Sports betting requires a lot of time, and you need to cover several things in order to come up with fairly decent results. In the real world, most people don’t have this luxury of time, and they would naturally seek the advice of a sports betting service or professional sports betting tipster. In this article, we analyze the key characteristics that you must seek when you are in the market for such a service.

Let us assume that you have decided to get the services of a sports betting tipster? Here are the most important things that you need to consider:

  1. Operating for many years.
  2. Have a solid online reputation.
  3. Reaction to losing runs.
  4. Betting philosophy.
  5. Transparent betting history.
  6. Easy to follow tips.
  7. Provide analysis and reasoning for each pick.
  8. Offer reliability and guarantee.
  9. Reasonable cost.
  10. Offer a free trial.
  11. Good and reliable customer support.

Why do you need a betting tipster?

Time-saving

Learning how to trade the betting markets can be time-consuming.

Not everyone will have the time or the dedication to start analyzing the betting markets. Furthermore, not everyone will have the skills to do so.

In order to place informative bets you have to make extensive research every day. Sports betting is a real business and needs to be treated as so if the goal is to produce profits.

So if you cannot dedicate time or if you simply don’t want to, then subscribing to a tipster may be the best solution for you. Profitable tipsters have dedicated their professional careers to following
sports events and have already done the hard work for you.

Having More Information

People that work as tipsters are very knowledgeable in their respective sports fields. This means that they can offer you expert information, which can help you gain some advantage over the bookmakers.

You simply can’t be an expert on all sports or on all the teams of a specific country. It is reasonable to search for tipsters that follow specific leagues if you want to bet in such markets.

Earning More Money

Betting is all about making as much money as you can. Following advice from a good betting tipster should increase the number of winning bets for you.

Double Check Your Opinions

One of the benefits of working with a betting tipster is that you always have access to a second opinion. If they are a trustworthy source, you can share your ideas with them and ask if they agree with you or they think that you should adjust something in your bet.

Comparing and Evaluating Sports Tipping Services

Let us assume that you have decided to seek the help of a professional sports betting tipster. How do you proceed with picking the best one? Here are the most important things that you need to consider:

  • How long have they been operating – Reasonably, you would want to find a service that has been running for several years. You definitely don’t want to follow someone who has just started providing the service. While there may be a few decent services out there that have just started, it may be wise to pass on until you have more proof in your hands. A tipster who has been in business for several years may be doing something right, and they are the ones that you should consider.
  • Do the tipsters have a solid reputation. Do your homework and gather information and testimonials about the sports handicappers. Get feedback from other bettors. Visit sports betting forums and ask questions on the Internet about the one that you have an interest in.  You have to remember that there are scammers that act as tipsters, and you must learn how to distinguish and bypass them. While these scammers are slowly disappearing, thanks to all the progress in communication and online technology, there are still a few services out there that cheat and exaggerate their results and overall performance. Thus, when you stumble on a service that promises extraordinary results then chances are that you are dealing with a scammer. Finally, don’t fall for tipsters who promise fixed matches. Why even sell such ”profitable” information to everyone and not take advantage of it for themselves?
  • How do they react with high pressure and losing runs – If the style of a tipster is controlled by continuous stress, then you might look away for other alternatives. Reputable and successful sports tipsters let their results speak for themselves and rely only on their records to “sell” their services. Losing runs always happen and the way we react is a key element to long-term profits. If a tipster changes his staking plan or strategy after a run of losses then he cannot be trusted long term.
  • Check their betting philosophy –  is betting tipster betting on underdogs or favorites? What is his staking plan? If a tipster is making many tips a day, is it something that your bank can afford? Check their style and decide if it matches yours.  It would be troublesome for you to follow tips and staking that are against your betting behavior.
  • Are the sports betting tipsters transparent in their records – There are some tipsters who are not straightforward in answering the basic question about their performance. Only a few sites would really reveal their records for sports bettors to see. Be wary of sports tipsters that don’t or are hesitant in revealing their performance records and previous picks. If you find services that do not have a losing month then this is a clear sign that the results are manipulated. It is always a plus for a tipster to be verified by a third independent party.
  • Do the sports tipsters provide analysis and reasoning for each pick – If a tipster cannot even provide the most basic analysis and reasoning for the picks that they make, then chances are that they are not worth your time and money. Although not that crucial, a precise analysis of each bet always adds a little more confidence to you for placing that bet.
  • Are the tips provided easy to follow – The odds that a tipster recommends must be accurate. You must be able to take advantage of the odds recommended otherwise your results will be different in the long run. Also, the odds must be available on the highly reputable bookmakers and exchanges and not to any obscure local bookies that no one has access to. The number of supplied bets per day or month, the approximate time of the day that picks are published, the staking plan, and the minimum accepted odds are information that you should know before following a service.
  • Do the sports betting tipster offer some form of guarantee to sports bettors – The confidence and reliability of the service must always come with a solid guarantee. While you don’t expect to win all the time, reputable sports cappers will always back up and stand behind their sports picks with some sort of a solid guarantee.
  • How much is the cost of the service – There is a bit of variance in the cost of the service. However, a significant number of the most expensive sports tipsters are over-charging. The axiom – “You get what you ask for” – also applies here. At the end of the day, you would want to find the service that will offer you the best value. This means that you should aim for the kind of service that wins for you and make you lose games a lot less than you would when you go on your own.
  • Do the tipsters allow you to try their picks for free – It would be best to try the free picks before you get the paid services of the sports handicappers. While most tipsters reserve their top-tier sports picks to their paying customers, you can still get a good idea of how these sports handicappers think and how they analyze their picks and how they prepare their write-ups and analysis.
  • How good and reliable is their customer support –  Assess how they handle inquiries. Do they respond to emails instantly? While you may not initially find the need for it, when choosing the right service, it is still best that you assess their customer support. Poor customer service can be a red flag and an indication of the kind of job that the sports tipster delivers. You should not trust them to provide you with good sports picks when they cannot even deliver the basic services required by their clients.

How to make the most out of sports betting tips?

Here are some tips to consider in order to maximize your profits from following tipsters:

  1. Keep a separate bank for each tipster you follow.  If you follow many tipsters then you should track their results individually. This will help you choose the best ones. You can read more about the importance of bet tracking here.
  2. Make sure you choose the most favorable odds. If a tip comes out always check for the other available bookmakers for better odds. That will increase your ROI significantly. Also, it should be better to avoid taking odds that have dropped a lot from those recommended. You should be alerted when following a highly reputable tipster, as it is common for odds to shorten after a tip gets published.
  3. Follow all the recommended tips. If you find a tipster that you trust then you should follow him at every tip even if you don’t totally agree. After all, you are paying for a service and you want to match the results as much as you can. Also, don’t be discouraged after a losing run as a winning run is always waiting in the corner if the tipster is profitable in the long run. If you know your tipster’s biggest drawdown that will help you to overcome the phycological burden of every losing run.
  4. Don’t change your bank significantly. This is a common trap people fall into. If you have a winning or a losing period season, do not increase or decrease your bank. Just continue to follow the tipster and let your bank moderate grow. After all, you are following another human being and you do not want to increase your staking and then find out that he has altered his strategy. Always have realistic expectations from the profits that can be achieved from following tipsters.

Final thoughts

It is customary that we will encounter all sorts of characters in sports betting forums who make claims that sports tipsters are not good for your financial health. However, you have to remember that when you cannot allocate enough time to gather and analyze critical information and data, then it is quite natural that you get the services of a professional who can do these odd tasks on your behalf.

This article is not making a blanket endorsement of sports tipsters to all sports bettors, although it is also far from being the worst thing especially when it is performed by individuals and entities with an unassailable reputation and a solid track record. And once you decide to try the services of a sports tipster, this is where the more difficult aspect of your task begins. How can you find a sports handicapper who is reliable, honest and reputable?

There are literally thousands of “professional” sports tipsters out there, and it would not come as a surprise that 9 in every 10 sports handicappers spend more time “marketing” their services than researching the games.

Hopefully, this article will help you find the best sports betting tipster that fits your style.

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