🎧SBC Podcast #83: Jose On How to Scale Edges & Betting Groups/Sharp Punting Insight (Part 2) 🎧

After an intriguing first part of SBC Podcast #83 this is part two, where I quiz the betting expert Jose and get some answers to bettor FAQs.

After discussing technical betting topics in part 1, this segment covers more ‘practical’ subjects as we start by touching upon issues such as barriers to profitable betting, cryptocurrencies and how the betting ecosystem is changing around the world.

Jose and I then go on to discuss questions that are regularly fired our way here at the SBC around betting with soft bookmakers, sharp bookmakers and exchanges in the most efficient ways possible.

Jose’s personality and wisdom shine through even more in the second half of Episode 83 as he talks us through some ‘dos and don’ts’ that many of us wish we had learnt sooner!

You can support the SBC Podcast by visiting our brand-new podcast sponsor, Matchbook. You can get ​150 days, commission free with them via this link.

You can listen to Episode 83 (Part 2) now via Apple / YouTube / Spotify and all other major podcast directories (search Smart Betting Club)

In this chat, Jose and I talked about:

  • The barriers to profitable betting
  • Cryptocurrencies & consumer preferences: a changing ecosystem
  • The future of the global betting markets
  • Which sports markets are on the rise? Which sports are declining?
  • Originator or mover? Which is better?
  • Who does Jose work with?
  • Listener questions: using soft bookmakers & sharps/exchanges
  • The ideal betting location in 2025
  • Networking: talk to Jose!

Ever the networker, Jose closed our chat by offering the chance to talk to him. To reach him (or to follow) on Twitter/X, he can be found at @xeque999. His Telegram account is nearly identical but it has one less 9 – the link for that is here: https://t.me/xeque99

I hope you enjoy the pod!

📰 New Racing Tipster Profit Report: Best To Follow In 2025 (And Beyond!)

Today saw the release of our latest Racing Tipster Profit Report which documents the ongoing performance of well known and previously reviewed services such as Andy Holding Speed Figures, Learn Bet Win and Bookie Bashing.

Tipsters’ performance can fluctuate over time and in an ever changing betting world with volatile markets, keeping an eye on this is more important than ever. This is why we produce these reports – to keep on top of who has maintained their edge.

Independent from marketing spin or the selling of dreams, we combine the objectivity of data and our more subjective intelligence to serve one purpose – finding the best tipsters for our members.

Sign-up for membership to get instant access to this report and our full back catalogue

Clocking in at 23 pages long, this report includes:

  • Up to date headline results for a plethora of services including 9 SBC Hall Of Fame greats (there have been two new ‘inductees’, our 5 Premium Services and several others
  • Profit, ROI and ROC tables to compare the very best tipsters against each other
  • Commentary on important ‘user experience’ information such as odds attainability and the workload needed to follow tipsters in
  • Our intelligence and thoughts about developments since the last report, looking at items such as customer service, policies that tipsters use and performance

Sign Up For Instant Access

To gain instant access to this Racing Tipster Profit Report and all of our back catalogue of reviews and reports, you will require SBC Membership. To sign up as a paid SBC member, just click here and follow the registration link.

To have a good look at what SBC Members get, this video introduces changes to the area of the site for those with full subscriptions, providing you with a sneak peak of what is inside!

🎧SBC Podcast #83: Jose On How to Scale Edges & Betting Groups/Sharp Punting Insight (Part 1) 🎧

In the first part of a ‘double header’ for SBC Podcast Episode #83 I was joined by Jose, one of the most informed and well-connected betting people out there.

Jose has a wealth of experience working with bettors from all over the world and instead of modelling or originating his own bets, he concentrates on meeting people who can and helping them maximise their profits.

Getting on, masking sharp activity and sustainable betting are all hallmarks of Jose’s work and he has strong opinions about everything from the most efficient market makers, the best types of edges and CLV.

In Part 1, we discuss all of this as Jose shares wisdom that can benefit bettors of all levels from beginners right through to hardened pros. Part 2 will be with you soon as we will answer some very common questions that bettors have!

You can support the SBC Podcast by visiting our brand-new podcast sponsor, Matchbook. You can get 150 days, commission free with them via this link.

You can listen to Episode 83 now via Apple / YouTube / Spotify and all other major podcast directories (search Smart Betting Club)

 

In this chat, Jose and I talked about:

  • Introducing Jose
  • Betting, edges & scaling operations with others
  • Betting in practice: sustainability
  • Bet execution & the variance that comes with multiples
  • Pinnacle: is it still the same barometer it once was?
  • CLV
  • Good & bad practice in betting groups
  • End of part 1!

I have met and spoke to Jose many times in the past and he is at the cutting edge of the betting markets all across the globe, with contacts on every continent.

I learn a lot from him every time we talk – I am sure that you will too!

Enjoy!

Gwdihw Racing: Analysing This Betfair SP Tipster – Explaining Our New Metrics

In our SBC Magazine for November, Issue #147, we took a look at Gwdihw Racing, a Betfair SP tipster that is free to follow.

From our usual analysis point of view, this presented issues as for the first time we were looking at a service that didn’t have Closing Line Value as a metric we could look at. I.e. we couldn’t benchmark performance against Betfair SP as that is what it used!

With that in mind, we introduced a few more bits of analysis to help us explore not only Gwdihw Racing but Betfair SP and exchange-based tipsters themselves. We talked about it in SBC Podcast #82 but thought that sharing a little more detail in this email would be useful too!

An Evolution In Betting

Before discussing those metrics, it is worth discussing why a Betfair SP tipster is so attractive to punters, especially successful players.

Account restrictions, high margins on early prices and bookmakers’ unwillingness to lay racing bets have made it more difficult than ever to make sustainable profits from the sport.

As John, Gwdihw’s operator, discusses here, profit and loss to bookmaker prices can often be illusory:

 

Gwdihw avoids all of these pitfalls by taking on the toughest of lines – Betfair SP. Outside of pure Profit and Loss figures, here are two of our newer metrics that we introduced to analyse the service…

A/E and PRB

Actual/Expected is a great way to test whether a system or strategy is performing beyond bare profit and loss as it weeds out unsustainable approaches and tests the selection process against market expectation.

This will be tethered to P&L for the most part (especially at Betfair SP), but as Josh points out in the review, a record can mask unsustainable approaches when big winners skew the overall figures – we introduce A/E to assess Gwdihw’s approach.

Another way to assess a racing tipster is Percentage Of Rivals Beaten (or PRB). Here we took each selection’s position in the market at the off and compared that to where they actually finished, providing more context to how the bets were performing.

Advanced Analytics & Adaptations To Suit The User

Another item of discussion in the review was staking, something that John had identified as an area of possible improvement himself.

Using our Advanced Analytics, we compared the flat staking that John uses to measure his bets against a unit-win staking to deepen our understanding of performance:

Why did we do this? Well a flat staking strategy can place a massive premium on certain longer priced horses if they are staked to the same level as an odds-on favourite so a more blended strategy can be deployed to even this disparity out.

As you can see here, it also provides the opportunity to approach a strategy with lower drawdowns and a less volatile betting journey.

Read All Of Our Reviews With A Subscription!

A full review of Gwdihw with all of this analysis (and a lot more!) is instantly available with a SBC Membership and different sign up options are available here.

Along with Gwdihw Racing, you will also be able to access all of our historical reviews in our back catalogue as well as several further member benefits that you can read about here.

If you want to know how a SBC Membership can help your betting it is well worth reading this Case Study from our member, James, who details how he has made just under £20k using the SBC since (re)joining us in January 2023!

If you want to know more about what we do or have any further questions please get in touch!