ‘scams’ to watch out for.

Varying from the outright scandalous to the somewhat dubious, it’s a quick rundown of what you as a punter need to be aware of before you join any tipster service.

My thanks must also go to those of you who contributed to this list via our Twitter & Facebook accounts with your own suggestions.

Dodgy Tipster #1 – Selling Other Peoples Tips As Your Own

The ‘inspiration’ for today’s article comes in the form of the very dodgy tipster discovered this week, who is selling off the exact same tips from another genuine expert as their own.

The dodgy tipster (let’s call him Malky Mackay) had seemingly signed up for the genuine experts tips (henceforth known as Vincent Tan), liked what he saw and decided to flog these tips under his own steam.

Malky sent out a suspicious looking email advertising his new site, a member asked us to check it out and so we duly did. Lo and behold, what did we spot? Identical tips as to those we at SBC have received from Vincent Tan for nigh on 12 months!

Now we know Vincent Tan is genuine as we have been performing due diligence on his website, investigating his results and working closely with him in advance of a full SBC review in the near future.

At the moment I can’t reveal too much as its being investigated but it highlights the care you have to take when you get an email out of the blue promising the earth. It might look great but in this instance – there is a very good chance that Malky’s ‘tipping service’ won’t be around too long…

Dodgy Tipster #2 – Social Media Tipsters

As Leon on the SBC Facebook page pointed out, tipsters that only use Social Media for their tips can also be a breeding ground for scams. As he commented “Most Facebook pages/Tipsters have a dozen pages and none keep records of the losers or have a staking system”

He is spot on that we need to be careful here as its all too easy to set up a new Facebook page or Twitter account, put up a bunch of tips and if they win – great, if they lose, just delete it.

This happens regularly especially with bets like accas, which are hugely popular on Social Media. All you need do is simply create 10 accounts on Twitter or Facebook, put up a slightly different version of an acca on each one and boom, one of them will probably come good each weekend.

It’s one reason we only proof or review tipsters who actually have a genuine website (not just a Social Media account) and who have at least 12 months of results to work with.

Dodgy Tipster #3 – Claiming to have ‘Inside Information’

It’s the oldest trick in the book – claim to have ‘inside information’ about tips guaranteed to win and ask for people to stump up the cash in the hope of getting in on the action.

The sad reality is that even if there is an element of people who do get inside info on certain horses to win a race – they are never going to share it with a stranger, no matter how convincing they sound or how much they charge.

In all the years working at SBC, we have discovered not one genuine ‘inside info’ based tipster worth bothering with. They almost exclusively are all-mouth-no-trousers types with one goal – to fleece you of cash.

It’s perhaps best summed up by Davy on Twitter who said in response to my question as to your tipster pet peeves… ” as an ex tipster myself, it’d be the bare faced lies. Saying we were walking the track or quoting our stable insider. All rubbish.” Quite!

Dodgy Tipster #4 – Putting Up Nonsense Prices With Nonsense Bookies

Sliding down the scale of dubious practices are the tipsters who continuously quote odds with bookies that no-one will realistically match.

Even the likes of Pricewise are at it – supplying tips this week quoting stand-out prices with bookies such as Boylesports (rated the worst of all racing bookies by our members last year) and Betway (rated as poorly as 83rd out of 100 top bookies).

Even at the best of times, punters stand little or no chance getting on with Pricewise and its especially the case when using these woeful bookies. Why not simply quote a generally available price? To be fair, its not just Pricewise that indulge in this practice, I see many other tipsters doing it, yet it gets a big black mark from us.

Compare that with some of the top-rated tipsters we monitor here at SBC – some of them will only quote a price if its available with 3 decent bookies or even settle their tip at the best odds available 5 to 10 minutes after they give it out. Best of all, the likes of Boylesports (or Spoilsports as widely known) are nowhere to be seen.

Dodgy Tipster #5 – Advising Silly Stakes & Results Out Of Context

Jonny on Twitter piped up yesterday to say his biggest tipster bugbear were those who quote profits to silly stakes such as 50 or 100 points, simply to make their profits look big. And he is right – its a big problem.

It might make a great headline to say…”We made 1000 pts profit last month” but if you had to risk 100,000 points to make that – well its nothing to shout about at all.

Tipsters that constantly claim results out of context wind us right up because it is so misleading and very often its a sign they are to avoided at all costs.

As a minimum you should expect to see full results stats including number of bets, amount staked, total profit and key calculations such as return on investment and return on capital.

That’s The Bad, How About The Good…

Hopefully the above will give you a good steer on avoiding some dodgy tipster practices and how to avoid getting ripped off.

If however, you are looking for actually bonafide, genuine tipsters then here at SBC we can help you. We work full-time on not only reviewing the best new tipsters, but also tracking the ones that continue to make money betting for SBC members.

And with the release of our very latest Tipster Profit Report, which features our updated ‘Hall of Fame’ ratings on the 20+ highly recommended tipsters we really rate, it’s a great time to get started.

Sign-up For Instant Smart Betting Club Membership Right Now!

Love it or hate it, the new football season is now officially here and with it comes the opportunity to start making money betting on the beautiful game once again.

And to do that, you need to get away from all the cliched pre-season guides featuring washed-up former pro’s and their ‘expert predictions’ and instead focus on the top tipsters proven to make money football betting.

Tipsters such as the 8 featured below, all of whom we continually monitor as part of our independent proofing service and feature in our regular betting magazines and reports.

We know these guys are good as we track every single bet they tip – winners and losers and report back to our members on just how they are performing overall. Although we have removed their identities above (as this is for paid-up SBC members only sorry!) you can see all the key stats from months active to ROI, points profit and bank growth.

The 8 tipsters above might not be household names or get to cosy up on the Match of the day sofa every weekend, yet they know a heck of a lot about making money football betting!

You can read detailed reviews and ratings on each of the 8 tipsters above PLUS the stats on their ongoing tipping results as a Smart Betting Club member.

Set-Up Your Instant Access To The Smart Betting Club

Enjoy significant savings on the best tipsters as an SBC member

Not only do we report back on all the best tipsters and their ongoing performance, but we can also save you significant sums of money if you decide to join them.

This is courtesy of the numerous tipster savings we negotiate on our members behalf – often enabling you to save more than the cost of joining us at the Smart Betting Club.

Below you can find the details of the current savings on offer for the 8 tipsters featured above.

So whether you are looking to make money football betting for the first time this season or simply to build on the profits you have already enjoyed, we can tell you which tipsters can help you (and save you £££ on their subscription fees at the same time!)

Sign-up for a Gold Smart Betting Club Membership today and gain instant access to all our full reports and magazines on just who the very best tipsters are!

Earlier this week I made the mistake of picking up a copy of a national racing magazine which I hadn’t read for a while, mainly due to the fact it hasn’t stocked by my local newsagent for some time.

Alongside its various articles on horse racing, I was shocked to find a whole host of very dubious looking adverts for tipsters and systems – all promising to make the reader life-changing profits.

If you wanted to find the world’s best betting system or call a premium phone-line for ‘insider tips’ you would be in clover, yet there was a distinct lack of anything substantial to back up their claims.

There was no evidence that their claimed profits could be backed up or any key stats to help put their results in context. In short, most of them had the distinct whiff of BS we have long campaigned to have eradicated from the tipster industry.

With this fresh in my mind, I thought it would be wise to pen my very own advice on how to find a genuinely professional and worthwhile tipster service.

I have left off some of the most obvious points (that they make a profit!) but here are my 5 key tips to help sift the wheat from the tipster chaff…

1) Make sure they proof to an independent verifier

It might sound obvious but in this day and age, you simply can’t just take a tipsters claims of profit at face value. Thus, the first port of call for any genuine tipster is to have their results verified by a genuinely independent third party service.

The key word here is independence as if the proofing service is using affiliate links (where they earn a cut if you join a tipster via their site), then they clearly have a vested financial interest in you joining. How independent can a proofer be if they earn money should you join the sites they verify?

Needless to say, if you come across a tipster not willing to proof somewhere genuine, it’s simple…walk away as there are plenty who do worth your time.

2) Do they list their results for all to see?

Any tipster worth his or her salt must also keep an accurate and easy to understand record of their full past performance for you to access.

This should include all bets – both winners and losers (don’t fall for the ploy of some tipsters who just list their winners) and include key performance stats on things like number of bets, total staked, profit/loss and Return on Investment/Return on Capital (read more here on why this latter figure is so important)

3) Are they more than just a flash in the pan?

The average age for a SBC Hall of Fame tipster service is well over 3 years and with good reason, as the best services stick around and last the test of time.

Don’t fall for the flash-in-the-pan tipster that hits a good (and usually lucky) run of form as often they can’t maintain this and fall by the wayside.

The best tipsters are often the longest-running, so if you find one with a good record but just a few months trading, keep a watching brief only. If they do turn out to be genuinely good, you can always join further down the line.

4) Do they respond to your emails and operate a professional service?

Any tipster charging a fee for their tips should offer a certain level of professionalism, be it sending their tips on-time or replying to emails in a courteous manner.

You can often gauge so much about a tipster by their customer service and how they respond to your questions.

Thus you should never be afraid to send a quick email before considering joining any tipster. If they are not friendly and helpful in their reply to you as a possible future customer, how might they treat you once you join and they have your money?

5) Are they consistent in their approach to tipping?

Finally, be careful if coming across any tipster that constantly chops and changes its approach to tipping. This might mean stopping and starting their service or making some major changes to the way they work – especially after a bad run.

When this happens it often screams out that they don’t really know where their edge lies…and if a tipster doesn’t know how to make a profit – well then they really shouldn’t be advising tips.

There is nothing more re-assuring than a tipster who runs a consistent, solid service with only the occasional minor and well-explained tweaks to their approach.

Be Careful Out There!

It’s fair to say that despite our best efforts at SBC, there are still plenty of very bad tipsters out there keen to take your cash off you. Hopefully the simple checklist above help you avoid the vast majority, but still you need to be very cautious and cynical until proven otherwise.

It comes to something when some of these poor tipsters are allowed to advertise unchecked in popular racing publications, but that unfortunately is the betting industry for you.

There are far too many people out there representing their own interests, be it as a dubious tipster looking for easy cash or betting publications that rely on their adverts to fund their output.

In contrast, the interests we represent here at SBC are yours – the everyday punter looking to make money betting. We are able to do this due to our independence, which allows us to say it as it really is and point you in the direction of who and what really makes money betting.

We carry no such adverts, instead we are fully funded by our members. Why not read more on how we can help your betting and benefit from our risk-free money back guarantee at the same time?

“Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics” …So goes the well-known phrase made popular by Mark Twain on how people and often politicians use numbers to push forward weak arguments.

It’s not just politicians who like to bend the truth with numbers, but also tipsters too, with some of the worst culprits using seemingly impressive sounding figures to distort the truth their own way.

Here are just a few claims I received in my spam email account this week from various tipsters….

• “102 points profit so far made in July”
• “£2551 Profit in just 4 days”
• “Earn £800 a week tax-free per week”

The problem with each of these claims is that they only discuss profit without any context, rendering them completely useless.

Yes you might have made 102 points profit in July, but how did the 12 months prior to that perform? It’s not much use if the first 6 months of the year lost 200 points is it?

Even if the service in question has a long-term profitable record (unlikely as its spam!) then how much money did they risk to make those 102 points profit?

After all, you wouldn’t want to be risking £200,000 to make that £800 a week would you? The tipster equivalent of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut!

Why Betting Bank Growth Is So Key

So how exactly can you weigh up how valuable a tipster really is?

Well, one of the best methods we advocate is working out its Return on Capital (ROC) or Betting Bank Growth.

This is a very effective calculation as it tells you how much your initial money will grow over a period of time.

Simply quoting 102 points profit means nothing, but 102% ROC – well that would indicate you have more than doubled your betting bank!

Here are a few examples to explain further…

Tipster A makes 50% ROC in a 6 month period
– If following their tips with £2000 at the very start, you would now have a £1000 profit

Tipster B makes a 150% ROC over the course of a football season
– If following their tips with £5000 at the very start, you would now have a £7500 profit

Tipster C makes a 300% ROC over a 2 year period
– If following their tips with £1000 at the very start, you would now have a £3000 profit

ROC AND ROLL!

For my money, working out the ROC or Return on Capital for any tipster often supersedes many other calculations, including the oft-quoted Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI works out how much you have to stake to make your profit and whilst important, it is often overshadowed by ROC.

For a classic example of why this is the case, it’s worth looking at the stats from 1 of the 4 top football services we reviewed in the latest SBC Magazine. Below you can see their full stats from all the bets they tipped during the 2013/14 football season..

Now at first glance, this might not seem too impressive, with only a 5.1% ROI and 86.9 pts profit from 1692 bets. Nothing to see there, move along…

Yet, you would be wrong to ignore them and you will see why when I add in the ROC figures below:

Due to the relatively high strike-rate and our suggested bank size, the ROC calculation comes in at 108.6% for the entire season – more than doubling your money if following.

I don’t know about you but if I could guarantee my betting bank would double every season, I would snap your hands off!

One Size Does Not Fit All

Despite all the above, you do need to be very careful when it comes to working out your betting bank sizes as some tipsters do not have a clue on what to advise!

I have seen a number of examples where a tipster has claimed huge ROC, yet clearly have far too small a betting bank suggestion. So small, that if following you would go bust long before any profit is made.

All of this is why, here at SBC we set our own betting bank sizes for EVERY tipster we review, using a special simulator we developed to help calculate the optimum suggestion.

This simulator runs all the stats for every tipster thousands of times to arrive at a suggested betting bank figure for each one.

Some tipsters don’t like this as we sometimes have to recommend different betting bank sizes to their own, which in turn might make their profit figures look worse.

Their ire matters little to us though as the key as ever is to produce fair, accurate betting bank suggestions for our members that offers them the best chance for sustainable profits.

Sign-Up Today And Find The Most ROC-king Tipsters

If interested in finding out more on not just the tipsters achieving the best ROC or bank growth, make sure you check out our regularly published Tipster Profit Reports.

In each one you can view comparative tables on the best performing (and most ROCking!) tipsters, their advised bank sizes and who is making the most bang for your buck.

For those of you keen to understand how betting banks work, we also have a full guide available in the7-part Pro Gambler Blueprint available as a bonus gift to new subscribers.

All of this is available to you the instant you join us at the Smart Betting Club.