How To Automate Bet Placement On Betfair – Latest SBC Review Reveals All

Here at The SBC, our Tipster Reviews & Reports contain many metrics to evaluate services (please view our samples here and here if you haven’t already!).

With our increasing focus on Exchange based tipsters of late, Time To Post (or TTP) is one of the most important signposts for those looking to bet on the likes of Betfair.

Some services show excellent profitability when tips are first released, some prices are best taken 60 minutes before, some need a lot of liquidity in the minutes leading up to an event starting and some are just fine at Betfair SP (if betting on horse racing)

Whatever you bet on, Bot Software is an excellent way to automate your betting using your preferred parameters and with more and more bettors using exchanges, we have enlisted the help of one of the specialists in our community to introduce this technology!

BF Bot Manager

In a brand new report just published for SBC Members, Justin (a current SBC Member), introduces Betfair Bot Manager and how he uses it to bet more efficiently (and improve his profitability!).

Membership provides access to this full report, which outlines:

  • An explanation of what bot software is, how it works and what platforms it can be linked to
  • Practical examples of how to set up systems and upload selections with a visual walk-through guide
  • How Justin uses BF Bot Manager to follow the SBC Free Tipster Achievable Value and 80/20 Racing and how it has improved his returns compared to the services’ standard records
  • The additional parameters that are available to users based on their own preferences
  • How BF Bot Manager helps to record results in a clear and concise way

More Info & Offers

Betting on exchanges is becoming a bigger focus for us here at the SBC and technology like Bot Managers can help to boost profits in your own personal betting (or when following tipsters).

With SBC Membership you can read our new report in full, with the step-by-step guides, video links and useful tips to help you get started.

In addition we have secured a 10% discount off the cost of BF Bot Manager for a set number of our community that can be accessed before September 2023.

This dovetails perfectly with those services we have identified who have clear exchange edges, meaning that you can make serious profits, all without worrying about bookmaker restrictions!

Exploring Bookmakers (Major and Independent) & Bet Brokers

Winning with soft bookmakers, adapting to use ‘advanced’ profitable betting tools, beating exchanges and making an edge with sharp bookmakers.

To guide you through every stage of your betting journey, here at the Smart Betting Club we have spent a lot of time in 2023 building up extra resources to help our members thrive.

As part of this, our latest unique feature is a deep dive into Bet Brokers, outlets that provide access to some of the world’s leading sharp books, such as Pinnacle, that don’t close down winners and actually welcome them.

This new guide to Bet Brokers is available now in the SBC members area and explains how they work, the pros and cons of using them and interviews with 2 Bet Brokers themselves.

All you need, whatever stage you are at!

Our recent 5 Stages of Profitable Bettingpodcast covered a lot of ground on the journeys each punter goes through.

In it we discussed the challenges of becoming successful and then growing a bank over time.

To accompany this, I thought that I would let you know about some of the other new content that is only available to SBC Members:

  • Detailed profiles of both major and independent bookmakers – what they offer, how they are related, how they react to winning bettors and ‘intelligence’ from the SBC community
  • Our 5 Stages of Profitable Betting resource with (more) detailed analysis of what to do during your betting journey and the services that can help you
  • An Exchange and Sharp Bookmaker tipster section for members who cannot bet with soft bookmakers; dozens of services are profiled in detail!
  • The aforementioned brand new guide to Bet Brokers, where we introduce two reputable operators in the market and provide a checklist for subscribers, wherever they are around the world

Alongside this, all of our SBC Tipster Reviews have analysis of performance with bookmakers, the live exchange markets and by metrics such as Betfair SP, providing every member with all of the information to follow tipsters profitably (whether they have bookmaker accounts available or not!).

You can get instant access to all of these resources by signing up for a SBC Membership. You can do that here.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you make money from your betting, this page has plenty of information!

🎧SBC Podcast #58: Abbie McGregor & Andrew Woodman of the newly formed Gamblers Consumer Forum

In the latest SBC Podcast I am joined by two expert guests – Abbie McGregor and Andrew Woodman – to discuss the formation of the Gamblers Consumer Forum (GCF) – a new ‘Punters Union’ they have setup to represent the majority that bet and the issues that matter to us.

These issues include pushing back against the affordability and deposit limits that impact all bettors and many of the other queries raised by the recent Gambling White Paper and its proposals for the future of betting in the UK.

The GCF launched on Thursday at the very first SmartBash, with Abbie and Andrew presenting new ideas, research and practical solutions to make gambling better for all punters.

In this chat, we cover everything from the reason for the group’s formation to the key battlegrounds for debate in the public arena.

You can listen to Episode 58 now via Apple / Spotify / Google YouTube and all other major podcast directories (search Smart Betting Club)

An in-depth chat with representatives from this essential new body

In this episode Abbie, Andrew and I discuss:

  • Why the Gamblers Consumer Forum has been set up and what its main objectives are
  • The forum’s independence from outside influences
  • Countering the anti-gambling narrative
  • How the body will be funded and who it will represent
  • Science, data and how this will be central to how the forum will lobby decision makers and debate in public
  • Academia’s role in forming the White Paper and how their ideas are neither practical or useful
  • The nature of addiction and why a blanket approach will not work
  • Why clinical specialists are best placed to help those who struggle to control their gambling
  • The black market, its prevalence and why its growth could be an unintended consequence of current proposals
  • The questionable decision to entrust bookmakers with identifying and helping problem gamblers
  • ‘Frictionless checks’ and how useful (or not) they are
  • How (and why) gambling is treated differently to other similar activities
  • Failures of regulation, disingenuous research and how confirmation bias can be blamed for the thinking of some key stakeholders in the industry
  • The Gambling Commission, its weaknesses and how it could be improved upon
  • Lessons that can be learnt from debating organisations like Animal Rising
  • GCF’s plans and the support that they are asking for

Abbie and Andrew are great representatives to get a positive message about gambling across and it was fascinating to hear their ideas.

Both of them love betting, both understand the industry, are excellent debaters and between them, they have expertise in science and politics that can present a practical and sensible set of proposals for how we move forward.

I enjoyed this chat and it gave me hope that this argument can be won – I hope that you feel the same after listening!

The Gamblers Consumer Forum can be followed on Twitter at @GamblersCForum and their website, which will act as the main hub for information and news, will be launched later this week.

Smart Bash: Unpacking Thursday’s Inaugural Betting Event In London & Its Goals!

On Thursday Evening in London, SBC alongside our friends at Bookie Bashing hosted the very first Smart Bash event, details of which you may have seen posted on Twitter including photos and videos.

We had around 60 invited guests in attendance from all aspects of the industry including bookmakers, professional punters, tipsters, broadcasters, business owners and more.

The event included a presentation from the newly launched Gamblers Consumer Forum (see below) and a panel discussing current issues featuring some prominent names from the betting world.

48 hours later I wanted to reflect on and explain the goal of the event and what we hope it is able to achieve.

Raising Awareness

Primarily, Smart Bash was an opportunity to raise awareness as regards a few key topics that impact those of us bet such as:

  • The inherent issues in the current way gambling is being regulated including Affordability & Deposit Limits that are impacting both bookmakers and punters alike
  • The very real concerns about what has been proposed in the recent gambling white paper and fear it will lead to further growth of the black market.
  • The failure of the Gambling Commission and Government to properly regulate and understand the betting industry.
  • To showcase betting in a positive light and the many benefits it can bring

Representing The Majority Who Bet

We saw Smart Bash as an opportunity to present a unified voice that pushes back at the very negative stories that we see surround betting in the media at present.

Whilst acknowledging the need to have safeguards in place to protect the vulnerable and those suffering with addiction, the vast, vast majority of those who bet do so sensibly, enjoyably and do not require intervention or oversight on their betting and how much they spend on it.

For too long this majority of bettors has not been heard from, nor their issues represented and it is high time they were listened to by those making important decisions on the future of the industry.

Applying affordability and deposit checks on all of these bettors is unnecessary, unreasonable and unworkable for both bookies and punters and is only serving to push the the latter into the black market to bet.

There is very little confidence in the work of those running the Gambling Commission currently to fairly and properly regulate the industry, nor is there a viable Dispute Resolution service or Ombudsman in place to tackle bettors many grievances.

Gamblers Consumer Forum

Furthermore, Smart Bash also served as an official launch pad for the newly setup Gamblers Consumer Forum (GCF) who presented to attendees about their new organisation designed to represent the interests of bettors.

The GCF is led by Andrew Woodman and Abbie McGregor who together believe that the White Paper is deeply flawed on both affordability and addiction and will push for a complete rethink.

Their goal is to represent the voice of the ordinary gambler and we were happy to host them and help launch their new organisation. A podcast with the GCF will be released on Monday to help explain more on their work.

Networking & Growing Your Betting

As well as raising awareness on the issues above, Smart Bash also served as an opportunity to get some of the very smartest and brightest bettors in a room together to see how we can help each other out.

Betting for many can be quite an isolated endeavour so the chance to meet others in the industry to see how we can push our betting forward was a real highlight.

Speaking from an SBC perspective, it was great to chat with many past and hopefully future podcast guests and to meet so many successful professional punters, tipsters , betting experts and independent bookmakers.

These conversations and relationships will only serve to help us grow our knowledge and experience and help us to better inform and help SBC members that much more in the future.

A Launchpad For A Bigger Smart Bash Event!

For those of you wondering – why didn’t I know about or get an invite to Smart Bash?

This is simply because we kept it all very low key in the build up to it and invite only as we also wanted to gauge the feasibility and interest in holding a larger, ticketed Smart Bash event in the future.

That is a very real possibility as the feedback so far from those attending was very positive and demand seems to be there for it!

In coming weeks and months we will no doubt explore this concept further as we reflect on Thursday Evening.

So that is a summary of what took place in London this week and why we held Smart Bash and its goals and achievements. A huge thank-you to all of those who attended and supported the event, especially the panel of experts and GCF for their time and expertise.

If you have any questions on it or even want to flag your interest in attending or being involved in some capacity at a larger Smart Bash event in future, do please reach out.

How To Bet On Darts – And Win!

With the PDC World Darts Championship approaching the SBC commissioned this article from one of our Hall Of Fame stalwarts, Richard Anderson of the OnTheOche darts tipping service. Below, he discusses the intricacies of darts betting, the key concepts and some pointers for beginners to this growing betting market. SBC members can trial OnTheOche for free for 30 days. With this headline event approaching, now is the perfect time to hit the bullseye with this service which boasts a profitable 16 year record with ROI figures above 13%! 

Introducing Richard

My name is Richard Anderson and I’ve been running the successful OnTheOche darts tipping service since 2007.

I started betting on darts over 20 years ago. I competed at a reasonable standard back in the late ‘90s and would often play against the top players of the day in county games and in local open events.

Knowing the players so well gave me an advantage and led me to having the occasional bet down at the local bookies when they went on to play in tournaments broadcast on TV. While I didn’t really understand betting odds properly at the time, I knew enough to disagree with the compilers about the odd matchup and which player should be favourite. That was my starting point. I got interested and I have been betting on darts ever since!

An evolving sport with opportunities to profit

In those early days there were only three or four tournaments a year you could bet on. Over the years, more and more tournaments have been added to the calendar as the popularity of the sport has skyrocketed. Nowadays, you can bet on darts virtually every day of the year should you so wish. 

Darts is, in my opinion, a great betting niche. It’s a popular enough sport so that the markets are a good size. You are able to get a decent bet on. Liquidity on the exchanges is good, particularly close to game time as it’s tailor made for in-running trading with matches having so many volatile swings in momentum.

But… darts is also under the radar enough that the bookies don’t really have a full handle on things outside of the top players.  

My edge primarily comes from knowing more than the market about lower ranked and newer players to the tour.

Data’s role In darts

Data plays a huge part in darts betting. This is particularly true since 2017. Pre-2017, only match results were available for the PDC ‘floor’ events that make up the majority of events on the Pro Tour (and are not shown on television). There was no way of knowing how the players performed in those matches. 

That changed in 2017 when the PDC started using scoring software called ‘DartsConnect’. This meant every dart, thrown by every player, in every PDC competition was now publicly available.

The darts markets changed overnight and they are now driven by a player’s underlying statistics, much like xG in football or driving and putting data in golf. In today’s darts markets, performance data drives market moves much more than match results do.

Therefore, to succeed, a thorough database of up-to-date statistics is an absolute must to understand how and why the markets are pricing players how they are. There is a LOT of darts played around the world so it can be a time consuming process (my personal database has well over 600,000 rows of data for 2022 matches alone!). But, without it, you would be out of the loop – it is a must-have!   

Some things are more difficult to measure

Darts is a very simple sport – you either hit your target or you don’t. In theory, once you have a big enough sample size of how regularly each player hits the target it should be easy (both for you and the market) to be able to calculate an accurate price for every player.

However, the great thing about darts from a betting point of view is that there is also a very human element to it that makes it much more unpredictable than it appears on paper.

Not all players are created equally. A huge part of top level darts is about being able to keep yourself calm and throw your normal throw at an important moment.

Adrenaline in most sports is a useful thing, in darts it is the last thing you want. You want a steady hand, a regular heart rate, calm breathing and a clear head – all while you are trying to accurately throw a sharp stick at a tiny target to win tens of thousands of pounds!

Some players have incredible numbers on the off-TV floor events but never win a big event as they cannot throw to their ability under pressure. Some players have floor numbers well outside the top 16 but are multiple time major winners as they have the bottle (for want of a more sophisticated word!) on the big stage.

You have to know your players. You have to know the circumstances they are playing under and were playing under when they hit their previous numbers. You have to know what darts setup they are using now and if it’s the same as what they were using in the past. You basically have to know which numbers are relevant and which aren’t. 

Profitable darts betting is therefore a good mix of both numbers and knowledge/research.

Specialising to strike gold

In many ways darts is the ultimate sporting meritocracy. If a player has the ability and temperament to win matches then there are very few barriers to entry to them becoming a top player.

No expensive equipment or coaching is needed. No teammates, coaches or scouts to rely on. You don’t have to be a peak physical athlete. You can be a man or woman, young or old. And if you’re good, then you can quickly rise up to be playing in major events for major money within a few months of joining the Pro Tour. 

In 2016, Rob Cross was an electrician playing in his local events. In January 2017, he won his tour card at Q-school and was World Champion by December.  

This year, a 21 year old kid, Josh Rock, was a complete unknown when he won his tour card in January and is now the 5th favourite for the World Championship  (I cannot resist mentioning that OnTheOche members have a 250/1 ante post bet on Rock from earlier in the year so fingers crossed he can follow in the footsteps of Cross!).

From a betting point of view, that means there is an ever-changing cast of players to bet on. New players come along regularly so there are always fresh matchups to provide value opportunities.

I only bet on darts, no other sports, so I have the time to specialise and ‘dig deep’ on players so together, we can take advantage before they become too well known!

A rollercoaster ride

From a psychological point of view, darts can be a surprisingly dramatic sport to bet on.

There is an often agonising pause between a player throwing for double and finding out whether they have hit it or not. It is a very satisfying feeling seeing the dart hit, sealing you a big win!

On the other hand, it is a rough feeling watching a player you’ve backed have 3 darts at a double to win the match and put all 3 of them just the wrong side of the wire. Their opponent will then inevitably nail the same double with their last dart in hand to win it instead!

It is by its very nature a game decided by millimetres.

Wishing you the very best with any Darts bets you place!

Richard Anderson
On The Oche

FYI: If you’d like to try out OnTheOche during the upcoming World Championship, there is an exclusive 30 day trial available for SBC members – all part of the many special deals we negotiate on your behalf once you join the club!

 

GLOSSARY

If you are new to darts betting, the glossary table below explains the main markets:

Betting Fundamentals, Pro Gambler Blueprints & Unique Insights

You may know the Smart Betting Club from our podcasts, the articles we regularly blog about or for our tipster reviews and reports.

Did you know that we offer so much more to help you become profitable and build your betting portfolio?

Mastering betting banks, staking plans, variance, understanding risk, statistical analysis and betting psychology are some of the essentials for successful gambling and we have built a suite of tools and resources for you as a member to use.

So to showcase this, I have written below about some of the guides, tools and advice available to you to as part of the Smart Betting Club.

Join the Smart Betting Club today for full access to all of these educational resources alongside our free tipsters and amazing ‘Premium’ discounts.

SBC’S PRO GAMBLER BLUEPRINT

All SBC members get a copy of our Pro Gambler Blueprint, an exhaustive 65 page guide to put you firmly on the path to becoming a full time betting professional and ensure you have the fundamentals for success in place.

The Pro Gambler Blueprint is split into eight easy to follow sections:

Part One: Getting Started – The Fundamentals of Betting Success – The building blocks of what makes a consistent winner.

Part Two: The Nitty Gritty – 7 Pro Tips – Practical tips and advice on the tools, websites and resources to use when betting.

Part Three: Setting Realistic Expectations – How often you can expect to win and lose explained in both odds and percentage terms.

Part Four: The Pro Betting Mindset – Understanding the value betting concept and how to change your thinking to become a winner

Part Five: Betting Banks & How To Set Them Up For Success – A simple guide on how to set up a betting bank for each tipster you follow. Very easy to follow indeed and essential for EVERY bettor.

Part Six: Building Your Own Tipster Portfolio – Want to follow more than one tipster and run a portfolio? Everything you would ever need to know is explained in this extremely detailed section

Part Seven: What To Bet On – Backing, laying, horse racing & football betting – all the main markets explained and explored

Part Eight: Producing Your Own Prices – Understanding how bookmakers work and how to compile your own odds.

THE UNIQUE BETTING INSIGHT SECTION

Those of you looking for even more expert advice will love our expanding SBC Betting Insight section, which discusses key topics you need to understand to bet profitably in great detail.

Covering topics ranging from handling losing runs to understanding value betting, through to the psychological issues at play when we bet, it is designed to help you build the best platform for sustained betting achievement.

Here are just a few examples of SBC Betting Insight articles:

  • Betfair Racing Market Odds Analysis: Betfair SP or a pre-race Betfair price?

Using live market Betfair price data from over 30,000 horses that have raced this year, in this special article you can read about the patterns we have identified that can help you understand exactly when to take a price to obtain the best value. This is specific to betting on the exchanges and advises you when you should take a live betfair market price or Betfair SP.

  • Should You Bet Each Way or Win Only?

An in-depth look at this perennial question on the how and why you might like to bet each way or to win – specifically when following tipsters. Exploring topics such as the differing size losing runs each method brings, betting bank growth, bookmaker and exchange comparisons plus the very important psychology aspect, it’s a detailed examination of what you need to know about the best way to bet for you.

  • Understanding Risk and how it can shape the tipsters we follow and the bets we place

A special article on the topic of risk, including 2 simple tests to work out your own risk profile and tolerance levels. Understanding your approach to risk is absolutely vital when betting as if you have the wrong setup for your risk personality then there is every chance you will fail.

  • How safe is the money you deposit with bookmakers?

Given the closures of several bookmakers recently and their inability to pay out customer balances, this article explains the varied levels of protection offered by bookmakers to the funds you deposit with them.

  • What’s Better? Strike-rate or Profit?

Delving into the battle between strike-rate and profit and the real-life mental challenges that occur when using tipsters, especially those that select bets at big odds and to low strike-rates. Important insight for all punters.

  • Lessons we can learn from this legendary winning gambler

Bill Benter is the man who cracked the horse racing code and a legendary gambler to boot. Yet much of what informed Bill, informs us as punters, especially when it comes to understanding ‘value betting’. These are the lessons we can learn from him.

  • Overnight Racing Markets – A Changed Betting Landscape

The current state of play in the horse racing market, especially those betting overnight and how this impacts those following tipsters.

LAY THE FOUNDATIONS FOR SUCCESS WITH INSTANT SBC MEMBERSHIP

Access to all of the above (The Pro Gambler Blueprint & all Betting Insight articles) is provided as part of your Smart Betting Club membership. It forms part of our all-encompassing approach to giving you everything you need to make your betting a success.

For those of you who are unsure, there is also an (up to) 90-day money back guarantee available to give you full peace of mind when you sign-up. If you think that the SBC service can’t help you (for any reason whatsoever – its a no quibble guarantee) then you can request a full refund.

So, why not give it a try and sign-up today for instant Smart Betting Club access.

Get In Betting Shape For 2022 – My 5 Point Guide To Success

Get your betting in shape for 2022 with the help of my Personal Trainer Punting Plan.

5 days into the New Year and if you are anything like me, chances are you have already taken yourself off out for a run to try and burn off the many mince pies and chocolates consumed over the festive period.

January is always a bumper month for those in the fitness world but the sad reality is that most people signing-up to get fit will never stick it out and give up within the first few weeks, out of pocket, out of shape and out of breath!

It is acknowledged that one of the best ways to stick at a fitness regime is to sign-up with a Personal Trainer, somebody who has the expertise, accountability and motivation to get you fit.

And this is where the parallel with betting comes in, because if your New Year’s Resolutions involve making more money betting, you can really benefit from a ‘Betting Personal Trainer’ – someone to help get you Bet-Fit!

So whilst I can’t be there to place each bet for you or shout at you to do that difficult 75th sit-up on Zoom, here is my simple 5-Step Betting Profits ‘Personal Trainer’ Punting Plan for 2022 to get you started…

1) Hire The Right Experts

I am often asked ‘Why exactly do people follow tipsters?‘ ,yet the answer is really quite simple:

Shrewd punters follow winning tipsters because they have the expertise they don’t have on how to make money betting

Just as most people would call a electrician to rewire a house or a plumber to fix a leak, so too it makes sense to hire a good tipster for betting advice.

Yet whilst most of us wouldn’t think twice about hiring a electrician or plumber for their specific expertise, some do when it comes to tipsters.

Perhaps you are put off by some of the negative stories of those involved in the tipster world, where you do need to be cautious especially on social media.

The fact is there are many excellently run tipsters with proven track records of beating the bookmaker year-in, year-out that you can trust.

There are good and bad tipsters, just as in any industry (estate agents, lawyers, personal trainers even!) and the key is knowing who to trust – which is where SBC comes in.

So, if you don’t have the time or expertise needed to know more than a bookmaker on your chosen sport or market, then there is no shame in hiring someone who does.

Especially if they can add a few zeros onto your bookie account balance!

Top Tip: Keep a record of your own bets so you can honestly assess just how good (or not) you are at betting and if you could benefit from hiring experts to guide you.

2) Don’t Be Deterred When You Lose – You Will Make It Back

There should never be any ‘lucky last race’ to try and turn a bad day around. Nor should you worry unduly about good or bad days or weeks the same. Its all part of the ebb and flow of betting.

Real success betting comes to those who DON’T worry about short-term bad runs of form.

After all losing runs happen to EVERY punter and its how you deal with them that matters most.

A quote in a book on trading I read recently jumped out at me, where one successful stock market expert explained how he handled losing:

“It never bothered me to lose, because I always knew that I would make it right back”

So, if you have a profitable method or tipster that works, then look at what they make over the long-term – which often means evaluating their performance over months and years (and not days or weeks)

Just as you wouldn’t join a gym on January 1st and expect to have a body like Cristiano Ronaldo on February 1st, so too must you do the same when betting.

Be realistic and look for steady gains, not instant results.

Top Tip: Read Rowan’s Free Bet Diary throughout 2022 on the tipsters he has followed profitably for the past few years. Not all of the tipsters he follows win every month, yet over a longer-period, they have continued to make him a tidy profit.

3) Start Slowly & Build Gradually

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither should you expect to make huge profits immediately when betting.

Yet, I still hear from the occasional ‘newbie’ punter who jumps right in at big stakes. For them it’s all or nothing and they simply want to get rich quick.

Such a quest can easily unravel as many inexperienced punters struggle to handle the pressure of betting at huge stakes.

It might be down to not following a recommended staking plan, becoming unnerved after hitting a few losers or simply because the tipster in question doesn’t suit the way you like to bet.

My advice is to start slowly, choose a few tipsters that suit your needs and to stake at affordable levels.

Don’t run before you can walk when betting as winning is a marathon not a sprint.

Remember the golden rule when starting out betting: Its better to make mistakes at small stakes.

Top Tip: Look to follow some of the free tipsters you can follow with your SBC membership. An ideal solution to get started with.

4) Watch For So-Called Guru’s & Fads

Every new year sees a whole host of ‘gurus’ come out of the woodwork promising quick-fixes, cheats and easy solutions to supposedly help you achieve your goals.

Whether it’s a new fad diet, wonder product to help stop smoking, or for those of us in the betting world – amazing new tipsters or betting systems. These so-called ‘gurus’ tout their wares using compelling sales material all designed to encourage us to think ‘Hey this quick-fix could actually work for me!’

Sadly, in 99% of all cases, these ‘gurus’ are touting nothing but hot air. There is no quick fix when betting, just as there isn’t with a diet or plan to stop smoking.

Scam tipsters are a major problem on social media, especially amongst those who promote accumulator challenges.

The majority of them make their profits from a share of the losses you suffer with their recommended bookmakers. It’s in their interests for you to lose, not win.

Instead, forget all about betting quick fixes which promise the earth, but deliver little. Concentrate on the boring, genuine experts with track records of success dating back several years. They might not be good at marketing, but they are at betting!

Top Tip: My advice is to focus on the top tipsters as can be sourced in our regular Tipster Profit Reports. They might not promise you a life changing 10-leg winning acca, but they will make you steady, reliable profits long-term.

5) Are You Betting For Kicks Or To Make Money?

One of the biggest emotional hits for any punter comes in watching a bet you have placed as it happens.

Whether it’s following a football game on TV or a horse race you have a bet on – nothing quite gets the heart rate going, especially when it’s a close run thing.

I broke my own rule when watching a horse race where I stood to win a 4 figure sum if my bet won. Miles clear approaching the final fence – you guessed it, my horse fell and instead of a big payout, I made a sizeable loss. It left me in a bad mood for the next few hours and it was a reminder to myself why I don’t watch events I have a lot riding on.

The additional problem here is that such emotions do nothing to help your rational thinking or your betting further down the line.

And it begs the question: Are you betting for kicks or to actually win money long-term?

It can quickly become addictive to seek the ‘hit’ that a winning bet brings.

Before you know it, rather than looking for value bets, you simply start to look for winners (whatever the odds). Never a good strategy.

Coupled with the fact that studies have found that a losing bet hurts you twice as much as the enjoyment gained from a winning bet and you have a recipe for disaster.

Yet if you follow a good tipster, then there is simply no need to watch every bet live as you are not the one selecting it.

Top Tip: Trust a quality tipster to advise the best tips – then place the bets & walk away – only checking the results at the end of the day. By not watching your bets unfold live, you will find your betting is that much easier to handle – win or lose!

Expert Help Betting All Year Round

As helpful as my 5 tips might be, one of the best ways to make any new year’s resolution a success is in having proven experts to guide you along the way.

At the Smart Betting Club, we have over 17 years experience of helping people make money betting and have plenty on offer to help you make 2022 your best punting year yet.

So if looking for a betting ‘Personal Trainer’ why not give us a try as with our 30 and 90 day money back guarantee you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

After all, we might not be able to make you fitter or stop you eating too much chocolate, but we know a thing or two about making money betting and the tipsters to trust to do just that.

Discover more on how the SBC team can help your betting.

See you on the inside.

Peter Ling
SBC Editor

SBC Insight: Understanding your strike-rate & the losing runs that go with it – Essential punting advice

Without doubt one of the biggest barriers to making your betting a success is learning how to deal with the psychological challenges that it can bring – especially when it comes to the dreaded losing run.

We have all been on them – those runs where you can’t see where your next winner is coming from.

The type that see you constantly topping up your bookmaker account and the feeling you are hemorrhaging money.

It’s why 2 punters who start following the same tipster can often end up with very different results. Often because during a losing run, one of them quits in reaction to a short-term run of form.

There is no shame in this – after all the emotion of betting can be very hard to handle, especially when you are expecting to make a profit and yet you keep losing.

Yet there is a way to get through them – simply by having a better understanding of some fundamentals that underpin value betting such as your strike-rate.

Learning About Losing Runs

To help you understand more on this topic, I want to share with you below a tremendous article as published by Steve Jones of the CD Systems service. It serves to educate you on strike-rates and how they can guide you as per losing runs and what to expect.

For example, a tipster service with a 49% strike-rate has a 50/50 chance of hitting 10 losers on the bounce over a 650 bet period.

Most services hitting such a strike-rate will likely advise bets between say 11/10 and 11/8, so how likely are you to stay the course if you backed 10 losers in sequence at odds of 11/8?

Many people during such a sequence would throw in the towel, yet this is not always the wisest move.

This article is one I return to again and again, especially during the dark days of betting when I can’t see where my next winner is coming. Because no-one is immune to bad runs, yet how we handle and react to them is vitally important.

And despite what you might think – just because you pay for tips, it doesn’t mean they will lose less. The fundamentals of probability remain the same, yet if these tips are based on a ‘value betting strategy’ with an edge, long-term it will reap dividends.

My thanks to Steve for giving me permission to share this article and I hope you enjoy it. You can read more about Steve and his services at the CD Systems website.

For further insight – Steve also recommends spending 20 minutes or so at https://justflipacoin.com and recording the sequences generated by random even-money spins. The results will surprise many and would need to be fully understood by anyone seriously intending to embark on a lengthy series of short-priced bets.

Don’t Go Broke! Understanding Losing Runs

Reproduced with permission – see the original at http://www.cdsystems.uk.com/dont_go_broke!.htm

One of the quickest ways to disaster is to be ignorant about losing sequences. They can occur without warning at any time, and they can quickly devastate a betting bank if it is of insufficient size to absorb them.

First of all, how do you know what the length of these losing sequences is likely to be? Well actually, that is fairly easy to predict, provided you have an accurate idea of your strike rate.

Sequences are directly related to strike rate, and you can mathematically determine the likelihood of specific sequences appearing, provided you know what percentage of the bets in a series are going to win. You can then use this criteria to set up your betting bank.

My view is that the size of your opening bank should equal the longest losing sequence you could encounter during an extended series of bets, multiplied by your maximum stake.

To illustrate, I have produced the table below, which you can use to determine your staking strategy. Let’s say, for example, you estimate that your strike rate over a series of 600 bets will be around 40%.

Please note at this stage that there are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ strike rates – they are all purely relative to the price range you decide to target – please refer to my article How Many Winners? in conjunction with this procedure (opens in a new window).

Use Your Strike-Rate To Determine Losing Runs

As can be seen from the table below, with a 40% strike rate you can expect to have a losing sequence of 10 somewhere in the series (there is a 75% chance of that happening). However, there is a 50% chance of your hitting a losing sequence of 12 and a 25% chance of a run of 14 losers. That sequence of 14 is less than likely to occur, but it will still happen, on average, once in every four series.

On the other side of the coin, you have a 75% chance of hitting at least one winning run of 6 during the series. A sequence of 7 is a 50:50 possibility and a successful run of 8 has a 25% chance of occurring. Those figures can be seen in the 60% row (take your strike rate away from 100 and look in the row for the difference in order to anticipate winning sequences).

Finally, with a less than 1% chance, you are likely to confront a losing sequence of 20 no more often than once in every hundred series. However, that is the figure you should use in constructing your betting bank. If you are to operate professionally that is what you must do.

Using the formula I mentioned earlier, you would multiply the longest losing sequence you could encounter during the series (in the above example that would be 20) by your maximum stake. If that is, say, 5 points, then your starting bank should be 100 points.

Losing Runs Happen To Everyone

Please don’t make the common mistake of thinking these sequences won’t happen to you. They are mathematically determined by your strike rate and will happen as often as they are entitled to, whether you like it or not. Nobody can avoid them, but the difference between a professional and an amateur is that the professional is fully prepared for them. When they do occur it certainly doesn’t mean that you are ‘out of form’ or doing anything wrong.

It is also recommended that you set aside a reserve bank which can be used to temporarily top up the main bank in extreme circumstances. For example, a downturn which is over and above any which had originally been catered for (perhaps the original strike rate calculation was based on insufficient data and needs amending).

Once you have accurately anticipated your strike rate, you will be able to use the table below to optimise your bank structure.

Provided the average price of your winners is sufficient for your strike rate, as explained in How Many Winners?, and your bank is set up in such a way as to absorb sequences, then you will never have a problem. You will be well on your way to securing a successful future in a professional manner.


Anticipation of Sequences – Table

Please note: The table below is based on a series of between 600 and 650 bets. A shorter series would be less likely to contain sequences as long as these and a longer series would be more likely.

 

Strike Rate

(%)

Anticipation of Sequences
Expected

(75% chance)

50:50

(50% chance)

Unlikely

(25% chance)

V. Unlikely

(<1% chance)

383105132235
46986106185
5597390153
6526478130
7465768113
8425161101
938475691
1035435182
1133404775
1230374469
1329344164
1427323860
1525303656
1624293453
1723273250
1822263047
1921252945
2020242842
2119232640
2218222539
2317212437
2417202335
2516192234
2615192133
2715182131
2814172030
2914171929
3013161928
3113161827
3212151726
3312151725
3412141624
3511141624
3611131523
3711131522
3810131521
3910121421
4010121420
419121320
429111319
439111319
449111218
458111218
468101217
478101117
488101116
498101116
50791115
51791015
52791015
53791014
54781014
5568914
5668913
5768913
5868913
5968912
6067812
6157812
6257811
6357811
6457811
6557711
6656710
6756710
6856710
6946710
704679
714669
724669
734569
744568
754568
764568
773568
783558
793557
803557
813457
823457
833457
843456
853446
863446
872446
882446
892445
902345

 

I hope you enjoyed this article – if you have any feedback on it, please do share your thoughts with me via email – pete@smartbettingclub.com

Best Regards

Peter Ling

Smart Betting Club Owner and Founder

 

 

Deeper Betting Knowledge: Why understanding your ‘risk profile’ can make such a difference to your punting profits

It is fair to say that wherever you look now, betting is becoming more and more prominent in our society. Bookmakers are heavily involved in all major sports, especially so in the field of sponsorship and the increase of sporting coverage in the media has only heightened interest across the board in betting.

What hasn’t changed though are the risks involved in betting and how we as humans understand this and are affected by it. Nor the immutable rules of investment such as the fact that anything promising you a high reward almost always comes at a higher risk.

It is therefore important that we understand risk and how we as humans react to it.

Yet most crucially of all from a betting point of view – how we can calculate our own risk profile and how that should inform the way we bet and the tipsters we follow.

Understanding Your Risk Profile

Each of us has our own thoughts on the level of risk we take in our day to day lives. What we term your risk profile.

Are you for example, happy to risk speeding while driving as you calculate the chances of getting caught to be slim?

Alternatively, perhaps you prefer to drive within the speed limit to completely rule out the chances of attracting the long arm of the law.

If you do speed, how often and how far above the speed limit are you willing to risk on a fine or losing your licence? Are you happy to go 5%, 10% or even 20% over the limit?

We very often take these risk decisions and many others every day in our lives without realising.

Whether it be our speed driving or even in today’s coronavirus impacted world – when and how often we go outside and if we wear a mask when doing so. These decisions all feed from our in-built risk profile.

Therefore understanding risk and our perception of it is also especially important to those of us who gamble successfully.

If your approach to betting isn’t compatible with your risk profile, then chances are at some point it will cause you to fail or lose money.

The ‘Risky’ Tipster Promising +30% ROI  & Who They Suit

Through the Smart Betting Club and the tipsters we review and recommend, we see plenty of examples of the different types of risk that are open to us when betting.

So to highlight this we publish several different ratings that rank those at both ends of the risk spectrum for our members to note.

For example, there are those higher risk experts who put up betting tips at large prices, who offer high rewards, yet come with the risk of large losing runs or drawdowns at differing points in time.

These high risk tipsters can be very testing when following especially for those of you who might have a risk-averse risk profile.

As ever, that immutable law of investment rings true – high reward investments come at a high risk.

Take for example our recent review of a very profitable racing tipsterThis is a service who over 1200 bets had made a profit of 389.77 points @ 30.19% ROI at advised prices. An exceptionally fine record.

Most people will immediately note the extremely high ROI at over 30% and be attracted to it – yet it is vitally important to explore the facts behind the service to check whether it is suitable for you or not. As for some people, it will be simply too volatile a follow for their risk profile

As we get into the figures behind the profits, what is notable about this service is that it tips up bigger priced selections at an average price of around 14/1 and attains a strike-rate of approximately 14.14%. Just over 1 in 8 tips win.

So, whilst this service has made an extremely high ROI at 30% ROI, it also had endured some bad losing runs at time, as indicated by the drawdown graph below. This highlights the depth of each bad run the service has suffered, which have pushed just beyond 100 points at one point.

So if you were someone considered to be risk-averse, there is every chance that if you had joined at the onset of any of these bad runs – possibly the drawdown in excess of 100 points, you would have quit before it could recover.

And it is important to state that this tipster did recover from this bad run, and the profits have since continued, but it took time and patience to do so. Something those of you risk-averse might not be comfortable with.

 

How to Evaluate Your Approach To Risk

The good news is there are several ways to work out your risk profile and tolerance including some simple tests we provide to Smart Betting Club members on how to calculate where they stand.

Yet if you are keen to work out your risk profile, you might want to see how many of the following, if any, apply to you:

  • You get upset easily after short term losing runs
  • You quickly give up if something starts losing
  • You don’t handle losing money very easily
  • Your moods are impacted by losing runs and losing money
  • You feel if paying for tips they should not lose regularly
  • You feel the need to win money every week/month

If any of the above ring true, then you may well be a candidate to take a more risk-averse approach and to step away from any tipster, system or strategy that has a low strike-rate of success.

If however…

  • You can stick out long losing runs
  • You can lose money and not be upset by this
  • You understand that you may not win every day/week or month
  • You understand that anything with high reward comes at high risk
  • You are happy to take a chance and speculate.

Then you may well be more suitable to a low strike rate, more long-term type of tipster that offers a higher reward in exchange for higher risk.

Using SBC’s Ratings To Help Calculate The Risk Of Any Tipster

To help you calculate the level of risk involved with any given tipster, we provide several different risk related ratings when reviewing a service.

For example, our simple risk rating works on a scale of 1-5 and is updated every few months for each tipster we monitor.

  • A risk rating of 1 indicates a very high risk tipster and one that will be suitable to those of you who have an extremely aggressive risk profile.
  • A risk rating of 5 indicates a very low risk tipster and one that will be suitable to those of you who have an extremely conservative risk profile.

Beyond that we also provide several other more detailed ratings that relate to risk as follows:

  • Patience: Expressed as per the length of time you need to commit to following a tipster to ensure a profitable return. Those with patience ratings 12 months and beyond can be considered higher risk as if you join at the wrong time (which no-one can predict) then you might well need to be very patient.
  • Risk Reward Ratio – This is a simple rating that accurately reflects the level of risk versus the rewards of following any given tipster.
  • Capital Risk Ratio – A simple percentage figure illustrating the size of betting bank lost during the worst run any tipster has endured. The higher figure lost the greater the risk.
  • Dispersion Factor Rating – This rating takes out the top and bottom 5% of results and those that might be considered outliers or ‘freak results’. The ensuing rating outlines just how risky a tipster will be to follow.

Ignore Your Risk Preferences at Your Peril!

Perhaps the biggest risk that you can take is to ignore this area altogether and simply ‘cross that bridge when you come to it’.

You really need to act and understand this area because if you make choices that are incompatible with your risk profile and tolerance, it could set you back a long way.

Failure to bet in a way that is compatible with your risk profile could cost you in the form of lost winnings, extra losses and even unused subscription fees if you choose to follow tipsters.

If you are interested in learning more on your risk profile, then as an SBC member, you can access a detailed guide to the topic including some simple tests to calculate where you stand when it comes to risk. And of course – all SBC reviews also come with various risk ratings as standard to help you identify the right tipsters to fit you!

Join The Smart Betting Club and take advantage of our lowest EVER membership prices for 2020.

The good news is that from as little as £27.99 + VAT per quarter, you can get started immediately and access the ENTIRE Smart Betting Club service including all our SBC Magazines (including detailed tipster reviews), Tipster Profit Reports, Free Tipsters, Advanced Tipster Analytics, Betting Insight Articles, Pro Betting Guides & more.

This includes access to our full 14 year back catalogue and no quibble money back guarantee if you join and don’t like what is on offer (unlikely!).

£27.99 per quarter works out at just £2.15 per week. Subscribe NOW to the Smart Betting Club and gain instant access

Best regards

Peter Ling

Smart Betting Club Owner and Founder

 

 

 

Deeper Betting Knowledge Part 2: Using Monte Carlo Simulations To Evaluate Tipsters

Welcome back to the 2nd part of our look at the 12 Advanced Tipster Outputs we now publish in every SBC Tipster Review and how they can help reveal the best, most reliable tipsters.

If you missed Part 1, you can read it on the SBC Blog via this link.

Otherwise strap in for outputs 5 to 12, what they are and what they tell us about a tipster service…

5) 50th Percentile Drawdown

This is obtained by the same method as that in the 99th percentile drawdown (#4 in part 1), although on this occasion, we look at the 50th percentile, This calculation indicates there is a 50% chance, i.e. even money, of a losing run in any given year to the current staking plan.

It indicates that, if a service is followed for two years, a bettor should absolutely expect to suffer a drawdown of this size at some point.

What To Look For: A figure that is absorbed by the suggested betting bank as we can expect this run to happen once every 2 years. Again, it’s useful for you as a punter as you might want to avoid services with big drawdowns likely to occur at least once every 2 years.

Recent Examples: One tipster provided quite a severe example of this in action as we discovered that their 50% percentile drawdown figure was a staggering 111% of the suggested betting bank (as put forward by the tipster themselves). Clearly this was inadequate and if following the tipsters bank suggestion, you should expect to go bust once every 2 years. It was no surprise this tipster did not receive a strong rating from the SBC team.

6) 50% Bankroll Drawdown

Description: The result of this calculation, also known as the ‘semi-ruination’ figure, indicates how often one is likely to avoid a drop that eats half of the funds set aside for betting with a service.

It is a widely-held belief that some considerable resolve and confidence is required once you lose half of your betting bank. At the point that 50% of your bank goes, most people would quit.

What To Look For: The higher the percentile that this output gives, the better and the less likely one is to have to contend with such a 50% dip.

Recent Examples: One extreme example of a service with a poor 50% bankroll drawdown figure came in a review of a racing tipster from 2019, which indicated you should expect to see a peak-to-trough drop of this size in 82% of all years. Effectively meaning that every 4 out of 5 years you would lose half your bank and helping to highlight a very volatile service.

7) Likelihood of a Losing Year

Description: A percentage figure that indicates how likely you are to suffer a losing year.

What To Look For: The lower the figure the better – especially for those of you who expect to play it ‘safe’.

Recent Examples: The extensive simulations that we have run during the last year show one top rated SBC Hall of Fame racing tipster to have the lowest probability of a losing year. In fact, our Monte Carlo simulator ran 5000 seasons covering almost 28m bets and not one losing year was encountered!

The highest probability recorded was just over 49% by a poorly rated racing service. This meant that a loss should be expected every other year if following and it is of little surprise that this service ended a few months after our analysis.

8) Risk Reward Ratio

Description: This ratio is obtained by taking the average annual profit divided by the average annual drawdown over the period of the review.

What To Look For: The higher the number the better and for no huge disparity between the live and simulation results.

Recent Examples: Anything above a score of 2 can be regarded in a positive light (classed as ‘excellent’) and several recent tipsters all achieve this with a very high score for one racing service who hit a mark of 3.427..

9) Capital Risk Ratio

Description: The Capital Risk ratio is a simple calculation that represents the percentage of the bankroll consumed by the maximum drawdown suffered.

What To Look For: The lower the number the better and again parallels between the tipster’s live results and simulation results are welcome.

Recent Examples: If a tipster’s largest drop is less than one-third (33%) of their recommended bank, then this wins a rating of ‘excellent’. A score of more than 66% is a concern and noted as ‘poor’ and, again, intermediate figures are labelled as ‘strong’ and ‘average’.

A recent NFL tipster we reviewed leads the way in this exercise with a ratio of 17.20% with several others all featuring around the 22% mark. These all constitute an excellent Capital Risk Ratio score.

10) Dispersion Factor

Description: The dispersion factor indicates the degree of instability or uncertainty that should be expected when following a tipster. We use the simulations to produce best and worse-case strike-rates, disregarding the top and bottom 5% of results.The dispersion factor is the ‘near-best’ figure divided by the ‘near worst’, i.e. taking the 95th and 5th percentiles.

This output is routinely used to remove the outliers or freak results such as a one-off 200/1 winner or others that vary from the norm.

What To Look For: The lower the factor, the less volatile the tipster should be.

Recent Examples: A recent SBC review tackled a tipster with an excellent ROI of over 30%, but as one targeting bets at over 10/1, it can be a volatile service to follow. This is reflected by the fact they have a dispersion factor rating of 1.796, which is rated as ‘high’.

This follows the accepted wisdom that any investment with a high reward, for example a ROI of over 30%, comes at a high risk.

11) Sharpe Ratio

Description: This is a relatively new index that we have introduced into our analysis work to provide a measure with which we can compare a tipster’s annual betting bank growth.

It compares this growth against the UK’s average ‘risk-free’ investment rate over the review period. Effectively – what kind of interest rate you might enjoy if putting your money in guaranteed sources such as a bank savings account or a government bond. The risk-free rate has been consistent over the last few years at around 2.1% (although may admittedly be changing in this current climate). The ratio is the average ROC returned in excess of this figure.

What To Look For: The higher the number the better. It is also a good examination of what you can make in comparison to other savings options out there.

12) P-Value

Description: An incredibly useful output, the p-value is a statistical test to evaluate the probability of obtaining a set of results by chance (as opposed to skill). It is obtained from an algorithm that uses three variables: overall strike rate, ROI and the average odds of all selections.

What To Look For: The lower the number the better and as close to 0 as possible. A high number indicates either a lack of live data or a set of results that might be based on luck.

Recent Examples: ‘Low’ probability covers the range between 0 and 0.025, whilst a result of between 0.025 and 0.05 is seen as ‘moderate’, with p-values in excess of this being taken as ‘high’. To complete the picture, a p-value of 1 would indicate absolute certainty that the results have been obtained by pure chance alone.

Several strongly rated tipsters we have reviewed recently had p-values of zero, which suggest that the results obtained were 100% based on skill and there is no luck element to be found. There are also numerous other tipsters that have gone under our result microscope, each of whom had very low p-value scores.

Those with higher p-value scores are usually those tipsters either targeting bigger priced selections OR those with smaller data sets than we would like. For example, one promising golf tipster had a high p-value of 0.3130 as he had put up less than 600 tips over 3 years and at a strike-rate of 20.54%. Highlighting this as a tipster or promise, yet one we clearly need more data for before rushing to invest our money in his advice.

High scores could, but not necessarily, indicate that a tipster has changed methodology of selection during the review period and this is something we would test with the tipster.

Advanced Tipster Analytics Wrap

I do hope you have enjoyed this special 2-part guide on these Advanced Tipster Outputs and just how they can help you discover more about betting services.

They go further than simply evaluating which tipsters are good or not, but into other key areas such as losing runs, bank sizes and the level of risk if following them in.

All these outputs are important so you can fully understand which tipsters you should follow and those that suit your personality.

If you want to know more, then you can explore the full Advanced Tipster Analytics Guide with a Smart Betting Club membership. Best of all – you can read the 12 scores and ratings for each tipster we review based on the Monte Carlo Simulations we perform as standard.

All of which are designed to give you every bit of information to help you choose the best tipster services for you!

SBC Helping Inform Your Betting Over The Next Few Months

Whilst there isn’t a huge amount for us to bet on right now, we are using this quiet betting period to publish a series of quality reviews, articles and insightful guides to help deepen the expertise of SBC members.

Mindful of the fact that many of you are using this time without sport to improve your knowledge and understanding of the betting and tipster world, our role is to help fill that gap with informative, educational and quality content.

Tackling everything from helping develop and understand your betting risk profile, the psychology of a winner, Advanced Tipster Analytics and guides to betting on new sports, you can expect to read a lot as an SBC member over the next few months.

As ever, membership comes with a full 30 or 90 day money back guarantee, so if you are looking to develop your betting skills, do consider a Smart Betting Club subscription.

Best regards

Peter Ling

Smart Betting Club Owner and Founder