Should you be paying for betting tips?

Should you be paying for betting tips?
Should you be paying for betting tips? Image source: Pixabay

There are three kinds of bettors. The ones that only trust their gut or personal research, those who blindly follow tipsters, and then there’s the healthy medium: those punters who do read betting tips, but don’t just bet on whatever the expert (or so-called expert in many cases) says. It’s those players who actually read the analysis, rather than just putting money on the prediction. These players are doing their research, but that is based on the news and opinions a professional tipster has provided. There are tens of thousands of free betting tips out there, so should anyone be paying for betting tips? As with most things, especially involving money, a simple “yes” or “no” isn’t satisfactory enough.

In order to answer the question, we first have to understand what it means to be buying betting tips. There are in fact two categories of “betting tips for sale”. There are those services that sell predictions, based on sporting analysis or even based on “inside information”. They either request being paid beforehand, in order to hand you the prediction or ask for a sum of money once the result has been confirmed. The other category is subscription-based websites. On those, you pay a monthly fee and get unlimited access to their tips. In a sense, you are paying the creators for content, just like you would do with a podcast or a streaming platform like Netflix. It is clear that the two types of sold football betting tips are vastly different and in most cases, the amount of money you are required to pay is also unalike. While the first kind of tipsters usually asks for an insane amount of money, directly choosing your betting behaviour for you, the second ones are much cheaper and allow you to play the game the way you want to.

So in a nutshell, you should probably avoid predator-tipsters, those who find you on Facebook or Instagram, using an obviously fake account, to ask you if you want to buy “the next big fixed game”. They can drain your bank account faster than that Nigerian Prince who has his funds blocked and asks for your help. As for the subscription-based services, they are a no-go for casual players, but serious bettors shouldn’t automatically reject them. If and only if they trust the given tipster more than all the free services, and if the monetary value you get from their tips overcomes the cost, then by all means go for it. The question is, how will you decide which tipsters you should trust.

How to tell which tipster is legit

The safest method to test a tipster is by following them for a couple of months. Don’t follow their tips, but rather read what they are saying and compare it with a match’s result. But since there are thousands of them, as we already mentioned, you can’t just follow everyone and keep stats. You should create a list of those who seem more trustworthy and there are a few signs to tell if someone should go into your shortlist, or be tossed aside.

Read the actual analysis

If you’re searching for a new cellphone and it’s obvious that the one who’s written the review doesn’t know what a face-cam is, you are not going to buy into his opinion. The same goes for betting tips. Is the tipster talking about actual strengths and weaknesses of the two opponents, or are they just blubbering nonsense? Do they speak about the risk-reward ratio of their picks? Do they seem like they’re knowing what value is when you bet? If they do, they probably know what they’re doing.

Don’t fall for their self-advertisement

Most people who have placed a significant amount of bets have their success stories to share. They also have some notable low moments. If you realise that someone is cherry-picking their successful bets and glow about always being right, guess what, they’re probably not. If there is no full history of picks to be shown, then a winning week says nothing. This doesn’t mean they’re necessarily bad at their job, but they are overselling a product. It’s Marketing 101 and you should pay as little attention as possible. Just focus on their work and not the fact they’re self-proclaimed Betting Kings.

Trust dedicated tipsters

Can someone know the ins and outs of every sport and every competition? Of course not. Nobody has the time to study everything in the sporting world. If a tipster navigates between football and golf, or between the Premier League and the second division of Malaysia, there’s something wrong. Dedication makes perfect for a tipster. Someone who has spent years following the lower tiers of Scottish football is more trustworthy than a “generalist” who heard that Cowdenbeath’s manager is about to get fired.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, note that only serious bettors should even consider paying for betting tips and that is only if it is worth it in comparison to the free alternatives. In the vast majority of cases, it is not. Remember you will already put some money in the line when you bet, so only add on that budget if it is proven profitable. But if there is one key take everyone should keep from this piece, is that never, absolutely never, give in to betting predators.