The Basketball Geek is a new to market tipster service which is being managed by the Betting Gods team. Selections come courtesy of tipster Steven and to date have proven quite profitable.
Introduction to The Basketball Geek
I have long talked about the benefits that come from having a diverse betting portfolio that takes advantage of different tipsters. Especially if you are simply looking to maximise your profit potential. Whilst it sounds like such an incredibly obvious statement to make, very few tipsters will make a profit month on month. So, when they do have that inevitable off month, the rest of your portfolio can pick up the slack.
One of the key words in that is diverse. There is no point having 6 horse racing tipsters because eventually, there will be overlap and there ceases to be value. Which brings me to today’s review, The Basketball Geek. Generally speaking, I think that a diverse portfolio will cover as many sports as possible. This of course means betting on more niche sports, and whilst Basketball may be the third most popular sport in the world, here in the UK it isn’t a big deal.
What this sets up in The Basketball Geek then is actually a quite unique tipster service. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen basketball tipsters before. But they have been on the questionable side. The involvement of Betting Gods adds legitimacy. When they say Steven hasn’t had a losing month, I believe them. The question is, can this form be continued moving forward?
What Does The Basketball Geek Offer?
One of the things that is always great when the Betting Gods team are involved with a service is the level of transparency. Whilst you’d generally expect every tipster to be open and transparent, it simply isn’t the case. It also means that you can get a very good idea of what you are getting into as a punter.
In the case of The Basketball Geek, the answer is… Well, it’s generally all pretty good looking and dare I say quite interesting. Now, there are some elements that I want to get out of the way first of all, namely, the logistics side of thing. This is no reason to disparage or criticize Betting Gods, but their services are all managed in a similar fashion, albeit to a very high standard.
First things first, this isn’t a daily tipster service. The proofing for The Basketball Geek very clearly shows that there are no bet days. Sometimes, there will be several no bet days in a row. But honestly, that isn’t really a problem for me. I’d much rather bet occasionally on a good selection than every day on risky or crappy ones.
Because this is a Betting Gods product, the management side of this is bang on as always. Selections are issued via email (as you’d expect) and you can also view them in the The Basketball Geek member’s area. But the best way to receive selections is probably the Betting Gods App. This sends you push notifications directly to your device meaning that you will always get the tips first.
Steven tends to make bets available in the morning (somewhere between 8am and 10am) which is all reasonable enough. There are always recommended odds included, but very respectably, these will be available with at least 3 bookies. This means that you shouldn’t really struggle to get value here.
This is something that is quite important for a number of reasons that only really become apparent when you look at the bets. First things first, the odds involved are definitely on the shorter side. Whilst the average odds are 2.12, a look through the proofing for The Basketball Geek shows that most of Steven’s winners come in at less than 2.0.
On top of this, it is a very high volume service. An average month produces some 110 bets which is a lot. And it isn’t even like you are seeing these spread out so you’re getting that (approximately) 4 bets per day average. The fact of the matter is that some days will have as many as 12 bets to place.
Whilst I am talking about bets and the fact that Betting Gods provides plenty of bookie information, I want to talk a little bit about the bet types. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t realise that there was as much basketball played across the world as there clearly is. The Basketball Geek looks at European basketball, Asian Basketball, and Basketball across both North and South America.
Steven advises a huge number of betting markets. This can range from a team to win, to over/under points markets, and even by how many points a team will win. Whilst ultimately, it is not complicated, it certainly looks quite overwhelming at first. As such, it is a nice thing to know exactly where you can go to place your bets.
One thing that I do like about The Basketball Geek is the staking plan. It is a very straight forward level affair of 1 point per bet. Which is probably a good thing given that high volume. It certainly helps to manage the risk.
But what is really interesting here is that Betting Gods and Steven recommend a starting bank of just 75 points for The Basketball Geek. Now I’ll hold my hands up. At first, I thought that was a bit low. Especially given the fact that you are placing 110 bets per month. But when you look at it, it’s actually quite reasonable.
The fact of the matter is that the strike rate for The Basketball Geek sits quite pretty at 58.5% at the time of writing. But what is really impressive here is that Steven has a longest losing streak of just 6 bets according to Betting Gods’s proofing. It has hit this a few times, but it isn’t a significant drawdown at all.
How Does The Basketball Geek Work?
Whilst I am generally quite inclined to sing the praises of Betting Gods, one area where it is somewhat frustrating is the fact that you don’t really get any insight int what the selection process for their services are. Some tipsters will provide some information, but Steven is tight lipped about The Basketball Geek.
With that said, I think that it is pretty clear that the guy knows his stuff to some degree. The length and breadth of his selections for The Basketball Geek show that in my opinion. Where most basketball tipsters I have looked at have focused on the NBA and other big leagues, there are some seemingly pretty deep cuts here.
And that kind of thing only comes from knowing the sport. Something which actually, the name for The Basketball Geek implies when you really sit and think about it. Would I have liked to have seen a little insight into the selection process? Of course I would. But the fact that that it’s missing doesn’t seem like a deal breaker.
Especially when you also factor in that Betting Gods provide very comprehensive proofing for all of their tipster services. The fact is that they have been proofing Steven’s selections since November now, and it is all available for you to see. As such, you can, at the very least, get an idea of what to expect if you do sign up.
What is the Initial Investment?
There is just one option available if you want to sign up for The Basketball Geek, and this is a monthly subscription. But honestly, at a cost of £27 per month, it is still very reasonably priced and is much less than what I would typically expect to pay for a tipster service. Of note is the fact that at the time of writing, you also get 15 days to trial Steven’s tips for just £1.99.
If you ultimately find that this isn’t for you, there is also a full 30 day money back guarantee in place on all Betting Gods products. Whilst I don’t believe that Darren Moore (the founder of Betting Gods) would ever not honour this, it is worth keeping in mind that it is also backed up by Clickbank.
What is the Rate of Return?
Since proofing with Betting Gods began, The Basketball Geek has made an overall profit of some 165.6 points. That is a very impressive number indeed to me. Especially because it has been attained with those level stakes of 1 point per bet. That is a pretty low risk approach that is very clearly paying off. It also shows how easily you could scale this if you were so inclined. Which, with no losing months in 7, does look like a slightly attractive proposition.
In something of a rarity, I can also say that the ROI for The Basketball Geek is equally as impressive as the points profit. Sitting at 21.34% according to Betting Gods, it is also a very strong indicator of just how much profit potential this carries.
Conclusion for The Basketball Geek
Sometimes I see a product that I just can’t really find seem to find any immediate fault with. This is one of those occasions. Being honest, The Basketball Geek is simply one of the best looking tipster services that I have seen for a long time. Although, there are some considerations as I will discuss.
Coming into this, I was rather expecting to break out the caveats of a niche tipster service. Normally, this means talking about a shortcoming in profit but balancing this out as part of a wider portfolio (just to bring this full circle to my introduction). But The Basketball Geek is just a genuinely good tipster service.
The profit is a very respectable amount. If you take the average monthly profits of 23.66 points, you would be looking at an annual profit of 283.92 points. That really doesn’t seem inconceivable to me either. But really, even if The Basketball Geek came in at less than this, you’d still have some good looking numbers.
On top of this, there is also the fact that The Basketball Geek is pretty cheap. In my experience, most decent tipster services look to charge around £40 per month, just to give you some context for the value here. I think this really works here because of the fact that this is ultimately a quite niche product. As such, if you are looking to use this as part of a portfolio, you aren’t spending a huge outlay on something that isn’t likely to be a central part of that.
All of this is fantastic; however, it would be remiss of me not to talk about the fact that The Basketball Geek will require. Those 110 bets that you will be placing is a very high volume for any tipster service. I won’t pretend that it’s going to be like doing a day at the coal face, but it is still a consideration. Fortunately, a lot of the work is done for you in the odds department.
This high volume of bets also means that the strike rate really has to be maintained. Because you have that relatively small betting bank and lower returns per bet, a bad run will likely sting. A lot.
But does that mean you can expect this? The historic results suggest that this simply won’t be the case. However, that consideration has to be a part of the bigger picture. Do I think that it’s a deal breaker? I don’t think that it does. What Steven has done with The Basketball Geek is incredibly positive, and 7 months is a substantial sample size.
So, would I recommend The Basketball Geek? I can say pretty wholeheartedly that it is really worth a lot of consideration. Ultimately, I will maintain that this would probably be at its best as a very nice addition to a portfolio. But if you were so inclined, I can see this doing very well in and of itself too.
