To best illustrate how a Smart Betting Club membership can help improve your betting, I have been conducting a series of interviews with real-life SBC subscribers on the difference our service has made to them.
The latest in this series comes from SBC member, K, who although happy to share his experience with you all, was also keen to protect his identify from snooping bookmakers. Hence the fact we are just using his first initial!
Here is what K had to say (as ever, this is all his own words on the matter!)
What’s your name?
K
When did you join the Smart Betting Club?
I joined several years ago, let my subscription lapse at one point because life was too busy, then resubscribed a couple of years ago and have been a subscriber ever since.
What sports do you bet on?
Predominantly horse racing. For a while, I tried soccer (without success) and American sports, following one of the tipsters on SBC (who is no longer a promoted tipster). American sports became a big loser for me over time as I started chasing losses and following tipsters on twitter. More about this later. So, no more American sports – they seem like a lottery. On the other hand, horse racing is profitable. I have just started betting on tennis again and have developed my own mathematical model to help me. I also bet lightly on golf.
How many tipsters do you follow?
This varies from time to time. Currently, I’m following eleven tipsters. That may seem like a lot, but I’ve chosen carefully. Five are directly from SBC (one of them is free). They are all excellent and have proven long-term profitability. Four more are subscription tipsters (one is for Australian racing and one is for golf) and two others are free tipsters. I also subscribe to one set of ratings for which highlighted races are profitable, and follow another free set of ratings with a system of my own. Overall, it’s a heavy workload, but my timezone and work patterns allow me to manage this. I’m fairly ruthless in cancelling a subscription if it isn’t working out, even if long-term proofed results show a tipster is profitable, because it might be that I’m missing the prices too often
Why did you join the Smart Betting Club?
To find profitable tipsters and to read the guides available for SBC members on profitable betting. Before SBC, I’d followed various other systems and ratings, some successfully, but mostly unsuccessfully. SBC helps steer punters towards profitable and reliable tipsters. It’s great that SBC is independent too.
How has the Smart Betting Club helped you?
There are useful articles on, for example, what to do if different tipsters make the same selections and how that impacts results. These articles stimulate thinking on similar topics, e.g. what to do if you have several tipped selections in the same race (an issue I have daily). The tipster tables are great because you can zero in on the type of tipster you’re looking for – in my case, I look at the more affordable and low workload options. I’ve discovered that tipsters who charge enormous amounts don’t necessarily do any better than those who charge moderately. I read the reviews to determine if there is anyone new I want to follow. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, SBC gave me confidence that it is possible to make decent profits over time by following tipsters, if you are disciplined.
What do you like most about the Smart Betting Club service?
I like that the SBC is independent. I know that when they recommend a tipster, or upgrade or downgrade an existing rating, that their opinion is based on results and judgement, not on hidden commissions.
How much have you made betting since you joined the Smart Betting Club?
This is a multi-part answer. In the early days, I made moderate profits. 2015, though, was a complete disaster for various reasons, but mainly because I became obsessed with betting on soccer and American sports. One SBC tipster on basketball cost me a lot. I started following tipsters on twitter (not recommended, by the way) and made the problem worse. I had health issues, and maybe I was trying too hard. Certainly, I lacked discipline. In a few months, I lost a five-figure amount.I’d never done that before.
It was time to pull back, rethink, develop new strategies. By late 2015, I was ready. I came up with my set of rules above. I followed the SBC tipsters I knew I could rely on, and carefully evaluated others using Archie scores and other measures. Although I’ve changed some of the tipsters I follow, there’s a core group whom I rely on, as explained above. In 2016, I managed to make GBP 38,000 on horse racing. That recouped most of what I’d lost when betting crazily on American sports.
I don’t expect 2017 to be as good, but I’d hope to make at least half that amount. It’s been at a cost to my accounts, though. I’d already been restricted to pennies at Bet365 when my balance there hit GBP 10,000, and at Betfair Sportsbook. Last year, I opened accounts at Bet Victor (closed almost immediately), Coral (maximum bet now 0.0), Ladbrokes (heavily restricted), and RaceBets (banned from taking fixed odds after three bets). I’m currently using three bookmakers, all who have lightly restricted me.
My methods wouldn’t suit everyone. I place a lot of bets, sometimes with three or more horses in a race, and bet in most races each day. It’s a heavy workload. But I’ll keep disciplined and I’ll keep doing it while it pays off.
What are your betting plans for the future?
Firstly, no more American sports. Ever. I keep a mental blacklist of tipsters and sports to avoid. I need all my discipline to keep to it (having said that, I’ve broken my own rules already this year, and paid for it). The important things I’ve decided for the future are:
1. Stay disciplined. Keep to the plan, because it’s working.
2. Don’t start following any other tipsters without good proof of their results (or SBC recommendation).
3. Drop any tipster from whom I’m showing a loss before it becomes significant (maybe I’m not getting the best prices).
4. Analyse tennis betting and evaluate my mathematical model.
Read More Real-life SBC Member Experiences
Member Experience: Clive Jones
Member Experience: ‘Ringo’
Member Experience: Billy McPherson
