There are quite literally hundreds, if not thousands of Twitter tipsters out there claiming to have incredible strike rates and that consistently “bash the bookies”. However, form tends to always be temporary and the class acts seem to be few and far between.
For many, making money through gambling is the ultimate dream. It is seen as an “easy” way to earn a nice side income stream. It can be done anywhere, either from the comfort of your own home sat in front of the computer or from your smart phone. Not to mention it’s also tax free.
Of course, you don’t have to follow tipsters or betting experts. You can go it alone and pick via your gut instincts or maybe even read up on some form.
You may even have the odd win here and there but over time I guarantee you that you will lose money. Betting on the English Premiership or doing your weekend accumulator is quite literally the bookmarkers dream. They have the edge over you, all the time.
What Is The Purpose of This Post?
Throughout this post I will cover many aspects of the betting game, the pros and cons. Let’s break down what we are going to cover here:
- The Risks Involved With Sports Betting
- Overview Of What To Expect From Tipsters
- Bankroll Management and Using Points
- What Bookies To Use and What To Expect
- Closing Thoughts
So, with that all in place lets crack on!
The Risks Involved With Sports Betting
Under no circumstances am I telling you to go ahead and start betting here. This post is written for entertainment purposes and shows what can be achieved given the correct set of circumstances. Never bet with money that you can’t afford to lose. I am not responsible for you losing money, your capital is always at risk with betting. Nobody is forcing you to make a bet. For further advice see GambleAware.org
Sports betting of any kind requires a couple of key skills.
#1 Discipline
This has to be the number one skill for many reasons. Betting of any kind in my view should be seen and done as an investment. Your idea is to build your starting bank (or betting pot) up slowly. Think of a traditional bank, you put your money in there, the bank uses it for loans and other investments and if you are lucky you make about 2% per year – if you are lucky.
So, if you started with a sports bankroll of £100 and by the end of the year that was £200 would you be happy? I would be, its profit at 100%.
Betting should be seen like this, and hopefully with the right choices and picks you can do a little better than the example given above. But, as I say you need discipline. Anyone who bets on sports will have good and bad runs, and tipsters are no different. Even if you follow the absolute best of the best they too will also have a bad run, I 100% guarantee it.
This is where discipline comes in. It is easy here to go “off piste” and starting placing your own bets, or follow others and place their bets, you may even find yourself betting on sports you know nothing about.
All of these practices will lead to disaster and you ultimately losing your bankroll. Don’t do it, as tempting as it may seem.
Stick with your guns.
#2 No Emotion
It is also easy to get caught up in the emotion of it all, lots of tipsters like to share other peoples betting slips, shout “BOOOOOOOM” a lot and try to get interaction. This is fine in some respects but again like discipline doing it too much can lead to dangers.
If you get caught up in the emotion of it all then you will be more tempted to either increase your stake (something we will cover later on) or do more bets. Both of which will usually end up in disaster.
I fully understand if they are tipping their services on Twitter that they need interaction to grow their accounts. This is perfectly fine and these mini testimonials from their subscribers are too but if you want to retweet, shout “BOOOOOM” etc then just don’t do it too much. 🙂
Overview Of What To Expect From Tipsters
Usually tipsters from Twitter will offer up a free service and a VIP service. The idea being they will blow your mind using the free service so that you sign up for the VIP service. The pricing I have seen varies, ranging from £8 per month to £30 for lifetime. There does not seem to be a pattern really.
It really comes down to the Tipster you like the best.
There are four main types of bet that they will post up as tips.
These are:
- Inplays
- Pre-Match Tips
- Accumulators
- Rollers/Challenges (Only do when in profit)
Let’s dig into these in some more detail as to what they are.
Inplays:
These are bets that they will tip during the match. A common bet that many tipsters like to play is the “overs x goals” markets.
They will study the way a match is going and then predict that a goal is coming.
For example, in this game above you can see that both teams are creating chances going by the goal attempts, so this for example could be a good pick for over 2.5 goals. You may want to wait about 10 minutes into the second half and then place it.
I would place my bet as soon as I see the tip and wait for a goal.
If there was a goal before full time to either team I win and if it stays 1-1 then the bet is a loser.
Then, low and behold!
Likewise if a game is 1-1 after ten minutes into the first half then the tip comes in as ‘Over 2.5 First Half Goals’ you know again we only need one more goal in that half for the bet to win as there are already two goals scored.
Other inplay markets that I have seen are corners. Not all bookies offer these I should point out.
The bet here is often ‘Over x Amount of Corners’. This could be in a half or throughout the entire match, make sure you select the correct bet if you take it on.
That is a brief summary of inplay bets, the downside with this is you need to act quickly as soon as the tip is posted. It means spending more time on your phone or sat at your computer placing the bets.
However, the upside is these guys read and analyse games very well so they feel they have the edge by seeing how the game is going giving them often a very high strike rate with these types of bets.
Pre-Match Bets
These are tips that are to be placed before the match kicks off. Many people like these as they are set and forget type bets. You can often place them in the morning before the game or sometimes they post them up the night before, giving you plenty of time to get them on.
They can be in the form of many different markets though. Some tipsters will use the straight wins selection, whilst others may go with corners, bookings, or goals markets.
Here is an example of a pre-match market from a Twitter tipster.
Accumulators
Sometimes known as multiples these are many bets all placed together to make one larger bet. These carry significantly more risk than singles as if just one leg of your accumulator loses you lose the whole bet.
On the flip side to that though you will be seeing much larger odds.
For me these are just a bit of fun and should not really be counted to forming any part of betting investment strategy.
Can you make them “safer” therefore increasing the chances of them landing?
Yes, in fact, this is what I do 90% of the time. You can simply remove one or two selections or for example, if one of the picks is “Both Teams To Score” you can make it safer but selecting “Over 1.5 goals” as at least two goals are needed in order for the bet to land but if one team scores them all then the “Over 1.5 goals” pick would still land.
Obviously, you will get shorter odds making them safer but it is up to you how comfortable you feel.
Rollers/Challenge Bets
The idea of these is to go from a relatively small starting bet amount and roll it over until it reaches a certain goal. The standard roller challenge it seems online is to try and get from £25 to £100. Although some tipsters try (and succeed) to go from £25 to £1000.
These are done by picking “safer” bets and rolling the winnings over onto the next bet until you reach your target.
Example:
Bet one: £25 stake wins £37.50 – this wins so you put the winning amount onto the next bet.
Bet two: £37.50 stake wins £55.70 – this wins so do the same again
Bet three: £55.70 stake wins £80.75
Bet four £80.75 stake wins £100.82 – this would complete the £25 – £100 challenge.
My STRONG advice with these is do not play them until you are in profit from staking singles. These fail more than they win, especially the attempts which go for a larger prize such as the £25 to £1000 challenges.
They certainly get the heart racing though so only play them if you are confident in putting large sums of money down.
You can of course play them all as singles or just start with a lower amount and roll that over. Maybe start off doing a £2.50 to £10 to get used to doing it.
These challenges with these tipsters can be over varying types of bets. Some prefer to do them over inplays while others try and land them using pre-match bets.
Either way if you are going to try and follow one of these make sure you have your notifications turned on from your Twitter account.
Risks of challenges: A small word from me regarding risks from these and the potential dangers of doing them. I mentioned above about only doing these when you are in profit. I 100% stand by this statement as these will lose more than they will win. Especially the big ones. The other dangers with challenges is it breeds a “get rich quick” mentality which is dangerous in betting. It encourages you to make larger bets on stuff that you may or may not even know about. You are simply punting on something that someone else has told you to do.
And if you are losing on big stakes towards the end of them it could encourage you to “chase” losses and bet with bigger stakes in the future.
Just be cautious when doing these and don’t get carried away.
A sports trader who trades on the exchanges sees a “no loss” day as a good day. You should be no different with sports gambling.
Bankroll Management & Using a Points System
Having a bankroll and using a points system is the best way to bet and build up your pot. Your bankroll is the size of your betting pot and points betting simply breaks down that pot into a % of bet size chunks.
For example, if your starting bankroll is £500 then you could use 1% per point meaning each bet would be £5. This is a good practice using it like this it allows for swings and dips. If you had a £500 bankroll and started betting at £100 per bet you would lose it rather quickly.
The size of the bankroll is up to you, in actual fact it is not that important. What is important is that you grow it.
You can start with as little as £100, £50 or even £30.
Just make sure you use the points system. You will see a lot of tipsters using it and they often post on their picks how many points to bet.
If the standard pick each day is a 1 point bet but then a selection comes in and they are advising a 3 point bet this shows that they have higher confidence in this pick.
Don’t get carried away and lump all your bank on one game though. This will always end in disaster!
So, using a points system is a good strategy long term.
It keeps everyone on a level playing field too so it doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or a more experienced punter with a massive bankroll. Using points keeps the bets at a safe level.
What bookies to use and what to expect?
There are hundreds of bookies you can choose form in order to place these types of bets. The obvious one and probably the best of them all is Bet365 as they tend to offer the most games and markets.
What do I mean by this? Well, unfortunately not all bookmakers offer the same games believe it or not. When you choose to follow these tipsters you won’t be making bets in the English Premiership every week, far from it. You will be betting in some very obscure and strange leagues and tournaments, some of which some bookmakers do not follow.
So, number one tends to be Bet365 as this is also the bookmaker that the Tipsters will use.
The rest really are just as good as each other, have a look around and choose one you like the look off. Just a word of warning though, I used to have a Bet365 account but it got shutdown.
Why did my Bet365 betting account get shutdown and will yours?
Bookmakers are businesses like anything else and basically if you take money off them they do not really like it. My Bet365 account was put on “restricted betting” after I had a good winning month. When I say good, I don’t mean millions of pounds either, it was a 4-figure profit which to them is nothing.
However, that was enough to get my account put on restricted bets, this meant I could only bet miniscule amounts like 10p per bet so I had to take my business elsewhere.
I tried calling them and asking them why my account was closed but they could never really give me a proper answer, so if this happens to you (which it will if you consistently win) be prepared to have your account restricted or even closed at some point.
My winnings were perfectly safe and I was able to withdraw them fine.
The best way to do this is to spread your bankroll over several different accounts, this way you have more chance of actually being able to place the bet and your chances of getting restricted are lower.
Why do some tipsters recommend bookies and others do not?
This is where the world of affiliates comes in. Some bookmakers offer very lucrative affiliate schemes. This is nothing new in the online world, or the offline world in fact.
Getting paid for referring someone to a product has been around as long as trading has been around and this is no different.
However, when it comes to bookmakers’ people often see it as a dark and unethical thing to do.
I am not here to judge this type of marketing, but I will say that throughout this post we have 100% not used any affiliate links at all.
The reason people often see it as unethical is that bookmakers pay their affiliates a % of the losses their referred customer makes.
As the majority of people who bet will lose over time the bookie and the affiliate make money.
So – you have to ask yourself when following tipsters who use and promote certain bookmakers, are they doing it because that really is the best bookmaker or are they doing it knowing they get a % of your losses?
I personally do not believe all the tipsters who use affiliate links are out there to lose to get a cut from your losses all of the time, they have to perform to a certain standard, or else they would get zero followers and a bad reputation.
Final Thoughts & Wrap Up
Following a few tipsters on Twitter or other social media platforms can be a fun way to win some bets. However, they are sadly not going to make you rich over the long term. This is my view – the thing is the odds are always stacked against you.
Also there is the social side of things.
In order to get the bets, you will need notifications turned on. This will mean getting up to 30 bets per day sometimes. It becomes a large part of the day. My thoughts on betting like this are it would be better to actually dedicate time to it and sit on the computer rather than do it on your phone on the go.
The downside to this is you would not get to do the same amount of bets, but who knows maybe doing a shorter amount may actually work out better in the long run??
No doubt that some tipsters certainly know their stuff, they are clearly very good at what they do and I expect betting at this level and this frequency could be seen as an exciting and thrilling experience for many. But, I would also bet that they themselves DO NOT do all the bets they suggest to their followers. Have fun, tread with caution.
Some of these tipsters bet well into the small hours of the night and are back at it again by 7am.
My strong advice is to remember that this is gambling.
Only ever bet with what you can afford to lose, and if you get into a position where you double or even treble your original deposit withdraw the original amount and bet with the bookies money.
Most bookmakers do not usually play fair however. If you consistently win they will over time restrict or even permanently close your account. They do not want winners on their books!
It happens all across the industry. Quite how much you need to win off them before they close it is a mystery though. But be warned, if you really like a specific account then you may want to vary your bets around different bookies if you are to bet at this frequency following these tipsters.
If you are just placing singles bets, then the Betfair Exchange is a safe place. You will not get restricted here.
So, I guess the final question is can you make money following tipsters? The short answer is yes, but you are in for a ride and you will be spending a lot of time on your phone and computer to keep up with them.
My personal preference is to pick just a handful of the bets each day, after a while you may start to develop patterns and see which picks you seem to do better on than others, if that is the case stick to them.
The ultimate strategy is one of your own. But that said, these guys can most definitely help you along the way.
Please just be careful though. Don’t get sucked in…..
If you want a real proven system that does work then check out my System 89p on the horses. Many of the customers who have used it are already seeing great results!
