The following is a method we share with all SP2A Members when they initially join the service, we appreciate that
to some this is very basic, and to others it is "pretty obvious" but it is important I think to set out guidance for anyone
Create a 100 point Betting Bank to a "Unit" that is affordable and acceptable to you as an individual.
E.G 10p Unit = 100 x 10p = £10 / "£1 Unit" = 100 x £1 = £100 etc
Do not spend more than you can reasonably afford or are happy to lose.
Staking is simple as our maximum stake is 2 points win or 1 point each way (as advised)
We will never go above that and occasionally will suggest 50% stakes being 1/2 point each way and 1 point win.
So you should simply place a "win" or "each way" bet to this criteria as advised.
The 100 point back will allow for any drawdown (loss) and effective constitutes 50 win bets or 50 each way bets minimum and/or a combination of both.
My own preferred system is to "bank" at every 50 points of net profit e.g when your 100 point bank hits 150 points -
transfer the money equivalent of the 50 points profit to your chosen bank account as "earned profit" make a note of it and then start again
with 100 points - this helps to discipline your approach to winning and losing spells and I would go through this cycle at least 4 times
(effectively banking 50 points profit 4 times) before even considering upping the unit stake.
My own advice would be to NEVER increase unit stakes unless advised (see below) and never chase losses by upping stakes or indeed
"follow winners" by upping stakes after a big winner. E.G if you have put 1 point each way on a 50/1 winner; your next bet should also be
1 point each way - this consolidates the win and does not give "hard earned winnings back" to the Bookies.
WIN or EACH WAY
This is always a passionately argued subject and one on which many will have to "agree to disagree".
You may be very much a "win" person, you may be very much an "each way" person and you may chose to sit on the fence.
There is no right or wrong, black or white here, and certainly, I would not be foolish enough to "preach" on the subject.
It may be interesting though for you to consider my perception; you may agree; you may disagree, but at the very least
it may help you to understand, why I am an advocate of "each way betting" and why SP2A advocates it.
The concept of SP2A has been honed over 6-7 years, and we have made mistakes along the way, the secret I always
believe with making mistakes is to learn from them and to have the resilience to fine tune and amend as necessary.
Our strategy has been formed both by personal preference, commercial consideration and the feedback of our Members.
Our aim is to try to a achieve a return on Investment of around 20% to SP over a sustained period and to optimise
winning runs and to mitigate against losing runs (which are inevitable) by a disciplined approach. Our modus operandi
is to look for "good value profit", we won't knowing ever tip horses that are "odds on" or very short prices; I don't believe
that is "tipping"; I believe "tipping" is identifying dark horses who have a better chance of winning, than nice odds suggest
that they have, and then explaining the reason for that logic, with a simple explanation, that will both inform the logic
behind the bet, and also help in the process of educating angles that members may like to follow and develop themselves.
So why an each way approach?
Let me give you a hypothetical explanation that possibly explains the logic more simply. On the basis that we are looking
for a consistent profit and a solid return on investment, let's consider a spell when we back 20 horses at 10/1. We could
back 20 horses to win, or 20 horses each way. My honest assessment of SP2A over the years is that looking at odds
like that we would hope to back 5 winners at 10/1; 8-10 placed horses at 10/1 and lets say 5 losers at 10/1, after all we
have set out to look at each way value.
If we were to apply 20 x 1 point win bets to that ratio we have 5 winners and 15 losers and a net profit of 35 points
(5 x 10 point winners and 15 x 1 point loser)
If we were to apply 20 x 1 point each way to that ratio we would have 5 winners; 10 placed and 5 losers and a
net profit (to 1/4 placed odds) of 67.50 points (5 x 2 point winners; 10 x 1.5 point placed and 5 x 2 point losers)
The key is the "staking" 1 point win v 1 point each way, but lets be totally fair and say to equalise things we
will have 2 point wins, so in essence the 35 point for the "win only" bets = 70 points and the each way return
is 67.50 points, a marginal win for the win punting method.
There are however 2 very relevant points to add here (a) perception and confidence and (b) a commercial reality.
The one thing that knocks the confidence of any punter or indeed client is "losing runs" and the one thing that
destroys a betting bank is "giving winnings back to the Bookmaker", so my views of each way betting are born
of a personal and commercial pragmatism, "if you can't win - don't lose" and by staking and betting in this way
I believe you are optimising your profit; optimising your confidence and mitigating losing spells.
What is more soul destroying in a losing run than seeing a host of big priced horses getting beaten on the "nod"
As I said, it is all about perception and viewpoint, your own views will determine the way you go, we always advise
bets as "win only" or each way" and "each way can of course mean "win and place" on an exchange, so no
lectures, but I hope a very basic example that shows the virtues of each way betting and the confidence it can give.
Now on to a few other questions that we have been asked and PLEASE always feel free to ask!
Is SP2A a Tipster or a Tipping Portal?
SP2A is wholly owned by one individual and we have a stable of 6 Daily Tipsters; all of whom tip solely to SP2A.
They are made up of individuals, that I have mentored/tutored or have met, who have similar ideas about betting;
customer service and who are some full time and others part time tipsters/horse racing enthusiasts.
The concept has what I believe is a Unique Selling Point in that between us we have an overview of expertise;
some are Flat specialists; some are NH specialists; some are big field Handicap specialist; others like Sprint
races, and geographically, we are "widely spread" too. I don't believe that any Tipster or Punter on their own
can continually deliver unabated profit. I know I can't and I have gone to great lengths to understand why; I've
looked at types of race; mind and mood swings, freshness and fatigue, time taken to analyse even bio-rhythms;
I know that there are days when the whole form analysis is "a complete fog" and others when big priced horses;
literally "jump off the page"; so by having 6 of us, we can pick those "in form and confident" we can give breaks
for holidays, allow specialities to emerge and generally seek the best options on any given day.
The over-riding ethos is value and quality over quantity with "full explanations" and a passion for delivering
good customer service and profit. It has served us very well so far, we have always been "under the radar"
do little or no marketing and advertising and have relied on results recorded to SP and based on ROI to
build a loyal and moderately sized bank of clients, many of whom, feel like and treat us as friends.
So; I would say we are a small "tipping service" as opposed to a "portal" and definitely NOT a "factory".
Do you have any Bookmaker Affinity deals and if not why not?
This is one subject about which I have a very strong and passionate view.
We have NO Affinity deals at all and have not had any for 5 years and will never have any in the future with Bookmakers.
I did do a small one very early on with RaceBets, frankly, I did not have a clue how it worked and was shocked when I found out.
For those that may not be aware, Tipster has a deal with Bookie; Tipster encourages people to sign up via a link for FREE BETS
or enhanced Offer, every time Customer then bets with that Bookie, Tipster gets a cut of losing bets (around 25-33% of stakes).
That applies "for ever" so Tipster may tip 99% losers, client quickly leaves BUT for as long as person uses that Bookmaker
Tipster gets his/her cut of losing bet commission. It is in my humble opinion a moral and ethical outrage, thankfully; finally being
It is my honest opinion that anyone purporting to sell and market tips should (a) explain affinity deals up front (b) make
all of their income from subscriptions only and therefore have a model based on success and (c) independently proof
every tip in advance to a reputable proofing website. That final point is very important as some of the very worst offenders
at "affiliation" are also ripping people off in other ways by setting up "proofing sites" of their own; they will only proof
tipsters, from whom they can "take an affiliation cut and market" and in many cases, what you see proofed and what
they send out, are markedly different, which is gain misleading the punter/client. For that reason we use Racing Index;
as I know 100% that everything has to be proofed in advance and nothing can be "after-timed" e.g changed after the race
How do you make your selections?
The starting point for us is "race profiling"; finding the types of races and field sizes that we like to attack;
the majority will be big field Handicaps but there are other niches we attack, as an example Novice Hurdles
and Novice Chases in the winter, where we will look for some very specific types of Point 2 Point Form.
There are days when you can have 40-50 races; so we will narrow that down to an interim list of 6-7 and look
at those races closely before doing a more detailed and analytical view of 3-4 races where the aim will be to
cross reference the form / collateral form and historic form of each runner in the race.
Although they changed their format to a disastrous Beta version in March 2017 we still prefer to look most at
the full historic form analysis and detail in the Racing Post, we have found an old link to the "Breeding Version"
of the website that uses the old tried and trusted format; so we use that to profile the races, and then click
through to the current Ultimate Online Version. To analyse a race of 20 runners will take between 90-120
minutes and see a lot of notes and paper all over the floor.
We have looked at and tried some of the more modern offerings, but keep coming back to the brilliant form
data of The Racing Post; that is not to decry any more modern offerings, but we feel comfortable with what
we know best and out old fashioned (to some) analytical approach allows us to spot often very hidden
form-lines/trends that can go back 2;3;4 seasons, and which some more abridged versions, may not show.
We do consider things like speed rating; time rating; form rating but reading and viewing previous
races and studying the weather; the Going and any draw or right/left handed bias, is fundamental
to what we do. The one big "no no" for me personally is sectional timing, purely because almost
every track in the UK is unique, undulations; hollows etc, rarely 2 meetings are run at advertised
distances due to rail movements and horses, are not F1 cars or machines, and like us humans
have off days, I can't think of anything more boring than listening to Cunningham and Willoughby
rant on about the stride length and speed in a 100 yard section of a race, my own personal view
of course; some love that kind of stuff, I don't; but then again, I'm not trying to flog the product
We also keep extensive "Trackers" on every horse we have ever tipped or strongly considered.
My logic is that is you fancy a horse in specific circumstances and it does not win, there is
no doubt that if your logic is correct it can win given the same criteria in the future and again
my analytical head says if you back a horse 5 times at 10/1 and it wins once and places
one you have made a very nice NET profit!
What are your targets in terms of what is a success and what is not profit wise?
I think transparency is key and the best measure is "Return On Investment" meaning net profit after stakes are deducted.
We record/report too to SP, that I believe is the most transparent way, it is also a pragmatic view as there is no ambiguity.
If someone joins us and says "are your figures accurate" or "did you really get that 25/1 winner you claim" I don't have
to go searching "odds tables" or "best prices"; I simply click on Racing Post for that day, it can be years ago and say;
there is the horse; there is the SP and cross reference it with the proofing on Racing Index. We do "advise prices" but
that is purely to point the client to the best available price when we mail out; and any enhancements being offered and
when we name "Bookies" that is because we are getting the best price and not taking any affiliation cut.
So on that basis I work on the view that any tipster who can consistently achieve 20% ROI over a sustained period
to SP; is doing a very good job and IF clients have "got on" at advised prices the ROI is considerably better than that
and I hope that you have already seen that our advised prices when advised are honest and generally available.
In simple terms therefore, if we were to have 3 tips per day, at £10 a pop; that's 90 tips a month; £900 spent;
I would be looking for a net profit to SP after stakes deducted, commission paid (if Betfair) and also crucially
your subscription fees also deducted; or around £200 - or an ROI ball park of 20%.
We do have some clients who bet pence and a few pounds; I do have a few clients who are "syndicated investors"
with a betting turn over in excess of £3,000,000 per annum, all are equally important to me and clients and
individuals as £1 to one man or woman is as precious as £10;000 to the next; but I do see that the point of
what we do as a sustained and sensible "second income" and I think I view the ethos as being seeking an
"investment opportunity" with a disciplined approach; rather than just a few bets and tips "just for fun". It can
be fun, it should be fun and we can and should have banter, but the discipline and hard work involved should;
be seen hopefully more as a long term investment opportunity; rather that a get rich quick scheme.
