BetHawk is a piece of software developed by Ace Bots that allows user to select betting systems to use on the Betfair betting exchange after which it will automatically bet for them.
What does the product offer?
Technically BetHawk is two pieces of software, each of which carry out a different part of the same job. According to Ace Bots, BetHawk is made up of various different “micro” systems, each of which essentially entails its own betting system. These are made up of a combination of win bets and lay bets with the former making up the lion’s share. The first part of BetHawkis what allows you to set the parameters for the software including which of the systems that you would like to use and how much you would like to place per bet (Ace Bots have chosen to use a rather odd credit based system for BetHawk that I will look at below). Once you have configured BetHawk to trade based on your chosen systems, you simply run the main piece of software which will automatically start betting on Betfair for you.
How does the product work?
At the time of writing BetHawk is made up of 10 different systems, each of which has hugely varied performance. The main selling point seems to be that you are able to develop a complete betting portfolio that is entirely automated and all in one place.
As mentioned above, BetHawk does use a credit based system which restricts what you can bet through the software unless you purchase more credits. Each stake of £2 in a system equates to 1 credit. This means that you could stake £10 in one system or £2 in 5 systems and still use the same number of credits.
What is the initial investment?
Because of this credits based approach, BetHawk has a rather convoluted pricing plan. The software that places bets on Betfair (which is a requirement to use any of the systems) sells at a flat rate of £39 per month which comes with 10 credits. Additional credits are charged at £4 per month with discounts for buying in bulk. Even if you opt for the unlimited credits option (at an additional cost of £81 per month) your stakes will be limited to £50 on each system to preserve liquidity.
What is the rate of return?
This depends on which of the systems that you are ultimately using. At its most profitable BetHawk would have made around 979 points of profit over the last 12 months which is based off backing all profitable systems.
Conclusion
I have very mixed feelings about BetHawk. There is some potential for some pretty substantial income to be made however this does come with a pretty large downside, namely the costs. For example, to get the maximum profits from BetHawk you would have had to have placed 7,331 bets which at £10 stakes is a lot of money, especially given that some of these systems frequently lose money before bumping back into profit.
Finally, to provide context to bet to £10 stakes, BetHawk would cost you £120 per month (using the unlimited extra credits option).
