The Elite Tipping Service is a long standing horse racing tipster service that is operated by Colin Leafe and is managed by Sportsworld Publishing. It seems to be a bit of a re-brand on a service I reviewed some time ago.
Introduction to The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing
One of the things that I have come to notice in this industry is how much, and yet at the same time, how little things change. One area where I feel you see this a lot is in, what I will refer to as, a relaunch. This typically involves a tipster tweaking and editing what they do a bit, and a publisher creating new buzz with a new angle. And these new angles can really make or break a tipster service. I have seen both of these things play out several times, and it is always interesting to see.
This brings me to The Elite Tipping Service. Or Tip Top Racing. It’s a bit hard to tell what to call it because Colin Leafe and Sportsworld Publishing refer to them as being technically different services. Even though they’re under the same banner. Whatever. The big question here is whether or not this is making money. And a look at the sales pitch definitely makes it seem like this is the case. The Tip Top bets is referred to as “conclusive, as proven by Sportsworld” with 5 winning months in 6. And the talk about Elite and how that has performed remains flowery.
Unfortunately, if there is one thing that I have really come to learn in this line of work it is this. You are right to question the sales material. Because as great as the historic results may have been for The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing, the more recent results are… A little less consistent. Shall we say. And it doesn’t come as any surprise that Colin Leafe and Sportsworld Publishing are willing to skip over this. So, let’s jump into it and see if this actually has any promise, or if that has all passed.
What Do The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing Offer?
Speaking solely from the perspective of writing, it is always helpful when you’re dealing with an established tipster stable. Because the fact of the matter is that whilst Sportsworld Publishing do work with a variety of different tipsters, there are certain standards of management that are always the same. Something that helps me to get a good idea of where to start, and how this will all flow.
It also helps that in many respects, The Elite Tipping Service is also a pretty straightforward tipster service. Whilst there are undoubtedly elements here that are perhaps a little different to the norm (namely the marriage of two different systems), ultimately, Colin Leafe’s approach to betting is quite simple. Something that in and of itself isn’t a criticism at all. Simple can be very good.
So, what does all of this mean for you as a subscriber to The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing? Well, across both services, selections are issued on a regular basis, however, whilst The Elite Tipping Service is ultimately a more selective affair and a niche service. There can often be several days between bets. Meanwhile, Tip Top Racing tends to produce bets much more consistently. In actual fact, Colin Leafe is near daily for the latter.
As you would expect for pretty much any tipster service in this day and age, selections are sent out directly via email. These typically land around 10.30am and contain bets for both The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing. The information contained within said emails is of a relatively high standard, including an idea of odds. Sportsworld Publishing and Colin Leafe should be commended on this as it is more than some tipsters will look to provide.
In terms of the types of bets, both services seem to exclusively favour straight win bets. This remains in line with how The Elite Tipping Service has been historically, and how Tip Top Racing seems to be functioning now. In and of itself, that doesn’t necessarily have to be a problem. But it does of course impact a number of things, including how often your bets win (this becomes incredibly pertinent a little later).
When I first looked at The Elite Tipping Service in an earlier guise, I commended the range of odds that Colin Leafe was picking out. There was a decent combination of long shots and favourites and this doesn’t seem to have changed much. This month alone has selections with BOG of 51.00 down to 3.25. Tip Top Racing seems to be in a similar boat, albeit with somewhat muted extremes.
What I do want to address is the volume of bets. Because whilst The Elite Tipping Service doesn’t tip every day, it is still not necessarily a low volume tipster service. Nor is Tip Top Racing. There can be days where you might see as many as 5 selections advised through one service, and another 4 through the other. Obviously, that means 9 bets in a day, and no matter how you want to dress it up that is quite a lot to be staking.
With that said, I will say that this is at least somewhat mitigated by the fact that for both services, Colin Leafe and Sportsworld Publishing appear to recommend a level staking plan of 1 point per bet. In and of itself, that seems sensible enough. And if I were to follow The Elite Tipping Service and //, that is the staking plan that I would aim to stick to. Not least of which is because it helps to minimise at least some of the risk.
And that risk is something that I really want to address. Without looking too hard, I have found a losing streak of 33 bets for Tip Top Racing. The Elite Tipping Service technically falls slightly better in terms of the more recent runs, but even then, losses of more than 10 bets in a row aren’t infrequent. Something that the strike rates for both services demonstrates. Especially if you look back since horse racing restarted in June last year.
Sportsworld Publishing’s proofing shows that Colin Leafe’s The Elite Tipping Service have a strike rate of just 17%. Even at its best, the high point for The Elite Tipping Service was a strike rate of 31.58%. But generally speaking, I think this average is pretty representative of what you are getting into. Meanwhile, Tip Top Racing comes in at a woeful 11.41% since August. This might be bolstered slightly by June and July, but with missing information, it doesn’t seem reasonable to guess this. What I will say is any increase would be minute.
How Does The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing Work?
Unfortunately, insight into how Colin Leafe finds selections for The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing isn’t something that Sportsworld Publishing really disclose. There is a nice bit of insight into how he used to compete in horse racing and was introduced to Dai Williams and various trainers. We are told that he was given insight from this that he incorporated into his own betting methods for a successful 5 year period.
And that is about your lot. There is very little in the way of helpful insight into what this service is built around. Now, I can appreciate that Colin Leafe and Sportsworld Publishing don’t want to give away a decades old system, but as a consumer, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want to get to know something about what you are getting into. I can look back at what they used to say about The Elite Tipping Service, and there was a vague mention of value. But that doesn’t really say a lot.
Meanwhile, we are told that Tip Top Racing is an offshoot of some “alternative methods” that were previously developed. Once again, there is that incredible and hard to ignore sense of vagueness. It means that once more, you are having to take the word of somebody that a service works.
The only silver lining for all of this is that Sportsworld Publishing provide very comprehensive proofing for The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing. This gives you free reign to have a look at Colin Leafe’s tips and what sort of thing you can potentially expect for the future. It is not, however, a replacement for that genuine insight. At least, in my mind.
What is the Initial Investment?
Sportsworld Publishing have two different options if you want to sign up to The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing. Interestingly, both of these are effectively monthly subscriptions. They just have different prices. Firstly, you can pay £20 to receive Colin Leafe’s tips for the first month. Once this has elapsed, the cost goes up to £40 per month.
Alternatively, there is an offering where you pay £60 for the first 3 months, after which the subscription cost is just £30 per month. Obviously, this represents better value in the long term, however there is that more significant outlay to pay out.
Whichever option you choose, it should be noted that there is no sort of money back guarantee or refund period for The Elite Tipping Service. Furthermore, payment is handled directly via Paypal who generally are pretty obstinate when it comes to offering any sort of recourse on this.
What is the Rate of Return?
Across both services, at the time of writing, The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing are technically up by 178.34 and 33.94 points respectively. In theory, this is a relatively respectable looking total of 212.28 points of profit. Especially when you think that you’re looking at level stakes of just 1 point. However, things look less impressive when you start to bring these results into context.
First and foremost, that is over almost 2 years. Proofing for The Elite Tipping Service goes back to January 2019, whilst Tip Top Racing goes back to October 2019. Furthermore, when racing started up again back in June of 2020 (about 10 months ago), both services were at a profit of 287.37 points. Tip Top Racing has lost out particularly badly losing over 100 points since the end of July 2020.
Conclusion for The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing
When I last looked at The Elite Tipping Service as an individual product, I was impressed. This was a service that was on track to be something really quite decent. The results were solid, the pricing wasn’t too bad, and it seemed to have a positive future. Unfortunately, a number of bad months has chipped away at results and honestly, I think the results have, at best, stagnated.
The fact is that The Elite Tipping Service peaked at around 200 points a year ago. In real terms, there has been a loss of about 22 points. Plus of course subscription fees for that. Meanwhile, Tip Top Racing which was seemingly brought in to bolster results has sunk the ship. These additional bets saw a peak of 140 points of profit in 8 months. A bloody respectable result. Since then… Well, I’ve mentioned the numbers.
And here’s the thing. Tipsters are rarely consistently consistent. It is the nature of the industry. There are inevitable ups and downs, and that just is what it is. But here, you are facing consistent losses over a 12 month period. Irrespective of what has come before, those results simply aren’t good enough.
They certainly aren’t worthy of the premium that Sportsworld Publishing and Colin Leafe are ultimately asking. Honestly, I can think of 5 tipsters off the top of my head that cost less, and have better results over the last 12 months than this. Which bets the simple question of why you would want to push on with it?
In its current format, it is difficult to give a valid reason for this. Let’s be very clear, however you want to dress it up, it would have been a very expensive time following The Elite Tipping Service and Tip Top Racing. For some context on just how much you would have spent since racing restarted, following both services to modest £10 stakes (and including subs in the cheapest way possible), you’d be £789.10 in the red. That might not sound much, but you’d be looking at 78.91 points of profit just to break even.
The problem with that is when you have a service that is consistently losing you are facing down sporadic wins. You are also, realistically, looking at an expenditure that will only continue to grow. So, is there actually any reason why you might want to give this a go?
Honestly, no. There isn’t. Not as it currently stands. I can respect the fact that Colin Leafe has been following the same approach for more than 20 years. And I believe him that it has been profitable for him over this time period. But here and now, it is quite apparent to me that something isn’t working. One of my mottos in this industry is that the bottom line is the bottom line. Here, it is nonexistent. And because of that, there is little reason to recommend it.
