I-Bet is a seemingly indecent horse racing tipster service. According to the claimed results on the website, there are some very substantial profits available.
Introduction to the i-Bet service
There are a lot of tipster services available on the market however I feel like increasingly, they appear to be predominantly made up of two different approaches. Either there are highly questionable examples which appear to be nothing more than just clever marketing with very little substance.
Alternatively, you see services which are being released through one of an increasing number of tipster stables. Genuine independent services seem to be something of a rarity these days and so I am quite excited to have a look at i-Bet. This is a service that aims to provide some incredibly substantial profits.
So much so that I can say with confidence that even if i-Bet could deliver half of its aims, it would be one of the strongest services on the market. The question that stands though, is whether or not it is capable of delivering anything at all.
What Does i-Bet Offer?
I-Bet is an interesting proposition that is somewhat unique in terms of the wider market. The fundamental product isn’t that far removed from a daily tipster service, however the logistics are quite different. When you sign up to the service, you are given access to a specialist members area.
Here, you will see all of the selections which are available at a given time. These include details such as the race, the odds that you will be betting on, and the suggested bookmaker. You then place the bets that i-Bet advises, at the odds that are recommended.
This becomes very important for reasons that I will discuss below. It is worth noting that whilst you have to access bets through an online portal, you do still receive emails when bets are made available. These selections are updated on the i-Bet website from 11am right through to 8pm.
In terms of the bets themselves, it is recommended by the i-Bet team that you back all bets as straightforward win bets. This is particularly important as this can be a huge volume of bets advised on a given day.
If you look at the proofing which is provided for the service (which is offered through Tipstars rather than the i-Bet website itself), there are days that have seen more than 80 bets in a given day including multiple bets on a single race. Furthermore, the average monthly tips comes in at a staggering 1639 bets per month on average.
Now it is worth keeping in mind that you aren’t under any obligation to follow all of the bets that are sent out through i-Bet, however to get the maximum profits. All of these bets are at a huge range of mixed odds ranging from less than 2/1 going all the way up to 40/1 just in the last week.
The staking plan that is in place is a very straight forward one with all bets advised through i-Bet. This is in part down to the way that you pay for the service, but also, I feel like with the volume of bets involved, you cant afford to be staking large amounts on a given bet.
If you were to follow i-Bet, then it is recommended that a 200 points betting bank is required which the sales material for the service says will cover any bad patches. Personally, I feel like this might be a bit low and whilst i-Bet hasn’t burned through that in a week so far, that potential is definitely there.
I want to end by talking about the strike rate for the service. This is an area where honestly, I don’t know what to expect, nor to make of the results in some respects. The strike rate stands at a touch over the 15% mark.
This sounds low I will admit, however there are a number of factors that impact this. First and foremost, there is the fact that i-Bet bets multiple times on some races. This means that in some cases, you have lost, even if you’ve won. Furthermore, because of how i-Bet works, there are almost always going to be periods where bets consistently lose.
How Does i-Bet Work?
There is a lot behind i-Bet, so much so that it is difficult to know where exactly to start. I also want to avoid going into too much detail if only because there seems to be so much happening in the background. It should go without saying that this is ultimately a value based service, something which is referred to a number of times in the sales material.
Effectively, the software behind i-Bet is bale to monitor betting odds through a betting exchange. When the odds available from bookies are less than those on the i-Bet website, then you should go for that particular bet.
Now there is definitely a bit more to i-Bet, but this is quite a complex betting service. As such I don’t feel I can offer any fair representation of it in a few paragraphs, but I believe that this gives you a fair idea of what to expect. Now there isn’t technically any proofing from the i-Bet team directly, however this is provided on the Tipstars website. It is also worth keeping in mind that because i-Bet draws on Betfair when seeking value, you do require a substantial number of betting accounts.
What is the Initial Investment?
There is no initial investment as such with i-Bet. Instead, this is a pay as you win service which is a mixed bag. There are two different pricing scales whereby you pay a commission depending on how much you are staking on bets. The team say that if you don’t make any money, then you don’t pay any commission.
However, any profitable months are subject to some quite hefty fees. We told that “Our commission ranges from 25% on stakes up to £25 and then on a sliding scale down to 20% on stakes over £25”. This is all taken off your profits which can massively impact your bottom line.
What is the Rate of Return?
The fact that i-Bet costs 25% of you profits is somewhat offset by the profit potential that is in place. Looking at Tipstars Proofing, there have been some massive profits generated. Going back to March 2018, the service as produced a profit of 4,153.37 points. This is a huge amount to have been earned over the course of slightly more than a year. What presents a much better picture of the results is the ROI which stands at 18.61%.
Conclusion on i-Bet
Honestly, I don’t really know where to start with i-Bet. There are some very divisive issues here in my opinion and there is very little that I would say counts as any kind of middle ground per se. Everything is at extremes and that kind of polarisation makes it difficult to offer any sort of balanced review. None the less, I will try my best to deliver just that in this conclusion.
First of all, let’s talk about the pros, because there are a lot, and they make some very compelling arguments. The profitability of i-Bet is beyond doubt and whilst not quite beyond measure, it is undisputedly the most profitable service that I have ever looked at purely in terms of the points profit.
There is also an argument to be made that the fact that i-Bet is effectively “pay as you win” serves as a strong positive. If you aren’t betting, it doesn’t cost you anything. Not bad, right? Certainly not in principle. However, that is only one way of looking at things.
Moving on to the strong negatives, there is no getting around the volume of bets involved and everything that comes with this. Since it launched (meaning a bi over a year), 22,547 bets have been advised according to the proofing on Tipstars. 1,639 bets per month, and an eye watering 55 bets per day based on a 30 day month. As well as the time investment which is very substantial, there is the liability that you expose yourself to. This also means betting large amounts of money, something which the ROI reflects.
I guess if you want to sit down and look at i-Bet as something serious, there are two main considerations for me. One, is your ability to back as many bets as possible. Not just in terms of time, but the ability to bankroll everything.
You are looking at huge amounts of money being spent per day if you manage to back all bets. Not everybody can handle this. The other point, and it is one that isn’t mentioned anywhere really but I think needs to be considered. In order for i-Bet to really work, you need to be betting with the bookmakers recommended.
Variations in odds can hugely impact your profitability (as commission is taken based off the odds quoted), and if you have restrictions or are unable to bet with certain bookmakers… Well, you may find that you struggle. And pulling out 4,000 points profit in a little over a year, even spread across all bookies, means that accounts will likely end up closing.
So, do I think that i-Bet is bad? Honestly, I don’t. The results speak for themselves and the fact that you only pay when you win helps considerably. But honestly, this isn’t something that will work for everybody.
If you are capable of following i-Bet fully, then you ‘could’ do very well, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I think that ultimately, this is a pretty niche service, mostly down to the work involved.
