Racecracker is a new to market horse racing tipster service which is being operated by Clive Jones in conjunction with Market Prospectors. The service aims to offer an affordable horse racing tipster service.
Introduction to Racecracker
When I am writing about a tipster service, I always like to take the position of the little man. You see, betting professionally is a very interesting thing. Let’s look at Bill Benter. A professional bettor who now has a net worth of around $1 billion dollars. That’s right, with a B. But he was placing more than 50,000 bets per race. What this shows that in theory, you can scale betting up to be anything you want it to be, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to work for most people. And it is for most people that I always make my considerations.
All of this is exactly why I am really excited today to be looking at Racecracker. Clive Jones and Market Prospectors outright state in the market that they’ve “had enough of the greedy “Tipster Tax” …that makes it impossible for £10 punters to make money”. Interestingly, this is the exact figure that I have in mind when I’m calculating profit and loss for a service. This means that in theory, this should be a service that I will have little problem recommending. After all, it’s been created with my issues with tipsters in mind.
So, you might think, this is a sure thing, right? Well, not necessarily. Here’s the thing, I can 100% say that I love the philosophy of Clive Jones and Market Prospectors here. I am totally on board with their arguments and the ideas behind Racecracker. But unfortunately, none of that really counts for anything if it isn’t delivering on the results. And that is an area where I can’t help but feel like it all starts to fall down. So, with all of that out there, let’s get into it.
What Does Racecracker Offer?
One of the first things that I noticed when I was looking at Racecracker is how clearly Clive Jones lays out the plan for his service. I don’t normally like to quote too extensively from sales material, but here, I think it is worth doing. Because the core offering is put very eloquently and tells you everything you need to know.
We are told that Racecracker:
- Is low priced so it doesn’t eat into your profits
- Offers regular daily bets to build a steady profit over time
- Tips go out at regular times of day normal people can follow
- A mix of short odds and long odds so you’re not waiting for a pay day but still get to benefit from big prices
- Records the track record at odds you can actually get on (I’m not a fan of inflated numbers for marketing)
Make no mistake that somebody who looks at a lot of tipster services that, frankly, are all over the place. Those are all things that I want to see when I’m looking at a tipster. And importantly, in terms of those promises, Clive Jones definitely delivers with Racecracker.
Everything that is listed there as a goal for the service is achieved. Selections are sent out daily around 9am, they are sent out via Telegram (a messaging app that purports to be the fastest on the market), and it contains everything that you should need in order to get the bets placed.
This includes odds information that is based on the 3rd best price on Oddschecker. For those of you who may not be familiar with the implication of this, it looks like this. Oddschecker is an odds comparison site that shows what odds all bookies have available. The best odds are usually just one or two bookies, the second best odds are widely available, by the time you’re looking at third best odds… Well, nobody should struggle to get them.
All of that adds an air of fairness to Racecracker that is incredibly welcome. It also means that when you’re looking at the range of odds that Clive Jones has bet on historically, you know that you are seeing a genuine reflection of the service. I see far too many services that have lost thousands of points profit once you move away from them having the best odds involved. Here, what you sese is something everybody could have got.
In terms of the bet types, well, this is horse racing. As I always say, there aren’t really a whole lot of betting markets that are really worth covering. This means that most services area win and each way bets, and Racecracker isn’t any different. What I do like though is that there are hard and fast rules to how this work which are tied to the odds. Again, it just helps Clive Jones to make for a fairer system.
And whilst we’re talking fair, the single most important element of Racecracker is the affordability. It is exhausting getting excited about a tipster service, only to learn that the hundreds of points of profit made all come from 5 point stakes and you have to factor everything down. Before you know it, you’re looking at practically nothing.
With Racecracker though, that isn’t a concern. All bets are level stakes of just 1 point, with a very occasional bet coming in at 2 points or even half a point on some of the particularly long shots. That doesn’t mean that your overall drawdown is inconsequential though. The fact is that you are betting daily, and the volume of bets can be as many as 7 bets in a day. This inevitably adds up.
This is all further compounded by the fact that the strike rate looks to be less than stellar. Now, unfortunately, there is no easy way of calculating this number. The proofing for Racecracker is laid out in a rather difficult manner, furthermore, there are no specific claims made.. But here’s what I can say, out of nearly 200 bets placed (the proofing counts backing a horse to win and place as separate), there have been around 35 profitable bets.
How Does Racecracker Work?
It isn’t a secret that I admire the philosophy behind Racecracker, but there is more to it than that. I really like the fact that Clive Jones is quite transparent about what the service actually entails and how it works, and it is a comprehensive and honestly, quite interesting approach. What really jumps out at me though is that they can provide this insight, whilst more expensive tipsters will simply choose not to.
Now the core premise of Racecracker is that it is based on multiple systems. Specifically, we are told, there are 154 micro systems that are tracked on a daily basis by Clive Jones and his business partner. These look at a massive range of niche things. Using the example in the sales material, they talk about a trainer whose horses have shown a profit running in certain races, at York, between June and August.
All of these different micro systems have been created with one main goal, and that is to find value bets. And again, I’m fully on board with this. One of the best ways to be able to beat the bookies in the long term is definitely to identify where the is value. It will have its ups and downs of course, but with a decent system (or 154), you should be bale to produce a decent profit.
With all of this in mind, I think it’s pretty fair to say that Racecracker is built on some pretty decent foundations. I don’t necessarily think that it’s going to revolutionise betting, but I don’t think that’s the goal here. What Clive Jones is doing is creating a tipster service that looks and feels premium, without the ridiculous prices that some tipsters demand for their service.
What is the Initial Investment?
Now we come to the part of Racecracker that is really outstanding. If you want access to the service, Clive Jones and Market Prospectors are asking just £19.97 per month. A number that appears to be inclusive of VAT meaning no additional costs on top of that. All of which is positive to see on a service with the philosophy it has.
If you want to extract even better value from Racecracker, you can also sign up on an annual basis. This is priced at £179.97 (saving you £59.91 on the monthly costs), however, something of note is that this is a recurring cost and automatically rebills. Just something to keep in mind.
As a final note, if you do sign up for Racecracker, there is a decent money back guarantee in place. If you are on the monthly plan, Clive Jones and Market Prospectors offer a “‘No questions asked’ 30 day money back guarantee”. However, if you opt for the annual subscription this increases to a 60 day money back guarantee.
What is the Rate of Return?
The key selling point for Racecracker in my mind is the notion of making 10 points profit per month as an average. It isn’t life changing, I’ll admit, but it’s a decent amount to be bringing in without spending a substantial amount. This is a number that Clive Jones and Market Prospectors have based on a profit of 40.09 points between January 1st and May 20th. So far so good, right?
Unfortunately, since going live, the results have seen a drastic drop off. So much so that at the time of writing this it’s just shy of a 20 point loss for Racecracker. That is a really concerning shift, even for a service that is based around backing value bets. And whilst it is easy to make the argument that it is only a few winners away from being back in the black, that doesn’t hold much truck in the face of consistent losses.
Conclusion for Racecracker
Ok, here’s the thing with Racecracker. Everything that Clive Jones and Market Prospectors say about the wider state of the tipster market, I think I’m inclined to agree with. It is overpriced, it does make it very difficult for casual bettors to make money and cover subs, and a shakeup of this is something that I would more than welcome.
I mean, let’s be honest for a minute. You can make any service produce any profit that you want. For example, you could claim tens of thousands of pounds of profit. And back it up. But if that is to £100 per point stakes and 5 point bets, that simply doesn’t fly with me. Because most people won’t bet at that level. So Racecracker calling this behaviour out gets a thumbs up.
Unfortunately, none of it really counts for anything if Clive Jones and Market Prospectors aren’t then positioned to really offer a viable alternative. And unfortunately, since Racecracker doesn’t really look great in terms of that crucial longer term profit, I don’t really see how they can say that they are doing that. Not in my eyes at least.
The fact is that it’s easy to point out what other people are doing wrong. I can also see what people are doing right. And on a fundamental level, I really do think that Clive Jones and Market Prospectors are doing things right. I really wish them well with it as well. Because I would love nothing more than to see this service succeed. I feel like the tipster industry is crying out for something like Racecracker.
But recognising something is good doesn’t mean much if you aren’t making money off it. And here, you wouldn’t be. Could things turn around? Absolutely. Racecracker has had big winners in the past, and there is no reason to believe that it won’t have big winners in the future. The question is how long will it take for one of these to land, and how long are you willing to bankroll tips?
Where I really become conflicted is the fact it isn’t even like Clive Jones isn’t winning. Sure, he has definitely lost more than he has won since going live. And the overall results are definitively going the wrong way. But ultimately, Racecracker is still seeing winning bets pretty much every other day. They just aren’t enough to overturn the drawdown that it is encountering.
And it is with all this in mind that I am going to say that Racecracker probably isn’t worth following right now. But that doesn’t mean that I see it as being down and out either. I really do think that Clive Jones is onto something reasonable here. And importantly, he isn’t asking a whole lot of money for it. The issue just seems to be… something that needs tweaking. I couldn’t tell you what that is, but it’s there.
So, what I would look to do with this is ultimately put it on the back burner. Whether Clive Jones simply becomes a bit more selective, changes the priority of some of the systems to get better value… Whatever he does to turn Racecracker around (if anything), that is when I’d look to strike. Because for me, this is a classic case of close, but no cigar. Here and now though, I just don’t think the performance is there. And that is the single most important thing really.
