Mike Jones Value Selections is a brand new to market horse racing tipster service from the eponymous Mike Jones. It is being provided through Matt Benson and The Betting Club who claim some decent looking profits.
Introduction to Mike Jones Value Selections
Some time ago, I first came across Matt Benson when he was peddling his own tipster services. Since then, he has seemingly started to work with other tipsters with a view to building up a stable of tipsters who will provide a consistent and varied portfolio. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, there have been companies who have done this very well.
The subject of today’s review is an attempt to get a decent horse racing tipster service up and running. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. Horse racing is the largest betting market in the UK for a reason. And as such, it makes perfect sense to me that as a businessman, Matt Benson would want to get a slice of that pie.
Now, as for Mike Jones Value Selections, there is (at a glance) some interesting potential here. Things appear to be within the realm of possibility, and there appears to be at least some supporting evidence to back the claims up. So, surely then, this one should make for a relatively straight forward article… right?
What Does Mike Jones Value Selections Offer?
There are a lot of things to consider when you are looking at a tipster service. These can range from the incredibly obvious to elements that honestly, you might not even think of if you aren’t (as it were) involved in the industry. One of the main ones though (in my book at least) is transparency. And there is a startling lack of this when it comes to Mike Jones Value Selections.
Fortunately, Matt Benson does provide some very basic information about what you can expect from the service. First things first, Mike Jones Value Selections is not a daily horse racing tipster service. Instead, Mike Jones only issues his selections Monday through Friday. This is a bit of a curious choice when compared to the wider market, but there may well be a valid reason for this.
In terms of the management side of things, services from The Betting Club are always pretty typical and Mike Jones Value Selections is no different. This means that you can expect to receive selections directly via email, usually landing on the morning of racing. This should give you plenty of time to get bets placed.
The content of these emails is relatively simple. Whilst there is enough information to get your bets placed, there are elements lacking. I know that I say this a lot, but realistically, using something like Oddschecker will definitely help you get the most out of Mike Jones Value Selections.
Moving on from this, I want to talk about the bets themselves. Now, horse racing is a funny thing in many respects. When you are looking for value (a principle that Mike Jones Value Selections is literally named for), you can’t exactly look at different betting markets. Some tipsters will lean into each way bets on particularly long odds, but not Mike Jones. Here, you are exclusively looking at win bets.
This is important to note because, for a value base service, I would expect some longer shots to be thrown into the mix. That is after all the core premise of trying to find value. Instead, what you get with Mike Jones Value Selections is a bunch of middling odds topping out at less than 10/1.
Whilst I would never advocate backing long odds just for the sake of it, I will say that these numbers are… Interesting. I will explore this in more detail a little later, but finding good value in a horse typically involves looking for ones that have been undervalued by the bookies.
Before moving on, I just want to touch on the volume of bets a little bit too. Each day you will be placing just 3 bets which is a very manageable amount. What does slightly concern me however is the notion that the will be 3 bets per day. It worries me that Mike Jones may simply end up advising selections for the sake of it.
Fortunately, any risk will be somewhat mitigated by a very easy to follow level staking plan. It is advised that all bets are backed to just 1 point which means that the most you can lose in a given week would be 15 points.
Now, I want to mention that I am yet to see any recommended betting bank from Matt Benson and The Betting Club. Realistically though, given those above numbers, I think that it is fair to say that a betting bank of 100 points should be more than enough.
Finally, I want to talk a little bit about the strike rate for the service. Now, Matt Benson says that this stands at 38.33% which is a decent looking figure. In and of itself, I would even be inclined to say that it is. However, I have a lot of concerns about this number.
Firstly, there is the fact that there is no real proofing for Mike Jones Value Selections. Matt Benson provides evidence in the form of a series of somewhat questionable betting slips, but it is far from comprehensive. Secondly, this number is based off just 4 weeks of proofing, despite the claim that The Betting Club say that they proof all tipsters for a full 3 months.
How Does Mike Jones Value Selections Work?
I mentioned at the start of this article that one of the problems lies in a lack of transparency and nowhere is this more apparent than when you look at how Mike Jones Value Selections works. Or should I say, try to look into how it works. The fact of the matter is that neither Mike Jones and Matt Benson don’t ever discuss anything about what the selection process entails.
Sure, there is that vague mention of value there in the title, and if you were so inclined to, you could take that as something. But I would not. The fact of the matter is that simply stating value is something that is incredibly vague and means very little in the grand scheme of things.
On top of this, there is the fact that there isn’t really any proofing provided. This is despite the fact that Matt Benson has made the point that all tipsters that The Betting Club trial are proofed for 3 months. That for me simply isn’t good enough and frankly, it raises a lot of questions in my opinion.
What is the Initial Investment?
There are three different options available if you want to subscribe to Mike Jones Value Selections with longer subscriptions ultimately representing better value. The first of these (which comes with the lowest outlay) is a monthly subscription for which Matt Benson is asking £30 plus VAT per month.
Alternatively, you can sign up to Mike Jones Value Selections on a quarterly basis which is priced at just £45 plus VAT (clearly representing substantially better value). Finally, you can sign up for a full year at a cost of £90 plus VAT. Obviously this represents the best value, however it does mean paying out the largest initial payment.
It is worth noting that The Betting Club sell all of their products through Clickbank. This means that there is a full 60 day money back guarantee in place for Mike Jones Value Selections. This is advertised on the site as a 60 day trial, however I have seen complaints from readers about Matt Benson when it comes to cancelling through him.
What is the Rate of Return?
In terms of the income potential, it is a very difficult thing to know what to expect, particularly in the longer term. What we are told is that to £25 level stakes, over 4 weeks, Mike Jones Value Selections made £992.29.
For a better understanding of what this means, Mike Jones has made a points profit over those 4 weeks of 39.69 points. This is a pretty significant a mount of money to have made in this period of time. It also means an ROI of 99% which is a hell of a lot. But again, this is only over a month.
Whilst all of this sounds pretty good, I am highly sceptical of these numbers. Furthermore, I am forced once again to come back to the constant issue that Matt Benson says that he proofs all services for 3 months. But in the case of Mike Jones Value Selections, we aren’t given the full 3 months of results. That is massively problematic.
Conclusion for Mike Jones Value Selections
I am going to choose my words quite carefully over the course of this conclusion, so please bear with me if I don’t necessarily seem to be particularly transparent. What I will say is that I don’t like what I see.
There are a lot of reasons for this, some of which are (at least in my opinion) quite obvious. Others are much more lesser known and are based on experiences that not just I have had with The Betting Club and Matt Benson, but my own readers on this website.
First things first, I want to talk about the results. Now I will happily admit that if I saw a genuine tipster pulling in some 40 points per month, I’d be all over that. Especially if it could be delivered consistently. This number is about the top end of what I think is realistic for any genuine tipster service.
Now, the key word there is genuine, because I don’t know if I am convinced that Mike Jones Value Selections is. This mostly comes down to a lack of evidence. I realise that this sounds somewhat questionable given the fact that Matt Benson provides a full breakdown of the bets that Mike Jones has advised.
But these are just a small sample of a month (allegedly). And yet, Matt Benson has supposedly seen 3 months of results. So, where are they? Is there a reason that they haven’t been published? To me, that sounds more than a little suspicious. If Mike Jones Value Selections had performed well over 3 months, why wouldn’t you want to push that fact? Even from a purely marketing perspective.
On top of this, I don’t even think that Mike Jones Value Selections is particularly cheap or good value. Whilst £45 per quarter seems like a reasonable amount, I have seen some properly decent tipster services available elsewhere for similar costs. They are also demonstrably genuine and come from well known and reputable tipster stables.
So final thoughts? I think that it is quite interesting that Matt Benson advertises The Betting Club with the following statement. “Sick of Buying Tips From Dodgy Fraudsters That Just Send You Losing Tips ALL The Time and Bleed Your Betting Bank Dry”.
I wouldn’t like to say that definitively, this is the case when it comes to Mike Jones Value Selections. I don’t feel I am being unreasonable however in referring back to the problems that I have mentioned where readers have had problems with Matt Benson and The Betting Club. That is not a great indicator, and there is a lot that can be said for the fact that the complaints levelled can easily be applied to his own service.
With all of this in mind, I don’t think that I would really look to recommend Mike Jones Value Selections. There just isn’t anything here that I believe is worth the time and money that you would have to invest. Not that it would necessarily require much, and I think that is really saying something.
