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Recently the BBC ran a story about the increase in the number of social media based tipsters who make a profit when their tips lose.

Whilst unethical profiting from affiliate programs is nothing new – it seems that social media is a particular breeding ground for ‘dodgy’ tipsters promising untold riches via some deeply flawed betting strategies.

Without question, the vast majority are a waste of time and are a more harmful modern day equivalent of the ‘premium phone-line tipsters’ from days gone by. Because as bad as these phoneline tipsters were – they did actually want their tips to win! Thus it is with good reason we don’t include reviews on social media only tipsters in our reports.

As well as revealing the ugly truth about social media tipsters, this article also goes to the heart of another major problem – The constant search for better tipsters than those that realistically exist.

Perhaps it’s a tipster that will never suffer a losing bet or a tipster that will bang in regular 10-fold accumulators at massive odds. Or even a tipster that might make 50% + Return on Investment or hit an 80% strike-rate backing at evens.

The truth is that such tipsters don’t exist – and when it comes to choosing an expert to follow – very often the ‘boring’ well known and stable tipsters present your best option to make a profit.

Yes, they might not be particularly sexy, nor will they bang in acca after acca at big odds but what they will do is make a reliable return for your money.

And to prove this point, allow me to discuss some of the tipsters we track here at SBC and what you can realistically look to achieve if following a true expert.

5 Years & 9 Months In The Making

The tipsters we rate as the very best are awarded a Hall of Fame rating – our marker of a quality service with a proven betting edge.

Yet to achieve a Hall of Fame rating is not easy and one of the key things we look for is longevity of service, coupled with a large betting history.

Consider these stats as per the 14 horse racing tipsters in the current Hall of Fame:

• The average length of service is 5 years and 9 months;
• The longest running tipster has been in operation for 12 years (during which time they have made 3417 points profit at 32% ROI);
• The ‘youngest’ tipster has been in operation for 1 year and 11 months (although they have tipped up over 5000 bets at 21.3% ROI!);
• The best ROI tipping record peaks out at 36.40%, whilst the average ROI across all 14 is around 21%.

All of this is a world away from a world of social media and the false promises of unrealistic profits you see from so many on Twitter or Facebook.

For Example – The Reliable Racing Tipster Profiting Since 2009

A classic example of the type of tipster you can find in our Hall of Fame is the racing tipster featured in the recently released Part 2 section of our 2016 Best Tipster Guide.

Around since 2009, this tipster has a clearly defined strategy tipping up 1 bet a day and long-term has hit a standard of 22.3% ROI and 429% ROC (Bank Growth).

Here is their long-term record of performance:

Certainly it’s not the sexiest of tipsters and they are vulnerable to the odd losing spell which does require patience at times (Something that is simply down to their low strike-rate of around 15.9%).

Yet ultimately this is a tipster that:

• Has a clearly defined betting strategy;
• Has a clearly defined edge over the bookmaker;
• Makes consistent profits over the long-term;
• Makes a realistic return on investment.

And for more proof of all that – check out their profit and loss graph below, which showcases steady growth over the lifetime of the service and all 2307 bets.

If Its Too Good To Be True…

The old adage of ‘if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is’ rings true for tipsters just as in any walk of life.

This is certainly the case when it comes to many tipsters on social media, who often ride a wave of likes, RT’s and positive comments to convince people to follow them in.

Yet ultimately they are deeply flawed, here today-gone tomorrow charlatans, who in many cases are profiting from bookmaker affiliate schemes designed to pay them if they put up bad tips.

Instead, turn your focus to those tipsters who have actually been around the block, have developed a long-term record and run a professional service.

They might not grab the attention in the same manner as their marketing-savvy counterparts but ultimately will be the only ones realistically able to help make you money betting.

You can find a full rundown on some of the very best tipsters in our Hall of Fame – featuring our independent advice and ratings based on over 10 years experience proofing tipsters.

Sign-up today and gain instant access to the Smart Betting Club service.

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Yesterday saw the release of Part 2 of our 2016 Best Tipster Guide featuring the final section on 6 of the very best tipsters we have uncovered over the past decade.

So today to help showcase how these tipsters can help you, I want to delve a little deeper into one of the featured tipsters reviewed inside it and some of the findings we uncovered.

For example – how can a few simple staking tweaks turn a £3,158 profit into £15,690 through following one tipster? (And all from the same £1000 starting point)

As I will go onto reveal – there is so much more to reviewing a tipster rather than simply just examining whether they are any good or not.

A Much Loved Football Tipster

First of all, let me set the scene as regards one of the tipsters we focus on in Part 2 of the Best Tipster Guide that I want to discuss today. It’s a well loved football service – which provides tips from 3 slightly different (yet ultimately profitable) betting systems.

As a subscriber to the service you receive the tips as generated by each of the systems throughout the English football season.

The results for all 3 systems have been fantastic long-term (hence why it was chosen for the Best Tipster Guide!) but there is a lot more to it than that…

The Type Of Bets That Generate The Most Profit

When examining any tipster its vitally important to observe exactly where they make a profit so as a punter you can understand where their edge lies.

One simple pattern we observed when examining this football tipster (as with most others it must be said) is the fact that their away bets are generally more profitable than home bets. AND if breaking home and away bets down to certain odds ranges – some clear profit patterns emerge as the following tables prove.

This first table concentrates on the performance of home tips both under and over 2.0 (evens). Although those under evens are profitable, the gains are fairly marginal.

Examining the away bets put forward by the tipster we also identified a trend whereby the better performance came from those priced at 2.75 (7/4) and above, which was responsible for the greatest return as the table below indicates.

This kind of analysis can help when following any tipster, whether it be the type of bets you want to concentrate on or stake more on – Or simply to help you understand where the tipsters edge actually lies.

That Simple Tweak: Compounding Staking

I have spoken about compound staking on a number of occasions in the past (as here with this racing tipster) because when done right it can make a major difference to the profits you make.

Take one of the 3 systems provided by this football tipster – which has produced a 157.9 point profit at 5.8% ROI from 2739 bets over the course of the past 6 seasons.

This is an ideal service to consider for compound staking as it hits a high strike-rate (44.1%) and has generally performed very consistently over time.

So rather than simply staking the same amount on each and every bet over the course of any given season, a compound staking method (whereby your stake adjusts with the size of your betting bank) can work very well in this instance.

To prove the point – here is what would have happened if you had followed the service just using a £1000 betting bank all the way through (Effectively the amount you staked on each bet would have remained the same).

This approach would have made you a profit of £3,158 (315.8% Return on Capital) over the lifetime of the service. Good figures of course but they can be improved on.

For those of you looking to be a bit more creative, this next table illustrates what happens if you adjust the stakes after every 100 bets based on how much profit you have made. If following this method, your profit grows to £6,098 (609.8% Return on Capital) over the exact same number of bets.

And for those of you looking to be a bit more creative, we also have a couple of other suggestions – including what happens if you simply adjust your stake after each bet. Here your profit grows to as much as £8,821 (882.1% Return on Capital).

And finally the biggest profit actually came from adjusting your stakes at each point where your bank has grown by 25%. This method will have made a £15,690 profit (1569% Return on Capital)since inception.

Watch Your Losses: Max Drawdown

The keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed the ‘Max Drawdown’ figure for each of the tables above and this is a very important figure to consider before going overboard on Compound Staking.

This figure effectively tells you what the biggest drop will have been using each staking method during a bad losing run. So for example the Compound 25% method will have seen you finish up with £15,690 profit, but at one point you will have lost up to £8,207 during a bad run of form. That loss would have been in context and made up purely of the profit you had made but it does show how an aggressive staking plan works both ways.

It’s worth considering these sums as how you handle yourself during losing runs is a major test of any punter – no matter how experienced you are. And for those of you who think that losing runs won’t apply to you, think again as they always happen no matter how good you or the tipster you follow actually is… (And if you find someone who tells you they never suffer them – they are lying!)

More Professional Analysis In The Best Tipster Guide

I only have room to discuss these two findings as outlined in the Best Tipster Guide, yet there is lots more I could have shared.

For example – which is the best system of the 3 ideal for those of you keen to just choose 1?

Or

What is the best and worst time to place your bets when following this tipster and why it can pay to wait until seconds before kick-off to achieve the best profits?

If interested in finding out more, you can do so with access to the full 2016 Best Tipster Guide as with Parts 1 and 2 now available, it includes detailed reviews on 6 top tipsters we have uncovered over the years.

Plus, to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Smart Betting Club in 2016, you can also save £16 on the cost of the Platinum ‘Pro Punter’ membership package.

Sign-up now and gain instant access to the Best Tipster Guide.