Monday Issue

30th March 2015

Hi %%First Name%%

There are many people who struggle to make a profit from tipsters. Usually this is blamed on the tipster for not providing the profits.

Of course, there are tipsters who don’t make a profit. However, punters also have themselves to blame a lot of the time.

The expectations of some punters for a tipster is a long way from what is actually possible and this can be the cause of the punter failing to make a profit as often as it is the fault of the tipster.

The purpose of today’s article is to try and clear up some of the confusion, help you to set realistic expectations and actually make a profit by using tipsters.

When you join a tipping service you have to bring things to the table as well as the tipster.

Assuming the tipster is profitable, then they’re going to provide you with selections that they are making a profit on already.

But what they can’t give you is…

Mindset
Bankroll
Experience

Which means that you must bring to the table…

1. A bankroll you can afford to lose
2. Loyalty for long enough to statistically determine whether they make a profit or not
3. An understanding of the mindset required to bet profitably

Let’s go through each of these things one at a time. I'll assume that you have already spent some time doing research into various tipsters, requested historical results and determined one that you believe is honest and profitable. Don’t do this based on figures from one week, you want at least 3 months of results to check.

Before you join these are the things that you MUST consider:

How much bankroll can you afford to lose?

There’s no point in joining a tipping service and betting money that you cannot afford to lose.

Set aside an amount of money and then add to it 3 months cost of getting the tips.

Be honest with yourself, if it’s going to make you uncomfortable to lose this money then it’s too much. It’s very important to be able to not get emotionally involved in losing this money.

How much should you bet on the selections?

Usually a tipster will give you advice on how many units to split your bankroll into. I would strongly suggest that you make this decision on your own!

Just because a tipster is comfortable with a certain level of risk, does not mean that you are. Your situation is completely different to the tipsters, and they have been making a profit from betting for a lot longer and have a lot more experience.

Look at all the results and determine the biggest downswing in them.

Remember that this is the biggest downswing SO FAR.

There can always be a worse one.

For comfort I would suggest you double this downswing and make that the minimum amount of units you use in your betting.

For example if the biggest downswing was 25 units, then the minimum amount of units I would split my bankroll into is 50 units.

Now divide your bankroll (which you decided above) by the amount of units your bankroll will be made of. e.g. if your bankroll is £500 and you have a 50 unit bankroll then you would be betting £10 per bet.

Are you comfortable with this amount? Are you going to want to be betting more? Can you continue to follow the selections if you lose 50% or 60% of your bankroll?

If you are not happy with any of these questions then you need to re-assess your bankroll.

How much are you expecting to make?

If you’re expecting to start with £500 and be making a full time income then I would suggest you stop betting now.

This is just not possible.

Your expectations must be realistic.

If, over a three month or longer period of time, selections are making more than 10% return on investment, then you’re doing well.

Starting with a £500 bankroll and placing £10 bets, this means that if our tipster is giving us 3 selections a day we are betting around £900 per month. If we are making £90 or more profit per month then we should be happy. Anything above this should be considered a bonus.

This is a realistic expectation. After all you will be doubling your investment every six months, do you know any other way of doing that?

Expectations is one of the biggest downfalls for the majority of punters. They are expecting to hit 10/1 or higher winners every day. This will not happen.

Are your prepared to try the tipster for a decent period of time?

Statistically, trying a tipping service for any period of time less than 3 months is not worth it. You will not have had enough information to actually determine whether or not the selections are profitable.

All tips go through upswings and downswings. The length of time these can vary. By quitting a service after a few weeks you are only getting enough information to determine how the downswing was performing without knowing whether the upswing is going to cover your losses and bring in enough profit.

Are you prepared to lose the majority of your bets?

This is possibly the hardest psychological leap to achieve in profitable betting. Just because you aren’t finding more winners than losers does not mean you aren’t making a profit.

A tipster with a very high winning strike rate may win 30% of their bets. It is much more usual for a tipster to win between 20% and 25% of their bets.

If a tipster is winning 20% of their bets then they are losing 80% of them!

Read that again…

If a tipster is winning 20% of their bets then they are LOSING 80% of their bets.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE NOT PROFITABLE

I have put that sentence in capitals because it is one of the most important things you will ever understand.

Just because you have lost 10 bets in a row does not mean that the tipster will not be profitable by the time you have finished your initial 3 months.

Do you realise you are joining a tipster service at the start of a downswing?

Most tipsters advertise when they are doing well. Of course, this is when people want to get their selections. However, by definition, an upswing is followed by a downswing. If you join a tipster when they are advertising an upswing period, then you have also joined them at the start of a downswing.

You need to realise that when you join a tipster you could get a few weeks of bad results.

There is nothing you can do about this, it is just how the business works.

If you have done your research on the tipster, and followed everything in this post then you have nothing to worry about because you’re going to be getting their selections for three months whatever happens.

Be prepared for this and it won’t cause you any problems.

These are the biggest reasons that so many punters fail to make a profit from tipsters who are profitable.

When you join a tipping service you must take all of this into account and bring to the table an understanding of it.

We all want to make instant profits overnight. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that.

You cannot make money without some work and even when using a tipster you still have to do some.

Your work revolves around understanding how successful betting works, being disciplined in your approach, understanding what return you should expect and not acting on emotions.

Back next Monday.

Michael Wilding