The Soccer Man is a new to market football betting tipster service which is being offered through Bet Social. Selections come courtesy of tipster William (a.k.a. the eponymous Soccer Man).
Introduction to The Soccer Man
There are a lot of reasons that a tipster service will stand out to me, but rarely is the reason for this down to a genuinely interesting description of how a service works. In fact, I oft find myself lamenting the lack of such basic information when I look at other tipster services. But here, Bet Social and William are quite open about what you can expect.
On top of this, there are the claims of just how much money you could have made. I will go into detail a little later on, but the sales material for The Soccer Man makes reference to having produced more than £9,000 of profit so far this season. That is a phenomenal amount and I will admit to being very keen to see just how this number had come about.
Unfortunately, as is so often the case with tipster services, all of that initial promise seems to have simply been thrown away. So, what you have here is very much a game of two halves (pun entirely intended), but which represents a genuine reflection of what you can expect for the future of The Soccer Man? Let’s have a look and see.
What Does The Soccer Man Offer?
There is undoubtedly a lot more to say when it comes to football betting than say… horse racing. There is just so much more variance in terms of the betting markets, the availability of events worth betting on, and so on and so forth. And William really seems to lean into this when it comes to The Soccer Man.
The fact of the matter is that this is one of the most varied tipster services that I can recall looking at for some time. Between Bet Social’s proofing and what William has to say about his tipster service, it really seems like there aren’t any hard and fast rules in terms of what he will bet betting on. Something that does carry certain potential problems for punters.
So, first things first, I want to start by talking about the bets. Because honestly, there is a lot to talk about here. The fact is that there are multitudes of betting markets that have been backed historically. These range from win doubles, to goal market doubles. The same deal with trebles. There are also larger accas and even the odd Lucky 15 and Patent. As well as a number of single bets on various markets, of course.
Honestly, it seems like a bit of a minefield, but to be fair to Bet Social and William, it is actually pretty well managed. As you would expect, selections are made available to The Soccer Man subscribers directly via email. These will typically land some time before 11am. Importantly, they contain advised odds (including details of bookies) that are actually mostly attainable.
Now, this is a football tipster service and as such, this does mean that you won’t be betting every day. The fact that William looks at a range of leagues across Europe does mean that you still have a steady stream of bets coming from The Soccer Man, but you should definitely expect there to be gaps.
What is worth noting however is that on the days when there are bets available, The Soccer Man can be quite a high volume service. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of days that produce just one or two bets (usually midweek), but you can also expect to see some five or six bets on the busier days. This doesn’t necessarily sound a lot, but it can add up over a weekend.
One area that I do want to highlight is the kinds of odds that you will be betting at. Because based off what I have described so far, you may be expecting William to be picking out value bets. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that the average odds for The Soccer Man are just 2.25. Something that is generally reflective of what you will get.
With that said, some of the accas do increase the scope for big wins. In something of a rarity for football betting, it isn’t uncommon to see these advised at odds of higher than 10.0. The fact of the matter is that this kind of value bet simply doesn’t come along very often when it comes to betting on football.
This only really leaves a few points left that I want to touch on. First of all, I want to talk about the average strike rate for The Soccer Man. This stands at a very strong looking 41.38% according to Bet Social’s proofing, a number that is actually genuinely indicative of what you can expect. However, winning often isn’t something that can necessarily turn a consistent profit with those lower odds.
The other thing that I want to talk about is the staking plan for The Soccer Man. By and large, this is simple level stakes which is no big thing. There are also the odd bets which are advised to 3 points, clearly when William is feeling confident. These are all pretty manageable.
However, on some of the more exotic bet types, you are ultimately staking as much as 30 points. Sure, these aren’t every day, but they can really add up with one Lucky 15 producing a 26.6 point loss. A huge amount given the low average odds. Now these are a rarity, but there is no denying that they have upset the balance of The Soccer Man quite significantly.
How Does The Soccer Man Work?
There is a lot said in the sales material about William and what he does. Some of it is much more relevant than other bits, but to be fair to him, there is more information provide about the selection process than some tipsters. With that said, there still isn’t exactly enough to make (what I would consider to be) an informed decision.
So, what exactly are we told? Well, Bet Social says that the service is based around William’s “experience and research of markets and trends to pick out winners and the best bets”. We are also told a little bit about how The Soccer Man is ultimately based on finding value in these bets. Something that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot, unfortunately.
Slightly more interesting is where we are told about the statistics that the research includes the following:
“home/away records, Current Team Confidence, head2head records, goal ratios for/against, how important the match is to each team (Eg Promotion/relegation issues) to current form, injuries, suspensions and many more”
All of that sounds impressive, but it actually seems to be a little bit vague in my opinion. Honestly, that isn’t anything that I don’t think most bettors would consider before betting on a game. Something that is ultimately rather disappointing from somebody who is a self proclaimed “real” expert.
What is the Initial Investment?
There are just 2 options that are available if you want to subscribe to The Soccer Man and honestly, it is pretty bloody steep. The “monthly” subscription is priced at £44, however, it is actually billed every 28 days. This means that you will pay this out 13 times a year. It is also worth noting that Bet Social says that (at the time of writing) your first month is half price at £22.
Alternatively, you can sign up for The Soccer Man on a quarterly basis which ultimately represents the better value. Not just because at £88, it represents an effective “one free month” pricing structure, but because you only pay this 4 times a year meaning that there isn’t that “extra month”. It is also worth noting that your first period here is also half price costing £44 per quarter.
Bet Social make no mention of any money back guarantee, and given that this is sold through PayPal, I would take this to mean that there is no offering.
What is the Rate of Return?
The number that really draws you in on the sales material for The Soccer Man is that William has supposedly made £9,000 already this season. Let’s not mince words, that is a massive claim from Bet Social and it represents a lot of potential income. However, it would appear that the situation perhaps isn’t quite this straight forward.
First of all, that number is based around £100 stakes. Something that isn’t entirely unfeasible but is probably a lot more than most people would be comfortable betting on consistently. It also means a starting bank of £10,000. So actually, William has made 90 points of profit. This is a much less impressive figure and you can see why The Soccer Man isn’t sold off the back of this.
However, the story doesn’t end there. At the time of writing, there have been a series of rather disappointing results. This has culminated in The Soccer Man sitting at a profit of just 25.75 points at the time of writing. Now sure, there is an argument to be made that this is in fact still a profit, but also represents a loss since that peak of some 67 points. Two thirds of your betting bank.
Conclusion for The Soccer Man
Looking at the sales material for The Soccer Man, you’d think that you were on to a game changer. Bet Social talk a very good talk about William and what you can expect from the service. However, the unfortunate thing about marketing is that it is ultimately there to sell a service, and that isn’t always an accurate reflection of what you are getting yourself into.
In this case, yes, I will fully acknowledge that at one point, you would have been more than £9,000 up. But really, that is just 90 points. Don’t get me wrong, a profit is a profit, and it can be hard to make any money with betting. But if you are asking people to pay you £44 every 28 days (which is a very much at that top end of pricing for a tipster service), you really need to deliver more than that.
Which ties into my second point. Because unfortunately, William hasn’t even been able to maintain the modest profit that was made. The harsh reality is that if you’d signed up for The Soccer Man when it launched, you would be down a significant amount of money by now. Could this be turned around. Of course it could, hypothetically.
Do I think that that it will be turned around? At this point, I just don’t see that happening. Bet Social’s own proofing shows hat this isn’t really anomalous. You are looking at consistent losing months since October of 2019. At the time of writing, this is some 3 and a half months. That to me is very indicative of a trend, and not a good one.
As well as the length of time that this has been losing, there is additional frustration in so much as, it would take you forever to make back those losses if you’d signed up at the wrong time. The average odds of 2.25 mean that you are looking at a shade over a point of profit per bet. That would mean 45 straight winning bets at average odds to make it back. Can you see that happening?
All of this means that what you really have here is a pretty expensive tipster service that just isn’t very good. I’m sure that William and Bet Social would have some arguments that they would make, but I think an ROI of 5.13% speaks for itself. Yes, OK it’s a profit. But is it really enough when compared with cheaper alternatives?
Not surprisingly then, this is a tipster service that I just couldn’t bring myself to recommend. It is expensive. It hasn’t performed well at all. And the fact that Bet Social don’t acknowledge any of this is very concerning for the longer term future of The Soccer Man. As such, I would probably give it a pretty wide berth.
