Early Bird Racing Club is a long standing horse racing tipster service which is being offered through the BetHub tipster group. Selections come courtesy of tipster Richard.
Introduction to Early Bird Racing Club
I’ve said here before now that I don’t believe that there is really a “right” way to go about making money through betting. Sometimes, backing long shot bets like Lucky 15’s can produce a very strong profit. With that said, aiming to back favourites with a view to winning small amounts frequently can also yield profits.
And then you get things like Early Bird Racing Club which sit somewhere in the middle. This is a tipster service that really seems to take the fullest advantage of positives of the two different approaches. And more often than not (at least in my experience), this is the sweet spot that a lot of tipsters will aim for.
So, with BetHub providing proofing that shows a whole range of odds (and results), as well as a pretty respectable profit over time, I am quite keen to see whether or not Early Bird Racing Club is really able to deliver on this initial promise. There are quite a lot of factors involved here, so I am keen to jump in and see what will work, and what won’t.
What Does Early Bird Racing Club Offer?
There are a lot of very interesting points surrounding Early Bird Racing Club. There are elements of the service that provide a lot of conflict in terms of the results, the risk, and Richard’s approach. However, if there is one thing that you can be pretty certain of, it is that BetHub’s management of the service is solid.
Whilst they aren’t necessarily the longest standing tipster stable, I have yet to come across a service that they offer that has been lacking in terms of the operational side of things. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that BetHub just do the same things as other tipster services. In fact, in Early Bird Racing Club specifically, there are a few things that stand out as strong positives.
For example, when selections are made available, as you would expect in this online age, selections are sent directly to subscribers via email. They are also uploaded to a member’s area on the BetHub website, as well as being released on a proprietary app. This means that there is little reason to miss advice from Early Bird Racing Club.
Another thing that stands out about the service is that Richard issues his selections the evening before racing (hence the name of Early Bird Racing Club). These will typically land somewhere between 9pm and midnight.
This has a two fold positive effect. First of all, it means that the service is a viable option for most people who are working 9-5 (it’s surprisingly hard convincing your boss to let you put on bets at 11am). More importantly though, as the name of Early Bird Racing Club suggests, it allows you to get the best possible value on the odds.
Now, moving on to the topic of the bets, I started by talking about the fact that Early Bird Racing Club looks at a variety of different bets in order to produce a profit. This starts when you look at the bet types with a healthy mix of each way and straight win bets. BetHub’s proofing shows a slight leaning towards the latter, but you will be dealing with both on a frequent basis.
There is also a significant range of odds involved. As you would expect, these are pretty much divided based off the bets that you are placing. Win bets will be at lower odds, starting at less than evens but also going as high as double figures on occasion. The each way bets are concerned with much higher odds going as high as 33/1.
In terms of the volume of bets, Early Bird Racing Club doesn’t usually tend to stray too far into high volume betting. With that said, on Saturdays, the number of bets that you will be placing does increase to some quite eye-watering numbers. For example, during Cheltenham, one day saw 15 bets. This is something that you especially need to factor in when you consider the staking plan.
The stakes carry a pretty considerable weight. The minimum you will be staking following Richard’s advice is 0.5 points on a win bet, however, this can get as high as 3 points on a selection. Obviously on those busier days, those stakes can really start to build up. Especially when you factor in that BetHub recommend a bank of just 100 points for Early Bird Racing Club.
Finally, I want to talk about the strike rate for the service. Given the mixed nature of Early Bird Racing Club, you would expect a number that reflects this. With BetHub’s proofing showing a strike rate of some 35%, this is roughly what I would expect. However, those results are for almost 2 years of proofing and are not necessarily reflective of more recent results.
How Does Early Bird Racing Club Work?
One of the things that isn’t discussed at all is what Richard’s approach to betting involves. And honestly, this is a little bit of a problem for me. Don’t get me wrong, it seems pretty apparent, right? And yes, you can glance at the results and get some idea, but I’m not really convinced that this is enough.
All that we are really told when it comes to the selection process is that “Richard is a truly exceptional form reader”. So, we can ascertain that Early Bird Racing Club is based around reading form, however I am not entirely convinced that this is enough information for potential subscribers to make an informed decision about the service.
Now, I will hold my hands up and say that there is some mitigation in the fact that BetHub provide a substantial amount of proofing (going back to 2018). As such, you can look at the results there and at least get an idea of what it is you are getting into.
Personally though, I would like to see a lot more in terms of understanding what you are actually getting into. The fact of the matter is that there have been some very substantial losing streaks with Early Bird Racing Club, and if a tipster is going to ask you to back them through this, they should be able to provide a good reason why this is worthwhile. As Early Bird Racing Club currently stands, this isn’t good enough.
What is the Initial Investment?
There are two different options that are available if you want to sign up to Early Bird Racing Club. These are a quarterly and a monthly subscription. There is (of course) substantially better value to be had in signing up for the longer subscription which is priced at £75 plus VAT. This also represents a significantly larger outlay.
Alternatively, BetHub offer a monthly subscription for Early Bird Racing Club which is priced at £33 per month plus VAT. Honestly, this isn’t really a bad price and comes in somewhere around the average that I would expect to pay for a tipster service.
There are two additional points that you should also factor in with Early Bird Racing Club. The first of these is that both of the options come with a 14 day free trial which should give you some idea of what to expect.
On top of this, BetHub are ultimately selling both services through Clickbank. This means that there seems to be a 60 day money back guarantee in place (something which is mentioned on the Clickbank sale processing page). With that said, this isn’t actually mentioned anywhere on the BetHub page for Early Bird Racing Club.
What is the Rate of Return?
At last, we can come to the real reason that most people consider signing up for a tipster service, which is how much money you can expect to make. BetHub’s proofing for Early Bird Racing Club goes back to the 1st of January, 2018. Since then, there has been a profit of 294.36 points. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to assume that there will be an annual average of around 150 points.
That isn’t terrible on the surface of things, however this result is based off BOG and utilises those multiple point stakes. As such, if you are going to follow Early Bird Racing Club, it is very much contingent on your being able to follow Richard’s stakes no matter what the service is currently experiencing. Furthermore, the fact that these numbers come from BOG means that your mileage may vary significantly.
If you were betting to industry starting price, you would actually be facing losses of 144.22 points at the time of writing. This represents the fact that there is a massive disparity between what you could achieve and what you will achieve.
Conclusion for Early Bird Racing Club
If you want to consider Early Bird Racing Club in any serious fashion, then you need to be very prepared to drop everything, the second that your tips land. You also need to have unrestricted accounts with BOG bookies. And I can say here and now that those are two conditions that do not necessarily lend themselves to a service that is worth consideration.
You see, I can always understand the need to get the most out of available odds. It doesn’t just stand to reason that it is a good thing, in some services, it is outright necessary. And when you have a service that is reliant on extracting the most possible value out of selections, that definitely falls into the necessary category.
But that isn’t where things end with Early Bird Racing Club. There are a few other points that you really need to consider. So, BetHub proof to BOG, and that is fair enough. I know of a number of tipster stables who do this. But coming back to a service based around the concept of value, it is also hugely important to me to understand what odds the tipster is recommending.
BetHub don’t provide that. And that is a problem. Especially because if you do have account restrictions and cannot get BOG, you need to get an idea of whether or not the odds involved are viable for you. Sure, you get that 14 day free trial, and that definitely counts for something, but it isn’t a replacement for a decent data sample in my opinion.
I mean, look at the difference between the profit to BOG and the loss to the industry start price, there is a variance of some 440 points. That is a massive range that perfectly highlights the different experience that some users may have compared to others.
And that brings me to the point that, more than any other, surrounds Early Bird Racing Club. If you are in a position to take full advantage of BOG (or drop everything when you receive selections to try and get some good odds), then this is something that may warrant consideration. It isn’t terribly priced, and the profit is pretty respectable.
If you will struggle with a single aspect of this, then you will struggle with Early Bird Racing Club full stop. And that is what really puts me off here. For a service to really be worthwhile, I don’t believe that there should be restrictions. And there are plenty of them here (even if I am quite sure that BetHub would disagree).
Furthermore, whilst Early Bird Racing Club may hold up under those perfect conditions, even then, there are other services on the market which have more longevity in so much as, they aren’t reliant on so many different factors.
So, is Early Bird Racing Club worth it? Ultimately, I don’t think that it is. There might be a small amount of profit to be had here in the short term, so long as you have no restrictions etc. But even the smallest snags can have quite far reaching implications for your profitability. And I can’t recommend a service that is that conditional.
It isn’t that it is bad. I just don’t think that it is accessible enough when compared to the wider market.
