Bets2profit is a somewhat new horse racing tipster service which is operated by William “Bill” Edmonds. The aim of the service is to generate long term profits by combining different bets.
Introduction to bets2profit
By Bill Edmonds’s own admission, he has followed a number of different tipster services before now, only to ultimately fail to lose money. This is an interesting point to acknowledge for reasons that I want to explore a little later on in this review.
Having previously lost money, he says that he has been following his own selections and doing rather well off it, and so, bets2profit came into existence. Now, this is one of those products that is a bit of a double whammy, because Bill Edmonds is effectively offering two different services with bets2profit.
The first of these is a rather typical backing service, however you also get access to bets2profit Lays, which, as the name suggests, is a lay betting service. In theory, this could be a potent combination. But does it really deliver?
What Does bets2profit Offer?
As I have mentioned, bets2profit is effectively two different services. Whilst you are getting both backing bets and laying bets for one subscription fee, each has its own betting bank and results. There are also some disparities in terms of receiving bets etc. This is all down to the fact that Bill Edmonds is actually Canadian, and as such, he is in a very different time zone.
This means that selections can land anywhere from 7.30pm to as late as 11pm on the win bets. The lay bets that are issued through bets2profit are sent out even later, which can mean that you won’t receive them until the morning, unless you are a hardcore night owl.
As you would expect, selections are sent directly to subscribers via email, however it does show that Bill Edmonds is running bets2profit as a one man operation sometimes.
Moving away from the logistics and on to the betting itself, bets2profit is a bit of a varied affair. In terms of the backing bets side of things, you will predominantly be dealing with straight win bets. Bill Edmonds does however advise some bets as each way as well, typically when there are longer odds.
As well as this, you have lay bets which are advised to be placed through Betfair (although there isn’t any reason that this shouldn’t work through other betting exchanges). The back bets can go as high as double digits on the odds, whilst bets2profit Lays exclusively deals with horses where the BSP is between 2.00 and 4.00.
Finally, I want to touch on the volume of bets as Bill Edmonds does say that some days can see as many as 8 selections advised on a give day. This higher number is not particularly commonplace though.
I want to touch on the staking plan that is in place for bets2profit, not because it is particularly in depth. In fact, it isn’t, but to highlight the importance of separating your two bet types if you follow Bill Edmonds’s selections.
Now, all bets are advised to be backed to level stakes of just 1 point. This is irrespective of whether it is a win or a lay bet. This ultimately means that your potential liability (when combined with those laying odds) is typically pretty manageable.
Bill Edmonds advises that you will need a 100 point betting bank in order to follow the win advice, whilst the lay bets require their own separate 50 point betting bank (ultimately, you should be staking twice as much in terms of pounds and pence on a lay bet).
Finally, I want to touch on the strike rate. This is one element of bets2profit that Bill Edmonds doesn’t really talks about, however, given the focus on longer term profits I think that it is actually quite an important thing.
In terms of the back bets, of 444 selections that have been proofed (at the time of writing), 350 of them have lost. This makes for just 94 winners and a strike rate of some 21%. Bets2profit Lays has a strike rate of 66.67% according to Racing Index’s proofing which doesn’t sound great for a lay betting service. Given the odds that you are laying at though, I don’t think that this is terrible.
How Does bets2profit Work?
Bill Edmonds has been betting on horses since the 80’s according to the sales page for bets2profit. From there, we are told that he has been “constantly reading books on form and probability” as well as testing out and modifying his selections on various forums until they were profitable.
So far, this is pretty standard fare. Where bets2profit really becomes interesting to me is that Bill Edmonds says that he uses his own method of filters as well as his own ratings. Unfortunately, this is about as detailed as it gets.
Outside of this, one of the big elements of bets2profit as a service is that focus on long term profits. I have brought this up before now, but the whole system seems to be geared towards that. If you look at the long term results, they are a little bit up and down, however the long term trend is undeniably upwards. This does mean however that bets2profit will require you to endure losing runs whilst waiting for the more profitable periods.
What is the Initial Investment?
Bill Edmonds has made three different options available if you want to sign up to bets2profit and honestly, they are all incredibly fairly priced. If you want to sign up on a monthly subscription, it will cost you just £14.95 per month. Alternatively, there is substantially better value to be had in signing up for three months at a cost of £29.95, and finally, representing the best value is an annual subscription. This is priced at just £67 for the whole year.
It is worth noting that payment for this is handled directly via Paypal and that with no mention of any money back guarantee, refunds will be unlikely with bets2profit.
What is the Rate of Return?
Since March of this year, bets2profit has made an overall profit of 103.85 points on backing bets. In terms of the lay betting, Bill Edmonds doesn’t personally proof and the results that are published on the Racing Index include a number of bets that shouldn’t be backed. What I can say is that from what I have seen, there is a decent potential for a modest and consistent profit through these lay bets, and I see little reason to believe that this isn’t maintainable.
Conclusion on the bets2profit Service
Coming into bets2profit, I can say that I actually like what Bill Edmonds is trying to do here. Genuinely independent tipsters are something of a rarity these days. With so many tipster stables and highly questionable marketers claiming to be tipsters on the market, it just makes sense. But that doesn’t mean that independent tipsters don’t have a place, and I think that whilst it is relatively early days, bets2profit looks like it could well demonstrate that.
By Bill Edmonds’s own admission, this isn’t going to be a guaranteed money spinner, and he actively acknowledges that sometimes, you will lose money. I always find this to be refreshing compared to a vague footnote that effectively says, “we might not win all the time, but 8 out of 10 times we will”. The fact of the matter is that no matter how disciplined your approach, betting comes with no guarantees.
With that out of the way, I do think that there is a lot going for bets2profit. The results to date are actually quite strong, and whilst there have been clear ups and downs, there is a definite trend. I will admit that the proofing for lay betting is a bit messy and that does make it harder to get a complete view of what to expect from that element, but if a tipster can make money backing horses to win, there is no reason that they can’t reverse engineer that and make money laying horses to lose.
What really sets this alight though for me is the value for money that is on display. Going back to my comment about tipster stables, there is a very clear pricing structure that exists within them and very rarely will you see a service available for less than £30.
Bill Edmonds smashes that in half and still offers comparable results. Are those results sustainable? I don’t really know. Honestly, it is quite early days for bets2profit yet and so there aren’t huge samples of data, but at £15 per month, you can bet relatively small and still do alright out of it. There is definitely value to be had here.
So, would I recommend bets2profit?
The short answer to that is, probably, yes. For £15 you are getting access to backing and laying selections, and they have produced a relatively steady profit. Bill Edmonds is very upfront about everything so I don’t think that you can really say that you don’t know what to expect, but if the historic results are anything to go by, you shouldn’t have to worry too much.
Of course, as Bill Edmonds also says, this is a tipster service and there is the potential for things to go wrong. But if you are starting out, and what to minimise your losses when this does inevitably happen, you don’t have to worry about shelling out a fortune on top of what you have staked. That makes bets2profit affordable, and profitable, and you can’t ask for much more than that.
