Racing Connections Gold is the premium service which is offered by the Racing Connections Website. It claims to credit your account if their bets lose.
Introduction to Racing Connections Gold
It takes a hell of a lot to make your service stand out in the current climate of betting products and services. There is simply down to the sheer volume of numbers as much as anything else. I see a lot cross my desk, some new services, others are services which have turned their fortunes around and are marketing heavily based off this fact.
So how do you go about making your service stand out? I’ve seen more ways than I can shake a stick at, but sometimes, a product like Racing Connections Gold comes along which offers something very different.
There is one simple credence which really makes Racing Connections Gold stand out to me. “Money if we win. Money in your account if we lose”. That sounds like a win win for punters everywhere.
Of course, this is also the internet where anybody can say anything, God knows I’ve looked at more than enough dodgy tipsters to know that! So with myself nicely coloured intrigued, let’s take a look at Racing Connections Gold and see whether or not this unique offer warrants the attention.
What Does Racing Connections Gold Offer?
Racing Connections Gold is a daily horse racing tipster which is actually very different from the norm.
As such, I am rather keen to have a look at this one. First things first, this is not your typical receive an email and place a bet service. Racing Connections Gold uses a rather unique system (which ties in with how you pay for the service, a topic I will come to later) in which selections are uploaded to a unique member’s area on the Racing Connections Gold website. You can then enter this when you want to accept a bet, which you can then place.
The bets that are advised are all straightforward win bets and there is just one bet per day, Monday through Saturday.
These typically go up from around 10.45am each morning and you should ideally be looking to get onto Racing Connections Gold as early as possible if you want to maximise your returns. There are a range of odds advised, however Racing Connections Gold doesn’t seem to be at either extreme very often.
In the sales material for Racing Connections Gold, it is stated that there is no staking plan in place. What this actually means, is that there is a straight forward level staking plan which is in place. It is said that this is down to the fact that the team behind Racing Connections Gold either believe in a selection or they do not. Because of this binary nature, they say that there is no need to recommend different stakes depending on the bet.
The strike rate for the service actually looks to be rather impressive. Racing Connections Gold is not fully proofed on their website, however they have proofed to an independent tipster with 5 months of proofing there.
This shows a strike rate of some 43% based off 141 bets of which 61 won. This is really quite a strong result for Racing Connections Gold. It is also worth noting that a large number of horses placed 2nd or 3rd as well so depending on the market, there is potentially an opportunity to take advantage of each way bets to mitigate losses.
How Does Racing Connections Gold Work?
Rather unfortunately, there is little in the way of information about what the selection process for Racing Connections Gold entails. Honestly, I can’t say that I’m particularly surprised by this, as there are some pretty strong looking results from Racing Connections Gold, at least, from what I have seen.
With that in mind, I don’t think that I would be keen to give away information on my process either. None the less, as a consumer, I always maintain that you should be able to go into a product informed at what to expect.
This brings me on to my second point vis a vis, the proofing. Racing Connections Gold has just 5 months of independent proofing and whilst that is a decent amount, with no information whatsoever on the selection process, it is hard to say how much weight to put on these results. I am of the opinion that the results are strong enough to override this to some degree, however I do have some questions about the results of Racing Connections Gold moving forward.
What is the Initial Investment?
The pricing structure for Racing Connections Gold is something that is rather convoluted. It is essentially a pay per bet tipster service, however unlike a lot of them, you don’t pay for tips on a bet by bet basis as such. Instead, you have an account with Racing Connections Gold which you keep topped up, with the Racing Connections Gold team effectively doubling what you pay into it (although this holds no cash value and can only be redeemed for their bets).
If you choose to access a bet, then your account is billed at “£5 a point, but only if it’s a winner”. Using the example from the website, this means that if a horse is 3/1, then you are charged £15, 2/1 £10 etc.
This is based on the SP for the race, with Racing Connections Gold saying that you should be able to get a better price than this. Now for the important part, if a bet loses, then your account is credited with £5.
What is the Rate of Return?
There have been plenty of winners with Racing Connections Gold, and the proofing that is provided monitors them to BSP. I am not convinced that this is the fairest reflection of their value however. Being completely realistic, I think that there is some potential for profit here, however I do think that it needs to be said that Oddschecker will serve you well, as will some shrewdness on the betting exchanges.
Especially if you want to extract the maximum value out of the pricing structure.
Conclusion on the Racing Connections Gold service
Racing Connections Gold has a bit of a feel of older school tipster services, what with things like paying per point and whatnot. Is this a bad thing? I’m not entirely certain, and I would like to talk about this in more detail shortly. What I can say is that the results for the service seem to be pretty reasonable.
One thing that does really jump out at me is something I have already mentioned which are the odds. You really have to work hard in my opinion if you want to get the most bang for your buck.
Of course, there is little denying in my opinion that Racing Connections Gold will win often enough. The proofing, whilst limited, was independently verified and shows some phenomenal results, at least, in terms of the frequency of wins. Again, I am forced back to those odds and how they will impact your actual profitability.
All of this brings me to the question of whether Racing Connections Gold represents value for money. I am conflicted. The idea that you get money back when a bet loses is not necessarily misrepresented, but it stretches the truth a little (and keep in mind, that is what made this a stand out service).
The fact that you have to pay into an account where your real money effectively become valueless is another problem for me. Furthermore, there is the fact that if you miss out on odds, you may end up paying more.
Being honest, I like the results for Racing Connections Gold, but I am less sold on the service. I said earlier that it has an older school feel to it and whilst retro can be cool, I am not convinced that it is here. I can appreciate that some people will prefer the pricing structure of paying more overall for a service that wins, whilst not having to pay when you lose, but I am not one of them as I feel that you lose a lot of flexibility to the service.
With that in mind, I don’t think that I would personally use Racing Connections Gold.
I don’t think that it is a great product, nor do I think it is particularly bad. But the pricing structure makes it a very personal choice as to whether that would suit you, and for me, it wouldn’t.
