Real life winners case study: The bookmaker trader turned professional sports bettor

I’ve recently been talking to one long-term Smart Betting Club member, Markus, about his journey since he joined the SBC service.

Over time, he and I have exchanged a fair few emails on his betting success and as such I asked him if he would mind filling in a ‘case study‘ to help illustrate more on all of this.

Now Markus is a bit different in that he juggles his betting with his work as a bookmaker trader, so he does represent someone already experienced in what it takes to make a profit.

Yet, the key point is the difference SBC’s ratings, reviews and reports have made to him – especially now that sports betting is his main income and he is aiming for a six-figure profit figure this year.

Below is what Markus had to say in response to some of my questions on his time so far with SBC!

It’s fair to say that if bookmaker traders are joining SBC – we know a thing or two about what it takes to make betting pay!

Me: Why did you join the Smart Betting Club?

Markus: I can’t remember exactly how I found SBC, but I think it was by chance when I was searching for some horse racing related content. I joined because the magazines and articles were very interesting and it was clearly the best tipster proofing website that I know.

How has the Smart Betting Club helped you?

SBC has helped me especially in finding new tipsters for my portfolio with the detailed reviews and helped me a lot to get more into racing, which is not very popular in my country.

What do you like most about the Smart Betting Club service?

What I like the most at SBC is the honesty, independence and that you know the guys behind it are just doing the same like you!

What are your betting plans for the future?

I’m at a point now where I do this really like full time and look only for stuff which I can scale up in the long term and try to make as much turnover as I can.

How much have you made betting since you joined the Smart Betting Club?

I think I am in a pretty unique position, because I work as bookmaker/trader in my country as my ‘normal job’ for a regular income and also doing betting more or less full-time (which is my investment capital). So basically I work from both sides in this business and my bookmaking-job gives me the opportunity to combine both things. I also was running a tipster service myself a couple of years ago. So sports-betting is anyway my main income for a few years now, but from a punter’s perspective I am looking to get to six-digits this year.

Read More Real-Life Case Studies

Markus is not the only member that’s thriving after joining SBC and you can read a whole host of other real-life case studies via this link.

Some like Markus treat it full time, others are part-time or use tipsters and our recommendations as a way to make some extra cash here and there.

Whatever your starting point – from total beginner to bookmaker trading expert, our tipster reviews, reports, free experts and more can make a massive difference to your betting

Subscribe today and get started instantly

Kind regards
Pete

Smart Betting Club
Owner and Founder

Member Experience: How SBC Has Helped My Betting | Justin

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 Justin, who having previously worked for the likes of Paddy Power as a trader is now making money as a punter by using tipster services. He makes around £20,000 from his betting each year, of which he attributes SBC as directly responsible for around £5,000 of that.

What’s your name?

Justin

When did you join the Smart Betting Club?

December 2013

What sports do you bet on?

I bet on a wide range of sports, the most common being tennis, soccer and basketball. From SBC I follow AH Edge, and Festival Value. But in total i follow about 10 tipsters and a free site with several tipsters on it (Betting Kingdom)

Why did you join the Smart Betting Club?

I’m ex industry, I used to work as trader for Paddypower and Sportsbet so i have an obvious interest in betting. I came across SBC on twitter (@sbcinfo) and decided to have a look.

How has the Smart Betting Club helped you?

Lots of the articles are quite interesting and give a different perspective on things, reading stories of likeminded ‘gamblers’ is interesting. Articles on hiding VPNs, etc are also useful.

What do you like most about the Smart Betting Club service?

What i like most is again the articles, i find them very interesting, the best performing tipster guides sometimes flag a new tipster to try out. I would like to spend time on the forum but at the moment i cannot.

How much have you made betting since you joined the Smart Betting Club?

I have made around 20k per year extra through betting. Its very difficult to say how much this website has contributed but knowledge and discipline are key and SBC reinforces that. AH Edge, On the Oche, Football Investor have definitely contributed to my profits so I’d guess it has made me around 5k a year of my profit. (I used to record all my bets religiously but have been slack in recent times)

What are your betting plans for the future?

My aim is to keep learning and refining my portfolio to make it less time consuming and as constant as possible. I would like to work on some models in the future and use machine learning to look for betting edges.

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Read More Real-life SBC Member Experiences


Member Experience: Clive Jones

Member Experience: ‘K’

Member Experience: ‘Billy McPherson’

Member Experience: ‘Ringo’

 

Member Experience: How SBC Has Helped My Betting | Steve

Everyone wants to make money betting, yet the reality is that without expert help to guide you along the way, most people who bet, will sadly only ever show a loss.

We know that needn’t be the case as with the right information on the best tipsters to follow and an understanding of the fundamentals of successful betting anyone can make a profit betting, regardless of experience or expertise.

To prove this point, I recently spoke with one member, Steve, on his own real-life experience (and profits) betting since he joined the Smart Betting Club back in April this year.

Following 7 different tipsters, Steve is up £4,200 since he began betting properly in August at the start of this current football season.

To explain more on his approach, the tipsters he follows, how SBC has helped and his plans for the future – read on for the full interview (As ever, Steve’s answers are all his own words – no selective editing here)

How SBC Has Helped My Betting / Steve

What’s your name?

Steve

When did you join the Smart Betting Club?

April 2017 but only started subscribing and following tipsters from late August.

What sports do you bet on?

Football, Horse Racing and Golf.

How many tipsters do you follow?

Seven – Messiah, MVS, AH Edge, Prophet, Rooster, Golf Insider, Football Elite

Why did you join the Smart Betting Club?

Well I originally joined a few years back as a fully paid up member and just jumped in following your recommended tipsters but without doing the necessary groundwork on all the other aspects of betting. I did okay, mostly broke even but didn’t have the psychological wherewithal and ultimately became frustrated with the mistakes I made and became impatient during leaner spells. Looking back it probably wasn’t the right time in my life and circumstances for such an undertaking however It was a learning experience and I went away thinking I will return and crack this one day!

So I spent a few years mulling things over and decided to renew my membership in April this year and begun subscribing to and following tipsters in late August, coinciding with the new football season.

How has the Smart Betting Club helped you?

First and foremost – through its thorough tipster reviews and analysis – SBC has provided me with all the information necessary so that I can make an informed decision on which services are not only realistically profitable but also appropriate for my style of betting and that work around my schedule.

Secondly, but most importantly for me I feel, SBC has helped with my education on the psychology of betting and how mastering this area is the key to success in attaining my goal of becoming a fully fledged professional gambler. I now have the skills and the tools at my disposal to maintain my discipline and detach myself whether on a winning or losing run. Each bet is part of a long term plan and I now understand that losing bets should not provoke emotional negative reactions however “unlucky” they appear to be.

“I know you guys have got my back and are ready to advise me on
any questions or conundrums I might have”

 

What do you like most about the Smart Betting Club service?

How personal and close-knit the community here is. I know you guys have got my back and are ready to advise me on any questions or conundrums I might have. Knowing I can call on your expertise and experience gives me a lot of confidence going forward.

Also the plethora of content and resources provided to members through the website has proved and will continue to prove invaluable in my ongoing education. There is always something new to learn and improve on.

How much have you made betting since you joined the Smart Betting Club?

To date, In a little over two months, I’m showing a profit of £4200 at an ROI of 4.2%. Not bad considering I’m currently suffering a draw-down of around £5k over the last two weeks.

As mentioned previously, if I hadn’t got to grips with the psychology then this would be a testing time however I’m taking it in my stride knowing I was due a correction, that it’s all part and parcel, and that it is what happens in the long term that counts!

To date, In a little over two months, I’m showing a
profit of £4200 at an ROI of 4.2%.”

What are your betting plans for the future?

For the time being I will be continuing with the tipsters I am subscribed to and bet to the staking strategy I have established in the hope of achieving my aim of a 5% return on investment, which I feel is a conservative target, and then review the services and my approach to staking after a period of one year. As I’m projected to turnover around £600k over the course of the year I’d be delighted if I came away with that £30k profit. Beyond that I’ll be aiming to improve my ROI by fine tuning my methods after my 1st year review by dropping and adding tipsters where necessary and/or increasing my stakes.

Ultimately I’d love to be successful and make consistent long term profits and earn a full time living through sports betting. Fortunately I came into some money and was able to quit my job in order to dedicate most of my time to this endeavour with a hefty bank roll to back it up. I am however under no illusions of how difficult this can be and I’m so glad I’m here in the right place with The SBC to give me every chance of making this success.

Steve

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Read More Real-life SBC Member Experiences

If you enjoyed Steve’s interview, you can read more interviews with other real-life successful punters on the SBC Blog.

Each of them are ordinary people like you and me, yet by following the Smart Betting Club’s reviews and reports on the best tipsters to follow, have made significant profits over the years..

Ringo: How I made over £42,000 betting in his first year

Billy McPherson: How I made over $1M dollars betting since 2011

K: How I made £38,000 In 2016 betting on horse racing

Clive Jones: How I made £35,210 in 23 months

So if you fancy seeing how we can help you make money betting, why not consider a Smart Betting Club membership.

You can get started right away and best of all, you can save up to £38 on our best-selling Platinum ‘Pro-Punter’ membership package currently.

<< JOIN THE Smart Betting Club TODAY >>

See you on the inside.

Peter Ling
SBC Editor

“90-DAY 100% SATISFACTION MONEY BACK GUARANTEE”……

“I believe so strongly in SBC’s ability to help your betting, you can subscribe with a 100% cast-iron 90-day money back guarantee”.
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Member Experience: How SBC Has Helped My Betting | Phil

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 Phil, who has been an SBC member for 5 years and has made enough from his betting to take 4 holidays abroad every year off the back of his winnings!

What’s your name?

Phil

When did you join the Smart Betting Club?

I think i’m going into my 5th year now

What sports do you bet on?

Football, horse racing and now golf

Why did you join the Smart Betting Club?

I was using a football tipster who mentioned he had been reviewed by you. I put Smart Betting Club into Google and found the SBC website and decided to join to find out what they were all about.

How has the Smart Betting Club helped you?

The SBC has totally changed the way i feel about tipsters. Back in the mid 80’s  I used some very poor tipsters,  usually getting tips through a premium rate telephone number or sent by post. After years of making a loss I ended up moving abroad , which probably did me a big favour, and I swore i would never place a bet on a horse again.

After moving back to the UK 7 years ago I wanted to try betting again but only on football, and it was through the football tipster I subscribed to, that I came across the SBC. I took out a subscription and was surprised to find out how long a tipster had to proof their tips before the SBC would recommend them. The SBC reviews gave me enough enough confidence to subscribe to a highly rated horse racing service, to which i am still subscribed to today.

I have ended up subscribing to two more very good racing services and I am still making good profits to this day. The subs I pay each year to the SBC is some of the best money i spend.

The SBC has also taught me how to manage betting banks and staking properly.

What do you like most about the Smart Betting Club service?

The SBC is very honest when it comes to reviewing tipsters. Some review sites only review a service for a month which is not long enough.

With the SBC tipsters have to proof their tips for around a year so as to prove they are not just a flash in the pan. The SBC magazines are very informative with regular tipster profit reports. They have a great forum for people to promote their free tips and i always look forward to reading Rowan’s bet diary. Betting can be a lonely game at times so it’s always nice to hear how other people are doing.

How much have you made betting since you joined the Smart Betting Club?

I’m not going to go into figures but i will say that since I joined the SBC, my betting profits have paid for all my foreign holidays, which i take 4 times a year!

What are your betting plans for the future?

I plan to carry on the way I am for as long as possible although it’s getting harder now as i only have a handful of normal bookmaker accounts left. I have got through 6 sets of pseudo bookmaker accounts so that shows how successful i have been with my betting. I try to use the Exchanges as much as possible now to try and preserve the accounts i have left.

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Read More Real-life SBC Member Experiences


Member Experience: Clive Jones

Member Experience: ‘K’

Member Experience: ‘Billy McPherson’

Member Experience: ‘Ringo’

Member Experience: Justin

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Member Experience: How SBC Has Helped My Betting | Ringo

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 ‘Ringo’, who in his first full year of SBC membership made over £42,000 from his betting. Here is how he did it…

What’s your name?

Ringo

When did you join the Smart Betting Club?

June 2014

What sports do you bet on?

Horses, Football & Greyhounds

How many tipsters do you follow?

Religiously 4, however I have about 2 more in my portfolio where certain months of the year are more prestigious lets say…

Why did you join the Smart Betting Club?

I wanted advice initially on hints to keep accounts from being closed or restricted. I also liked the access to the forum, the opinions put forward and the access to free information on a trial basis. SBC membership also provides cheaper fees to join tipsters that I liked and is a portal to discover new ventures with added discounts.

How has the Smart Betting Club helped you?

Technically all the above, plus its opened up new avenues and advice that I hadn’t considered previously such as keeping proper records, introducing lay bets and how they operated plus their lists of good and bad tipsters to avoid.

What do you like most about the Smart Betting Club service?

The forums and the monthly bulletins updating me on current issues and performance figures.

How much have you made betting since you joined the Smart Betting Club?

During my first full year using proper bookmakers, I made a profit of £42,134. However this meant six accounts were restricted and four closures…..a high price to pay!

What are your betting plans for the future?

Hopefully to continue betting without restrictions being imposed, religiously following staking plans and spreading bets with smaller stakes with a variety of bookmakers to keep me out of the limelight!

Ringo

 

Read More Real-life SBC Member Experiences


Member Experience: Clive Jones

Member Experience: ‘K’

Member Experience: Phil

Member Experience: ‘Billy McPherson’

Member Experience: Justin

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Member Experience: How SBC Has Helped My Betting | K

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.

K Picture case study

Read More Real-life SBC Member Experiences


Member Experience: Clive Jones

Member Experience: ‘Ringo’

Member Experience: Billy McPherson

Member Experience: Phil

Member Experience: Justin

 

 

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Member Experience: How SBC Has Helped My Betting | Clive Jones

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.

Kick-starting this series today is Clive, who shares in his own words exactly how SBC has helped his betting and the success he has enjoyed since becoming a member.

What’s your name?

Clive Jones

When did you join the Smart Betting Club?

6th March 2015

What sports do you bet on?

Horse Racing, Football and Golf

How many tipsters do you follow?

8

Why did you join the Smart Betting Club?

I decided in 2014 that I wanted to have a go at second income level Sports Investment (I have always refused to call it betting) with £5k I had built up from a starting pot of just £100 following sporting life’s free tipsters over the previous three years. Once I mentally committed to doing so and knowing that I was risking my three years hard graft on the next step, in March 2015, my very first act was to join SBC. You are showing as the first ever expenditure on my daily records sheet!

Having initially read about you and followed up my interest looking for independent reviews I found nothing at all that ever questioned your integrity. Trust is critical to me and I had found someone that I could trust. You have to remember I didn’t even know if my aims could be met at this point. I knew of no-one earning money regularly this way and needed all the help I could get. And here it was, staring at me from my screen at about a tenth of what I had expected to have to pay!

How has the Smart Betting Club helped you?

My strength has always been analysis so I began my membership by looking at all the tipster reviews you have ever done, recording my notes copiously. How many selections a day? When would I need to be available? Could I get on at the prices quoted? What did they all cost? How good are they? I cannot begin to guess how long this would have taken me unaided.I wouldn’t even have known what questions to have asked let alone found the people to ask and I wouldn’t have trusted a single answer.

That was my starting point with SBC but things quickly evolved into much much more. Betting Banks, points, ROI, ROC all of this was new to me but once I had read everything I could get my hands on through SBC, I felt like an expert!

My confidence grew to new levels and my natural and inevitable self doubts about the whole venture vanished. It could be done and others were doing it and I knew that if I listened to the sound advice in SBC, it was mine for the taking too. Of course, as time has passed my needs have changed and I now pay much more heed to articles on account closures, Bet Brokers and VPNs than I do to my initial stopping points but that just goes to prove how SBC is here for all levels of investor.

What do you like most about the Smart Betting Club service?

Your integrity, your honesty and your tables – I love a good table, me.

How much have you made betting since you joined the Smart Betting Club?

Following a fantastic start to 2017 (awaiting some corrections!) so far its £35210 in 23 months. Thanks guys!!! Whilst things have moved on fantastically since Day One, SBC was undoubtedly the biggest single factor in setting me up for success at the outset. You gave me the confidence to get through a horrendous start where I lost £3776 of my opening £5k in the first 82 days. Without you, I would have lost my bottle completely.

What are your betting plans for the future?

On the profit front, I take it calendar year by calendar year but am at a stage where some stability is required. By the end of 2015 I had made a further £11498 and by the end of 2016 another £19363. I am aiming for £24000 in 2017 a round £2k per month.

On a wider scale, I would like to run set up courses for would be sports investors at beginners affordable prices, no more than £150 per day absolute maximum, I am developing my own micro system based selections that I hope will one day turn into a tipping service and would also like to start earning small sums from a weekly writing blog just recording the week’s unusual events e.g. This week your idea of backing successful tipsters in multiples hit off with a Bet Alchemist 73.75/1 double, last week my new golf tipster hit a 66/1 winner in week one, the week before I experienced a day of 15 selections, 15 losers – all things that I think people new to the game like to hear as it gives them the opportunity to empathise with the ups and downs of this game and enjoy realising that these things don’t just happen to them!

And finally, I am enjoying taking a member of my staff (I am self employed) on a roller coaster ride trying to turn £300 into a £15000 bank in two calendar years. All of this would have remained nothing but a pipe dream without SBC.

Read More Real-life SBC Member Experiences

Member Experience: Ringo

Member Experience: Billy McPherson

Member Experience: ‘K’

Member Experience: Phil

Member Experience: Justin

 

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