Big Win Barry Review

Big Win Barry is a new to market horse racing tipster service which is operated by the eponymous Barry Thomas. He claims that his service is able to produce some very substantial winning bets.

Introduction to Big Win Barry

Were I setting out to create a tipster service, there are a number of specific considerations that I would make. Arguably, many of these would be driven by the time I have spent reviewing services, because God knows, I understand too many frustrations far too well. But an interesting question that I think has to be answered is when do you launch a service? I’ve known plenty of tipster stables launch a tipster after a single good run, others will take time to develop and test out a system to its fullest. And then there are subjects like today’s review…

 I will definitely be circling back to this, but Barry Thomas seems to suggest that he has launched Big Win Barry off the back of just a few months. And given the nature of the service (not to mention a whole host of other points), this is all a bit concerning. Of course, we are all here because we’re bettors. Sure, we may all like to take on different levels of risk, but at the end of the day, a punt can be worth a go under the right circumstances.

And the right circumstances in the case of Big Win Barry stems from the fact that there are supposedly some very big profits on the table. Are they necessarily achievable? Well, that is a different question. But the fact is that based off what Barry Thomas has to say about his process and the results so far, you only really need one win with this, and you’re well and truly in there. So, let’s get straight into it and see whether or not this can actually deliver on this apparent promise.  

What Does Big Win Barry Offer?

One of the things that immediately stands out to me about Big Win Barry is that whilst Barry Thomas does make the claim that “nothing comes close” to his betting system, this is demonstrably untrue. Because the fact of the matter is that I’ve looked at a number of tipster services that aren’t dissimilar to what is going on here.

Now, before I talk about the bets themselves, let’s start by looking at the logistical elements. Because these are quite interesting in so much as there is a rather conspicuous lack of insight (a recurring theme). First things first, what really stands out to me is that Big Win Barry is not a daily service. In theory, that is no bad thing. It helps to mitigate the volume of bets, and because Barry Thomas bets Monday through Friday, it means that you get weekends off.

As you would expect from any modern tipster service, the selections are sent out directly via email. These normally arrive on the morning of racing which does give you some time to get the bets placed, but honestly, it is a long way from ideal. If you work a 9-5, you will probably struggle with Big Win Barry. It also doesn’t really give you a long time if you’re looking to get the best possible odds.

This is something that I would definitely recommend. Barry Thomas says that he simply places all of his bets through Betfair (sportsbook), something that is about as close to advice on odds that you get (something that is frustrating in its absence). Realistically, if I were following Big Win Barry I’d definitely be aiming to do.

Because despite claims to the contrary, the nature of the service means that you won’t be winning often. As such, it is important to maximise any wins you do have. And the best way to do this, as I often find myself saying, using an odds comparison site is probably your best starting point.

With all of that out of the way, let’s talk about those bets. Because Big Win Barry is a service that exclusively involves betting on Yankee bets. For those of you who may not be familiar with this, it is a somewhat exotic accumulator which brings together a number of smaller accas.

Effectively, you are placing six doubles, four trebles, and a four fold accumulator. All of this is very important to the core premise of what Barry Thomas is doing here (but I will come to this a little later on), but of course, it does mean that you need multiple horses to win in order to see any kind of return.

Naturally, this kind of bet comes with some simply massive odds if everything lands. For example, one of the claimed previous bets for Big Win Barry returned 308 times the initial stake. But that is roughly what you’d expect for so many accas coming in. What is interesting though (and where that odds comparison is important) is that Barry Thomas tends to favour somewhat lower odds. On individual horses, you don’t tend to see much more than about 3/1.  

Now, a little earlier I mentioned the volume of bets. This is something that I never quite know how to judge with services that are akin to Barry Thomas’s. Do you say that you are placing one bet per day, or eleven? Ultimately, I feel like the defining thing here is what kinds of stakes are recommended.  

According to the very limited evidence that is provided, it seems that level stakes of £11 per bet are advised with Big Win Barry. In the sales material, this is explicitly referred to as “£1 stakes”. Equally, you can also calculate this as £11 realistically being a 1 point stake since you will be placing this amount every single day.. You should keep in mind however that there is no insight into what kind of betting bank is required.

Finally, there is the strike rate. Now, there is a bit of an insinuation that you will win somewhat regularly. For example, we are shown 4 winning bets in about 2 weeks. That suggests a strike rate of some 40%. Elsewhere, we see 6 in 20 bets wining which would imply some 30% as a strike rate. But honestly, I’m not sold on either of those numbers.

How Does Big Win Barry Work?

There are two distinctive but equally important elements when you talk about how Big Win Barry “works”. First things first, there are the bets themselves. This is arguably the more straight forward element. Effectively, Barry Thomas’s rationale is that you don’t need all of the bets to come in on a Yankee to take home a profit, or in fact, to win pretty big. This means that theoretically, just one full Yankee win can set you in good stead for the rest of the year.

The other element is the system itself, and this is where Big Win Barry definitely starts to fall down in a big way in my eyes. You see, Barry Thomas talks about his system to… Well, I’ll be generous and say “some degree”. What this actually entails boils down to a claim that he followed a number of tipsters that lost him money. Eventually, he started focusing in on the wones that were making a profit and using this to create a selection criteria.

As if this isn’t vague enough, we are then told that that Barry Thomas only bets on “quality runners with a very good chance of winning”. This is definitely something that I like to hear, but by the same token, wouldn’t you expect every tipster to be doing this? Furthermore, and I cannot stress this enough, it doesn’t actually tell us anything about the selection process.

It isn’t even like we get any proofing with Big Win Barry that we can look at to get an idea of what to expect. The evidence provided is incredibly limited and in my opinion, simply doesn’t count for a whole lot. At best, you are dealing with very small data sample sizes based off a “best case scenario”, at worst, the results are potentially falsified.  

What is the Initial Investment?

If you want to sign up to Big Win Barry then there are two different options available. The first of these is a 2 month trial for which Barry Thomas is asking £38 plus VAT. Seemingly representing much better value for money is the 6 month trial which is priced at £60 plus VAT. What is interesting and noteworthy about both of these options is that whilst they are referred to as trials, there is no full pricing scheme beyond this.

Also worth noting is the fact that Barry Thomas is selling Big Win Barry through the Clickbank. This means that there is a full 30 day money back guarantee in place too. This is mentioned in the sales material for the service, however, it isn’t particularly prominent. Something that I don’t believe to be a coincidence.  

What is the Rate of Return?

Now we come to the real reason that you’d be interested in Big Win Barry. The profit potential. Because Barry Thomas claims that last month, he made £6,097.84. That is a bloody big number given that you’re betting just £11 per day (or £1 stakes as they’re referred to). All of this is backed up only by that aforementioned evidence. What is really noteworthy in my opinion though is the fact that bets don’t seem to have actually been updated since the service launched.

Conclusion for Big Win Barry

It is easy to see what the appeal of Big Win Barry is. There is seemingly a lot of money on the table, and in theory, there isn’t a lot of risk. Let’s be blindly optimistic for a second. If Barry Thomas has actually made £6,100 already, that covers him for a future 554 days of betting before he’s back to “even”. Which only further highlights the potential of those high returns.

Furthermore, this puts the idea into your head that you only need a few wins to cover your betting for a few years. But all of this is reliant on Barry Thomas actually being able to deliver the results that he claims, and this is where I start to get very sceptical for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, I have to come back to that lack of evidence. I know that I keep bringing it up, but simply bringing out a bunch of (highly questionable) betting slips without context doesn’t actually tell you anything about how the bets have won. Even if you fully believe that the bets are genuine, how many other bets have been placed to see these numbers of winners?

Now I can appreciate to the less cynical of you, this might sound like baseless questioning, but let’s return to the fact that there is a lack of a selection process. At the end of the day, I don’t believe that Barry Thomas does a single thing to demonstrate that he has either an understanding of horse racing, or a legitimate system for identifying winners for Big Win Barry. If he did, we’d likely have seen it, rather than simply talking about picking horses that have a chance of winning.

The other thing that  concerns me is slightly more subtle, but it is mostly because I’ve seen this kind of issue many times before. I said that it doesn’t strike me as a coincidence that Barry Thomas’s minimum subscription length is 2 months whilst the money back guarantee is just 30 days. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of people buy a service with the intention of claiming a refund if it fails, only to be cajoled into “sticking it out”. Once that refund period has passed, the services are then quietly closed down and tips stop being sent.

This is something that is particularly easy to do with Big Win Barry because the nature of the service means that big wins simply aren’t going to be a common thing. Whilst Barry Thomas shows 6 full Yankee’s landing in a period of 2 months, I can tell you from looking at other similar services that are genuine that this is very anomalous. Keeping that in mind, it is very easy to explain away long losing streaks and promising that there are big wins around the corner.

Look, I acknowledge that I could be wrong here. I am speculating a little bit here based off previous experience (that I have admittedly seen played out hundreds of times). Barry Thomas could be genuine, and he could be above board. If you’re less cynical than I, you may even want to give Big Win Barry a punt for £40, but if you do, always keep that 30 day refund period in mind.

Realistically though, my best advice with Big Win Barry would simply be to avoid it. For my money, there isn’t really a shred of tangible evidence that Barry Thomas is able to deliver on the claims that he makes. Meanwhile, there is a lot of basic information that is missing that genuine tipsters will happily provide, which I think is rather telling.

The fact of the matter is that I have seen so many services come out with the same energy. Meanwhile, I can count on one hand the number of them that are still around (and even that is because they are lazily relaunched once a year). Does that mean Big Win Barry is guaranteed to go the same way, not necessarily. But personally, it isn’t a level of risk that I’d bother taking on.

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