Ed Culham Tips is a horse racing tipster service which is being offered through the Tipsters Empire stable of tipsters. It provides selections with a focus on weekend racing and festivals.
Introduction to Ed Culham Tips
Most of the time when I look at betting services, there is a lot that is taken seriously. And reasonably so. If you aren’t taking your betting seriously, then there is no point following a tipster service. The fact of the matter is that if you don’t really want to commit to betting every day, then there just isn’t a lot of point paying for it. Would you pay for 2 meals at a restaurant when you only wanted one?
With that said, there is a small market that exists for tipster services that are aimed at a more… casual bettor. And Ed Culham Tips is the latest service I have looked at that joins this group. The whole focus here is on the casual. Bets are provided exclusively for the weekend and festivals. Both of which happen to be televised, making it great for a casual punter who enjoys horse racing in the same way some people may enjoy football.
Now, I have looked at products like this before. Often with quite mixed results. However, Tipsters Empire provide a lot of information here. To be completely fair, it actually looks like Ed Culham Tips may prove to be quite profitable. So, with that in mind, I am actually quite excited about this. Honestly, I’d love it to deliver. However, whether it can; is a very different story.
What Does Ed Culham Tips Offer?
In some respects, I have already discussed what Ed Culham Tips involves. As far as tipster services go this is not a complicated beast. However, to simply wrap things up by saying that it’s a weekend tipster service that would suit a casual punter does it a massive injustice. In actuality, there is a lot about this that deserves some time in the spotlight.
Now, I want to start by talking about the logistical side of things. Frankly, it should go without saying that this cannot be a typical affair. And this is something that you will see in a lot of elements related to the service. None the less, Tipsters Empire and the eponymous Ed Culham seem to know what they are doing (which I’d expect, especially given Tipsters Empire’s time as a tipster stable).
So, first things first. Unlike a lot of tipster services, Ed Culham Tips subscribers actually receive a text message when there are tips available. This includes details of each selection (so that you can easily place your bets), but there is also a link provided to a member’s area on the Tipsters Empire website.
This is one area where things start to become particularly good. Because when you log into the Ed Culham Tips member’s area, you actually receive a write up from Ed Culham describing why a selection has been made. This is something that is incredibly welcome, and I will always champion as being the “gold standard” for tipster services.
The selections are usually made available on a Friday evening before 5pm for weekend bets or the evening before festivals. This gives you a decent window of time to get the bets placed whilst also allowing you to get the best possible odds, both of which are very much positives.
In terms of the bets that are advised, you will be looking at utilising a few betting markets. By and large, you will be looking at straight win bets, as well as each way bets. There has also been one instance of a smaller accumulator in Tipsters Empire’s proofing. This suggests that Ed Culham Tips really looks to get the best possible value out of bets.
And this is something that you can also see when you look at the odds that you will be backing. Selections are advised at anywhere from 5/2 going all the way up to 66/1, and that has just been in the last month or so.
Now, the nature of Ed Culham Tips means that the volume of bets is going to be quite low. Especially if you opt to only receive the bets for the weekend. On a typical weekend, you will see up to 5 bets, however, the proofing suggests that the actual average numbers will be much lower than this.
If you are looking at festivals as well, then the numbers inevitably increases exponentially. For example, as I’m writing this, we are part way through Cheltenham. And in two days, there have been 13 bets advised. Whilst this is undoubtedly high volume, this kind of betting isn’t a frequent occurrence at all (there are 16 festivals covered over the course of the year).
Moving on from this, I want to talk a bit about some of the numbers. First of all, there is the staking plan. What Tipsters Empire recommend is incredibly sensible, which is always nice to see. By and large, you are simply backing bets to level stakes of 1 point per bet. In the case of each way bets, you are looking at 0.5 points each way. There are also the very odd bet which is advised to 2 points, however, this is very much an exception rather than the rule.
With Tipsters Empire recommending a betting bank of 150 points, there is plenty of scope here to cover any substantial draw-down. It is worth noting that it is recommended that you do compound your stakes, increasing them by 50% once your betting bank has increased by 75 points.
Finally, there is the strike rate. Ultimately, Ed Culham Tips is a pretty selective service, and I think that this should be reflected in how often you win. And at 30.99%, I think that is very much the case. However, when you factor in that the average odds are 17/2, that number is very bloody impressive.
How Does Ed Culham Tips Work?
There are a few elements to how Ed Culham Tips works, all of which make for quite positive reading. Ed Culham says that he likes to focus specifically on weekend racing as it narrows the “pool” of horses that he has to assess. This all makes a certain amount of sense and honestly, I am quite pleased to see this kind of thing being talked about.
Elsewhere, we are told that he likes to focus look at things like “How did the horse move on the ground? How did they respond to pressure? Did they receive a heavy ride? Were they perhaps being kept for another day?”. All of these are things that I would say aren’t necessarily tangible aspects.
Slightly more tangibly, we are also told by Tipsters Empire that Ed Culham Tips is built on things like form lines, horses that are showing improvements, and class droppers. Again, all of this suggests that there is a knowledgeable tipster behind all of this who understands what he is looking for and sticks to it.
Of course, in many respects, all of this is academic. Because the single most important element of the selection process is simply looking at Ed Culham’s reasoning’s that Tipsters Empire provide. This gives you full insight into why you are backing a horse, and as such, there is complete transparency on how Ed Culham Tips works.
What is the Initial Investment?
When it comes to the costing for Ed Culham Tips, things are a bit interesting. So, ultimately, Ed Culham Tips is broken down into two different services fundamentally. There are the Saturday tips, and there are festival tips. Now, these are both priced at £30 per quarter, £55 every 6 months, or alternatively you can sign up for a full year for £95.
Alternatively, you can sign up to receive selections for both Saturdays and Festivals. These are priced at £49 per quarter, £79 every 6 months, and £159 for the full year.
It is worth noting that Tipsters Empire don’t actually offer any sort of money back guarantee for Ed Culham Tips. On top of this, the costs involved are not actually recurring payments. This means that if you want to keep Ed Culham Tips on, then you need to subscribe again at the end.
What is the Rate of Return?
Since Tipsters Empire started proofing Ed Culham Tips back in July of last year, Ed Culham Tips has gone on to produce a profit of 61.65 points. Now, I know that this doesn’t sound like a huge amount, however, that simply isn’t the full picture. The fact of the matter is that this is an incredibly low volume service, and as such it isn’t too bad. However, you are still ultimately looking at around 7.5 points per month.
With that said, the ROI for Ed Culham Tips stands at an absolutely incredible 31.13% according to Tipsters Empire’s proofing. That is a bloody big number and it is undoubtedly what stands out to me here. What it does do however is make defining how profitable this is a difficult thing.
Conclusion for Ed Culham Tips
When it all comes down to it, I think that there is actually quite a good product behind Ed Culham Tips. Sure, there are some serious considerations to be made that I will look at shortly, but by and large Ed Culham does a good job.
So, what is so good about Ed Culham Tips exactly? Well, objectively there are a number of strong showing results. Firstly, that 30% strike rate really is very good. I am quite sure that there are a tipster services out there performing better, but at the average odds… Well, I can’t image that there are many outperforming here.
The next entirely objective result is that ROI. 31% being maintained for coming on to a year is very good. Obviously, this is helped by the fact that Ed Culham Tips is a low volume service. But given that that seems to be Ed Culham’s approach to betting, I believe it ultimately represents a very good picture of what you can expect in the long term.
And the last objective positive that I want to talk about is the value for money. Let’s be honest, £16-17 per month isn’t a lot for a tipster service. Sure, you’re paying that out 3 months at a time, but Tipsters Empire are still asking less per quarter than other tipsters would expect you to pay monthly.
On an entirely subjective note, I like the set up of Ed Culham Tips. I can appreciate that focusing on weekend and festival betting isn’t for everyone. But there are huge markets out there for a more casual bettor who enjoys horse racing as a sport. And for those people, this is brilliant for having a bit of an informed punt on racing they can watch from home. That is a real thumbs up from me.
With all of that said, I think that you also really have to address the criticisms here. And more than anything else, I just don’t like that points profit. The thing with calculating profit is that different people have different aims. A 31% ROI is great, but when you are effectively looking at £75 per month to £10 stakes (of which you are actually taking home less than £60)… Well, it just doesn’t look so hot.
Now the reason is that this is so important is because ultimately, for a lot of people, they look at points more than the ROI. And this is because whilst a high return on investment is great when you have a lot to invest, those with limited options may struggle to justify spending enough for 30% to really look good.
So, would I recommend Ed Culham Tips? I think it is worth fair consideration. I think it is quite clear that there is a decent service here. The fact is that whilst those points profits aren’t great, ultimately, Tipsters Empire are running a decently profitable service. On top of that, it isn’t too expensive either. This means that there is very clearly value for money to be had. Furthermore, you can swap and choose what you want to bet on which adds another positive element.
With that said, I also want to acknowledge that this isn’t for everybody. The weekend and festival only betting just doesn’t suit some people, and I get that. Others might just look at that points profit and dismiss Ed Culham Tips, and I don’t think I could blame them for that either. The fact is that this is a far from perfect service, but by and large, I think the good outweighs the bad.
