Dave’s Big Tips is a reasonably new horse racing tipster service which is offered through the Bet Kudos arm of the Betfan group. Selections come courtesy of the eponymous “Dave”.
What does the product offer?
The sales material for Dave’s Big Tips makes out that this is a service with big profits and very little work involved. Whilst I chalk a lot of this up to the marketing methods that Bet Kudos and the Betfan group have always employed (although they seem to be engaging in this fashion less and less), the fact remains that I am not entirely sold on Dave’s Big Tips. It is a shame that the sales material takes this approach however.
Compared to the bulk of the copy, the headline for Dave’s Big Tips is actually rather down played. It simply states “Don’t Miss Today’s BIG Tips!”. A short list of winners going as high as 20/1 are displayed immediately under this providing some justification for the claim. Despite there being some promise to Dave’s Big Tips, I remain cynical however and on that note, I want to get into some of the details.
As a service Dave’s Big Tips is very straightforward. It s a daily horse racing tipster service which issues selections directly via email, as well as uploading them to a member’s area on the Bet Kudos website. These will typically be made available “well before the event” in order to allow subscribers to get the best possible price on their odds. This is something that is actually massively important to making Dave’s Big Tips profitable.
In terms of the odds, I have already touched upon the fact that Dave prefers to back horses which he feels has value. What this means in real terms is almost never betting on a horse that has odds below 5.0. Whilst the odds may not be low, the volume of bets definitely is. Most days will produce just one or two bets with the busiest days rarely topping 5 bets, the majority of which are straight wins (with the odd double thrown into the mix).
In keeping with the numbers aspect of Dave’s Big Tips, there are two main considerations at this point as far as I am concerned. These are the staking plan and the strike rate. The staking plan for Dave’s Big Tips is a rather typical Betfan affair. This means that you will be placing level stakes on your bets, however it is recommended that you use 5 point stakes for all bets.
Finally there is the strike rate. Dave’s Big Tips is a value based service and as such, it is reasonable to expect the strike rate to be low. What is much less reasonable is the 13.95% that has been averaged since the service started proofing. Whilst I wasn’t expecting huge numbers, this is one of the lowest strike rates that I have seen on a profitable service for some time.
How does the product work?
As I have mentioned a number of times now, at its core Dave’s Big Tips is all about value. This means finding horses that Dave feels have been overlooked by the bookies. This information then goes through an analysis process which looks at things like course form, the trainer and jockey as well as the sire of the horse. This is pretty far from reassuring however I do prefer some information to none.
What is the initial investment?
Bet Kudos are not in the habit of offering cheap products and Dave’s Big Tips is no different really. What I wasn’t quite prepared for however is the rather steep cost of £55 every 28 days. This rate is somewhat better value if you sign up for 90 days however this does still mean an investment of £110.
On top of this, there is no real money back guarantee which is provided with Dave’s Big Tips. We are told that it is not Betfan’s policy to offer refunds on their products however they do say that they will review any refund requests and if they believe there to be merit, this will be offered.
What is the rate of return?
Since launching Dave’s Big Tips peaked at 726 points of profit however I should point out that since then, it has become much lower. In fact, the last update for Dave’s Big Tips demonstrated a points profit of 650 overall. This represents an ROI which is actually very respectable at 34.87%. It is hard to ignore that there has been an overall downward trend however.
Conclusion
As far as I am concerned there are a few key problems with Dave’s Big Tips. The first is the pricing. At £55 per month, I would expect a hell of a lot from a service. Whilst it could be argued that this has been delivered in the grander scheme of things, I am much less convinced in terms of the “here and now”. Over the last 2 months, Dave’s Big Tips has ultimately lost money and this does include losing almost 100 points in just a week. These simply aren’t profits that scream premium service.
I also have some issue with the strike rate. Whilst I am more than happy to accept that a high strike rate is not necessarily entirely detrimental to a tipster service being profitable, there is some overlap between the two figures and this isn’t coincidence. This conflict does make judging Dave’s Big Tips a little difficult and as such, I am simply left to question the value for money of Dave’s Big Tips.
The first thing to consider is the cost. £55 per month is a lot to ask for any tipster service however if I were going to consider paying it, I would want something that delivers more than Dave’s Big Tips does. Unfortunately, the service is in line with other Bet Kudos and Betfan products in so much as the results are also inflated by the staking plan. This means that whilst you can possibly understand the cost for 650 points, you actually have attained closer to 130 this year. This is a massive difference.
One of the few things that Dave’s Big Tips does have going for it is the ROI which is somehow surprisingly strong. I am not however convinced that I could be persuaded to pay what Bet Kudos are asking for the service solely on the back of this number. This is a shame as there are some elements of Dave’s Big Tips work reasonably well.
