Betting tipsters can be found all over the internet but the question is who do we trust? Where can we find honest and well-researched tips? Do we actually need tipsters or should we instead perhaps trust our own analysis and knowledge? There are many questions around this topic and they all culminate in one thing and that is to win more money.
We all want to become more successful when betting on sports so this topic certainly needs some investigating and understanding. We’ll be looking into these tips and prediction services to find out just how truthful they are and where we should be looking for honest betting advice. The rise of social media has given us the likes of the ‘twitter tipster’ and now it’s all too easy to establish yourself as an expert prediction service these days.
The main problem that we currently face is that many of these sites and tipsters are connected to affiliate programs. This leads to multiple ‘experts’ directing punters to betting sites with so called top tips and predictions. These experts then get paid commission when you sign up and deposit, but are these tips genuine? We’ll look into this affiliate issue later on but for now, let’s look into why people search for tips and predictions in the first place.
Why Do Punters Search for Tipsters?
Punters might search for upcoming tips and predictions for various reasons but the one defining factor is that they want to win more money. It’s no hidden fact that professional betting people take the time to study and analyse the betting markets to find the best opportunities. But in this modern fast-paced world, not everyone has the time to do this.
Following tips has become a time-saving exercise and this makes it convenient for the every-day punter who is often busy running around doing their daily chores. It’s not all about convenience though, so we’ll now run through a list of common reasons as to why punters continually search for betting tips.
- Earning More Money
We all want to win more money when betting on sports and finding out tips and predictions online and offline is a useful way in helping you do this. Increasing profitability is the aim for all of us and following tipsters who show past betting success seems to be enough for us to trust them with our own betting money.
- Insider Information
Tipsters and prediction sites tend to be seen as betting ‘oracles’ or ‘experts’ on specific sports. We look to them for inside information on players and sporting events in the hope that their knowledge will bring profitable winning bets. In short, we rely on them to do the analysis and research and hope that they find and share with us those value bets.
- Simple Reassurance
Some of us carry out our own betting research and we then use tipsters and other people’s predictions for reassurance. This confirmation might be the final piece of evidence that you need to go ahead and place your bet. On the other hand, if fellow tipsters don’t seem to be thinking the same as you then it may even cause you to back off your selection and bet on something else.
- The Dangers of Tipsters
The above reasons clearly show some of the advantages when following tipsters or checking their daily or weekly predictions. Whether this is a winning strategy still remains to be seen but there is certainly some worth in finding reassurance in your own sports betting research. But what about the dangers and thoughts against using tipsters?
- Why would someone give away a winning formula?
If a betting person had a winning strategy then would they really share this golden information with random strangers online? If, and it’s a big if, someone did find a winning strategy in a sports betting market, whether through either hard-earned knowledge or inside information, they would almost always keep this winning formula and capitalize on it themselves.
- No sign of winning proof in the long run
The internet is awash with tips and predictions but when do you actually stop and evaluate how successful these bets are? Forget about last week's winners, what is their winning ratio over the last 12 months? Tipping is unregulated so you can never completely trust a website or tipster. The truth is that no-one can give absolute certainty on a sporting event as there is always some element of doubt involved.
- Scams and conflicting predictions
Sports betting will only ever grow in popularity and where there is money to be made, unfortunately, there will be scammers close behind. A classic scam includes tipsters selling their predictions to customers and earning commissions on winning bets. The catch here is that the tipster will give conflicting tips to cover their bases and this way they’ll always guarantee a profit for themselves.
- Tipsters often lack any sort of betting value
Tipsters often provide the tips but very little in terms of the right odds to back the bet at. Betting value is at the very core of making a profit in the long term and this important fact is often lost on many tipster sites. They might give you several good-looking tips but they should also offer the minimum odds at which you should back them, if not, then they are not really offering much value to you at all.
- Odds can get crushed and reduce your earnings
The big reason why you shouldn’t trust every online tip is the effect it has on the odds. Once a trusted tip starts to do the rounds then you’ll quickly see the odds get crushed as more and more people make that bet. This is common when it comes to horse racing and speed really is of the essence, if you’re late to the tip then the betting value is often long gone.
- Be Wary of the Social Media Tipster
The one growing concern in the tipping world can be found via social media and the infamous ‘twitter tipsters’. The ease at which people can create tipping profiles and build a following is alarming. After all, there is never a shortage of beginner punters and betting fans looking for the latest predictions. But as we said before, it’s the convenience of other people doing the research for you and social media makes this information available to you 24/7.
While many punters follow these tips for fun and enjoy being a part of the online betting community, there are many people out there who hang on to the words of these people and profiles day in day out. The question here is why is there an increasing number of betting tipsters appearing on social media nowadays? The answer has a lot to do with affiliate systems.
The Betting Affiliate System
In summary, a betting affiliate system allows tipsters to earn money by referring punters to online bookmakers. The crucial bit of information to be made clear here is that many of these tipsters are on a ‘revenue share’ setup. This means that they only earn money when punters lose money.
A monthly commission is paid out by the online bookie when they make a profit from those referred punters. The bigger tipsters can earn up to 40-50% of that referred revenue but they need to be sending the bookie thousands of punters to be earning this kind of commission. Even so, the lower levels of 10% commission can still result in a nice monthly earning for these self-proclaimed betting experts.
So, surprisingly, these affiliate programs are set up in a way that tipsters actually want their readers to lose! So, do these tipsters intentionally give out losing bets? This question is difficult to answer because it quickly becomes a catch-22 situation. If a tipster continues to push losing bets then they would not create a strong reputation as a tipster, however, they need punters to click through and lose bets to earn their monthly commission.
Luckily for tipsters, there will always be a large number of punters looking for quick tips who blindly follow the words of anyone vaguely related to the betting industry. While some people will quickly notice the lack of value in these predictions, there will always be new visitors looking for quick wins.
The one glaring fact coming out of this issue is based around the odds available on both online bookmakers and online exchanges. You’ll always find better odds on the exchange but very rarely will someone recommend that you sign up to a site like this. You’ll always be offered a list of various online bookmakers where the margins are a lot higher, and so, they’ll earn a lot more in commission from their referrals.
To Trust The Tipsters Or Not?
In summary, we don’t think that there is anything wrong with the idea of looking for or giving out betting tips on social media and dedicated prediction websites. The social aspect of it can be rewarding and it brings some light-hearted fun to an otherwise solitary hobby. People just need to understand how these betting affiliate systems work, and why these tipsters are always pushing predictions and online bookies in front of them every day.
We suggest that you always take the ‘twitter tipsters’ with a pinch of salt and try to make your own betting assessments beforehand. If you remember to stay clear of paid tipping services and if you keep realistic about sports betting, in as much as no one can continually predict winning bets week in week out. You’ll instantly become a smarter and wiser punter. This alone will put you on a track towards becoming a more successful punter.
If you must look for betting tips, then try to stick to the words and advice from professionals and from those who are inside the industry. People who are commentators, ex-players and pundits for example. But above all, try to trust yourself more and bet sensibly. Don’t blindly put your money in other people’s hands — because now you know that not every tipster is an expert!
