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Football Banker Review Steve Ellis

Football Banker is a new to market sports betting tipster service from Steve Ellis. He claims that his selections can produce some quite substantial profits through football betting.

Introduction to Football Banker

I think it’s fair to say that there are very few things that are universally accepted when it comes to an approach to betting. People have different levels of comfort when it comes to things like how much money they want to set aside for betting, how much they are willing to bet, and how much risk they will take on. Every now and then, a service lands on my desk that just mires itself in controversy. At the very least, it makes for an interesting discussion.

Why am I talking about this? Well, today’s review, Football Banker is something that I’ve been looking at for a while. Because creator Steve Ellis just spits out some (in my opinion) quite extreme views on what should and shouldn’t be done. Does that mean that they are inherently flawed? That will all depend on who you ask. But what I will say is that if this can deliver (which is a pretty big if I can’t help but feel), then this advice may well be worth following. Because the profit potential is supposedly massive.

Honestly, I have a bit of a gut feeling about all of this. I don’t particularly like the approach that Steve Ellis has to betting. I think that there are a lot of flaws in how he operates Football Banker. but, with that said, I will try my best to keep an open mind too. So, with all of that said, let’s dive straight into it and see if this can actually deliver on that claimed potential.

What Does Football Banker Offer?

Whilst there is definitely a hell of a lot that pertains to Football Banker that is unlike anything else on the market (and in some respects, unlike anything that I’ve ever seen before), there are certain elements that are actually very straight forward. And one of these is the way that Steve Ellis actually manages everything.

First things first, to read the sales material, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you were signing up for a daily tipster service. However, from the time of launch Football Banker has been weekends only. Steve Ellis tells us that the increased volume of tips was simply to make up for the “fixture schedules and delay to the Premier League and EFL starts”. I’m not sure I’d put too much weight behind this statement though. 

As is very much industry standard for tipster services these days, selections are sent out directly via email. They arrive in time for weekend football, which generally gives you enough notice to get some value. Although I would definitely be inclined to use an odds comparison site if at all possible.

Now, the bets. There is a very strong emphasis on backing accas here with a focus on those smaller examples. From what I have seen of Football Banker, Steve Ellis doesn’t really bet on anything higher than a four fold bets. Instead, you’ll mostly be dealing with doubles and trebles. This is presumably down to the fact that there is less risk involved, but this isn’t really something that is discussed.

Within those accumulators, Steve Ellis says that he looks at a lot of different betting markets. Whilst this may well be true, from what I’ve seen, there doesn’t seem to be too much to this. In fact, most of Football Banker appears to be incredibly simple. That isn’t a criticism you understand. I have no problem with simplicity. But it is rather frustrating when the sales material makes reference to “wins, draws and a full range of outcomes and combinations”.

Whilst we’re talking about the odds. I’ll be frank. You aren’t going to see massive returns here. Because of the lack of betting markets covered, there isn’t necessarily a whole lot of value to be had. This means that even on a 4 fold bet, you might end up with odds of just 3/1 (which is yet another reason that maximising your potential returns is important).

In terms of the volume of bets, Football Banker definitely errs towards the lower end of the spectrum with no more than two bets advised on betting days. Not that this is a bad thing at all. In fact, given the wider structure of the service it is a definite positive. You see, in order to make up for those smaller returns, Steve Ellis likes to lean very heavily on staking.

Every bet that you place, it is advised that you are staking 10% of your betting bank. That is a huge amount. Now, Steve Ellis makes out that this is low risk, even stating that “the most we can lose is 20% of our current bank”. But what that really means is that you’re only about 5 bets away from being in a position that is very difficult to recover from.

For example, if you start with £100. Your drawdown on 5 losing bets amounts to about £63. It also means that your next winning bet at 10% of your betting bank even if it’s a 4 fold might be just £9 profit. The important thing to consider here (and with any compounding bank) is that it isn’t just your drawdown that can be a problem. It’s how you recover from losses. A topic that Steve Ellis skips over very nicely with Football Banker.

In theory though, this shouldn’t be a problem. Especially not because Steve Ellis claims a strike rate of about 50% over the course of the year. A slight dip for Football Banker compared to the current claimed strike rate of around 60%.

How Does Football Banker Work?

One of the main questions that I always have to ponder when I look at a new tipster service is “What does the selection process entail?”. It’s all well and good Steve Ellis using compounding to boost his profits and accas to get better odds (a tactic that I’m still not certain actually works). But if he can’t find decent selections, none of that matters.

And disappointingly (although not all that surprisingly) there is very little information about what this all entails. All that we’re told is that Steve Ellis has been using the selections behind Football Banker for some time. This of course doesn’t tell us a single thing. In many respects, it simply raises even more questions.

You see, I’m willing to acknowledge that not every tipster wants to give away their selection process. And that’s fair enough. I wouldn’t want to give away a step by step breakdown either. However, as a consumer focused person, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect some insight. Enough to know what you’re getting into at the very least.

But the real killer for me is that when you consider that Steve Ellis has supposedly been using the same approach that he does with Football Banker for “the last couple of years” and that he’s “been making steady profits”. Why wouldn’t he want to show proofing of this? To me, there are a few reasons that this could be for. But none of them bode particularly well for Football Banker. 

What is the Initial Investment?

If you want to sign up for Football Banker, Steve Ellis makes two options available to you. The first of these involves signing up for the full season. We are told that this is available at a “discount rate” of £97 (plus VAT). Quite what this is discounted from is something that remains to be seen, because the sales material definitely doesn’t mention it. Alternatively, you can sign up to Football Banker on a 4 weekly trial period. This is priced at £37 (again, plus VAT).

It is worth noting that Football Banker does come with a full 30 day money back guarantee. This is backed up by the fact that Steve Ellis is selling access to the service through Clickbank who are generally very good with this. So long as you aren’t somebody who is constantly returning products through them that is.

What is the Rate of Return?

Steve Ellis claims that last year, he made £87,000 starting with a bank of £300. That is a massive amount of profit. He also says that in just 6 weeks this season, he’s made £15,917. A number that means supposedly, Football Banker is “on target to smash well over £100k over the season”. It is worth noting that this is entirely unsubstantiated and has no real basis outside of the very questionable evidence that is provided backing up that £15,917 claim.

Conclusion for Football Banker

There are a lot of reasons that I don’t like Football Banker. Some of them are personal and some of them are objective. Some of them though just boil down to the fact that I’ve been doing this for long enough to recognise a red flag when I see them. And there are a lot here from everything that I’ve seen.

First things first, let’s talk about that staking plan. Because really, it is key to making Football Banker work for you. Putting my cards on the table, I can see how it works. I can always see how compounding works, because in theory, it’s a great choice. You only ever risk your initial betting bank, but you carry the potential to carry it to much higher profits.

But that is riddled with problems. Especially if (and that’s a very big if) Football Banker pans out the way that it supposedly has over the last 6 weeks. If you start betting more than a grand on bets and you’re winning consistently, bookies are going to shut you down and very quickly. Whether that is through simply closing your account or massively restricting your stakes. They don’t like to lose.

Now in theory, that’s just some of the risk that you take on with any decent tipster. But there are two considerations. Firstly, it takes you a lot longer to get to that point. Secondly, a genuine and reputable tipster will help show you how to spread out your bets in order to at least try and avoid this. With Football Banker, Steve Ellis simply doesn’t address it.

Of course those are hypothetical problems, and very nice ones to have too if we’re honest. But the important thing to take away from this is just how incredibly short sighted Steve Ellis is. It’s all well and good saying that you’re only risking 20% of your betting bank, but every loss just makes it that much harder to recover. 

Which mightn’t be a problem if I believed for a solitary minute that hitting a 50% strike rate was achievable. I’ve looked at a lot of accumulator based tipster services. And I don’t think I’ve ever looked at a genuine example that has got close to this. What does that tell you about Football Banker? Especially in the light of that lack of proofing. For me, I find it quite telling.

All of this leads to a position that in my book, strongly suggests that the results claimed simply aren’t something that are going to be attainable. And what makes this even more frustrating is the fact that Steve Ellis really does suggest that this is entirely possible. Something that is aided in no small part by the compounding.

You see, I always find compounding to be interesting from a sales point of view, because you can effectively make anything into anything. I can’t tell you how many tipster services I’ve looked at that claim to make huge amounts of money which they ultimately achieve by simply throwing in silly amounts of compounding. Steve Ellis is a little more restrained, but it’s still up there.

What this creates is a bit of a perfect storm where there is actually quite a lot of risk, and not really that much realistic potential for reward. Of course, Steve Ellis is keen tot paint Football Banker the other way round, but he would. He is the only person who definitively stands to make a profit here. He also doesn’t actually show much evidence for this.

Ultimately, that is why I wouldn’t recommend it. I can’t stress enough that playing off 20% of your betting bank as being low risk is a bit reckless. Especially when you’re backing accas. But even if Football Banker does work (which I don’t think it will), you’re going to quickly find yourself stuck trying to place bets simply because no bookie wants to risk paying out thousands of pound on every bet that you place.

 

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Comments (1)

I signed up for 4 week trial in October, £300 starting bank ended with £168 – now trying to get my money back under his guarantee – but he isn’t replying to email

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From: Simon Roberts