The Pro Punter is a new horse racing tipster service which is being offered through the Bet Kudos arm of the wider Betfan group. Selections come courtesy of a tipster referred to only as Lawrence.
What does the product offer?
The fact that The Pro Punter has been released by Betfan was something entirely new to me. This is because there have been no marketing shots sent out with ludicrous claims of making £80,000 in 3 months. There is nothing claiming that The Pro Punter is a thousand points up in just 1 month and I need to think about how this means the service can make £120,000 a year on these grounds. Basically, there was none of the usual Betfan marketing approach taken. This muted approach to The Pro Punter is rather interesting to me however as I am interested in services which perform consistently.
The differences are quite apparent when you are familiar with the source. Even their most extreme headline simply reads “Providing YOU With The Essential Daily Bets YOU MUST BE ON!”. Having already skimmed over The Pro Punter I am rather inclined to say that I will bite on this as there are some rather impressive looking results in place for the service and most importantly, they haven’t been inflated through the usual methods. As such, I am quite excited to see whether or not The Pro Punter is actually any good.
So what do you get for your money with The Pro Punter? Logistically, it is actually surprisingly sound. Lawrence very clearly takes a selective approach with The Pro Punter although you can still expect selections to be available on a near daily basis (there appear to be just he odd day where none are sent out). Selections are emailed out to subscribers directly and is sent “well before the off”. As well as these being emailed out, all bets are uploaded to a special member’s area on the Betfan website.
Looking at the bets themselves, there is a decent variety there despite the low numbers. Lawrence will mostly advise win and each way bets however there are also the odd doubles thrown in there as well. Variety is the name of the game when it comes to the odds as well. Interestingly, and seemingly counterintuitively compared to the marketing material (something I will get to shortly) The Pro Punter seems to mostly favour horses with shorter odds. That having been said, there are also each way bets that go into double figures.
One of the things that definitely stands out about The Pro Punter for me is the staking plan. The usual Betfan strategy of simply backing everything to level stakes of 5 points is out of the window in favour of stakes that seem to be very sensibly based around risk. As well as helping to protect your betting bank, this approach also means that the results do not suffer from the kind of inflation that I usually see from Betfan.
Finally there is the strike rate and this is where I believe that The Pro Punter starts to come into its own. Whilst it is still relatively early day for the service (it has been proofed for 4 months), the strike rate is one of the strongest that I have seen for some time. In fact, Lawrence has guided The Pro Punter to an average strike rate in this time period of 55.34% which is a very strong result for any backing service.
How does the product work?
In terms of the selection process for The Pro Punter, there is quite a lot of information provide by Betfan in terms of what is involved here. He starts by talking about his background and how long he has been betting, however this is par for the course for most tipsters. He does however go expand on this and talks a little bit about identifying false favourites, long shots with a decent chance and jockey/trainer trends. Looking at the results, I can entirely believe this.
He also mentions being a race horse owner. Whilst this doesn’t in and of itself have an impact on The Pro Punter, it does back up another claim made in terms of the selection process. Lawrence makes reference to using info from many contacts gained. I am usually sceptical of this kind of claim and in many respects, I feel no different when it comes to The Pro Punter. What is different however is a stream of consistent results which suggest that there may actually be some truth to what Lawrence says.
What is the initial investment?
There are a few different options available if you want to subscribe to The Pro Punter. The first of these is a monthly offering at a cost of £39 per month (actually 28 days). Alternatively, you can sign up for The Pro Punter on a quarterly basis which at £78 every 90 days represents much better value or money.
Because Betfan are a part of the Betfan group, this does mean that there is no real money back guarantee in place unfortunately. They say that they will review any refund requests however these are not typically granted.
What is the rate of return?
The rate of return for The Pro Punter is what really made this service jump out at me. At the time of writing this stands at 150 points (down from the 176 points Betfan’s selections had generated at the end of January). Given that this goes back to the start of October on paper, it may not seem like a particularly strong result. There are however three things which lead me to believe that The Pro Punter is (for want of a better word) better than the points profits suggest. The first is a solid ROI of 41.76%, a very strong number to maintain. The second is the consistency of the bank growth which is phenomenal, frankly. Finally is the fact that this result is based on very real and manageable stakes.
Conclusion
It is somewhat early days for The Pro Punter yet, however I am cautiously optimistic. Some people will say that 4 months is long enough to know how a tipster will perform in the long run and I am inclined to agree if you are open minded enough. Personally, I like to be a little bit surer, although truth be told, no amount of proofing can ultimately dictate future performance. None the less, The Pro Punter is definitely one of the stronger tipster services that I have looked at recently.
Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t flawless. Whilst Lawrence does buck the usual Betfan trend, there is still a fair amount of potential for The Pro Punter to go wrong. You only have to look at the 25 points that have been lost in just over a week. This is part and parcel of any tipster service, yes, but when you are dealing with 5 point stakes at any point, this number could be much higher.
This aside there are nothing but positives as far as I am concerned. Lawrence genuinely seems to be able to pick winning bets and as obvious as it may sound, that is an oft overlooked ability when it comes to tipsters. Granted, the odds aren’t always the highest and this definitely adds an additional element to the precariousness of the profitability, but again, as is the case with any tipster service.
Possibly the only area where I will really hold quarrel with The Pro Punter is on the price. If you are subscribing to The Pro Punter quarterly, you are paying £26 per month and here, I believe that there is probably value for money to be had here. On the other side of this, the monthly costs are quire ridiculous (£507 per year compared to £312 on the quarterly subscription) which is a real shame as I personally think it is a bit early to commit to 90 days.
All things considered, The Pro Punter is probably one of the better looking services that I have seen to come out of Betfan and even the wider Betfan group for some time. It is a solid looking offering and whilst it isn’t without flaw, I ultimately believe that The Pro Punter is worth serious consideration. At the very least, this is a tipster that deserves to be on your radar.
