The Informers is a relatively long standing horse racing tipster service which is being offered by the Bet Social team. There have been pretty strong results across the board from the service.
Introduction to The Informers
When it comes to actually making a profit through betting, I believe like there are two main schools of thought. One is that you can beat the bookies through a lot of analysis, following the markets, and identifying where there is opportunity. The other school of thought is that you have to leverage inside information. Let’s be honest, knowing when a horse has been trained and saved for a certain race can offer you a similar edge over the bookies. It just takes less work.
The Informers is a tipster service that very much falls into the latter category. In actual fact, according to Bet Social, the whole service is built entirely around this premise. And that doesn’t have to be the worst thing. I’ve seen plenty of tipsters who lean on that inside knowledge route do pretty well for themselves. And with a seemingly strong profit in place, you’d be hard pressed to find a reason not to consider this, right?
Well, there are some… Shall we say, contextual elements to The Informers. Things that demonstrate that perhaps all isn’t quite what it seems to be here. Which when you also factor in the price makes it a much less clear picture. So, with that in mind, let’s get down to it and see if Bet Social have put together a winner here, or not.
What Does The Informers Offer?
As far as tipster services go, The Informers is a very straight forward example. Something that I really don’t consider to be a real negative. The fact of the matter is that I believe it can be far too easy for a tipster to start over-complicating things in order to provide the perception of value. This simplicity is something that I somewhat attribute to Bet Social.
They are a pretty well known name as far as tipster stables and tipster management goes, and that is reflected in The Informers. It is a well put together service. Something that applies to numerous elements, which is more than can be said for some tipster services. With that established, let’s talk logistics.
Selections for The Informers are issued on a near daily basis. I say near daily because Bet Social’s proofing does show that there is the odd day when a bet isn’t available. That is actually a good thing in my book. As I’ve said many times, I’d rather follow a tipster that doesn’t tip when there is nothing worth betting on, that one who puts out selections for the sake of it.
As you would expect from pretty much any tipster service these days, selections are sent out directly via email. All that you have to do, Bet Social say, is follow the advice within said email. Now this is an area where The Informers quickly establishes itself as being arguably better than the competition.
You see, all too often in this game, tipsters provide the bare minimum. You’re talking a race course, a time, and the name of a horse. If you’re lucky, you’ll get odds included. But with The Informers, you actually get a full write up on each selection, as well as a betting guide to each race involved. For reasons I will cover, this can be incredibly valuable.
In terms of the bets themselves, well, The Informers is a horse racing service. As I point out all too often, there isn’t a lot you can do with that that is interesting. Almost all bets that are advised are win bets, however, Bet Social’s proofing does show that historically there is the odd each way bet as well. Typically speaking, these are on the bets where there are longer odds.
In terms of these odds, well, the range just isn’t that substantial. Bet Social show that the longest odds that you’d have backed following The Informers over the last year are just 9.0. To BOG, the average odds are just 3.04. You really aren’t getting involved with outsiders here.
Whilst I am on the subject of the bets, I want to come back to that idea of exclusivity and ‘selectivenes’s. You would typically expect this to reflect a rather low volume of tips and that is definitely the case with The Informers. Since November 2019 there have been just 233 bets. Sure, there was the period this year where there was no racing, but even including that, you’re looking at less than 1 bet per day on average.
Of course, when you aren’t betting on a lot of selections each day, you can theoretically invest more per bet. This beings me to the staking plan for The Informers and more importantly, the impact that it has on… Well, quite a lot in my opinion.
You see, all of the bets advised through The Informers have had recommended stakes of anywhere from 3 points all the way up to 5 points. In and of itself, I don’t take too much exception to this. It’s a reasonable strategy that can really help to increase the profit potential of a service. But as I will discuss, it also has a bit of an impact in terms of the results as well.
Finally, I just want to touch on the strike rate for The Informers. Bet Social say that this comes in at 48.29% which, if I’m honest, is a bloody good result that carries a lot of profit potential. Especially when you look at the average odds.
How Does The Informers Work?
Like I said earlier, The Informers is based around inside information. And Bet Social don’t let you forget this. The headline refers to a “PRO GAMBLER WHO WALKS THE WALK” and how you can “Tap into his inside access to the people who REALLY know which horse is going to win”. Now, I do find this kind of marketing a bit iffy, if I’m honest. It carries a lot of implication that I don’t agree with, but I’ll come back to this.
What I do think is important to note is that it is strongly suggested that The Informers is based on insider information from trainers, owners, breeders, jockeys, clockers, grooms, and expert handicappers. Crikey! That’s pretty much everybody at the stable. But if all of that is true, you’d be hard pressed to argue that the insight would be invaluable.
Naturally, the tipster who is ultimately behind The Informers says that they will remain anonymous. I can appreciate that. If they do indeed have a number of contacts, presumably, the last thing they want is their knowledge plastered online and potentially, influencing the prices at bookies. Now this does mean that there isn’t really evidence backing these claims up, but I do have a gut feeling that Bet Social are really working with somebody with that insight.
This is helped along by the proofing that is provided. Not only is it substantial, but it does demonstrate the kind of consistent bank growth that I might expect from someone who “has the inside track”. The fact is that whilst there is a clear ebb and flow to the bets, there aren’t substantial losing streaks either. Something that the strike rate really reflects.
What is the Initial Investment?
Now we come to one of the elements of The Informers that I struggle with, and that is the pricing. The first option is a 28 day subscription which is priced at £65. That means that you are paying that out 13 times per year. Alternatively, you can sign up for 3 months at a cost of £130. This is much cheaper working out at some £43 per month (and 12 of those months rather than 13) but it is still pricey.
It is worth keeping in mind that Bet Social don’t offer any sort of refund or money back guarantee on their products either. This means that if you pay out for The Informers, your money is then very firmly invested.
What is the Rate of Return?
The income potential for The Informers is an interesting thing. Firstly, I think that you have to look at it in the context that the tipster behind the service wants you to. Bet Social say that if you are betting £5 or £10 per bet, then this won’t be for you. Which is important to note because at the time of writing, the service sits at 491.14 points. That means that if you were staking £10 per point (rather than per bet) you’d be sitting at £4,911.40. That is a pretty good looking number for less than 12 months.
With that said, whilst I can appreciate that the staking plan is in place for a reason with The Informers, there is no getting around the fact that it does inflate the results a little. Being really generous and assuming 4 points per bet (the number would be quite a bit higher than this), you can calculate that level stakes would mean just 122.8 points.
Now I can almost hear Bet Social saying that that isn’t the point. And that the staking plan is there for a reason, but for the best context on how The Informers has performed, you should look at the ROI. To BOG, this is an impressive 45.14%. This drops to 24.53% for SP and 30.24% for BSP.
Conclusion for The Informers
I feel like there are two rather different questions when I look at The Informers. The first one is, for want of a better way of describing it, looking at the service in a vacuum. This means looking at the results and costs entirely without context and comparison. And in doing this, there is no denying that Bet Social are offering a solid option.
So far, The Informers hasn’t had a losing month (although October is currently down by about 22 points). It also has a 491 points profit in less than 12 months. That is probably twice what most tipsters would consider to be a decent result. Purely based on that profit, it all looks like a bit of a no brainer.
Even the costs seem to be reasonable in this none contextualised vacuum. The fact is that I really do believe that the tipster behind the service does have some inside information. Quite how deep that goes is arguably debatable. There isn’t a whole lot of information there. But presuming that there are inside contacts that are probably getting paid one way or another, £65 every 28 days seems reasonable.
The problem is that The Informers doesn’t exist in a vacuum. That £65 every 28 days means an effective monthly cost of £70. That is enough money to build a respectable and diverse little portfolio. It’s also not far off the cost of a decent betting system (for example the Betfair Scalper course that comes very highly recommended is £89.97). The difference there is that it is evergreen and can be used as and when you want it.
Furthermore, you have to be staking a fair old amount in order to make a decent profit because those costs involved are simply so prohibitive. And on top of that, there is the fact that you’re dealing with multiple point stakes in order to actually get that decent profit. That means theoretically £50 per bet to £10 per point. But that’s probably the minimum you should be looking to stake.
Another issue worth mentioning is the drop in profit if you find that you aren’t in a position to maintain BOG. Even to BSP, you are looking at a drop of 162 points. That’s more than a third of your profit lost, just because you aren’t in a position to use a BOG bookie. Now a reduction in profit is something that you generally expect, but that is a hell of a lot to lose out on.
And it is because of all this “real world” stuff that I don’t think that I can bring myself to recommend The Informers. Which is a shame, because I do believe that Bet Social have a fundamentally decent tipster service on their hand. I also believe that the tipster behind it all is genuine when he talks about having inside information. But ultimately, I just think that you have to put far too much into The Informers to get anything out of it.
