Race Form Pro is a horse racing tipster service which is being offered through the Pro Betting Club tipster stable. The service claims some very reasonable results over the last year or so.
Introduction to Race Form Pro
One of the things that is incredibly important when you are looking at a tipster service is the longer term results. The fact of the matter is that there will always be ups and downs when it comes to betting. Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean that you should blindly throw away money in the pursuit of a win, I’m just trying to highlight the fact that there is… well, a bit of a balance I suppose.
When it comes to Race Form Pro, this is a good example of a service that seemingly manages to straddle this middle ground quite well. I’ll be quite upfront and say that there have been some ups and downs, but by and large, Pro Betting Club are offering a service that has done quiet well. Of course, that is only one small element of the wider service.
The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of things to consider when you’re looking at a tipster service. And quite a few of these things rear their head a little when you look at the wider picture with Race Form Pro. So, let’s jump straight into things and try and see where the balance lies and ultimately, whether this is something that is worthwhile or not.
What Does Race Form Pro Offer?
In terms of what you are getting with Race Form Pro, there isn’t a massive amount here that you would necessarily consider new or revolutionary. However, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The fact of the matter is that interesting carries a lot of potential to go significantly wrong, as I’m sure you can imagine.
So, what exactly does a mostly unremarkable tipster service actually entail? Well, in this case you are dealing with near daily selections for horse racing across the UK. I say near daily as a look at the historic proofing does demonstrate more than the occasional day where there aren’t selections found.
To some, this may be something that counts against Race Form Pro, but for my money, I would much rather see a tipster only advising when there are genuine opportunities. Another element that is a strong positives is the fact that when selections are sent out, you will typically receive them around 8pm the evening before a race.
Interestingly, Pro Betting Club say that you should back these horses to BSP. This has a number of advantages that I will discuss later, but I don’t think that should be the full story. The fact is that because you receive your selections so early, there is potentially value to be had in backing horses to BOG or even taking early prices on Betfair.
Ultimately, prices can drift quite a lot with both bookies and on betting exchanges. But this is something that can easily be tracked on paper and may well improve the profit potential in the long term. For this review however, I will be basing everything solely on BSP.
Moving on from this, I want to talk about the bets themselves a bit. As you would probably expect from a daily tipster service, Race Form Pro ultimately proves to be pretty low value. You see anywhere from 2-4 bets on most betting days. A number which is more than manageable for most people. However, it is very important to keep in mind that you will often back multiple horses in the same race.
These are all win bets, which means that at least following Race Form Pro is a straightforward affair. The fact that you are betting on Betfair also means that you shouldn’t really have any trouble getting your bets matched. Especially when it comes to backing horses close to the off (something you can even get a piece of software to do if you are inclined).
What the win bets do provide however, is a massive range of odds. As you would expect from any tipster service which is based around BSP, the price fluctuations can be huge. Last month, for example, saw horses backed at 2.07 going all the way up to 26.66. There is definitely range here, however, it is somewhat unpredictable.
In terms of the stakes, Race Form Pro is a very straight forward level staking plan. It is recommended that you are betting 1 point on every bet which does potentially carry a pretty moderate drawdown. There can be pretty substantial losing streaks. However, if you maintain a long term point of view, you should be OK.
Ultimately though, what really stops me worrying too much is a recommended betting bank of 100 points. That means that realistically, you will more than cover any bad runs (the longest singular losing streak is 16 bets). There is also enough here to provide a cushion during slightly broader losing periods.
Which kind of ties in to the final point that I want to talk about which is the strike rate. You see, we are advised that this stands at 25% by Pro Betting Club. A cursory glance at the proofing provided shows that his number is actually probably about right as well. However, it is worth noting that it doesn’t paint the full picture.
You see, because of the fact that Race Form Pro involves backing multiple horses per race, this means that even when a horse comes in, it has an impact on your bottom line. And the more selections per race, the more that it will ultimately impact your profit and loss. Something that is probably the single most important element to consider.
How Does Race Form Pro Work?
Rather frustratingly there isn’t a whole lot of information provided in terms of how Race Form Pro actually works. Pro Betting Club make some mentions that I will look at, but ultimately, you will be coming into this a little on the blind side. Because if I put my hand on my heart, even what we are told isn’t massively insightful.
We are told that the professional tipster who is behind Race Form Pro has “over 30 years experience in this industry” and that “all selections are carefully researched taking into account many different factors incl. detailed race analysis”. So… It’s something, if I try to credit Pro Betting Club. But it also doesn’t really tell us anything either.
The fact is that these are both pretty generic statements as far as tipster services go. Really, I’d have liked to have seen more from Pro Betting Club about what Race Form Pro actually entails. I will always appreciate that a tipster won’t want to give away their full selection process for free but simply stating that various factors are analysed doesn’t exactly provide insight.
Fortunately, what does provide insight into Race Form Pro is the proofing that is provided. Pro Betting Club have kept on top of all of this and it is bang up to date (albeit not in the easiest to use format). As well as that, I like that the recent statistics give you a decent overview of what to expect in the longer term. As such, you can at least say that you don’t come into this wholly blind.
What is the Initial Investment?
Pro Betting Club offer just two options if you want to sign up to Race Form Pro. The first of these is a monthly subscription and it is priced at £39.50 per month. This does lean towards the higher end of what I would expect to pay for a tipster service, but the fact of the matter is that it still falls within those parameters.
There is better value to be had in signing up to Race Form Pro on a quarterly basis, however, as you would expect, this does come with a considerably more substantibal outlay. More specifically, you will pay £89.50 per month. This does mean saving £29 on the monthly subs, however it isn’t the most generous offer that I have seen.
It is worth noting that unfortunately, Pro Betting Club do not offer any sort of refund policy or money back guarantee on their products. This of course also includes Race Form Pro. As such, you should be pretty certain that this is for you before buying.
What is the Rate of Return?
In terms of the income potential behind Race Form Pro, this is one area where things become very interesting. At least… At first glance. You see, Pro Betting Club top the sales page for the service with an overall profit of £22,743. Unfortunately, this is to £100 stakes.
What this means in much more realistic terms is that Race Form Pro has produced a profit of 227.43 points over some 14 months. This equates to a monthly profit of some 16.24 points of profit on average. This isn’t necessarily an accurate portrayal of the results however as some 115 points of that profit were made in the first 12 months.
Taking those months out of the equation, you have a much more realistic number of around 10 points per month. Now that isn’t the worst by any stretch of the imagination, but even that might not be the most accurate portrayal of the results. Don’t forget that all of this is to BSP and there is the potential for this to be increased further.
Conclusion for Race Form Pro
I have looked at Pro Betting Club before now, and they are a genuine tipster stable. That is quite important to establish off the bat, because it means that you can take the results claimed seriously. Well, seriously-ish. A point that I want to use to springboard into what is arguably my biggest criticism here, and that is the income potential.
Some £22,000 over 14 months is a very attractive figure. If you can show me somebody who wouldn’t be enriched by having an extra £22,000 a year… Well I’d be very surprised. But that number unfortunately isn’t really reflective of what you can probably more realistically expect, despite its prominence.
This doesn’t take away form the fact that Race Form Pro has made an overall profit of 227.43 points either. That is a very decent showing, but I implore you to consider whether or not it is an accurate representation of what you can expect. Because I’m not quite convinced that it is.
It is always difficult when it comes to tipster services knowing what you should be considering in terms of profit and loss. How much weight do you put on the ROI? Or the results over the last 3 months? Or all time? There simply isn’t an easy answer. But in the case of something like Race Form Pro, I think that there is a very clear takeaway.
Had you been following this service over the last year and bet to £10 stakes, by the time your subscription costs had been deducted, you’d be looking at around £60 per month extra. Now that is still a profit. I will not take that away from Pro Betting Club. But is it enough profit? Well, just to complicate things, you could have potentially made even more than this.
All of this makes judging Race Form Pro a bit of a difficult beast, however, in my opinion there is one factor that needs to be considered more than others. And that is what else can you get on the market for similar money?
You see, whilst Race Form Pro isn’t prohibitively expensive, what Pro Betting Club are asking is about at the top end of what I would consider to be reasonable for a tipster service. This means that there are plenty of competing services out there that cost less, and honestly, they can deliver similar if not better results.
Really, the best thing about Race Form Pro is that it has seemingly been built with Betfair in mind. But even that is a little speculative and only really based on conjecture. Furthermore, there is no real reason that you couldn’t use any other tipster service out there on the Betfair exchanges for similar results.
It is because of this that I rather unfortunately don’t believe that this is something I would recommend. Don’t get me wrong, there are positives here. And furthermore, I don’t think that this is a particularly bad product either.
