Bet Focus is a horse racing betting bot that comes courtesy of the team at Exponential Bet. It is designed to automate the betting process and produce decent looking profits.
Introduction to Bet Focus
Making money through betting is often seen as an easy way out for a lot of people. In terms of most people that I know that use it as a second (or even primary) source of income, that isn’t the case though. The truth is that betting can be hard. It can be emotionally draining when you hit a losing streak. Placing “a few bets” each day sounds easy, but legitimate systems that I have looked at take a lot more than a few bets to work out. As such, having an opportunity to automate everything will always be appealing.
This brings me to Bet Focus. This is an interesting product that comes with a hell of a lot of potential. Especially if it can deliver in the way that Exponential Bet suggest that it can. The idea of hands off betting that simply produces profit in the background is the dream for a lot of bettors. Furthermore, this is something that works entirely through betting exchanges. This is a massive bonus for those who perhaps need to protect bookmaker accounts.
Original Link: https://www.exponentialbet.co.uk/bet-focus (read review first!)
Whilst there is a great call for the excitement of the premise of Bet Focus, there remains something that is substantially more important. This is actually delivering on the promise that is shown. And there is unfortunately good reason to believe that Exponential Bet might not be able to do that. There have been a lot of ups and downs here. All of which begs the very important question of whether or not this is something worth considering? Let’s break it down and have a look.
What Does Bet Focus Offer?
The offering for Bet Focus is quite the thing. There are a massive number of moving parts that come together in order to make this a workable service. This makes it rather a difficult thing to write about. Mostly because I don’t really know where I’m supposed to start if I’m honest. Arguably the best place might be Exponential Bet’s own description.
They describe Bet Focus as “A fully automated betting system that places bets direct to your Betfair account”. This I think paints a very broad idea of what it is that you are getting into. But there is actually a huge amount of detail that goes into it.
First and foremost, I think that I want to explore the software that Exponential Bet are using. Because whilst the strategy is undeniably important, it doesn’t count for much if it is built on shaky foundations. Honestly, this side of things is all incredibly impressive and I think that Bet Focus has about as good a starting point as you could want.
The software itself is called Cloud Bet Bot. Created by licensed Betfair developer Nigel Dove, it will automatically place bets for you through the exchange. Where it stands out though is the fact that it doesn’t require you to run said software. As the name implies, this is cloud based and as such, you don’t really have to do a massive amount with it.
Adding to this, you can also use Bet Focus on pretty much any device. As well as the obvious examples of PC and Mac, this also includes tablets and smartphones running both Android and iOS. This is a massive selling point for Exponential Bet and opens a lot of doors.
In my experience, betting software for the exchanges can be a wildly varied thing in terms of what you get and how much you have to do. As such, it is welcome that Bet Focus is ultimately a pretty simple experience for anybody who is vaguely tech savvy.
Now, let’s talk about the strategy a little. Bet Focus is based around betting on horse racing. Specifically, it involves placing multiple back bets in certain races. All of this happens without any input from you with bets being placed at the top to middle of a race market. There are however a few different ways of implementing all of this.
What it means in real terms is that on a qualifying race, you will be placing anywhere from 2 bets to 5 bets. Whilst this definitely sounds like a huge volume of bets, Bet Focus is ultimately quite moderate. Over almost two years, there have been close to 4,800 bets placed over 1,400 races. A quite low average I the grand scheme of things.
There are effectively two different ways that you can approach Bet Focus. The first is targeting a profit exchange. This effectively means that you are looking to take home a targeted profit (as the name implies really). For my money, this is a much more conservative approach to betting and this is reflected in the results.
The other approach with Bet Focus is what Exponential Bet refer to as “Exchange Straight” staking. This is a much more typical approach to betting and means putting substantially more money into the service. This of course has an impact on all of the results with both wins and losses inflated substantially.
In either case, I think that a quite substantial betting bank is going to be required here. The sheer weight of numbers means that you always need to have a decent amount in your Betfair account in order to ensure that you can place the bets. Furthermore, you also have to consider the drawdown that you might face.
Depending on the plan that you are following, this can be very significant. Exponential Bet say that the biggest drawdown for Bet Focus is over 200 points. Over the last 3 months alone, there have been losses of over 50 points. Historic periods of time show that there have been losses amounting to 130 points. All of these numbers really add up to a lot.
For what it’s worth, if I were going to follow Bet Focus, because of the nature of the service and the automated betting, I would want a lot. Personally, I’d want a minimum of 300 points for this to be viable, but conservatively, I think you could be looking at double this quite easily.
Interestingly, these numbers seem quite at odds with the strike rate. Whilst this stands at 32.82%, it is worth keeping in mind the fact that there are multiple bets placed on each race. Obviously when this is working, it can work very well. But like many elements of Bet Focus from what I’ve seen, one extreme is always counterbalanced by another.
How Does Bet Focus Work?
When it comes to talking about how Bet Focus “works”, there are a few considerations. The first and most obvious thing is the fact that this is an automated piece of software. You can simply connect the strategy with Cloud Bet Bot, connect that with your Betfair account, and as long as you have money in there, it will continue to bet away for you. Hopefully turning a profit, but that is only a part of it.
The other element is what the strategy does. Something that Exponential Bet are a bit tight lipped about. What I can say with Bet Focus though, it seems to me like ultimately, this is a service that is based around the concept of finding value. Exponential Bet say that the service aims for higher odds horses. Something reflected in the fact that when you do hit a winner, you can see some substantial profits. A fact reflected further when you look at the breakdown in terms of the results.
On top of that, there is the clearly selective approach to which races that are bet on. Typically, Exponential Bet say that Bet Focus will look at horses that have “better than average connections and top jockeys”. This doesn’t sound like much, and in the grand scheme of things, it could be argued that it isn’t much. But it gives you a solid idea of where everything is coming from.
Unfortunately, that is about all that you get. I’d have liked to have seen more in terms of how Bet Focus works. Especially given the results (a topic I will be coming to shortly), but que sera. What is worth noting is that whilst the strategy is all automated, it is likely that your milage will vary slightly because of nuances in Betfair’s markets. Finally, there are results provided, but it definitely isn’t any sort of comprehensive proofing.
What is the Initial Investment?
In some respects, Bet Focus isn’t exactly pricey. What Exponential Bet are asking is roughly in line with what I’d want to pay for a tipster service. Factor in the automation and you do get a lot for your money on paper. As well as this, there are a huge number of options available too which differ massively in terms of the outlay and value.
The cheapest option that Exponential Bet offer for Bet Focus is a monthly plan. This is priced at £29.99 per month. There are quite substantial savings going for a quarterly plan with a price of £62.98. A 30% saving on the monthly costs.
If you are looking for marginally better value, you can sign up for a 6 monthly plan. This is priced at £116.96 and means a saving of 35% compared to the monthly costs. The best value offering for Bet Focus is the one that Exponential Bet push the most. This is the yearly plan and at £215.93, it represents a saving of over 50%.
Something worth keeping in mind is that Exponential Bet don’t offer any sort of money back guarantee or refunds on Bet Focus. This means that whilst there is undoubtedly that additional value in the longer packages, you have to be committed to the service.
What is the Rate of Return?
So far I have tried to dance around the subject of results for Bet Focus with a little bit of aplomb. I is hard to ignore the bombshell however that this is a service that has lost huge amounts of money over the last year or so. Numbers that are really a massive cause for concern, despite the fact that long term, Exponential Bet show a profit of over 400 points.
So, around July last year, Bet Focus peaked at a profit of a little over 600 points. Within a few months, there had been significant losses down to around 420 points. Ultimately, the service has somewhat stagnated since then with the current result sitting at about the same place it was all the way back in Mid-October.
All of this is reflected in an ROI that currently sits at about 8.5%, and whilst that might not sound too bad, Bet Focus was at more than 13% this time last year. That is quite a drop given the fact that the overall sample size for the service is so significant.
Conclusion for Bet Focus
Sometimes, a product comes along that I desperately want to like. Bet Focus is one such product. Here’s the thing, I know that Exponential Bet are genuine and above board. I think that Ryan (the guy who runs it all) has put out some truly quality strategies. And at one point, this was undoubtedly one of them.
Whilst there are definitely questions about Bet Focus, it is hard to overlook the fact that this is a service that has had 4 separate months where more than 125 points of profit has been made. One month had 232 points. There are some massive returns. But like I mentioned earlier, this is a service that ultimately operates at both ends of the extremes.
This is all a shame because in many respects, Bet Focus ticks all the boxes that I would want to see. It is quite selective, it doesn’t bet for the sake of it, the strategy has some merit. And of course, it is rather difficult to ignore the fact that the because of the software you can sit back and reap the rewards.
When it comes to betting though, something I often say is that the bottom line is the bottom line. If you aren’t making money, it isn’t worth your time. And whilst Exponential Bet may well argue that Bet Focus has made money in the long term, it hasn’t for almost a year. There is always room for acknowledging form and how that can change, a year isn’t really form at this point.
On top of those losses that you would face, you also have to factor in the subscription costs. Whilst Bet Focus isn’t too expensive in the grand scheme of things, it’s just more money that you’re haemorrhaging. And with a 200 point loss, even the best value options mean a lot.
Probably not surprisingly, I wouldn’t look to recommend Bet Focus. Exponential Bet put out some decent enough products. At some point, this was one of them. But the fact of the matter is this. Here and now, this isn’t a service that is performing. There is little overlooking that. And given the fact that it hasn’t been performing for so long, perhaps the strategy has run its course.
