As said earlier I’m not only betting my own selection of picks, I also follow other tipsters. In this article I would like to explain what I’m looking for in a good tipster. Finding a good tipster is something I put a lot of effort in because I want to have the same confidence in taking their picks as taking my own picks. Also I’m not only looking for the best tipsters, I’m looking for the best tipsters who can be followed. You will see that most of the subject I’ll discuss are quite obvious and most likely I’m missing some subjects to look for but this is my checklist.
Experience
Before following another tipster, he has to have a record for at least a year. In most cases the tipsters I follow have several years of experience but in some cases you can spot a good tipsters earlier. A second thing involving experience is the number of picks a tipster has. This should be at least 500 picks and mostly this number will be around 1000 picks. After 1000 picks the variance should be less important.
ROI/Profit
It’s obvious that I’m looking for a profitable tipster. But I’m looking for tipsters with a good ROI and less profit rather than a tipster with a lot of profit but a low ROI. When following other tipsters you should always recon that you can’t catch the same odds. In my expercience my results vs the tipsters results do differences 2-3% roi. So in case you are following a tipster who has 1000 profit but only 103% ROI it’s very hard to make any profit with him. While following a tipster with only 100 profit but 107% ROI you will record more profit. Of course you should find a good balance between profit and ROI.
Bookmakers
This is the first thing I look into. I’ve already discussed this in previous article but 95% of the picks I take are asian lines. So if I’m looking for a tipster, he should be taking around 80% of his picks at Asian bookmakers. When I follow tipsters who place more than 20% of their picks at Euro books, it’s because the picks they take are also available at asian bookmakers.
Niche
I like to follow people who have a niche/specialty. I don’t believe that it’s possible to beat the system if you bet on every league there is. Also I am ‘suspicious’ when a tispters bets on the bigger football leagues or American sports, in those cases I want a tipster to have more a bigger and longer record as recommened in the first paragraph.
Market
The size of the market has a big effect on how easy you can follow a tipster. If you follow a big market it’s much easier to get good odds and you don’t have to place the bets within the first minute. So I’m always aiming to look for tipsters with an as big as possible market, to make it more comfortable to follow. As this is not my full time job and I don’t want to be always in front of my screen or on my mobile phone, it’s just not possible to follow leagues/markets who are too small as the odds drop too fast and hard.
Pre vs live vs combo
I prefer to follow tipsters who bet mostly pre game. The reason is very clear, I don’t believe that combo’s can be profitable in the long run. And live bets are just very hard to follow as you should be in front of your screen 24/7.
One day fly
It’s always important to look a bit deeper in how a tipster has made his profit. Does all the profit come from one month? Does the profit come from asian bookmakers or euro books? Does the profit comes from live or pre game picks? Does the profit come from 2-3 high odds bets? All these can give a very different view on the tipster.
Hothead
How does a tipster handle a bad streak or a bad month. Does he keeps his cool and continue his strategy or does he suddenly starts placing much more bets (chasing) or high odds. It’s very important to follow tipsters who are capable to deal with a rough period, it gives me more confidence and ease.
Monthly picks
In order to have a balanced portfolio I don’t like to have tipsters who place too much picks per month. In case there is a tipster I really like but he places much more bets than average, I will adjust his stake. But mostly I search for tipsters who place between 20-40 picks per month.
Timing
Preferable I follow people how place their picks on matchday as the limits are bigger. If the bets are placed early it much harder to catch the odds. The timezone is another aspect of timing, if the bets are placed during the night it’s logical that I can’t follow them. I like to take bets between 8 -22 o’clock.
Paid service
I don’t like to buy subcriptions for a paid service as mostly the fee is too big for what you get. The good paid services mostly have the same problem as other free tipsters which are odds that can’t be catched. So you never have the same profit as the service and if you detuct the service cost it’s in a lot of cases not that profitable. Of course it can appear that I’ll try a paid service in the future.
Odds
I kept this as last because this is the most important to follow another tipster. Most of the things I’ve described above are “tools” to find a good tipster but also to find a tipster who is easy to follow. And easy to follow all comes down to be able to catch good odds. If it isn’t possible to catch good odds, it’s better to look for another tipster. Even when all things above are matched but the odds drop too hard, it’s not a good tipster to follow.
