Football Lay Bets is an independent sports betting tipster service which is operated by Robert Anthony. As the name states, it involves lay betting on football games.
What does the product offer?
The sales material for Football Lay Bets is almost deliberately vague. In fact, I would say that it has been some time since I have looked at a tipster service which goes out of its way to mention so much whilst technically, mentioning so little. At best, I would say that Robert Anthony simply offers a brief glossing over of his service and what lay betting is. This isn’t good enough, which brings me onto my next topic.
I am always very aware of headlines with products as it essentially provides a snapshot of what a tipster wants to say about their product. In the case of Football Lay Bets, it is an entirely unsubstantiated claim that it is “one of the most profitable football tipping services on the planet…”. There are also several sub-headers, each of which make claims about the income potential of the service, something that I will ignore for now as I wish to discuss it in detail below.
So what exactly are you getting with Football Lay Bets? Selections are issued on a near daily basis and are sent out directly via email (this is somehow equated with Robert Anthony being based in the UK?). These are issued the night before or early in the morning of kick off, dependent on what time that is. As well as the selections themselves, Robert Anthony provides some simple instructions about what you ned to do.
It is worth pointing out at this point that because Football Lay Bets is a lay betting service, you will require an account with a betting exchange (although rather interestingly, Robert Anthony says that “in theory” you don’t need this). As always, Betfair is the recommended option, in no small part down to the fact that there is much more fluidity in the marketplace. This doesn’t however mean that it is your only option.
Moving onto the numbers side of things,I wish to discuss the staking plan. As is the case with most lay betting services, Robert Anthony simply recommends betting flat stakes on all of his selections. Quite how much you are betting will ultimately depend on how much you can afford to bet. Using the example of a £100 minimum betting bank however, I wouldn’t personally stake more than £2 per bet on Football Lay Bets for reasons that I will explore in full shortly.
Finally, there is the strike rate. Robert Anthony claims that in 2016, this was over 90% and that in the 2017 season, this number has averaged 91.3%. These figures are arguably achievable for a lay betting service however I have to hold my hands up and say that they are still seemingly on the high side.
How does the product work?
Those who are interested in how Robert Anthony finds selections for Football Lay Bets are only going to be left disappointed. Yes, he does talk at length about how his supposed betting career has grown and unfolded over the years, however there are no claims made really outside of Robert Anthony having “superior knowledge to 99% of punters”. There is also a vague mention of form and statistics however these don’t feel like a commitment to a process but are more of an obligatory mention.
What is the initial investment?
There are 3 options available if you want to sing up for Football Lay Bets. The first of these is a monthly topiotn which is available for £19 per month. Alternatively, you can sign up to Football Lay Bets for two months at a cost of £29 meaning a £10 saving. Finally, you have the option to sign up to Football Lay Bets for the rest of the footballing season for just £44. This supposedly also represents a decent saving of £50 on the “actual value” of £94.
I also feel that it is well worth mentioning that Robert Anthony is available with a full 60 day money back guarantee is in place as it is sold through the Clickbank group. To credit Robert Anthony, he is very open about this fact.
What is the rate of return?
The rate of return for Football Lay Bets is a massive point of contention for me and is something that I wish to address in rather more detail than I usually would. First of all, I should say that Robert Anthony claims that Football Lay Bets would have made a profit of £1,588.30 to £10 stakes since August this year. This is however completely incorrect and I can demonstrate this using the proofing that is supplied for the service.
The first problem (removed as there was an oversight in the calculations of the reviewer regarding the calculation of odds)
The second issue is possibly more of a preferential thing, but I am yet to see a lay betting service which measures in any other way. Wins are all proofed before commission with Football Lay Bets. This means that instead of £9.50 being your profit from a bet, it is chalked up as £10. This might not sound like a massive difference, but over the 200 winning bets that Robert Anthony has supposedly identified, it means an additional £100 of profit.
When you combine the losses and the fact that commission is not taken into account, it means that Football Lay Bets has actually artificially boosted the profits of Football Lay Bets by £320 which means that you can comfortably take away 20% of the profits. This is not an insignificant amount of money in the grand scheme of things.
Conclusion
It is rather difficult to see a lot that I like in Football Lay Bets. In fact, I can’t think of anything that is redeeming really. I often talk about red flags when I am looking at a service and there are a hell of a lot of them on display here. First things first, there is the strong focus on how much money you can make and how easy it supposedly is. Respectable services will generally rather focus on demonstrating that they know their stuff.
Of course all of this pales into insignificance when you compare it to the way the results have been presented. As far as I am concerned, there are only 2 reasons that Robert Anthony would have done this and honestly, neither bodes well. The first is that he either doesn’t know how lay betting properly works, or alternatively, he is somehow keeping records completely differently to any other tipster. If this is the case, there should at least be some notice of this fact. The other is that there is a wilful attempt to make the numbers look better than they are. Considering this is a tipster service which is less than a month old and is registered entirely anonymously, both are possible.
Personally, I simply can’t see any reason why you would want to invest in Football Lay Bets. There are a lot of problems that I have with the service. It doesn’t even have the benefit of being particularly cheap. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of different tipster services on the market, a fair number of which involve lay betting. More importantly, you can buy into them knowing exactly what you are getting, something that I definitely can’t say for Football Lay Bets. With that in mind, I would be inclined to give Football Lay Bets a definite miss.
Hi Curtis
I haven’t tried this service and based on the things you write, I will probably deter from doing so… however, I think I need to correct you on one of your calculations, as your calculation of the loss on the Lay bets is wrong. If you lay at 3.4, you do indeed pay £34 to the winner if he backed it with £10, however his stake is still yours to hold, so you only lose the £34 – £10 = £24.
He should still record the wins after the commision, so that’s an important error on his side.
Best regards,
BetMan
Hi Betman,
Yes you are correct with that assessment. Of course with lay betting it is the liability that you lose, and you would lose £24 in total, laying a 3.4 @ £10
This has been amended on the review.
Regards
Admin