Profit Zone Picks is a new to market tipster service which his being offered by “Sgt. Mike Hodgson”. It claims that there are some very lucrative profits to be made betting on eSports.
Introduction to Profit Zone Picks
I think it’s time for me to make a confession. I like to play computer games. I used to play them even more than I do now. I’ve admitted this before, but perhaps not so boldly as this. Why is this important I here you ask? Because when something like Profit Zone Picks lands on your desk, and you get an immediate gut instinct… Well, there is some very reasonable need to justify your position. And that involves establishing some credentials.
The reason for this is because the market for Profit Zone Picks looks more like an advert for a budget knock off Call of Duty than a tipster service. Even down to the name of the tipster. Sgt. Mike Hodgson… Now I’ll be frank. The “Sgt.” part of his name seems like exactly the kind of infantile and fantasist escapism that leads so many people to believe that if you like computer games, you’re one of those weirdos. This might sound irrelevant at the moment, but trust me, I’ll be circling round.
Now with all of that said, there are some pretty bold claims made in terms of the income potential. And I’ll be blunt here, some people really do make money betting on eSports. Which leads me to the single biggest question surrounding Profit Zone Picks. Can Sgt. Mike Hodgson deliver on his claims? Let’s have a good look and see.
What Does Profit Zone Picks Offer?
I feel like for a lot of people, eSports is a bit of an emerging market. It isn’t if you are aware of the sport (which I have been for a long time, although I haven’t bet on it before now), but I don’t think that it’s entirely unreasonable to say that it’s generally a bit niche. And yet despite this, betting on it is very similar to a number of other sports.
This is particularly evidence in Profit Zone Picks when you start to look at the bets. Sgt. Mike Hodgson concerns himself with over/under markets and correct scores. Terms that you are probably most familiar with if you have the occasional punt on football. And fundamentally, whilst this isn’t quite the same, there is a lot of overlap.
Now when you are looking at Profit Zone Picks, you will exclusively be betting on games of two… well, games. There is CS:GO and DOTA2. A shooting game and a strategy game (of sorts). These also happen to be amongst the most popular eSports games and as such, they come with the most betting opportunities and the highest liquidity in the market.
The fact that Sgt. Mike Hodgson focuses these particular betting markets means that there is some value to be had with Profit Zone Picks. Now a key thing to note about any eSports is that things can turn very quickly. Professional gamers measure things in milliseconds and so, not surprisingly, it is generally quite a tightly fought sport. Especially at the top level. And whilst bookies will generally favour one side or another you just don’t get very big odds usually.
You can really see this when you look at the (rather limited) availability of “evidence” that Sgt. Mike Hodgson supplies. Bets predicting a correct score tend to see some pretty reasonable returns. Those over/under bets come with much lower odds however. So much so that getting anything above evens can be taken as a bit of a win.
Logistically, there isn’t a whole lot to write home about here. Sgt. Mike Hodgson is a pretty standard affair (something that ultimately doesn’t surprise me, but I’ll be picking that up later). What can be said about this though is the fact that whilst Profit Zone Picks doesn’t do much more than the minimum of what you would expect, it doesn’t exactly do anything wrong either.
All of this means that ultimately, you will simply receive your selections via email. These will typically land with you around 10.30am. You then “place your bets” as advised, and sit back and watch your bank balance grow. Now, from what I have seen of Profit Zone Picks, if you are going to follow the service, it isn’t quite this simple.
I won’t go too much into the detail of this, but if you were inclined to follow Profit Zone Picks, I would definitely recommend an odds comparison website. Each day produces just 2 or 3 bets and whilst the staking plan ensures that they are theoretically manageable, it is reliant on maintaining the claimed strike rate.
As such, this is exactly the kind of service where you really do want to be maximising your income potential. An extra half a point return on a bet may not seem like much, but it is better than blindly following Sgt. Mike Hodgson. Especially because, as I will talk about in much more detail later, Profit Zone Picks is a touch on the questionable side.
This only really leaves me with the numbers to talk about. Firstly, I want to talk about the staking plan. I know that I have mentioned this in passing, but it warrants some closer scrutiny. Ultimately, Profit Zone Picks uses a simple level staking plan. There isn’t any talk of a recommended bank, but 100 points seems like a pretty good place to start.
Interestingly enough though, when you look at the very limited evidence that Sgt. Mike Hodgson provides, his stakes change from £50 to £100. There isn’t any explanation as to why this has changed, but it does. In actual fact the “stakes” that he has personally been using seem to have dropped. I could perhaps understand them increasing, but that halving of stakes is a touch worrisome.
Finally, we come to the strike rate. I did talk about the importance of this because at a claimed average of 43.33% on correct score bets (the bets with the longest odds I should hasten to add), Profit Zone Picks looks impressive. As does the claim that the over/under betting has produced a 12 win streak.
The problem with both of these numbers is that they are of course entirely unsubstantiated. There is very little evidence to really back this up outside of a few questionable betting slip screenshots. What there isn’t is any proofing. This is disappointing since Sgt. Mike Hodgson claims to have been effectively following his betting advice that makes up Profit Zone Picks for at least a year.
How Does Profit Zone Picks Work?
One of the key selling points behind Profit Zone Picks is how it works. Sort of. You see, what we are told many times in big BOLD letters is that there are 10,000+ hours of research behind the service. Quite what this research entrails isn’t something that is ever discussed though. This is hugely disappointing to me. Especially because that is a lot of research.
Specifically, that claim means that you are looking at 417 days worth of research. In no small part, that is all the more reason why it is so important to understand what exactly that research involves. Effectively, I really don’t think that it’s unreasonable to ask what Sgt. Mike Hodgson has been doing for over a year that offers insight.
It isn’t even like there is any real proofing that you can look at to gain some insight into what sort of thing you can expect for the future. I am quite sure that Sgt. Mike Hodgson would make some kind of argument that actually, he does provide proofing in the form of betting slips, but that is a long way from comprehensive. Realistically, at best, they are cherry picked examples.
The fact of the matter is this. The lack of information on how Profit Zone Picks ultimately works is seemingly there to obfuscate some truths about the service. Sgt. Mike Hodgson’s claim of 10,000 hours of research and his focus on some rather niche bet markets seem to be key to selling this really. Effectively, it is almost like saying “because I know more than you, I must be an expert”. An implication that I find to be highly questionable.
What is the Initial Investment?
If you are interested in signing up to Profit Zone Picks, then there are two differing pricing structures that are available. Firstly, you can sign up to receive Sgt. Mike Hodgson’s selections through his own proprietary payment platform. This is, by a country mile, the cheapest way of signing up, however your purchases do become much more restrictive if you take this option.
The first subscription option for Profit Zone Picks is a 7 day free trial, after which it is then priced at £19.95 (plus VAT) per month. As well as this, there is an option for a quarterly subscription which is priced at just £29.95 every 3 months(again, plus VAT).
If you are looking for a longer subscription than this, then Sgt. Mike Hodgson offers a few options for Profit Zone Picks on an annual subscription at a cost of £59 (plus VAT). Finally, there is a lifetime license which Sgt. Mike Hodgson offers. This allows you to sign up, for life, for a one time cost of £97 (again, plus VAT) however this is advertised as a limited time offer.
As well as this option, Profit Zone Picks is also being sold directly through Clickbank. This comes with a full 30 day money back guarantee. It is however, by a considerable margin, the priciest option. If you want to buy this way, you can expect to pay £99 plus VAT. This gets you a 6 month subscription.
If you want to sign up for this for the full year, there is an additional 6 month “top up”. This requires an upfront cost of an additional £89 (plus VAT).
This means that over the course of a whole year, using Sgt. Mike Hodgson’s payment platform, would mean that you see a very substantial £130 discount. This is of course compared to the cost of The Profit Zone Picks when purchased through Clickbank. Numbers that I don’t believe are any real coincidence.
What is the Rate of Return?
In terms of the income potential, there isn’t a massive amount to talk about. Well, there is, but that is only because there isn’t. Let me explain myself a bit. The only number that is explicitly mentioned in terms of how much you can expect to make following Profit Zone Picks is an annual income of more than £50,000. This is backed up by a highly questionable PayPal screenshot.
This is only mentioned a few times. Outside of this, you are simply looking at a breakdown of winning bets. These show a claimed average of “over £300” per day. Sgt. Mike Hodgson claims that they are evidence of a complete winning streak, but there isn’t any wider proofing for this. Furthermore, even if they are, I don’t think they can reasonably be taken as indicative of the broader picture, as this comes from a very small sample size.
Conclusion for Profit Zone Picks
Everything about Profit Zone Picks has been designed to appeal to a certain kind of person in my opinion. From the logo for the service which blatantly knocks off the old PS2 one, to the broader “Call of Duty-esque” images of soldiers and a heavy use of black and orange, to the background images of “code” showing information on a real live game. Everything here is designed to scream “gamer”.
Even the pen name related to the service falls into this same kind of arrangement. The title of Sergeant loosely thrown around as though it adds any kind of air of legitimacy to this “army game” approach to marketing. It doesn’t.
And it is because of this “gaming” marketing that I felt it was quite important to posit the fact that I am not out of my depth here. Because I can’t help but feel like Profit Zone Picks is aimed at those who might be. Everything about the marketing serves to show us somebody who takes it all seriously.
Sgt. Mike Hodgson’s arguments about how it’s a massively growing industry (all valid), how he talks about how the games play out. I’ll be honest, if I didn’t know about eSports. I’d look at the sales material for Profit Zone Picks and recognise it all as being “gamery”, and generally quite impressed with it all.
Unfortunately, I am able to quickly see through all that. There is a lot wrong here, much of which I have covered, but there are a few key problems that I want to nail home. Firstly, I don’t see how Sgt. Mike Hodgson has made £50,000. This means a profit of anywhere from 500 points to 1,000 points. Depending on which of the stakes he has been using. Neither of those numbers are believable at all.
Secondly, and I’m repeating myself, there isn’t really a shred of substantive evidence backing up the other claims either. From the supposed strike rate to the 10,000+ hours of research, to the claim that Profit Zone Picks uses “Bomb-proof eSports selections”. I mean, what does that last statement even mean?!
On top of all of this, there is little recourse for you as a consumer to claim a refund if this doesn’t deliver. At least, not without paying an arm and a leg for the privilege. And let’s be honest, most genuine tipsters will offer a money back guarantee. Because they are confident in their ability to produce a profit. The fact that Profit Zone Picks pushes you to give up your refund should speak volumes.
But the real nail in the coffin of Profit Zone Picks is something that I don’t think most people will have even considered. Because the people who are ultimately behind all this are well known to me. And not for the best reasons.
The fact of the matter is that they have put out three different eSports tipster services since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s almost like they’re trying to profit off the fact that there just isn’t that much sports on. Whilst both of these services have been updated with occasional winners, they have all failed to perform to the level that they were sold around.
This all leads me to believe that frankly, Profit Zone Picks will be no different at all. Honestly, you could have left that out and I still wouldn’t have recommended this. I simply don’t believe that it can deliver on the results claimed, or in fact get close. But when you factor in everything, it simply seals the deal. This is definitely one to avoid.
